Europe Fall 2013 - Salzburg, Austria! (Day 2)

We bought the Munich-Salzburg train ticket online via OEBB, most on costing details here. Since the initial planning was not thorough enough, we didn't know how much time to juggle between Munich and Salzburg.

So we emailed OEBB directly and got to know that the ticket that we bought is an daily open ticket! i.e. within the same day, we can hop on any train, any time!

We saved the timetable on our iPad for reference. Note that different train have different duration, you might want to take the ones with the shortest to save time.

We paid for the hotel breakfast, it was €21++/pax and it was one of the best hotel breakfast we had on out trip! Great variety! Great environment! Great bread!

 

Something funny, notice the metal plate on the left of the photo below? I used it to put maple syrup for my pancake! After that, my wife got to know that its actually for putting the hard boil egg! So embarrassing, hope nobody saw :P

 

Great variety of yogurt too!

Mix and match your cereal (Yeah, I know, we are a bit of a "sakai" (Malay term for "cavemen"), never had this before back home :P)

The Munich Central Station is huge, the underground part is for intercity trains and the other is for inter-country. The food stall there open till late. So if you're in a rush, I reckon there is still time to grab a quick bite before boarding the trains.
There's also a bus stop just outside for Direct buses to Prague (we will cover this in the Prague trip later on).

The destination is usually stated on the train, if in doubt, you may approach the conductors. They are more than happy to help!

Inside the train, there is a monitor displaying the schedule... destination and estimated arrival time:

 

There were just trees and bushes along the way, so much nature, so green! :)

Upon arrival, we headed to a tabacco shop (Tabak Trafik) to buy daily transportation tickets, its €3.30 if you buy 5 tickets and above! On your way out, its on the left side of the entrance, opposite the supermarket:

You can get more info here and here. You can also buy these tickets directly from the bus conductor, it will cost €5.30/ticket:

Our hotel (ACHAT Plaza Zum Hirschen) is a low rise building conveniently located near the main train station, around 5-10 mins walk. The hotel is very classic, clean but we personally don't think it looks like 4 stars :P

But it does have 5 star service! This is the only hotel where the staff actually asked that if we have been to Salzburg before, do we know where to go and what to visit! Even brought up a map and circled the places of interest, which bus to take, the intervals and where to stop! That's just awesome :)

Ok, we left our luggage and planned to walk to the main part of the city where the tour company is located. Bad idea! The iPad GPS seems screwed for some reason (and I eventually found out a few months later that the iPads with Wifi does not have a built-in GPS chip! It will go haywire occasionally but some times its quite ok :x)

Took us one big round ending up very near the hotel again, wasted almost an hour! 

Well... it was not exactly that bad, since we took some photos along the way :P

St. Andrew's Church located just opposite Mirabell's Palace on Mirabellplatz:

Some snapshots along the way... the cables are for feeder buses as they run on electricity:

We decided to follow the hotel's recommendation and took a bus to the city. Just able to make it for a quick lunch at Grad 220 before our noon tour :)

This place is small and pretty packed... and rated one of the best coffee in Salzburg!

The Menu:

The counter and coffee bar:

Cappuccinos... a bit strong for my wife, but its has good flavour, not bitter, slight sourish hint, milk ratio was perfect!

 There is not much choice in the menu, this is one of the breakfast set:

Tomato soup which is pretty nice, must be a homecook recipe as we are able to taste other ingredients blended inside:

Price was reasonable:

We signed up for 2 tours with Bob's Special Tours, a half day Bavarian Mountain tour and full day Sound of Music and Hallstatt tour (We will get to this tomorrow :))

The half day tour was able to cover Obersalzberg (Eagle's Nest) and part of Lake Königssee, costs €45/pax. This tour was a bit "adhoc" and messy because the tour guide, Christian was doing 2 groups with just 1 van. The first group already went up Eagle's Nest and didn't return on the supposed meeting time... Leaving us neither here nor there...

Anyway, we started the tour by going up Eagle's Nest, along the way there's the old underground bunker that Hitler once used. The area was bombed leaving most of the tunnels and pathways destroyed... 
This place is eery, cold... and there's actually nothing to see because most of the tunnels are dead ends... if you are a historical fan, do drop by and have a look and have a feel... but if you are short on time, you may skip this... entrance fees was €3/pax

We would recommend Eagle's Nest! There is a depot where you can buy tickets at €16.50/pax which covers the bus trip to the elevator and going up to Hitler's summer house. The road leading up to the elevator is very narrow thus is only operated by a single bus company with at least 6 buses going up and down on rotational basis.

 Its very high up...

 

 The 2 pax single ticket:

 

Now... there is a counter before going into the tunnel leading to the elevator. You need to tell the staff the time you intend to go down so that they can arrange the bus. And do be punctual else you will need to wait very long!

The elevator is huge and sturdy... imagine an elevator able to fit 50 pax! According to the tour guide and some personal reading, Hitler is acrophobic and claustrophobic :x
Therefore the motor used to hoist the elevator is actually a submarine's engine! No photos are allowed along the tunnel towards the elevator, you can try your luck finding some on the web.

It was freaking cold up there and due to the rain, you can't see anything! Supposed to have a very nice view of the mountains... Below is the outside view of the restaurant...

It was freezing so we ordered a cake and a hot chocolate, just normal stuff...

Everyone else was having beer :P

OK, time to head down and off to Berchtesgaden! The Lake is huge and there isn't enough time to take the boat ride so we just took a short stroll... This place is beautiful! According to Christian, the lake water is drinkable... there are a lot of ducks and geese there too... I wonder :P

 

The small town:

 

 

Behind the trees is the Berchtesgaden National Park

Well... time to go back! Eventually the tour turned out good, we enjoyed ourselves! If we had more time, we reckon it will be better if we were able to join the full day trip instead.

Dinner time at The Monkey Restaurant (Zum fidelen Affen), the food is AWESOME! One of the best restaurants on this trip! Be sure to email the restaurant and make a reservation before hand.

Lucky we snapped menu for future reference, there is English!

 

 We ordered:
Appetizer (Pretzel) and beer:

They recommended the Affen steak! The Bacon, juicy pork steak (not sure if its called pork schnitzel), mushrooms, mozzarella cheese and tomatoes combo is simply out of this world!

This is stuffed hand made pasta with grated mozzarella and olive oil, very delicious!

Dessert... Apple strudel with strawberry and vanilla ice-cream on cream, awesome, just awesome :)
There's another restaurant we had in Prague which is comparable to this but with better and crispier pastry :)

This place is a true gem! Well worth the price and we will return if there is a chance! :)

Took a bus back to the hotel which was heading the opposite direction... we thought is was OK as it might turn back upon reaching the end point... bad idea! It took us so far away and we have no choice but to get down and take another bus on the opposite street... to make things worse, the bus driver couldn't understand English :x

While waiting, we met a very nice student from Pakistan. He was heading back to the city and told us which bus to take and where to get down! People from small cities are extremely nice and helpful... reminds me so much of Hobart, Tasmania!

Long, tiring but eventful day... nearly went to sleep without taking a shower!

Hallstatt trip tomorrow! Stay tuned!