Day 1 – Monday (12/22/2014)

We took bus 150 from Mirabellplatz in Salzburg toward Bad Ischl and Hallstatt around 11am, after we had spent 2 days there (see more details here).

We wanted to meet the famous Hallstatt, which appears in practically all rankings of cute unmissable villages in Europe, so we spoke to the owner of our hotel and she gave us this great tip for a tour, which involves a bus, train, boat and two stops along the way to our destination.

The bus cost 10.40 euros per person and the trip to Bad Ischl took about two hours, with a 15-minute stop at St. Gilgen, which is a cute Austrian town between mountains and Lake Wolfgangsee, in the beautiful region of Salzkammergut.

This region has more than 70 lakes surrounded by mountains and is perfect for practicing sports in summer and winter. In addition, it is one of the few regions in Europe that preserves popular traditions, so I really think it's worth a visit. The road is breathtaking, but as you probably know, photos taken inside moving cars/buses/trains never do the landscape justice, right?

Bad Ischl

The city of Bad Ischl is known for its sources of thermal waters, which at the beginning of the 19th century were prescribed by a doctor for Archduchess Sophie, who had fertility problems. After these baths, Sophie became the mother of several children, including Franz Joseph, future Austrian emperor. He and his wife used to spend their holidays there (Kaiservilla) and it was It was there, on August 1, 1914, that he signed the declaration of war against Serbia, an event that started the First World War. When we arrived in the city, we looked for transport timetables to Hallstatt, to plan properly, and after we saw that there were several trains and buses in the afternoon, we left buying the tickets until after our tour. We headed towards the city center, after asking a friendly teenager for directions, and we thought it was all really cute.

We passed in front of the gates of Kaiservilla, which were closed, so we decided to take a walk, buy some water, and when we got back there, the gates were open, but they seemed to only allow cars. We went in slowly, looking for someone to give us information, but we didn't find anyone. We climbed up to the top, taking some photos along the way. We wanted to go into the house, but there was no sign that we could, and there was no one in sight, so after a few minutes inside, we went down to leave. The gate was closing and since there was no one at the entrance, we ran out... lol.

PS: Now that I saw it website from them that it is only possible to enter on weekends (in the case of December, when we were there), that is, we could not have done that. Sorry, guys! Our guide didn't say anything about it.

We went back to the train/bus station and decided to take the train to Hallstatt, because I love trains and it only cost 4 euros per person. The train arrived on time, was very comfortable and the view of the region continued to be spectacular, even a little better, to be honest.

Hallstat

We arrived at the train station Hallstatt in a very short time and this is on the other side of the lake Hallstatter see and so you need to take a boat to get to the city. The boat schedules are synchronized with the train schedules and the ride is a delight. If we had gone by bus, it would have stopped in the city center and we would have missed this view from outside the city and the tour itself.

The city is perfect in real life, just like all the photos I saw in the guide and on Internet, always appearing in the rankings of the most beautiful cities in Europe. It is known for own one of the oldest salt mines in the world, the Salt World, which unfortunately closes in winter and we were unable to visit.

We got off the boat and since we didn't have a map of our hotel clearly explained, we went into a restaurant across from the pier to ask for directions. To our surprise, the waiter said he was going to call the hotel owner, as he would pick us up there. I found this nice and at the same time worrying, because I hadn't understood that the hotel was somewhere high up in the mountains, to the point where the owner would come and pick us up with our bags. The owner arrived at the restaurant with a sour face and told us that when we received the booking confirmation from Booking, it said that we should ask the sailor to call him. I showed him our booking, without this information, and he simply ignored us, keeping a sour face... anyway. The hotel Gasthof Pension Gruner Anger (note 9.3) it is not on the mountain, as I thought for a few minutes, but it is about a 10-minute walk from the pier, that is, the owner picks people up there because he regrets the short journey.

When the owner relaxed a little and explained the details of our stay, I started to like the place more. We left our things and went to take advantage of the few hours of sunlight to walk around the city. There are some trails up the mountain, which must be worth it because of the views, but we didn't have time to do them because it was already getting dark. We took the opportunity to walk the entire length of the city, enjoying the view of the lake, then we went into the church next to the pier, which is both Protestant and Gothic, and then we climbed a staircase to the Parish Church, which is Catholic and was built in the 15th century. The view from up there is beautiful, so imagine it from the top of the mountain…

We went down, bought some souvenirs and went to dinner at the restaurant recommended by the owner of our hotel, the BrauGasthof (#4 out of 14 on TripAdvisor at the time), which is right in front of the lake. The food was great (I had goulash and Celo had fish) and the wine was great too, but I don't remember the name, but I can tell you that all the Austrian wines we ordered on the trip were great, so go with faith in the tasting.

 Day 2 – Tuesday (12/23/2014)

We woke up early, had a very complete breakfast and got a ride with the owner to the pier, to catch the boat and then the train to Melk, which had few opening hours. When we left the hotel, we came across a bizarre fog, which the owner said happens one or two days a year. Is it true? It's very unlucky for us to have caught it on that day, but at least I can warn you now. We took the boat, went on the tour without seeing anything at all, bought our train tickets and when the time came, off we went to Melk (see more details here). It's a good thing we got to see the cuteness of the city the day before. 🙂

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To learn more about this trip we took, see the posts below:

• 16 days in Austria, Hungary and Slovakia
• Salzburg in 5 days
• Hallstatt and Bad Ischl in 1 day
• Melk in 1 day
• Vienna in 3 days
• Budapest in 2 days
• Bratislava in 3 days