I think this was one of the very awaited trips for us. But unfortunately we didn’t get much time to plan it since last weekend’s plan was for Swiss. The cancellation of Swiss plan due to unavailability of rooms resulted in our Austria trip. However, it was not a poor planning though. We took a lead from one of our friends here to book a room first. We took a room in Pension Elizabeth for two nights, which costed around 72 € per night including breakfast, which is definitely expensive. We then took our tickets and timetable from Fahrkarten, i.e., ticket vending machine here in Stuttgart. We were to leave on Friday and get back on Sunday.
Our plan was to go to Bodensee on Friday and leave to Salzburg(Austria) that evening. So, we took a Bayern ticket which is valid for the Bayern area starting from Ulm till Salzburg and a ticket from our place to Ulm, since we were starting to Ulm before 9:00 in the morning and BW ticket(for Baden-Württemberg state where Stuttgart is) is valid from 9:00 onwards. So we went to Plochingen and took the Regional Bahn to Ulm. From Ulm, we left to Lindau, another bank of Lake Constanz, i.e., Bodensee. Remember, Ulm-Memmingen-Lindau falls in BW, whereas Ulm-Kempton-Lindau falls in Bayern area. So if you are taking a train with the route as Ulm-Memmingen-Lindau, then better buy a BW ticket.
As per plan, we went to Lindau. It was beautiful. The lake was not looking like lake at all, but was more like a sea. We could see water till our vision ended. We could also see the Swiss Alps from there, the snow-capped mountains, at the foot of which, the lake was originating. It was breath-taking to see this scenary. Since Lindau is less common than FriedrichSchafen to visit Bodensee, the crowd was not much. In fact we were the only Indians out there. We took a 1-hr cruise throughout the lake, taking pics everywhere.
There are many stalls at the shores for food/ice-creams/beer. We took a veg pizza (yeah that was available) and a banana ice-cream and both were yummy. After that we took a stroll around and started to Salzburg. We had a connecting train to Salzburg from München. So, Lindau-München and München to Salzburg. (München is Munich FYI.. it confused us also initially..)
From München to Salzburg, the train was over-crowded. München is the capital of Bavaria(Bayern state) and is Germany’s economic center for technology. Very heavily crowded, just like Bangalore. München is so unlike the rest of Germany. We were pretty hungry by then and badly wanted something to eat. Somehow we managed to go till Salzburg. It was around 8:00 PM when we reached Salzburg.
As soon as you get down the gleis(platform in Deutsche), you will see hordings of Burger-King. We just followed the directions and reached Burger-King. Thank God that we could find a Veggie King there and took a meal and ate like we were hungry for a week. We then took out the map of Salzburg, located the street where our hotel was and walked towards it.
The hotel was good, though amidst a busy street, the room inside was not affected by it. It was not a big room, (am sure for the money we paid there we can get to stay in Taj in India) but a simple and good one that fit our needs. A TV, a WC(washroom) attached with a bathroom and a twin bed. The hotel had a dining hall adjacent to the reception which was big enough to cater to its hausguests(checked-in guests).
We made a plan for the next day. We wanted to go to ice caves and salt mines on our way back. Ice caves are open only between May and October. And for all those who want to take a day ticket to Salzburg city and roam around, please do not do so.. If you plan to stay there for more than 2 days, you can definitely roam around the city. Otherwise, Ice caves is a must see and the day ticket wont work here since it does not fall in zone S.
We took a ticket to Werfen to go to Ice caves(Eisriesenwelt). Here is how it goes.. You need to go to Werfen by train. From there go to the information center, the i icon which you will see as soon as you come out of the station. There you can ask for a printout of a map to get to ice caves. Follow the map. You need to get to a bus station which is a little ahead of the station. From there, take a bus to the office where you buy your tickets to the Ice caves. The tickets to the bus need to bought in the bus itself. You may also decide not to take the bus, I would personally suggest to take it, since it’s a long way to the office. As soon as u get down the bus, you can see the name: Eisriesenwelt at the entrance to the office. We took the tickets for Cable car + Ice caves, around 19 € for each. You may also decide not to take the Cable car and trek to the Ice caves.
From the office you need to walk like 20 mins to reach the Snack hut, from where a cable car will take you to a mountain restaurant. From the mountain restaurant, its another 20 mins walk to the entrance to the Ice caves. It is really tiring. But on your left you will see the beautiful scenary of mountains and trees.. I could see the mountain peak at my eye-level. As you ascend towards the top, (ice caves are at the top) you realize that humans are so small in front of Nature. You realize the power of nature and you simply surrender to her.
We reached the entrance to the Ice caves, which was already chilling cold. There were guides, one of which led our group of around 50. We have to climb 700 steps up and 700 steps down in the Ice cave as part of the tour. The guide gave us lanterns coz there is no light inside. We entered the Ice cave and vow… what a beauty.. You see Ice castles, Ice walls.. Its really worth seeing it.. for the lifetime. It’s the beauty you cant capture in the camera. Amazing… I have no words to describe this sizzling and marvelous manifestation of Mother Nature. The Ice caves are formed due to cold air locked in the rocks during winter. During Spring, the snow from the mountains melts down, but due to the Ice cold rocks, the melt snow turns to Ice. Hats off to the person who first found this. Since 1920, there have been tours to this Ice cave it seems. A fighter from Salzburg had requested to bury his body in this cave when he was shot in World War I at the age of 27. You can see his grave there. You can get more information about the caves themselves and how to reach there in short here: http://www.eisriesenwelt.at/site/content/CB_ContentShow.php?coType=home.
After the tour, we started back. At first we walked to the mountain restaurant, had some roasted potatoes, then descended through the cable car down to the Snack Hut, and then again a walk of 20 mins to the office and then to the bus. The bus took us to the Werfen station directly. The driver announced that there is a train to Salzburg Hbf in 1.5 mins. We rushed, took the train and proceeded to Salzburg. We were damn tired and decided not to go to salt mines. Also, the salt mines were closed by then.
In the train, we met a few Indians and they told us that Gmunden is a very beautiful place and we could check it out. So we planned for that instead of Eagle’s nest/Konigsee.
Next day, we woke up at 7:45 and were at the breakfast table by 8:45. We checked out the hotel, had breakfast, and went to Salzburg Hbf. From there, we took a ticket to Gmunden. We had to change the train in between.. Salzburg Hbf -> Attnang Puchleim and then Attnang Puchleim -> Gmunden. Again we went out of the station and there was a bus. The bus took us to Traunsee. Another beautiful lake with mountains all over. Excellent scenic beauty. This time, we took a motor boat and cruised ourselves.
On our way to Traunsee from the Gmunden station and back, we met an old man, an Austrian, who had visited India around 30 times by virtue of being a trip organizer. He asked if I was a model and my husband was a designer.. We laughed and said we are engineers… 
Anyways.. he was very impressed with India and said Kashmir, Leh Ladakh and Jai Salmer were his favourite places.. none of which I have seen.. He also said that Goa doesnt impress him since it is like Europe in India and is very unlike India. While taking leave he gave his best wishes to India.. Nice person.
At 12:00 in the noon, we started back to Salzburg. We had our burger in Burger-King and took our train to Stuttgart after that.
We made a lot of friends in the trip. Few Indians who guided us to Gmunden, a Gujarati family who had come on a Europe trip and a German couple who joined us on our way back till Munchen.
This blog has got very lengthy… I have just discussed how our Austrian trip went.. The details of trains.. all this was not there for us when we started planning. Hopefully, this blog will help those who want to plan for their trip.
