The weather wasn't exactly very pleasant since we landed 2 days ago... we hoped and prayed that today's gonna be a sunny day so that we are able to take more photos!
A little bit of background on the selection of our local tours for Hallstatt... Initially we thought of being adventurous and attempted to DIY this day trip as there are various sites that provides ample information on how to do so:
How to get to Hallstatt: by Bus, Train and Ferry
How to get to Hallstatt
Frommers
Hallstatt
Later we dropped the idea as it was too much hassle (and we have limited time)... and luckily we did!
There are very few companies that does Hallstatt daytrip, below is what we found:
MCM
Bob's Special Tours (we chose this company since we didn't want to switch around)
Panorama (used to have one in Japanese, but not anymore)
When you book via their website, they will give you a booking number, do print and bring it along. Depending on where you depart:
- If at their office, you make payment at the counter
- If they come and pick you up at your hotel/requested location, you pay to the driver
We chose the latter.
Rosemarie, our tour guide for the day is excellent! She speaks very good and clear English, very cheerful and pleasant, gives a lot of info and explain every place that we stopped!
She arrived on time with another young couple from Taiwan. So there's just 5 of us including Rosemarie which is perfectly small and manageable group. Since this is a Sound of Music, City and Hallstatt tour, Rosemarie asked us if we have any special request? All of us agreed to have more time in Hallstatt! Very flexible!
We started with the City tour, along the way, she'll explain to us what building we passed by, and also stop a few minutes so that we can take some snapshots!
At the top is
Salzburg Castle (Hohensalzburg Fortress) or better known as Festung Hohensalzburg.
This is the famous
Horse Pond located on one end of the Old Town Square:
Another part of the Old Town
After that short city tour, we started the Sound of Music Tour with Rosemarie playing Doe a Deer, A Female Deer... on the stereo :D
This movie is film in many separate locations in Salzburg. First stop is the Von Trapp mansion:
This is taken outside Hellbrunn Castle, the famous Gazebo is located in the gardens where the song
Sixteen Going On Seventeen was sang... so famous that I forgot to take a photo of it! Argghhh!!!!!
After this... is a very long journey towards Hallstatt passing through the famous Lake District... Red Bull factory along the way :P
Toboggan slide, its €4.50/ride/adult... fun but I hoped it can slide down faster :P
This is the famous
Sankt Wolfgang... one of the most beautiful places we have seen!
This photo is taken with a Canon 1000D with kit lens and aside from the watermark and resize, no editing (no colour/hue/contrast/etc correction) was done on this photo, I repeat, this photo was posted as it is!
This one has its brightness corrected with Picasa
This one was taken with an iPad Mini, again, no editing aside from the water mark and resize. It looks like a painting! I mean... I couldn't believe that there is a beautiful place... yeah... I know... i haven't been to that many places anyway :P
Had lunch at the restaurant overlooking the lake Wolfgangsee and St. Gilgen village... food's normal, nothing to shout about... Had pumpkin soup and 2 mains since there were very limited choices.
Its the kind of quality and price that you would expect from a touristy restaurant... you know what I mean :P
Now off to Hallstatt! Rosemarie dropped us off at the jetty (dang... we forgot the name... just recalled we paid €5.50/pax/way) where we take a ferry called
Stefanie to Hallstatt town opposite the lake and she'll meet us there in a few hours time to allow us to explore the small town. These were taken on the ferry:
Here's beautiful Hallstatt town, though there's nothing much here, its very lively, lots of Koreans and Japanese visitor:
We walked all the way through the town and took this on the end, fascinating... the weather was perfect!
After a long walk, finally we are heading back to Salzburg... On the way back, we passed by St. Gilgen where Mozart's mother lives:
And Mondee Cathedral in Mondsee where Maria and Captain Von Trapp got married:
Some of the interior of the cathedral:
This tour ended at Mirabell's Palace, this is a very nice place, beautiful garden! Tipping is optional but we gave €20 to Rosemarie for being an excellent tour guide!
Some photos of the garden:
The restaurant I found via Trip Advisor had quite a good reviews but was quite far away... along the way took some interesting photos:
Supposed to be serving delicious fried chicken :)
The chicken came with potato salad:
Presentation was good, chicken was not oily but was dry...
My schnitzel came with rice... odd combo with jam and a slice of orange :P
Price was OK, but it wasn't worth the distance traveled so I wouldn't recommend this:
We end this day with one last beautiful night shot:
We still have a few hours the next morning to visit Old Town and see if we missed out anything... We thoroughly enjoyed Salzburg! The outskirts is really an eye opener!
Hopefully me can make another trip to this beautiful country again during winter, that's something to really look forward to!
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