New and exciting excursion to the Untersberg

Wednesday - after a fierce storm and thunderstorm at night (which showed to have big effects on our train trip back home later) it hadn't really cooled down, but we had a mix of sun and clouds in the morning when we took the bus from the main railroad station nearby to the Untersberg. Salzburg has its city hills ("Stadtberge") - Kapuzinerberg, Mönchsberg, Rainberg, Nonnberg, Festungsberg - and its mountains in the surroundings, the so-called Salzburger Becken. Favorite viewpoints and recreational destinations are especially two of them: the Untersberg (1972 m/6470 ft. - photo) and the Gaisberg (1288 m/4225 ft.).  

We made the 30 min trip by bus to the Untersberg, south of Salzburg, almost on the border to Germany. A modern mountain funicular south of the little town of Grödig brings visitors up to the top of the hill in a couple of minutes. Corresponding to mythology, the Untersberg is home of Kaiser Karl d. Große (shown on the wall of the station building on the left photo), who is waiting for his resurrection. Every 100 years he wakes up, checks on ravens flying around the mountain still, and, if so, continues to sleep. He is well taken care of by little mountain dwarfs.

 

As to be seen in the photos: First, up there, it's high alpine "mountain atmosphere" and great panoramas, as on the photo above, showing the summit funicular station and views towards the north and Bavaria. Second, many hikers overestimate themselves, the hiking trails are mostly demanding and the right equipment, weather and condition are needed. On the summit the wind was blowing and, unfortunately, clouds all over the place - which made the views, on the other hand, pretty "dramatic".

At least, we walked the short trail to the Geiereck, one of the summits of the mountain chain, passing two mountain cabins/hostels. Then, we caught another train back down, because there was danger that they would shut down the train because of thunderstorms or strong winds, which would have cost us time. 

The abbreviated visit was a good thing, too, since it gave us more time for the surrounding area, around Grödig. Thanks to our highly knowledgeable guide Maria, representing tourism in the region, we drove to another unusual sight: "Kugelmühle", where we got a demonstration of what was (and is) done here: Producing stone balls (marbles) from local stone with hydro power (delivered by a redirected creek coming from a waterfall). Old documents from end of the 18th century already mention 14 "marble mills" along a waterfall. One is still fully operative thanks to Martin Leitner, and, it's a complicated mechanism to form the little balls. In the past, left-overs from the quarries were used, roughly shaped manually with tools. In the mill they were then ground perfectly round and, eventually, polished. These little balls were used as ship ballast, as ammunition or as toy-marbles.  

More about the technique of the mills, the products and their use, the importance of stone and water for the region, and, about local mythology and sagas, we learned in the nearby Untersbergmuseum in Grödig-Fürstenbrunn - modern and nicely arranged exhibitions of all kinds! Especially unique is one room with the elaborate costumes for the "Wilde Jagd" (wild hunt), really scary, and used one night in December for a scary/secret/mystic rite (right photo).

Passing the large chocolate factory "Salzburg Schokolade", famous for producing the Echte Salzburger Mozartkugel von Mirabell we made a final, fantastic stop at Gruell's fish & seafood store & bistro. Walter Grüll started to work in this field of work in 1981, first did fish farming, then opened a fish/deli store in 1992 and added a bistro in 2012. Worldwide there are only approx. 30 sturgeon farmers producing highly-valued caviar. Gruell does that, but is especially famous for White Albino Sturgeon and  caviar. The family operation gets extra saltwater fish and seafood from trusted traders in Italy and their fish assortment - fresh and refined/prepared - is enormous! We had a sample platter of cold fish/seafood delicacies (photo) to check it out in person.

What a great treat before we headed back to the city to catch a train back home, which showed to become an odyssey! Salzburg to Munich was an easy-peasy trip (ca. 1.5 hours), but Munich to Augsburg (originally: a 40 min. train trip) showed to become a real nuisance: Because of objects on the tracks and other damages from previous night's thunderstorms, the complete (main) route was shut down. We had to detour, change trains twice - information was scarce and confusing or non-existant, trains hot and packed. To make a long story short: we arrived at home with a delay of 3 hours!

Mozart's Town, and much, much more!

Salzburg - have been visiting often in the past! Only a 2.5 hours train trip  from our hometown, it has always been a favorite weekend excursion destination. Since we have our guidebook on the market (Reise Know-How Verlag), for about 15 years, we are traveling to Salzburg regularly, to do research for book updates. Even during COVID this book sold pretty well and is right now our most popular guidebook out of 15 "CityTrips", even before New York!

We took the train on Monday late morning, all went well train-wise (for a change!). We stayed in the pretty "hip" new Cocoon Hotel opposite the main railroad station (photo of lobby area with breakfast buffet and building, which was a former energy management building  below):

 

Out we went again to get a general overview, a first impression of what has changed and how. Walked Getreidegasse (photo below, left) and through historic old town with its many churches, its always present view towards the castle (right) and the Erzbischöfliche Residenz (photo far below) - seat of Salzburg Archbishops since 1120. The city was crowded, though the famous Festspiele didn't start yet. Construction of the stage for the famous play "Jedermann" in front of the cathedral was already in full swing.

Toured the city and ended up on Mönchsberg's slope, in Mülln, at Augustiner. This brewery & beergarden, founded in 1621 by monks, is in our opinion the most idyllic one in Salzburg. Beer is one of the best as well (they brew just one: Maerzen!), and, they have a good selection of "Brotzeiten" (cold cuts/cheeses/raddish, sausages etc.) to go with the beer (left pic).

 

 

 

Tuesday, we had a full itinerary, thoroughly and perfectly arranged by Salzburg Tourism. The day started at 8 am, with a talk in the hotel with the hotel manager of Cocoon, a rather new small chain of boutique hotels (after a superb breakfast there!), then on through old town to the Festung (castle). We took the funicular (right) up to the mountain, a short 5-min. trip. The newly offered "quick tours" proved to be interesting and concise. Afterwards, we revisited the archbishops' gorgeous apartments and the castle's museums, and, for the first time, heard the "Salzburger Stier" roar! Views from the Festung are always gorgeous and exhibitions became much more up-to-date in the meantime! Photos below show the castle itself - outside ring and core area "Hoher Stock" - and one exhibition in the museum.

View from the Festung in the direction of the Residenz and river Salzach  (left), Krauthuegel art project (on lawn) and Untersberg (right).

Back in town we were able to get out of the heat (up to 95 deg F./around 34 deg C) at our next appointment: Mittagsmusik im Dom - a noon organ concert in the gorgeous baroque cathedral (built in the 1st half of the 17th century). They have seven organs and two musicians performed on six of them! The cathedral's guest manager afterwards showed us the vestries and brought us up to the balconies, which gave us completely different experiences and views!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, we still had time to check out  Rupertinum, part of the Museum der Moderne (modern art museum) on Mönchsberg. This branch in downtown was closed for renovations in the last years, but now shows interesting exhibitions in a pleasant atmosphere again. We enjoyed to look at Ruth Walz' theater photography, on exhibition right now.

 

We took busses all the time - Salzburg's main means of transportation – , but, also walked almost 20 mi (30 km) in two half and one full days. Fortunately, public transportation is  included in the Salzburg Card, similar to American CityPASSes, but much more comprehensive. A great deal for tourists! 

A bus brought us to the Botanical Garden next, operated by Salzburg University, and, a bit out of town. We joined a tour there, given by two doctoral candidates about wild bees in the garden. The garden itself - not too big, but nicely arranged and taken care of - is well worth a visit, the (free) tours are ideal for every garden/nature fan!

 Last stop back in town - after having  checked out Schloss Mirabell - was "Sonnenmohr" (photo below), a company which produces (healthy) herbal and moor products (from local moor fields) in a suburb of Salzburg. They operate a store in downtown and the manager explained their unique concept and products to us.

 

After a quick shower in the hotel - boy, it was a hot day! - we went out again, to meet with our tourism media contact for a delicious dinner at the Humboldt Stubn. Organic food, regionally sourced and sustainable, tasty and creative. On the photos below: Beef tartar and Vitello Tonato, which we had as appetizers. It's been a long, hot day, but highly interesting!