Those who know us know that the Robertson’s are not afraid of a road trip. We’ve driven to Florida more times than I can keep track of and did a 25 day cross Canada/America road trip two summers ago….with no electronic devices for the kids. Just books, games and music. So, we didn’t give the 936km drive from Schwerin, Germany to Abtenau, Austria (near Salzburg) a second thought. Plus, Mark loves driving on the Autobahn. Great road conditions + no speed limit = fun driving. Google maps said it should take about 7.5 hours. In reality, it was more like 11 hours. Construction was a killer and the mountain roads in Austria slowed us down. But, when we were driving, it was fast!! There are no speed limits on many stretches of the 6 lane Autobahn. If you’re in an accident and excessive speed is the cause, it’s more of an issue for insurance than the police. There were times when Mark was driving 150km/h+ and cars would absolutely fly by us. The girls had fun looking out the back window watching for cars speeding up from behind. 150km/h became a comfortable moving-along-with-the-traffic kind of speed. Lots of station wagon type Mercedes, VW’s and Audi’s, however,  looked to us to be cruising at about 180.

We arrived at our apartment rental (I use apartment loosely; it was the top floor of a huge, beautiful traditional Austrian guest house) in the dark, so we had no idea what our surroundings looked like. We woke up to jaw dropping scenery. Lush green fields dotted with more houses like ours, sheep, cows and in the background, giant snow capped mountains. It was overcast and rainy but not even that could take away from the beauty. We were tired from the drive so we spent the day planning our week, getting food (can’t be short of sandwich supplies) and re-watching watching The Sound of Music (we had a Sound of Music tour booked for later in the week – hurray for good WiFi).

 

We were hoping to use our time in Austria to prepare physically a little for our Nepal trek. We’ll be walking for 5-6 hours a day in Nepal, so doing a few hikes while we were here seemed like a good idea. The girls were troopers and easily completed anything we threw at them with tons of energy to spare.

There were so many things to see and do we really felt like we could have stayed so much longer. In the Salzburg area we went to the largest ice cave in the world, drove the Postalm Scenic drive, hiked to a waterfall and a gorge, went mountain coasting, did a Sound of Music Tour (it was filmed around Salzburg) and an Eagle’s Nest (Hiltler’s mountain retreat) tour in Berchasgarden.

The ice cave (Eisriesenwelt – German for “World of the Ice Giants”) is largest ice cave in the world, and it extends more than 42km into the mountain.  We saw the first kilometre, which is apparently the best part. I expected the cave to be at the base of the mountain, but it was actually wayyyyyy up there. So, first Mark had to drive up this steep, narrow mountain road (not his favourite thing), then we walked about 20 minutes up the mountain to the cable car, took the cable car for about 4 minutes up higher  and then walked another 20 minutes to the mouth of the cave. With every bend in the trail the drop-offs got steeper (at a few points the trail carved into the mountain with a lean to-type roof over it to protect from avalanches and falling rocks. But, with every bend came better and better views of the mountains surrounding us and the valley below. The tour inside lasted about 70 minutes and it was cold in there!! Good thing we had 700 steps  to walk up inside the cave and another 700 down to keep us warm. We all had long johns, toques and layers of clothing on and we were just right. What I loved was that the guide covered the science and history of the cave so no prep work for Mark or I except coming up with pop quiz questions on our long driving days. Honestly, Mark is way better than me at that part. To top it off we stopped at the mountain cafe near the cable car and had warm apple strudel and hot chocolate on the way down.

We set out to do a longer hike (5ish hours) in the Postalm area (fields and hills up on a plateau in the mountains), but when we got up there it started to rain. We waited for a bit and then realized it wasn’t going to stop, so we decided to drive the Postalm Scenic route because we were already there (more steep mountain roads). It was raining less at lower elevation so we did a shorter walk to check out a waterfall and a huge gorge near our place.

We used our walks to the waterfall and gorge as physed class for us and the girls after getting rained out of our long hike. Mark had us speeding up the stairs two at a time. Because it was overcast there weren’t a lot of other people there to see us panting and sweating at the top. I don’t want to sound like we didn’t appreciate the waterfall and gorge, they were beautiful, but everything in Austria is beautiful.

A popular attraction in the European mountains are mountain coasters or summer toboggan rides. We tried one with the girls in Revelstoke, BC two summers ago and it was fun, so we kept our eyes open for any near our area. We got lucky; there we two within 10 minutes of our rental. One was smaller and closed for the season….the day before we arrived = downside of off season travel, but the other one was calling our names (not busy at all = upside of off season travel).
Side note: pretty much every second town in the Alps has a ski hill (some bigger than others). Therefore, there are chairlifts or gondolas everywhere. People use them in the summer to get further up the mountains to start their hikes to higher elevations. There are alpine huts way up in the mountains on the hiking routes, a very convenient to stop for a drink along the way. It’s a whole other world of trails up where you’d never expect.

We bought tickets for 3 coaster rides and got on the chairlift. After the 15-minute ride to the top, we (I mean the kids) ran through the chalet and around to the loading area. I have no photos of my own because we left everything in the car. But basically, you sit in a cart that is attached to a metal track with a rail that goes down the mountain. There’s a lever that you pull to brake or, like my kids, you leave it wide open all the way down!! I think the max speed is about 40km/h, but when you’re winding between trees and taking sharp turns it feels REALLY fast. It felt like the scene from Star Wars when they’re racing through the forest on the speeders. We liked it so much we tried it on another mountain when we were near Innsbruck.

On our Sound of Music tour day,  we ravelled from the mountains to the city (a city surrounded by mountains) The tour was booked for 9am and we had to drive in to the centre of Salzburg to meet our guide. I had done plenty of research on this tour and knew exactly where to park and to get there early to make sure we could all sit together on the bus. Yes, a bus…. This was probably the first giant tour we’d done on the trip. The girls were very excited and ended up loving it. Mark and I, not so much. The guide was great. I was thankful for his expertise and ability to fill the time with his entertaining wit. Without him this tour’s suck factor would have been much higher. He taught us a fun way of say goodbye properly in German, say the words “our feet are the same” fast and without pausing. It sounds exactly the way you’re supposed to pronounce Auf Wiedersehen (hence the title of this blog).

Great parts of the tour included: walking beside the lake from the boat tipping scene, going into the church where Captain von Trapp and Maria get married, seeing the actual gazeebo from the “16, going on 17” song and having many people on the bus singing along with the songs they played as we drove (yes, they played the soundtrack). Crappy parts were: driving by some of the great locations from the movie and having them pointed out to us but not actually getting out to see them (the abbey, the tree lined lane that Maria skips down/where the kids play in the trees and one of the actual houses used for the opening scene) and being herded like cattle from one location to the next. Another downside to the tour was finding out about the Hollywood tricks used to make the movie (all interiors we shot in Hollywood, they used three different houses to represent the von Trapp home and the gazeebo scene wasn’t shot in the gazebo-only the outside shots). I know this happens in all movies, but ignorance is bliss. We could have seen these places on our own, but it would have taken too much time to research and navigate, plus we wouldn’t have had the great guide giving us concise information and the kids had a great time. After the tour, we went to the gardens where they shot the “do, ray, mi” scene on our own. The girls ran around singing and reenacting some parts. It’s a lot smaller in person, but beautiful and very well maintained. Another stop we made on our own was at the tree lined lane and the house the used in Maria’s arrival scene and the pushing the car scene (we had just driven by these on the tour).

Our second bus tour….yes we did two, but the second one was much better, started in Berchasgarden, Germany (just over the border from Austria). This was the creme of the WW2 sights crop; we were going to visit the Eagles Nest. This historic spot was was built as a teahouse for Hitler and many famous photos and videos of him were taken there. It’s high up on the top of a mountain and the only way to get there is by special mountain bus (the road is perched on a cliff face). The whole area is known as the Obersalzberg and it was the location of Hilter’s home and southern headquarters – his second seat of power. These were located at the foot of the Eagle’s Nest mountain. We took a special historical tour that explained Hitler’s rise to power, how the mountain side operated under Nazi control, where the houses of the top Nazi commanders were (some of the houses are still there) and how the tunnel and bunker systems worked. The last part of the tour took us up to the top to the Eagles Nest. When you get off the bus at the top there is a tunnel entrance into the mountain, it’s completely made of marble. When you get to the end of the tunnel there is an ornate elevator with mirrors and bronze that take you 128 meters up to the Eagles Nest. The building is now a restaurant and semi museum. The view from the top is remarkable and we were lucky to get a clear day. Hitler only was official at the Eagles Nest 14 times, rumour has it he was afraid of heights and the safety of the elevator, but Eva Braun (his girlfriend) spent a lot of time there and it was used for propaganda purposes as well.

As our time in the Salzburg region came to a close we had a decision to make. Head east to Vienna or west to Innsbruck? In the end, we decided to head west. Vienna was in the wrong direction to where we were headed next, so rather than waste time driving there and doubling back we decided to visit Vienna in the spring.

Innsbruck, site of the Winter Olympics in 1964 & 1976, is in a valley between two mountain ranges. The beauty is astounding. What’s neat about visiting a city that’s hosted the Olympics is that a lot of the infrastructure is still there, like the ski jump. On our way by one day we stopped to see it. It’s so much bigger than it looks on TV. Because it was only the beginning of October there was no snow, but we were still able to see people doing some practice jumps. They have a special plastic on the surface so it can be used all year round.

It was only around lunch time when we arrived so we decided to look for a hike to do before we went to our apartment. We were staying in a small town about 10 minutes from Innsbruck. Our stop at the local information centre was once again a gold mine. The lady gave us about 10 different options for 2-3 hour hikes that would give us amazing views of mountains, glaciers and valleys. We drove up the valley to the trailhead and started out. Everywhere you look in Austria there are cows, therefore, our hike started by walking past a few cows who mooed and looked at us curiously. After about 40 minutes into it, we felt like there were no other humans in the world. But, a little further on we came upon a small cabin and barn. Then, over the top of a steep slope we saw a man walking, following him was a small tractor being lowered on a cable, spraying manure over the hill side. Seriously, there were farmers on the mountain fertilizing their field. We walked up the steep rise to a plateau where we discovered the farmer’s three sons. In Austria, cattle are brought up into the mountains and put out to pasture in the alpine meadows. We walked a little further up the mountain and soaked our feet in a stream (for about 5 seconds, it was glacial meltwater) and ate some chocolate. We talked to the famers for a bit about what they were doing and headed back down, passing cows on our way back down.

When I booked the place where we were staying, one of the reviews said, “I wish we had known about the type of road before we booked”. I didn’t pay much attention. Mark had driven a few mountain roads already and some were pretty hairy, so I figured it wouldn’t be that bad. I think if you ask Mark ten years from now what his worst driving experience was, he’ll say it was the drive to this rental. This wasn’t a deserted mountain road; it was a street in this town. You’d think that would mean it would be civilized….it wasn’t. Houses were built up the side of a mountain….way up. The first part wasn’t so bad because it was 2 lanes, but as we got higher it turned into a single lane. At some points the road was built out further than the mountain. There was a HELICOPTER landing area part way up!!! People use goats to mow their lawns because it’s too steep for a regular lawnmower. So, I was wrong, it was that bad. But, we made it up and agreed that from then on once we left for the day we’d only return when we were done for the day.

Our time in Innsbruck had us up in the mountains a lot. We did another hike to an area where people do a lot of paragliding. We thought it would be neat to see them take off, so we took the cable car up the mountain and then hiked up to a hut overlooking the valley. We got skunked though, there were no paragliders that day. But, a couple of days later, on our way up the valley to see if we could hike up beside a big glacier, Grace spotted some specks floating in the sky. It was the paragliders!! Mark drove over to the spot where they land so we could watch. After seeing a few landings and the smiles on people’s faces, Grace said “I want to do it!” I couldn’t let her go on her own, so I decided to go too, Molly soon followed suit. Mark volunteered to stay back and take pictures of us coming down. By this time, he had had his fill of death defying drop offs (and he saved us some cash too!). The girls and I headed up the cable car with our gliding partners (three 35-45ish guys who were pumped to have two little girls and their mom gliding together). They suited us up and gave us instructions while snapping photos with Go-Pros. Grace went first, followed by Molly and then me about 10 seconds later. To be clear, we did a tandem glide. We each had an experienced guide strapped to us. The parachute was laid out behind us and to take off we ran full speed down the slope toward a drop off. About half way down, my feet just lifted off the ground and we were up. The strange thing is you don’t start descending right away, the wind keeps you at the same level or even higher than where you start. We could see all the way up and down the valley. Molly, Grace and I were all up at the same time. The guides moved us around each other, so I got to see their excited little faces and hear them “woohoo-ing” their way down. Landing was a piece of cake. A little thump, some foot sliding and a short run and we were done. It was amazing.

Our final goodbye to Austria came in the form of the Grossglockner High Alpine Road (the highest paved mountain pass in Austria). We had to make our way south to Italy, so we decided to take the scenic route. The road itself is only 48km long, but its 36 hairpin turns and views of Austria’s largest mountain make you need and want to take your time. Part way through the drive we stopped at the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe visitors’ centre and walked 4km alongside the Pasterze glacier (the longest glacier in the eastern Alps). The path was easy and lead us through several mountain tunnels too!! It was the icing on the cake for our time in Austria.

So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, goodnight.