*~ Austria - Day 8 - Salzkammergut ~*(19th May 2008)

Austria Day 8: To Salzkammergut ~ Listen to the music of nature~

Chris and I spent the morning using up our internet credit which we bought at the Youth Hotel for €8 per hour! Freakingly expensive.. :( And waited for Michael to pick us up after he finished his work at 12.30pm.

Another adventure begins! I had done some research on Austria before going there and came across the name Salzkammergut which is famous for its beautiful nature. It was also where The Sound of Music was filmed. Apparently, this movie isn't very popular
with Austrians because it twisted alot of facts to spice up the actual story..

Fortunately for me & Chris, Michael grew up at Salzkammergut, so we had the best guide. :)

First stop was to Gmunden which is at one end of Salzkammergut. The plan was to go from this end then to Bad Ischl for Zauner pastries at the end. :)

It was a 45min drive from Linz to Gmunden.. i thought longer but my guide has corrected my bad sense of time.. :P During the drive, Michi told me that Gudrun had picked up some 4-leaf clovers for me in her garden!! I was so happy i started to tear secretly, with JOY of cos! :P

*~ Heading towards Gmunden ~*

We got out of the car and it was freezing!! Maybe about 16 deg C? It had been rainy in Austria for about 3 days now since our work week ended. Very unfortunate because we didn't really get to enjoy the good weather. :(


*~ Yay! Arriving at the first destination ~*

It was a short walk to the Seeschloß Ort, a small castle at the lake. (See = Lake, schloß = castle) so it means "a castle by the lake" i think? :P


*~ We're off to see the Seeschloß Ort ~*


*~ Can u find where we are? ~*

It started to rain as we walked across the bridge..
The castle is pretty small, with a small church inside and some souvenir shops.


*~ Seeschloß Ort ~*

After checking out the small church in the castle, we took a walk down the lake to find a nice place for lunch. Stopping occasionally for some photos despite the light rain, and Chris managed to get a shot where this swan was just taking flight behind me.


*~ Taking a walk by the see (lake) where swans roam freely ~*

While waiting for the food, i walked out to the terrace to look over at the lake.. its so nice and cold :P


*~ Took a shot from the restaurant where we had lunch ~*

Lunch was great! Maybe I was really hungry, but Michi said the food is really unhealthy because its fried in lard. But mmmm~~~ unhealthy food tastes the best! I was shocked by the size of the knödels (dumplings). Much much bigger than what I had at Promenaden Hof. And when I exclaimed, the funny waiter went, "no, it isn't too much!" But.. i really couldn't finish my 2nd knödel :P


*~ Our sumptious lunch ~*


*~ The restaurant is at the "bridge" connecting these 2 buildings ~*

Still making good time, we caught our 50 min boat ride along the beautiful Traunsee. :) It should have been blue skies and green waters if the weather had been better. But it was still nice, freezing my face in the cold wind! But you can see how low the clouds come. :)


*~ Reminding me of Japan :) ~*


*~ The clouds are sooooo within reach! ~*


*~ A school in the middle of all that nature! ~*


*~ A different perspective of the Seeschloß Ort ~*

The lake is so beautiful, i would have decided to let myself freeze on the boat to enjoy it some more. But next time if i should get a chance, i wanna do it on a day where the skies are blue!!

I'm always looking for good luck charms like the 4-leaf clover. And since I learnt that the Edelweiss flower also brings good luck, I had been wanting to pick up one myself. But I had been told they can only be found high up in the mountains so i gave up the thought of finding one.

Surprisingly for me though, I did manage to find one on our way back to the car, at a souvenir shop! heehee~ Bought one for myself and one for my older sister. :)

This is a display of the famous Gmunden Keramik. An established brand over the years which explains why it's really costly.


*~ The famous & expensive Gmunden Keramik ~*

Next stop: Bad Ischl :) Michi explained that places named with 'Bad' in front are where you can find spas, hot springs, saunas, basically, baths. :)


*~ Streets of Bad Ischl~*

Saw a statue with the word 'Ischl' inscripted at the bottom. I forgot if it was because the place was named after the man, or he had done some charity work or something.. :P


*~ The guy I suspect this place is named after ~*

Not that there are very few cinemas in Austria, but just that this was the first I saw and stopped to look at. There was one at Plus City but we didn't go and see it..


*~ The first cinema I saw in Austria! ~*

I asked Michael what was the significance of such tall posts because i've been seeing them everywhere, decorated like it was for Christmas. It actually is only there during the month of May in all villages if i remember correctly.


*~ A May Post ~*


* The Opera House in Bad Ischl ~*

Finally, what we had been looking forward to. Famous Zauner pastries!! Unfortunately, they were already closing. I think it was about half past 6? Really early. So we went in to look around at the cute pastries. :)


*~ The legendary Zauner cafe ~*


*~ All the sweets! ~*


*~ A friendly staff smiling from behind the counter ~*

Luckily there's supposed to be another Zauner outlet some hundreds of metres away. On the way we saw this horse carriage, which i had to get on. In Vienna, a trip on a horse carriage costs €100 per hour!! This was free, and springy! hehee~


*~ Me & Michi riding on the carriage! ~*


*~ The other Zauner outlet ~*

It was nice having hot coffee indoors on a cold day. We also picked some cakes to go with. I had a Wien Melange i think?


*~ mmmm~~ ~*


*~ Yes, the one where i become a rabbit ~*

Over coffee, Michi suggested that it could be possible for us to have a small trek up the mountain to see a small waterfall! You cannot imagine how happy and excited i was. The lucky thing was, the sun doesn't set till about 9pm so we still had enough daylight to do a short hike. :)


*~ We LOVE hiking!! ~*


*~ Still on the right track towards the waterfall ~*

Not being able to find any 4 leaf clovers or Edelweiss, Michi gave me a small white flower to replace the Edelweiss :)


*~ The flower to replace the Edelweiss I couldn't find ~*

Seems all hiking paths will be marked with some signs to show trekkers they are still on the right track. But this one is a little different from what we saw on Wurzeralm, it is of the Japanese flag?? O_O


*~ Hmm.. we're still on the right track! ~*

We finally arrived at our Rindbach waterfall! Small but beautiful~ A place near to Michi's home which he often jogs to. :)


*~ Hurray! The Rindbach Wasserfall ~*

Continuing along the path uphill, we came to a point probably mid-way up the mountain and overlooked the river and mountains.


*~ Overlooking the mountains ~*

I would have wanted to continue but it was already getting late and the sun was setting. It was time to get back to Linz.

By the time we got back, it was about 10:30pm? It wasn't gonna be easy to find a place for dinner so we went to Mc Donald's! A restaurant i will always visit if i have a chance in the countries i visit. I like to know if they are any different from what we get in Singapore. Btw, there is no KFC in Austria!!!


*~ "how many languages do u know? ~*

This was my special meal, not found in SG. Tastes like mc chicken except maybe twice the size!! O_O its also twice the price if u convert Euros back to Sing dollars.


*~ My special mc's meal! ~*

A funny shot i had with the guys. They aren't so good with the fries which made them look more like walruses than vamps. :P


*~ 2 walruses and a vampire ;) ~*

Another eventful day. Very happy~ because we also saw more than we had expected except i wished time didn't pass by so quickly.. It was also a day where i didn't have any beer unfortunately. We checked out the bar at the Youth Hotel but that was already closed when we got back. Many thanks to Michi for such a wonderful trip. :)