A Mitteleuropaisch Sojourn - Part 6, Days 11 - 13, the Krimml Falls and the Salzburg Area

Our next destination was Salzburg, the home of Mozart and The Sound of Music. We were undoubtedly keen on getting to that beautiful city, the region around which epitomized Austria for all of us. The direct route from Innsbruck to Salzburg is by Autobahn – you take the A12 north east from Innsbruck to the German border, continue on the German A93 to meet the German A8, and the drive east to Salzburg. The distance is about 190 km, and Google estimates it would take about 2 hours (perhaps less if you rip it in the German sections). However, that did seem like the boring option.

Fortunately, Karen Brown’s guidebook on Austria came to our rescue and suggested a more interesting route, meandering through various Austrian villages, and taking in the Krimml Falls, the largest waterfall in Europe. While meandering through various villages over 2 days was too much for us, we decided to head out to see the Krimml Falls, and then take the shortest route from there to Salzburg.

The Long Route to Salzburg - via Krimml Falls

The route to Krimml followed the A12 for about 35 kms, and then diverted onto B Roads (the B169) to Zell am Ziller, and then took the B165 past the Ski resort of Gerlos, before descending towards Krimml. It is extremely difficult to describe this road in words – all I can say is that it was truly spectacular, with mountains all around us, a fantastic climb up the hills towards Gerlos, and then an equally fabulous descent to Krimml.

Beautiful Hills in the Distance

This tunnel is so that animals can pass overhead

To Laugh Like a Brook as it trips and falls....

An Amazing Lake with peaks in the Background

A great shot by Radhika - from a moving car!!!

We should have stopped here, but didn't

The first glimpse of the Krimml Falls

 

 

The B 169 was largely in a valley – but headed straight towards a set of high mountains. Once we were on the B 165, there was barely a straight stretch – we started with a rapid climb up a series of hairpin bends, then a ride along a ridge full of spectacular views (including of an incredibly beautiful lake which we failed to stop and photograph adequately), and eventually arrived at a spot from where we could get a glimpse of the Krimml Falls in the distance.

From there, the road started a rapid descent (including a place where the road looped under itself), and got us to the town of Krimml. When we reached there, we were told we had the choice of an hours walk to the falls, or a ride in a local cab which was exorbitantly priced. Fortunately, we made a few more inquiries, and realized that this only applied if you wanted to get to the top of the falls – there was an easy 15 minute walk to the bottom of the falls, and we promptly chose that option.

The Falls were undoubtedly small compared to Niagara or the Victoria Falls, but were definitely worth the journey – actually, let me correct myself – just the journey to Krimml was worth the journey. We spent some time around the falls, taking in the spray and a number of snaps. The river below the falls, as should be expected, was also extremely beautiful, and swift flowing. Rather uncharacteristically, I decided to clamber down some rocks to the water’s edge, and took Avi there too. Enjoy the view.

Radhika and the Falls

Avi was more focussed on his Eskimo

Amazing Spray

The rapidly flowing river below the Falls

Getting uncharacteristically adventurous

Food options were unfortunately rather limited at Krimml, but beggars could not be choosers, and we had to settle for yet another dose of spaghetti with tomato sauce. However, the desert options were great – and we were definitely not short of calories by the time we were done. In case you observed the photo of Avinash near the falls, you may have noticed a double barrelled bar ice cream. Walls’ ice cream’s sickly sweet products were sold in Austria under the Eskimo brand name. And Avinash made it a point during the trip to have every single one of those products. I tried it once – I must say, I am unlikely to ever try it again.  

The road from Krimml to Salzburg followed the valley of the Salzach (the river that gives Salzburg its names), and very often was narrow and crowded. The Karen Brown guidebook had recommended a more scenic route that heads north through the Alps from Mittersill back into Germany, but we chose to follow the route east along the Salzach until we reached the A10 autobahn and headed north to Salzburg.

This was the "Non Scenic" Route

Unlike in Innsbruck where we stayed at the Hilton in the heart of town, our stay in Salzburg was in a villa in a quiet residential neighbourhood, about 6 km from the city centre. Perhaps because of that, my impression was the Salzburg is a much larger city than Innsbruck, even if the statistics don’t bear that out.

We had called the villa owner while on our way, and requested him to come down to the house to let us in. He turned out to by a young man, who was doing a Ph.D in Law, and whose family owned several houses across Europe (in Switzerland, Spain and Austria) that they gave out for vacation rentals. The house itself was extremely nice, there was a very large living room on the ground floor, a slightly smaller kitchen, a garden, and three bed rooms on the upper floor.  The kids were excited to have so much space to play in, and Radhika and Mandavi were nice enough to whip up a delicious meal for us that night.

Dinner at the Villa

The next morning, we headed out on a city tour of Salzburg. Unlike in Innsbruck, we were located 6-7 kms out of town, and hence needed to get to the city centre. Fortunately, our landlord had given us clear directions – there was a bus stop at about a 10-minute walk from the house, from where we could get an electric bus to the city centre. The journey to the city centre did not take long – and we began exploring the city of Mozart and the Sound of Music.

Our first destination was Mozart’s birthplace, where we got to see loads of memorabilia from the life of the master composer. It was a somewhat poignant place, for people like me whose first exposure to Mozart was through the classic film, Amadeus.

Mozart Everywhere

Mozart - Everywhere

 

 

After spending about an hour there, we headed for the Hohensalzburg fortress, which overlooks the city. There are two ways to get there, through a funicular rail, and by walking up a steep slope.

Avinash had been a little off mood that morning, but he was challenged by the idea of walking up a steep slope, and was quite happy by the time we reached the fortress.

Climbing to Hohensalzburg

Almost There

It was Steep - I must say

Avinash - Happy at Last

The fortress offered us a number of spectacular views of Salzburg town, and the area around it, and as usual, we ended up spending an inordinate amount of time there.

 

The Surrounding Countryside

... and Salzburg Itself

That's the audioguide, not a phone call

The Mirabel Palace and Gardens



An Organ... with a Music Cylinder

This baby stayed cheerful... and cheered us up as well

After having lunch at the fortress café, we headed for Nonnberg, which would have been a relatively non-descript chapel, but for its starring role in The Sound of Music.

The Sound of Music Abbey... Nonnberg

There was not much to see there, and soon we headed back towards the centre of town.

 

 



Bridge of Locks

Our next destination was the Mirabel Palace and Gardens, which were located in the centre of town. We were quite tired by this time, and ended up crashing on some of the benches in the Gardens and relaxing there.

 

The Mirabel Palace and Gardens

 

We didn’t have the option of heading home – since we were booked to see The Sound of Music at the Salzburg Marionette Theatre.

The Marionette Theatre is a puppet show but with the production values of a Broadway Musical. Radhika and I enjoyed the performance tremendously, and even though Avi was loathe to admit it, we think he had a good time too.



The Marionetten Theatre 

The next day, we had planned to head out in our cars to the Salzkammergut, or the Lake District outside Salzburg. There are so many lakes that you could probably spend a week exploring just this area. Since we had half a day, and three restive kids with us, we chose to visit just two of them – Mondsee, a town located on the eponymous lake, and Gmunden, a little further out on the Traunsee. As usual, we started quite slowly, and got to Mondsee only in the late morning. There was a lot to do around the lake, and the views were spectacular.

Best of all, there were bicycle rentals available, and Avinash and I promptly took the chance to rent bikes and head out on the bike path along the lake. This was a fantastic experience, and we ended up covering 7  or 8 kms in total – not much for me, but quite a bit for a 6 year old.

 

 

 

We then headed out to Gmunden, which was probably a mistake. The place was beautiful too – but did not offer anything incremental to what we had already seen in Mondsee. And worst of all, shortly after we got there, I got an urgent call from the office, and was on the phone for the entire hour we spent there. By the time I got off the call, everybody else was tired, and decided to head home. Which was just as well – as it started pouring as soon as we entered the covered parking lot. While I had originally planned to take the scenic route back to Salzburg, we decided against it – and ended up taking the autobahn home.