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The Paradise behind our resort in Austria

Hi Friends! This is one of the 3 posts that is submitted for the nomination of Best Photo Blog category by OMY Singapore Blog Awards. I must hereby THANK the panel of judges from OMY’s editorial team for selecting TravelerFolio.com as one of the top ten finalists in the Photo Blog category.

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Rest and Relax day for us. We set out for our hiking at Untertal, a beautiful alpine path behind our ski resort in Schladming, Austria (Osterreich) that leads to the highest waterfall in the region.

Photos of Austrian alps.

Really like this stream that passes through the alps. The water is so clear.

Awesome views in the fascinating alpine setting! The awe-inspiring alps framed us into beautiful pictures. The sceneries along the way to Untertal were beautifully beyond words that touched our hearts.

Nice little houses nestled in the Austrian alps, within the sight of snow-capped mountain range and a soft flowing stream, what more can one ask?

Might as well get ourselves featured in the “postcard”!

We were surrounded by snow-capped mountains, yet on a sunny day in the alps!

When fairytale comes alive… you become one of the characters in the story.

It was quite a long walk, about two hours before we reached Untertal. There was a sign board that showed it would take another 7km to the waterfall area. Goodness! We were unaware of that at the start of the hike. Think it would take us at another three hours to walk up to the waterfall. And we had nature calling already; not going to settle the call in the wild alpine path! We turned back.

Sighting of a small waterfall before Untertal. A little bonus here.

Ponies returning to the shade after sunbathing in the grassland.

We were stunned for a while on the narrow path when a herd of sheep were approaching us; but we managed to cross their path without much hindrance.

The mesmerizing scenery made me wonder if I was walking into a postcard!

We were turning back. Do these Austria countryside pictures look like images in fairytale story books that we once read in our childhood?

Again, up the slopes and walked the bends back to the resort. It was tiring!

The little peaceful town of Schladming below our resort. During our resort stay on the mountain, we had to walk more than 1km around the bends to the train station at the town.

Our self-cooked simple Spaghetti lunch, with mashed potatoes and sausages.

Read Vienna, the city of music! All posts on backpacking Austria.

Next day: To Munich, Germany!

Posted by eunice Posted in Austria, Europe, Schladming Comments (18)

Innsbruck with the enchanting Alps

Early in the morning, we left for Innsbruck, a capital city of Tyrol in Western Austria, and an internationally renowned winter sports centre that hosted the Winter Olympic twice.

This is one of my favourite photos with the alps in the background.

Risking our lives while standing on the tram track just to take a nice picture.

The famous Golden Roof is an attraction in Innsbruck. When we spotted the Golden Roof, there were musicians playing under it.

Walking through the old streets, we saw many souvenir shops selling cuckoo clocks and cow bells too, and they were cheaper than those in Switzerland. Too bad, I had already bought those stuff as I thought the conversion rate was better in Swiss Franc than Euro, as SF1 = S$1.35 and €1 = S$1.98 and I was wrong! Still, Switzerland stuffs were more expensive.

Having meals in MacDonald’s were not any cheaper. They cost double of what we paid in Singapore after currency conversion, though sometimes hamburgers were having offer at €0.98 only (we grabbed such offer back in Versailles, Paris).

We had our lunch at a restaurant where the customer service was so bad that we were being ignored numerous times by the waiters and waitresses. The food was not nice too – very saltish chicken meat. This was the worst unwelcoming experience that I ever had in a restaurant.

The pretty alpine resort in Schladming!

Posted by eunice Posted in Austria, Europe, Innsbruck Comments (2)

Biking in the Austrian Alps

A rest and relax day for us, after days of rushing for trains and tight schedules. We rented bicycles and bought groceries at the town which is about 1.5km away from the resort located on the mountain. Getting to the town was further than it seemed to be as we had to walk along a few bends on the road while descending from the mountain. We rented mountain bikes for half a day at €11 for each bike.

We also bought some food to cook in our resort and the food was quite cheap. We thought we could put the bags of food on our bicycles and rode back to the resort, but it proved to be a STUPID idea, when we had forgotten that our resort was high up on the mountain! We ended up exhausted ourselves and instead, apart from carrying the heavy bags of food, we had to push our bicycles up the slopes! Dog-tired!

After putting down the food in the resort, we rode around the alpine region, relaxing and getting rejuvenated in the alpine breeze.

Picture perfect. It’s like a postcard!

Came across a stream. It was nature untouched!

As it started to drizzle, we cycled back to the town and returned the bicycles. Walking back up to our resort was also quite taxing; the resort seemed near, but it was still faraway behind the bends on the slopes.

Next, let’s embark on a Salzburg Tour

Posted by eunice Posted in Austria, Europe, Schladming Comments (3)

Salzburg Tour

We woke up early in the morning freezing due the cold mountain air that had crept in through the windows that we had left ajar for ventilation, we thought. Shut the windows tightly and went back to sleep. The next morning, I found yellowish powder scattered all over our clothes that we hung out to dry in the open air at the balcony. We were puzzled and later we found out that the it was spring-summer pollen season. The yellowish powder was pollen.

To get to the nearest train station from our resort, we had to walk all the way down the mountain slope to the town at the valley, and by the time we reached the train station, we almost burnt out. We met a friendly English couple at the train station and had a small chat with them. They had been to Singapore before and found it interesting to see hawker centres selling many kind of food. They even asked what is our staple food which we said is rice. We asked them back this question and they replied, “We eat potatoes…” ^_^”

Salzburg is famous for its baroque architecture. It is also the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the famous landmarks for The Sound of Music. We bought ourselves a Salzburg card each and it was worth the price we paid for, since we got free admission to all city’s attractions and free use of public transport throughout the city too. I would say it’s a must-to-have card to explore Salzburg. To pay an extra more, one can buy a Swatch “Access” wristwatch to keep and enjoy the same privileges too.

Here, we ate a very, very saltish pretzel, with big rough salt sprinkled on it. From the Hohensalzburg Fortress museum, you can see the great view of the well-preserved baroque city – a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A cemetery in Salzburg

It was drizzling the whole day, and it almost spoilt the trip. While we were walking clumsily under the rain to Mozart’s birthplace and residence, we came across this souvenir shop with full of Easter eggs, and Easter eggs hanging on trees!

At Mozart’s museum, we saw some of Mozart’s precious relics, such as the violin that he used to play as a child, his piano and also some paintings of Mozart.

We took a bus to Schloss Hellbrunn to visit the palace and the famous trick fountains. We were required to join a guided tour in this palace, and the guided tour was in German! We were the only two Asians in the group and couldn’t understand a single word during the tour.

We proceed to the famous trick fountains where features like the stone table could spray water around the guests on the stone seats. Couldn’t escape this, we were sprayed by the trick fountains. Be prepared to get wet or carry an umbrella along.

It was late evening and our bus was scheduled to arrive soon. We had to catch the bus so that we could be early for our train back to Schladming. We left the tour early but we could not open the exit gate. We asked the guide for help and she denied our request. We had no choice but to wait for the tour to end before we could leave. It was a strange arrangement for visitors. Fortunately, we made it just in time for our bus.

I cooked dinner at the resort. It was a simple dish with fish fillets and just tasted funny with the butter that was used as a replacement for cooking oil.

Budget Cooking Recipe:

Step 1: Boil corn.
Step 2: Simmer long beans, tomato and peas in tomato sauce.
Step 3: Beat 2 eggs and add shredded mushrooms. Add salt and pepper.
Step 4: Add butter. Scramble whisked eggs in a pan.
Step 5: Shallow fry fish fillets and sausages.

The world largest giant ice caves in Werfen!

Posted by eunice Posted in Austria, Europe, Salzburg Comments (0)

Meet the World Largest Ice Caves in Werfen

We embarked on an exciting journey to the world largest limestone ice caves located in Werfen – The Eisriesenwelt (German: “World of the Ice Giants”).

We met two friendly English old couple from Yorkshire. They were leaving the resort and they offered us to get into their cab to the train station. It was snowing in Schladming.

But during our way to Werfen, we missed our friend as he hopped onto a train first and before we could board the train, a train officer shouted at us and warned us that the train was leaving. Then we also realised our friend was in the wrong train. A kind man told us that the train would terminate at the next station and we could meet our friend by taking the another train too.

When the next train came, Jacky asked another train officer if it was the right train , but the officer simply ignored us when his colleague went up and talked to him! They completely ignored us! Feeling helpless, we boarded the train and we thought it was the right train until Jacky asked a conductor and was told that the next train was the right one instead. Immediately, we got out of the train, so scared that the train would just go before we could get down, just like our friend who failed to do that!

So, the train to Werfen was late. We went to the ice caves without our friend as we had too many doubts about the train timing, plus unhelpful train officers.

Finally, we reached Werfen. To get up to the ice caves, we took the shuttle bus to the next bus-stop. From there, we had to walk for another 20mins upslope in the cold to the cable car station. The cable car took us to somewhere near the ice caves entrance, and we had to walk for at least another 20mins upslope in the cold again, while gasping for breathe in the thin mountain air. However, it was a lovely walk in the snow. In fact, it was snowing.

Despite the problems that we encountered on our way to the giant ice caves, it was a well worth visit. We had a German-speaking guided tour in the ice caves; we were given an English description of the ice caves instead.

At the giant ice caves entrance.

The giant ice caves entrance that overlooks the mystical yet enchanting landscape of the Salzach valley.

We climbed a lot of steps in the gigantic ice caves and we had to be very watchful with our steps on the slippery ground. The ice caves are covered with bizarre and beautifully shaped thick ice-layers. The tour lasted around 75mins.

Very cold inside, my fingers were numb as I wasn’t wearing any gloves in the giant ice caves, and the skin cracked.

The mighty Hohensalzburg Fortress watching the giant caves.

At the town below the ice caves, we met our friend in a supermarket! Guess friends think alike in a foreign land! He told us he had also finished his ice caves tour. He was lucky as his cave guide spoke English and even allowed him to take photos in the ice caves since his tour group size was very small. When he told us he got a discounted ticket as a student, we were surprised as the ticket seller told us no discount for students! We met another unhelpful officer again…Gosh!

We went back and had to make another tiring walk up to our resort at the mountain again – 1 and half kilometres UPHILL! We were surprised to see an entire different view of our resort – the roofs were snow-capped! It must be snowing quite heavily when we were away in Werfen.

For dinner, I fried chicken fillets, boiled broccoli, warmed precooked curry and prepared mashed potatoes.

Hallstatt and the cuckoo-clock houses

Posted by eunice Posted in Austria, Europe, Werfen Comments (7)

Hallstatt, the UNESCO World Heritage Site

GOSH! We missed the train to Hallstatt and wasted almost half day! The trains changed their arrival platform but the train schedule on the notice board was not updated! We blindly waited from 12plus to 2plus for two hours. Then we realised something was wrong when no one was left waiting at the station.

In the end, we waited for another hour for the next train ride to Hallstatt. Our friend didn’t want to wait anymore and hopped on to the next arriving train to Graz. We didn’t follow him as we thought by the time we reached Graz on a 2-hour ride, it should be almost the same timing as we reached Hallstatt. We thought that was nothing much to see in Graz too.

We didn’t take the direct train to Hallstatt. We went to Bad Aussee first to enjoy the beautiful scenic ride.

To get the Hallstatt, we took a ferry ride from Hallstatt train station. It was a short ride across the opposite side of the lake to the “Cuckoo Clocks” town. It is called that way as the houses at the bank are pretty and look like cuckoo clocks. There are many salt mines and ice caves in Hallstatt. In fact, it has the oldest salt mine in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site for Cultural Heritage.

We were late when we reached Hallstatt, thus, didn’t join the salt mine tour. The bone house next to the Catholic Church was closed for the day too. In fact, many sites had closed for the day by the time we reached there. It took us half a day to arrive at Hallstatt, but the small town can be easily toured on foot in less than thirty minutes. Read More »

Posted by eunice Posted in Austria, Europe, Hallstatt Comments (3)