Salzburg without „The Sound of Music“
I should admit it: I hate the movie „The sound of music“, which everybody seems to love. Even a friend of mine told me once, that I was a bad person just because of that. So it was such a challenge for me to visit Salzburg avoiding all „The Sound of Music“ related attractions. And I did it!
My first stop was a double attraction located in Werfen, about one hour from Salzburg by train. The ride is quite good: the train departs in the Salzburg main train station every 30 minutes, and it costs about 9 Euro one way.
In Werfen I have visited two really amazing places: The biggest ice cave in Europe, called Eisriesenwelt, and the Hohenwerfen castle.
The Eisriesenwelt cave is open just during the summer time, and one should carry a warm jacket and proper pair of shoes, because the temperature inside is 0 degrees, even if outside there is 30 or even more.
At the Werfen train station a shuttle bus to the Eisriesenwelt departs every hour. The visit into the cave lasts about one hour, but one should plan about 3 hours for the whole trip, because after the 20-minute ride with a shuttle bus, one should walk about 20 minutes, take a cable car and walk another 20 minutes to get to the entrance of the cave. The entry costs 24 Euros, and together with the cable car and the shuttle ride, this whole trip costs about 35 to 40 Euro. But what it is to be seen there is totally worthy.
Visitors are separated in groups, given old oil lamps, and guided into the cave, a true masterpiece of nature. The guide tells us about the first men who discovered the cave, back in the time where just the trip to get there lasted 2 days, without shuttle buses and cable cars. The ice formations, ice lagoons and ice stalagmites and stalactites that one can see around are really breathtaking.
Once I was back at the Werfen train station, I decided to walk to the Hohenwerfen castle. It was a 15 minute nice walk to the parking place, which is visible from the train station and easy to reach. There, one can get up in a lift which costs 15 Euros, including entrance to the castle. Without lift one should walk all the way up – I already had too much of that in the Eisriesenwelt.
I was surprised to discover that this castle was used as a location in the TV show I was watching at that very same time: The man in the high castle (highly recommended dystopian series, where Japan and Germany won the II World War and divided United States to dominate it). The place is beautiful, well maintained, with a nice and reasonably priced restaurant, and during summer time, there is a falcon show in the very pretty courtyard. This castle was famous in the Middle Ages for the falcons they domesticated for hunting, following the Mongolian tradition, which reached Europe in the XI Century. Now, there is a non-profit society of romantics who still domesticate and train these birds at the castle, providing the visitors with a wonderful show.
The show lasts about half an hour and several falcons and other birds are shown to the public in fly, hunting and performing skill tests. It was really something wonderful to see, and free of charge.
All together, my visit to Werfen, including the Eisriesenwelt and the Hohenwerfen castle took me the whole day.
My third non-sound-of-music place to visit in Salzburg was the Augustiner Bräu, a monastery, built in 1621, which was turned into a brewery-restaurant because of the lack of monks. Here, guests can buy beer directly from a fountain. A dream come true! Try appetizers and regional products, and eat and drink at one of the five high-roof halls with capacity for about 1.400 guests, back then used by monks for their daily meals.
The entrance is free, and one can just not buy anything and walk around, admiring the halls and the amazing stained glass windows. Or, like me, have a really good beer and some bread, goat cheese and grilled chicken from one of the different kiosks from local producers, which offer excellent quality and reasonable prices.
Because the place is a bit far away from Salzburg downtown, one need to walk about 15 minutes along the river Salzach, enjoying a wonderful view of this beautiful city, which is way more beautiful than „The Sound of Music“.
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