Last weekend, I was itching to find another weekend trip for us in November as our next trip is not until the first weekend of December. I lucked out and found a great deal to Salzburg, so we booked the trip!
Originally when we thought of going to Salzburg we wanted to go when it was snowing and we also hoped to have more time so we could venture to the quaint, picturesque town of Hallstatt in the mountains, on a lake, as recommended by Dad. We missed the snow by about two weeks, which turned out to be okay because we were a lot warmer and the hills on the side of the mountains were still beautifully green (imagine Sound of Music). We ventured into the region of Lakes and Mountains in behind Salzburg, which gave us a taste of what Hallstatt will be like. We’ll have to go back; maybe as a Slovenian/Austrian hiking trip. So many things to do…
We arrived in Salzburg Friday afternoon at about 4:30, after a smooth commute to Gatwick and smooth flight. After taking the bus into town, we walked the 45 min from the New Town, through the Old Town and to our hostel. Christmas lights and decorations were going up and stalls for the Christmas markets were being filled. Many stores already had all of their Christmas decorations out for sale and were they ever beautiful! We didn’t feel too bad about missing out on that as we are going to Christmas markets in Vienna and Bratislava in two weeks, and we didn’t have to deal with the hoards of advent tourists and shoppers.
Like Ljubljana, Salzburg is small with only 140K people. Salzburg has a grand feel to it. You could tell the city had been historically wealthy (from the white gold known as salt) with all of its tall, fancy, beautiful baroque buildings. The many churches fill the city with the ringing of bells on the hour. It didn’t take long to tell that Salzburg sells itself on Mozart and the Sound of Music (both of which drove John crazy).
We found a quiet, local restaurant for dinner and enjoyed delicious bacon covered, cheese filled sausages (not healthy but really tasty), wiener schnitzel and a salad with pickled veggies. Then we headed back to our hostel for the evening showing of The Sound of Music. I sat there with a huge grin on my face, humming along to the music and taking note of all the local sights in the movie. John sat there in disbelief, wondering how anyone could make, act in, or watch a movie where people burst into spontaneous song or have conversations to music. He opted for his book.
It was foggy on Saturday morning but luckily it wasn’t raining. We walked the empty streets of the Old Town, peeking inside some of its exquisite churches, waiting for the fog to burn off so we could hike up to the hilltop fortress. It was a steep slope up but well worth the view, and the sunshine that broke through the fog. Mountains, including the peak which housed Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, green fields and hills, trees still full of colour, and the elaborate roof tops of Salzburg’s Old Town buildings. We spent the rest of our morning exploring stores, starting our Christmas shopping, and checking out the food market for our lunch.
We had a tough time deciding what to do for the afternoon. There are two companies in Salzburg that run different, expensive tours of the city and surrounding area; the most popular tour being “The Sound of Music” tour. Neither of us was interested in that, but we did want to see some of the surrounding area. We worried that a tour would be too “touristy” and we thought we should be doing some hiking of our own, even if it was just in the hills right in Salzburg. The other factor was that we didn’t have a lot of energy; John was at the end of a bad cold and my body was fighting it. We ended up choosing to go on a “Lakes and Mountains” tour and it was the right decision.
We met the tour at Mirabell Garden, featured in the Sound of Music. To any gardeners reading, you would have been very impressed at how beautiful the flowers, shrubbery and landscaping were, even in mid-November! Our group consisted of a couple from Spain, a couple from Iceland living in Salzburg studying music, two travel writers from Finland, us, and our guide/driver who was from Bosnia, studying law in Salzburg. Quite the combo.
We drove into the Alps, past breathtaking hillsides (again, picture the Sound of Music) and three lakes. We stopped in three different towns, St. Gilgen, St. Wolfgang, and Mondsee, to admire views, walk along the water or through the quaint towns. Once we left Salzburg, all the buildings were classically Austrian with oversized roofs to withstand the heavy snowfall and beautifully carved wooden overhangs and balconies. I loved them! I can see how the lakeside towns are popular spots in the summer, the green blue water of the lakes (not like glacial lakes but muted green blue from the sun hitting the limestone lake floor) made me want to jump right in!
Driving through the pass between St. Gilgen and Mondsee, we passed a striking Habsburg palace. It was painted bright yellow! Gold was the Habsburg monarchy’s colour. The palace was right next to the deepest lake of the region, 120 metres, deeper than West Hawk, but the lake itself looked no bigger than a pond. Next we passed a large rock face, resembling Squamish’s Chief. It’s called the Dragon Wall because, prior to people knowing what a Woolly Mammoth was, Woolly Mammoth bones were found in a cave there and people assumed it was a dragon.
We arrived in Mondsee and saw the church where Maria and Captain Von Trapp were married, in the movie, and then we hit up a café to indulge in some apple strudel and coffee. Wow! I’m now a huge apple strudel fan.
We got back to Salzburg in the dark and explored on foot a few more areas of the city we hadn’t seen. An outdoor skating rink and Winterlounge had just been set up in Mozart Square. The Winterlounge was so inviting; it had tables and fire pits, it was decorated with evergreen boughs, and they were serving hot drinks. Of course we had to indulge in the atmosphere and drinks, traditional hot alcoholic punches. The atmosphere was worth the cost of the punch; unfortunately, our taste buds could only manage a few sips of the punch. Then we found a healthier dinner and made our way back for quiet evening at the hostel (and yes, I did take in a few more scenes of the evening viewing of The Sound of Music). It turned out to be a great day! A perfect combination of the grand city of Salzburg with the picturesque surrounding lakes, mountains and quaint Austrian villages.
By the time we got to the airport on Sunday morning at 9:30, the fog had burned off and we stood on the airport deck in the sun watching the planes take off and admiring the mountain views.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Monday, November 6, 2006
Ljubljana, Slovenia
We loved Slovenia! The landscape reminded us a bit of the Foothills and Rockies west of Calgary, and we enjoyed the fresh air and less populated city of Ljubljana (compared to London). We loved it despite not making it into the mountains or to picturesque Lake Bled to go hiking, so I think we will be returning. As requested by my sister, we have posted more photos from this trip.
Our flight left midday on Friday, so we spent a leisurely morning drinking coffee and eating porridge as the sun streamed into our apartment. We should however, have been a bit more on the ball, checking for tube closures and delays online. We got to our nearest tube station at 10:15 and we needed to get to Baker Street for 11:00 to catch our bus to Luton Airport. We realized when we got to the station that we should have left sooner. Despite this, we still opted to take the slower, cheaper commuting option of the tube, vs the fast train in. As soon as the tube pulled away, we realized we should have taken the train. I spent the entire journey stressing and fretting about the possibility missing our bus and flight. Usually in cases like that I am thinking of all of the possible contingency plans but this time I was just willing us to get there in time. Plus, I wasn’t sure what our other options would be. I was a basket case. We sprinted through tube stations and through the streets of London with our backpacks on (Amazing Race style) and made it to the bus with two minutes to spare!! Just enough time for me to zip to the loo. I returned to John and the bus only to discover that we were booked on the 11:20 bus and not the 11:00! So, sweaty and frazzled we awaited the 11:20 bus. It only took us a few minutes to be able to laugh about it.
We made it to the airport in plenty of time. We traveled on Wizz Air from Luton Airport, both of which were more pleasurable experiences compared to Ryan Air and Stansted, despite the plane smelling of someone’s BO (reminiscent of the Seinfeld episode).
Slovenia is a miniature country and flying into the capital, Ljubljana (pronounced by us Libiana), gave us a good lay of the land. We flew over snowy mountain peaks and then things flattened out, except for many tree covered hills popping up all over the place. The flat land between the hills is treeless to make room for farming and towns. We got a great view of beautiful Lake Bled and its lone island with a church on it (photo at http://www.bled.si/).
It was dark when we arrived in Ljubljana, and cold. My toque didn’t come off my head the entire weekend except to sleep and shower. Before and after dinner, we roamed the downtown area admiring the Italian Baroque buildings. A river runs through the middle of the town; branches of willow trees hang over its edges and they are lit up at night. There were still a few leaves on the trees and plenty on the ground to romp through. Slovenia used to be part of Yugoslavia and we were expecting more ominous Soviet influence but it wasn’t there at all.
Both nights there we had long, big, hearty traditional Slovenian dinners; soup, sausages, bread, various meats with rich sauces. The food wasn’t cheap, nor expensive, but very good value for our money. John became a “Union” man – he really enjoyed the local brew called Union.
We stayed in a hostel, and yes, I survived. Cons: Bathrooms that smelled like pee (I’d like to believe the cleaning solutions were pee smelling), uncomfortable dorm beds and not very much sleep the first night. In the first four hours of the night, people were coming to bed about once every hour, and in the second half of the night people were getting up about once every hour. As a result, it seemed everyone was tired by the second night because lights were out in our dorm room at 11, there were no mid night interruptions, and people didn’t start getting up until 8 – yeah, a good sleep for us. Pros: Good chance to meet other friendly travelers (we had a beer with a guy from England on Friday night and got some great travel tips from a woman from London staying in the bunk next to us), very central location, cheaper than hotels and less dodgy than cheap hotels.
Saturday, met with sunshine, we were up to catch an 8:30 bus to Postojna (pronounced Postoina, check out http://www.postojnska-jama.si/?cat=7&lang=en). The one hour ride took us through villages, farms and hills dusted with snow. In Postojna, we did a two hour tour of underground caves, seeing about 3km of the 21km network. Stalactites, stalagmites, broccoli and spaghetti formations, fish with four legs, a bridge over a crevice that looked like it was in Lord of the Rings; not things you see every day.
After that, we took a cab 9 km up into the hills to Predjama castle, a castle built up on the side of a cliff. The site of the castle was much better in person and the inside of it greatly exceeded our expectations. From a room on the top floor of the castle, there was access to a large cave in behind. My imagination was picturing old rituals and ceremonies taking place back there (too cool!). We enjoyed a walk to the creek and up the side of the hill, and took in the views of the surrounding countryside.
We got back to Ljubljana at 4:30, as the sun was setting. So, we ran through the streets and up to the hilltop castle. From there we had a 360 degree view: mountains, hills, city, and SKY. We lucked out with a gorgeous orange sunset!
Sunday we did walking tour of Ljubljana. It gave us a good taste of the region’s history and of the architecture – the downtown buildings, the university (there are 250K people living in Ljubljana, 60K of which are students), the philharmonic academy, the Roman wall (those Romans were everywhere!) – and we ended the tour with a little boat journey up the river.
All in all, a great weekend exploring Slovenia. It gets the J&L recommendation.
It was Guy Fawkes’ Day in England on Sunday when we returned. The Brits celebrate Fawkes’ failed attempt to blow up Parliament by setting off fire works and having bon fires. As we flew in, we could see fire works sparkling across the country. The air in London was thick with smoke.
Our flight left midday on Friday, so we spent a leisurely morning drinking coffee and eating porridge as the sun streamed into our apartment. We should however, have been a bit more on the ball, checking for tube closures and delays online. We got to our nearest tube station at 10:15 and we needed to get to Baker Street for 11:00 to catch our bus to Luton Airport. We realized when we got to the station that we should have left sooner. Despite this, we still opted to take the slower, cheaper commuting option of the tube, vs the fast train in. As soon as the tube pulled away, we realized we should have taken the train. I spent the entire journey stressing and fretting about the possibility missing our bus and flight. Usually in cases like that I am thinking of all of the possible contingency plans but this time I was just willing us to get there in time. Plus, I wasn’t sure what our other options would be. I was a basket case. We sprinted through tube stations and through the streets of London with our backpacks on (Amazing Race style) and made it to the bus with two minutes to spare!! Just enough time for me to zip to the loo. I returned to John and the bus only to discover that we were booked on the 11:20 bus and not the 11:00! So, sweaty and frazzled we awaited the 11:20 bus. It only took us a few minutes to be able to laugh about it.
We made it to the airport in plenty of time. We traveled on Wizz Air from Luton Airport, both of which were more pleasurable experiences compared to Ryan Air and Stansted, despite the plane smelling of someone’s BO (reminiscent of the Seinfeld episode).
Slovenia is a miniature country and flying into the capital, Ljubljana (pronounced by us Libiana), gave us a good lay of the land. We flew over snowy mountain peaks and then things flattened out, except for many tree covered hills popping up all over the place. The flat land between the hills is treeless to make room for farming and towns. We got a great view of beautiful Lake Bled and its lone island with a church on it (photo at http://www.bled.si/).
It was dark when we arrived in Ljubljana, and cold. My toque didn’t come off my head the entire weekend except to sleep and shower. Before and after dinner, we roamed the downtown area admiring the Italian Baroque buildings. A river runs through the middle of the town; branches of willow trees hang over its edges and they are lit up at night. There were still a few leaves on the trees and plenty on the ground to romp through. Slovenia used to be part of Yugoslavia and we were expecting more ominous Soviet influence but it wasn’t there at all.
Both nights there we had long, big, hearty traditional Slovenian dinners; soup, sausages, bread, various meats with rich sauces. The food wasn’t cheap, nor expensive, but very good value for our money. John became a “Union” man – he really enjoyed the local brew called Union.
We stayed in a hostel, and yes, I survived. Cons: Bathrooms that smelled like pee (I’d like to believe the cleaning solutions were pee smelling), uncomfortable dorm beds and not very much sleep the first night. In the first four hours of the night, people were coming to bed about once every hour, and in the second half of the night people were getting up about once every hour. As a result, it seemed everyone was tired by the second night because lights were out in our dorm room at 11, there were no mid night interruptions, and people didn’t start getting up until 8 – yeah, a good sleep for us. Pros: Good chance to meet other friendly travelers (we had a beer with a guy from England on Friday night and got some great travel tips from a woman from London staying in the bunk next to us), very central location, cheaper than hotels and less dodgy than cheap hotels.
Saturday, met with sunshine, we were up to catch an 8:30 bus to Postojna (pronounced Postoina, check out http://www.postojnska-jama.si/?cat=7&lang=en). The one hour ride took us through villages, farms and hills dusted with snow. In Postojna, we did a two hour tour of underground caves, seeing about 3km of the 21km network. Stalactites, stalagmites, broccoli and spaghetti formations, fish with four legs, a bridge over a crevice that looked like it was in Lord of the Rings; not things you see every day.
After that, we took a cab 9 km up into the hills to Predjama castle, a castle built up on the side of a cliff. The site of the castle was much better in person and the inside of it greatly exceeded our expectations. From a room on the top floor of the castle, there was access to a large cave in behind. My imagination was picturing old rituals and ceremonies taking place back there (too cool!). We enjoyed a walk to the creek and up the side of the hill, and took in the views of the surrounding countryside.
We got back to Ljubljana at 4:30, as the sun was setting. So, we ran through the streets and up to the hilltop castle. From there we had a 360 degree view: mountains, hills, city, and SKY. We lucked out with a gorgeous orange sunset!
Sunday we did walking tour of Ljubljana. It gave us a good taste of the region’s history and of the architecture – the downtown buildings, the university (there are 250K people living in Ljubljana, 60K of which are students), the philharmonic academy, the Roman wall (those Romans were everywhere!) – and we ended the tour with a little boat journey up the river.
All in all, a great weekend exploring Slovenia. It gets the J&L recommendation.
It was Guy Fawkes’ Day in England on Sunday when we returned. The Brits celebrate Fawkes’ failed attempt to blow up Parliament by setting off fire works and having bon fires. As we flew in, we could see fire works sparkling across the country. The air in London was thick with smoke.
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