Today we left Munich and headed into Austria. We'd seen the top of the Alps when we visited Neuschwanstein, but now we headed back down and through them, heading towards Innsbruck.
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| Start of the foothills |
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| Start of the Alps |
Kristine was quite disappointed that I had to take a photo of this sign, but I explained that I just wanted to show that there were ski-lifts in the area and thus that we were in the mountains:
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| See - a ski lift |
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| Driving through the mountains |
When we got into Austria we needed to stop and pick up a vignette to allow us to drive on the Autobahn and then we continued towards Innsbruck.
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| Austrian landscape |
As we came near Innsbruck we started headed downwards and came to this warning:
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| Dangerous Slope |
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| It was pretty steep, but the view was amazing |
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| Emergency pull-off and retardation bay |
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| Not sure what this was on the side of the mountain - train line? Service tunnel? Retaining wall? |
After a bit of a drive, the land flattened out and we ended up in a valley between the mountains at Innsbruck. Innsbruck is the capital of the Tyrol district in west Austria and sits in the join of the Inn and Wipp valleys.
The area has been inhabited since the stone age and the town is first mentioned in 1180. It is famous for hosting the Winter Olympics and other winter sports.
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| Heading into Innsbruck |
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| Innsbruck |
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| Looking over the River Inn |
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| Looking Northeast along the River Inn |
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| The Goldenes Adler Hotel |
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| Looking down the Old Town |
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| Building facade in Old Town |
One of the biggest tourist attractions in Innsbruck is the Goldenes Dachel (Golden Roof) which was built in 1500. The roof is covered with 2,657 gilded copper tiles to mark the wedding of Emperor Maximilian I to Bianca Maria Sforza. The Royal couple used the balcony to address people below and watch festivities.
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| Goldenes Dachel |
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| Details |
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| Mountains over the Golden Roof |
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| Fountain |
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| Facade |
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| Facades along Old Town |
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| Katzung House built in 15th century |
After Old Town we checked a few souvenir shops before heading to the Swarovski Crystal Store:
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| Kristine's favorite souvenir |
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| Display outside the Swarovski shop |
We then headed back to the car and started our drive to our next stop - Saltzburg.
Salzburg (translates to Salt Fortress) had its old town Heritage Listed in 1997 and is famous for being the birthplace of Mozart and the setting for "The Sound of Music". It is believed that the area has been settled since before 5th century BC.
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| Hohensalzburg Castle overlooking the city |
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| Castle walls |
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| Hohensalzburg Castle |
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| A doorway for Salzburg University |
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| Salzburg Cathedral |
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| Cathedral |
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| Cathedral |
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| Neptune Fountain in Kapitelplatz |
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| Neptune |
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| Kapitalplatz |
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| Sphaera, Stephan Balkenhol, 2007 |
In the middle of Kapitelplatz (the Capital Place) there was a giant (9m) high statue of a man standing casually on a giant golden sphere. It is Sphaera, made by Stephan Balkenhol for the Salzburg Art Project. The meaning of the sculpture is "left up to the viewer" - which pretty much means "I have no idea but thought it looked cool."
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| The Funicular Railway |
Next we headed into the Cathedral ground with its massive graveyard, catacombs and waterwheel:
The waterwheel is where the Saint Peter's branch of the Almkanal leaves the Fortress Hill after a 400m tunnel that was built in 1136. It now provides electricity for the mill, while early models (replaced in 1922) turned the mill wheel:
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| Water Tunnel to the Waterwheel |
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| Waterwheel |
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| Statue of Saint Peter |
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| Chapel and part of the graveyard in the Cathedral |
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| Buildings in the cliff face - part of the castle |
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| Graveyard and buildings |
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| Inside the cathedral courtyard |
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| Courtyard |
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| Entrance to the catacombs |
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| One of the cathedral towers |
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| Sundial on one of the walls |
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| Mural on an arch |
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| Mural and clocktower |
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| Mozart's Birthplace |
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| Mozart's Birthplace |
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| One of the many Mozart shops |
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| Christmas shop with Halloween decorations - this was a massive shop filled with Christmas ornaments, mostly on blown eggs |
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| Wall muralin Mozartplatz |
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| Statue of Mozart in Mozartplatz |
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| Mozartplatz and another sundial |
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| A final shot of the castle |
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| and the beautiful colours of the sunset |
We then had a drive to Vienna. It was a pretty straight-through drive so we figured we'd make it easily and make it to our apartment on time, but for some reason traffic was terrible. It took us over an hour to get out of Salzburg - less than 10km. By the time we arrived in Vienna it was 9pm and we were too tired to go out and join the Halloween parties. We had a quick dinner of nachos and then headed to bed, ready to explore Vienna the next day.
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| Drive for Day 4 |
7.5hrs and 643km.
Total so far: 1450km
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