Janet and Steve's TRavel Blog

Janet: I was looking forward to visiting Salzburg and listening to music, and had no idea that Austria had so much else to offer.

After a very long drive (we will plan shorter legs in the future) we arrived at a busy campsite right beside a beautiful lake (The Wolfgangsee) and surrounded by mountains. As soon as we had pitched the van we were cooling off in the lake.

Campsite location shown as red cross:

Steve: We stayed in Abersee for 4 nights, and it was really hot every day, so we continued to swim in the lake as this was best way to keep our cool. The mountain on the other side of the lake is called Scharfberg, which we decided to climb later in the stay.

Schwarzensee (Thursday August 29th)

On Thursday we explored a little, ending up at a small lake high in the mountains called Schwarzensee. The roads, paths and cycle paths were sometimes very steep, but all the cyclists – even those looking less than fit – were all going uphill at great speed with little effort. It looks a little strange at first – electric bikes have really taken over in this area!

Then we went for another swim in the lake, and planned the rest of our Austrian stay. Friday was Salzburg, and Saturday was the funicular railway up the mountain.

Salzburg (Friday August 30th)

We’ve never been to Salzburg (translation is “salt mountain” – there are trips to see salt mines). Perhaps the city is much better known as the birthplace of Mozart.

The bridge we crossed is covered with padlocks (“lovelocks”) engraved with a couple’s names, and dated – a symbol of affection and lifelong commitment. These are common things in this part of the world – but I’ve not seen it in the UK.

We visited Mozart’s birthplace. The family lived in a flat in this building. The rooms were surprisingly big. The rest of the building is now all converted to a museum about the family and their life. I had forgotten that only 2 of the 7 siblings lived beyond childhood, and that WA Mozart himself only lived till he was 35.

As shown in the movie Amadeus, he is described as being very immature in character, and “not good looking”. But despite these, a genius.

Or perhaps, because of these?

We managed to get to Salzburg cathedral (just) in time to listen to an organ recital (Bach + Mozart), and have a look round afterwards. The music was tremendous!

We even squeezed a visit to Salzburg castle, or fortress, high up on a rock looking over the city. We took the little funicular up, and wandered round looking at rooms full of coats of armour, and views over the castle walls.

Scharfberg (Saturday 31st August)

We took a ferry from the campsite over the lake to St Wolfgang, and walked to the bottom of the Funicular (or cog) railway that goes up the mountain. View from the top was supposed to be good – to justify the €40 each for the tickets. We ended up travelling by steam engine – they run these on certain days, as well as modern engines.

Here we are at 1,750m above sea level, so Wolfgangsee is about 1,200m below us. We can just about see the Abersee and the campsite at the bottom.

We then walked to the top and looked over the fence. IT WAS A SHOCK! The rock falls away vertically for hundreds of metres, and we looked out onto other lakes and villages on the other side of the peak.

Looks unreal, doesn’t it! It turns out the clue is in the name: “Scharf” is German for “sharp” after all. We were grateful for the fence, too (not evident on the image from 1860).

We happened to be staying on the day of the Wolfgangsee air show. As the camp site is centrally located, most of the action seemed to be very close

We even had 2 gliders taking off and landing from the adjacent field, and doing acrobatics including looping the loop.

Final Views of Wolfgangsee