Europe April - May 2024 Part 3 Austria and Slovenia

In Salzburg

View of Salzburg from the Hohensalzburg Fortress

Pat wanted to take the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, so we did. The original story was based on fact, but Hollywood added some entertainment, music and drama to make it more popular. After that we took a short walking tour of town and took the funicular up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which overlooks the city. We drove to Hallstatt to tour the oldest salt mine in the world (7000 yrs old) and still actively mined. Now they let the water do all the work, and just separate the resulting salt brine. We moved on to Lake Bled, Slovenia and took a Pletna boat ride out to an island which we walked around and took the boat back. We checked out a bee museum, before heading to a rainy Lake Bohinj. The next day was beautiful so we returned to Lake Bohinj and hiked some of the Mostnice Gorge and took the gondola to the top of the mountain for spectacular views of the lake and surrounding mountains.

3400 yr old wooden staircase preserved in Hallstatt salt mine

 

Pat outside salt mine

Bled Castle and lake

Pietna Boat Rower on Lake Bled

View of Lake Bohinj

Pat at the top of the gondola

Mts around Lake  Bohinj

The main scenic road through the Julian Alps was closed due to avalanche danger, so we took the alternate route into Italy to get to Bovec, Slovenia. The area was very pretty with some nice waterfalls. Next, I toured the Skocjan Cave, another World Heritage Site. Pat didn’t go because it involved 500 steps, which was about the limit for my heart. But it was spectacular, not for its formations but for the sheer size of the rooms, making it among the largest caves in the world. We toured the Postojna Cave, another cave so big that you ride a train to get into and out of the main chamber. Here we saw room after room of cave formations, so many we actually got tired of them, but what an amazing huge cave.

Boka Waterfalls

The main scenic road through the Julian Alps was closed due to avalanche danger, so we took the alternate route into Italy to get to Bovec, Slovenia. The area was very pretty with some nice waterfalls. Next, I toured the Skocjan Cave, another World Heritage Site. Pat didn’t go because it involved 500 steps, which was about the limit for my heart. But it was spectacular, not for its formations but for the sheer size of the rooms, making it among the largest caves in the world. We toured the Postojna Cave, another cave so big that you ride a train to get into and out of the main chamber. Here we saw room after room of cave formations, so many we actually got tired of them, but what an amazing huge cave.

Virje Waterfall

A Lipizzaner Stallion

We went to Lipica to see the Lipizzaner Stallions perform. They could stand on their rear legs and jump forward three times. It takes many years of training to perform such a feat. We continued on to Ljubljana and from there I wanted to do the Vintgar Gorge hike. From our remote parking lot, it was a one hour walk to the ticket booth. This was too much walking for Pat so she returned to the car to wait for me. I told her I should return in 2-3 hours. I got to the ticket booth and waited in line for 20 min. only to find out that I couldn’t enter the gorge for another 2 and ½ hours due to a timed entry policy. That would leave Pat waiting 5 to 6 hours for my return. I gave up and walked another hour back to the car. I knew this place was popular, but this was a weekday in April! 

Postojna Cave

Ljubljana

Grossglockner High Alpine Rd trip

We returned to Austria and drove the Grossglockner Alpine Highway that had just opened for the year. It is the highest alpine road in Europe. The original plan was to do the Werfen Ice Cave, but when we realized it involved over 800 steps, we both had to pass. Instead, we drove back to the beautiful town of Hallstatt (where the salt mine is that we visited) - unfortunately the parking lots were full so we turned around and found another beautiful area to explore away from all the crowds. On our last day of touring, a truck threw up a rock and cracked the front window of our new rental car. The next day we completed our drive back to Munich, returned the rented wheelchair and headed to the airport. After we returned the car and checked in, Pat realized she didn’t have her phone. After a thorough search of her clothes and backpack, we determined she must have left it in the rental car. At this airport all the rental cars are returned to the same place, so several cars a minute are being processed. It had been 20-30 min since we returned the car, so who knows where it might be by now. I returned to where the cars were being processed, looking for the guy who checked us in, but I didn’t find him. One of the employees explained that this was not the same bay that they were using 30 min ago. We walked to the next bay and the car was still there. I found the phone in the center console. 

Hohenwerfen Castle

The flight back was uneventful - all the plane parts that left Munich made it to IAD. It was an Airbus, not a Boeing plane. In the past, we had a terrible experience at Dulles Airport with major delays getting through Customs and Immigration. This time we had Global Entry and we buzzed right through with barely a wait. 

Site were the children were taught to sing, Doe a deer....

Reflections on the trip:

Canal Trip: We had envisioned a relaxing week doing the canal, but this was not the case. Pat’s knee pain made it difficult for her to perform the required tasks. She did it anyway. Another couple would have made a world of difference. The wind made steering difficult, going through narrow passages and entering locks required you to slow down, but doing so gave the wind control of the boat. We were surprised we had to dump our waste overboard. Being at the start of the boating season the canal was well flushed this time of year, so there was no odor, but you could not forget that the water was not clean. There are more than 20 canals in Europe where you can rent a boat, and many have pump out stations. These trips can be fun and relaxing.

Weather: France was warmer and definitely windier than expected. Germany/Austria was considerably cooler and wetter. Slovenia had several gorgeous days.

Crowds: Most of the travelers we ran into were European. The only times when crowds were a problem were in Slovenia at the cave tours, and Vintger Gorge, and in Hallstatt Austria. How bad are these areas during peak travel season?

Air travel: We had four flights with Lufthansa and we had no problem with them or their planes. We will never fly Air France again.

Research: I used 4 Rick Steves guidebooks to plan this trip, and found them very useful. I used a couple Canal du Midi books.