Bavaria Day 3 - Berchtesgaden
Having checked the weather forecast, we knew that Tuesday and Wednesday would be our best chances to be outdoors for an extended period, so we planned to stop for a little hiking in the Alps on our way to Austria. We went to a lovely area called Berchtesgaden, which included a national park with all kinds of trails. On our way we stopped at one of the visitor centers for the park and got a recommendation for a hike of about 2 hours, not too hard since all we had brought were our hiking shoes, and we knew we wouldn’t arrive until mid-day. The woman we talked to was happy to help, and sent us on our way with a suggestion of a hike that should take us to a mountain hut where we could, of course, get a snack and a beer.
We parked in a cute little town from which the trails were to start, and worked our way across a river with a covered bridge, and up the hills through some amazingly picturesque farmland to the base of the mountain. The hiking trail was gravel, and followed alongside a bobsled run at times. We think there might have been some summer training going on, but couldn’t quite tell. The trail itself was marked with these interesting yellow trail signs, each one with multiple markers to tell you which way to go at every intersection. They also had some kind of color-coded system that we think was meant to indicate trail difficulty, but the colors kept changing so that was a bit unclear. The numbers displayed on the signs indicated the time the trail took, and also something else we couldn’t figure out - maybe altitude gain?
It turned out that the hike was considerably steeper and more taxing than anticipated, and made me feel quite out of shape, but we persisted and after about an hour and 15 minutes or so we came to a larger trail sign that was partially covered with a red-lettered sign that Google Translate told us said the trails were closed. It seemed we had only just arrived at the start of what we would think of as a real “trail”, as in dirt and narrow, but it was closed due to snow, as were the mountain huts, seemingly. Given how long it took us to get there I wasn’t too disappointed, but couldn’t help but compare this “easy” hike to those in New Zealand - easy is not easy in the Alps, so next time we will come a little better prepared :). Luckily, the views on the way up were awesome, and it was a nice day outside, so we didn’t mind heading back into town to do another short walk out to a beautiful picture spot on a huge alpine lake. It was mid-afternoon when we got back to the car, so we opted to work our way to Salzburg to get some dinner and settle in.
One thing we had been told when renting our car was that, in order to drive on the highways in Austria, we would need to acquire a toll sticker. This wasn’t necessary in Germany, only in Austria, so we hadn’t gotten one quite yet. Our detour into the mountains meant we had crossed into Austria via the backroads, so once the directions took us to a highway we knew we’d have to get that sorted out. The rental place assured us we could get them at gas stations, highway rest areas, etc. so we found a gas station. The first one we went to didn’t sell them, but pointed us to one that did, which we couldn’t find. Luckily though, there was a grocery store gas station with a sign that said they were there!
The gas station was odd by American standards that’s for sure. First off, the pumps had no credit card readers, so we weren’t sure if we should try to pay ahead. I walked up to a small attendant box to ask, but he didn’t speak super great English, and as it turned out I was standing in a drive-through pay window for those leaving the gas station, so we decided to wing it. Charlie got some advice from the person on the other side of our pump - including a strong recommendation to wear the disposable glove provided (because who knows who’s been touching those - Italians, Polish people, all kinds of strangers!). We then pulled up to the payment window correctly in the car, and through some Internet show and tell and the attendant’s broken English, managed to secure a toll sticker! Fueled up and legally compliant, we were on our way to Salzburg.
Salzburg is a beautiful city that sits on a river and has a huge fortress high on a hill looking over the city proper. We got checked into and parked at our hotel, and got yet another recommendation for dinner, in a place across the river. It was a nice walk, and we decided to check out the Augustiner brew house before dinner, which was super cool. The brewery was started by monks, so the brewhouse was, I think, in their old monastery, and had a great vibe. Though we didn’t get beer, we couldn’t resist the pretzels, and had the best pretzel of our trip. It was warm, and had what we think were fennel seeds, maybe caraway, in the dough, and sesame seeds on the outside instead of salt. Absolutely fantastic! We had another great dinner at the recommended restaurant, along with some Augustiner beer (in Radler form for me, which is one of my favorites - half beer, half lemon soda). A nice stroll and we were back at our hotel and more than ready for sleep.
We parked in a cute little town from which the trails were to start, and worked our way across a river with a covered bridge, and up the hills through some amazingly picturesque farmland to the base of the mountain. The hiking trail was gravel, and followed alongside a bobsled run at times. We think there might have been some summer training going on, but couldn’t quite tell. The trail itself was marked with these interesting yellow trail signs, each one with multiple markers to tell you which way to go at every intersection. They also had some kind of color-coded system that we think was meant to indicate trail difficulty, but the colors kept changing so that was a bit unclear. The numbers displayed on the signs indicated the time the trail took, and also something else we couldn’t figure out - maybe altitude gain?
It turned out that the hike was considerably steeper and more taxing than anticipated, and made me feel quite out of shape, but we persisted and after about an hour and 15 minutes or so we came to a larger trail sign that was partially covered with a red-lettered sign that Google Translate told us said the trails were closed. It seemed we had only just arrived at the start of what we would think of as a real “trail”, as in dirt and narrow, but it was closed due to snow, as were the mountain huts, seemingly. Given how long it took us to get there I wasn’t too disappointed, but couldn’t help but compare this “easy” hike to those in New Zealand - easy is not easy in the Alps, so next time we will come a little better prepared :). Luckily, the views on the way up were awesome, and it was a nice day outside, so we didn’t mind heading back into town to do another short walk out to a beautiful picture spot on a huge alpine lake. It was mid-afternoon when we got back to the car, so we opted to work our way to Salzburg to get some dinner and settle in.
One thing we had been told when renting our car was that, in order to drive on the highways in Austria, we would need to acquire a toll sticker. This wasn’t necessary in Germany, only in Austria, so we hadn’t gotten one quite yet. Our detour into the mountains meant we had crossed into Austria via the backroads, so once the directions took us to a highway we knew we’d have to get that sorted out. The rental place assured us we could get them at gas stations, highway rest areas, etc. so we found a gas station. The first one we went to didn’t sell them, but pointed us to one that did, which we couldn’t find. Luckily though, there was a grocery store gas station with a sign that said they were there!
The gas station was odd by American standards that’s for sure. First off, the pumps had no credit card readers, so we weren’t sure if we should try to pay ahead. I walked up to a small attendant box to ask, but he didn’t speak super great English, and as it turned out I was standing in a drive-through pay window for those leaving the gas station, so we decided to wing it. Charlie got some advice from the person on the other side of our pump - including a strong recommendation to wear the disposable glove provided (because who knows who’s been touching those - Italians, Polish people, all kinds of strangers!). We then pulled up to the payment window correctly in the car, and through some Internet show and tell and the attendant’s broken English, managed to secure a toll sticker! Fueled up and legally compliant, we were on our way to Salzburg.
Salzburg is a beautiful city that sits on a river and has a huge fortress high on a hill looking over the city proper. We got checked into and parked at our hotel, and got yet another recommendation for dinner, in a place across the river. It was a nice walk, and we decided to check out the Augustiner brew house before dinner, which was super cool. The brewery was started by monks, so the brewhouse was, I think, in their old monastery, and had a great vibe. Though we didn’t get beer, we couldn’t resist the pretzels, and had the best pretzel of our trip. It was warm, and had what we think were fennel seeds, maybe caraway, in the dough, and sesame seeds on the outside instead of salt. Absolutely fantastic! We had another great dinner at the recommended restaurant, along with some Augustiner beer (in Radler form for me, which is one of my favorites - half beer, half lemon soda). A nice stroll and we were back at our hotel and more than ready for sleep.
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