Europe 2015: Salzburg Day 2

Day two of our Salzburg adventures was one of the highlights of our trip (who can forget dog sledding).

We take a short walk down our street to enjoy a cafe breakfast, before visiting the Mirabell Palace Gardens. Probably a much more worthy visit if done in summer or spring to be honest. That didn't really bother us because the main goal for today was to get out to Untersberg and back in time to catch the train to Vienna.

Untersberg is a peak in Salzburg that reaches 1,973 metres (6,473 ft) and was made famous as the mountain featured at the beginning and end of The Sound of Music. Getting there included a straight bus, followed by a 12 min cable car ride to the top.

We arrive at the base station at Untersberg and have just missed a cable car. The next one wouldn't be for another hour so we decide to get a meal at the cafe. Not sure what to get we order a meal of pork medallions and vegetables, which we assume could not be all that big at the price of around 6 euro. To our surprise, it's an extremely filling dish and probably one of the best we've had so far! But back to Untersberg!

After our meal, we hop on into the cable car and slowly make our ascent to the peak. As we climb higher, we're thankful for our sturdy and warm footwear as snow becomes apparent.

At the peak, we can't help but wish we had allowed more time for Untersberg. There are paths and tracks throughout the snow and several smaller peaks which you could climb up to. Near one of the peaks, we find the Climber's Memorial, dedicated to the Gebirgsjäger, the light infantry part of the alpine or mountain troops of Germany and Austria, who were a part of the world wars.

L: Memorial to the Gebirgsjäger and R: Explorer Tim.

The views are phenomenal and we spend some time playing in the snow before heading inside for cup of hot chocolate while waiting for the next cable car to take us back to base.

View from the cable car

View from the top of Untersberg

Unfortunately we ran out of time to try to walk up to she second peak (look closely to find the cross) so we had to put that goal aside for another visit ;) It was back to the hotel to grab our bags and head off to the train station bound for Vienna.

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