On my first day in Salzburg, I signed up for the Austrian lakes sightseeing tour. The weather wasn't very good at first. It was raining hard and rather cold, but oh well you just had to make the most of it since I had already paid for it too! I took the tour with Panorama tours, and the guides were very friendly and knowledgeable! Was quite lucky coz I got to sit shotgun in the van too! yay!
On our way to the lakes, we drove past the red bull head quarters. I was too slow and could not get the original office and the sign, but what you see is the big modern glass complex today which is the red bull headquarters. I was surprised to learn that redbull was an Austrian invention, and even more surprised that despite it all, redbull was so expensive in Salzburg! Like 3 Euros a can!
Mountain scenery... it was really misty I'm afraid coz of the rain and all... so the first half of my pictures all looked very gloomy... on highsight maybe I should have tried to be more arty and do black and white... but when the wind is blowing at you in all directions and you're just struggling to take a non-blurry picture, frankly that is the last thing to occur to me :)
Pausing for a picture stop!
Catching the ferry to go to Wolfgang, the birthplace of Mozart's mom. I stupidly asked the guide what does Wolfgang mean and he told me that it was a name. And there's a Saint Wolfgang too... *blush*
Pictures along the river....
Finally we arrive at St Wolfgang...
Atas people.... haha
We got to spend about an hour in this town, and I made good use of it by walking around and taking lots of pictures...
I also got to go inside the church where it supposedly has 1 of 2 gothic altars left in the world. It has 4 panels which can be folded up into different scenes of the bible according to the calendar. The other remaining gothic altar can be found in Munich. No pictures allowed inside, so you'll have to go and see it for yourself!
The cafe where I had my cake and tea!
In my opinion, no trip to Austria would be complete without cake... they are such good bakers here.
After we left Wolfgang, the sky started clearing up and my god the drive home was fantastic! I kept staring out of the window the whole time. The guide was so nice, he said that I could wind down the window to take pictures whenever I wanted and he even wind it down for me when he felt that a good picture spot was coming up, giving me time to time my shutter perfectly :) The whole place just looked so serene and peaceful..... it was like awwwwwww
So there was a bit of interesting history trivia/mystery that I learnt on this trip. If you've studied WWII history you would have known about Austria Anschluss whereby Austria was given over to Hitler in hopes of appeasing him (but of course we know that didn't work). Anyhow, in the last few days of the war when the Nazis were pulling out of Austria, locals reported that there was a lot of activity around the lakes where Nazi soldiers were apparently dumping alot of "treasure" into the lakes. It was all local rumours since obviously the Nazis were trying to keep the dumping a secret, but in recent years, certain items have been found which have provided evidence to support these rumours. For example, they have found a chest full of counterfeit British pound notes and a chest full of old gold mines in the nearby lakes. The germans were hoping to flood the British market with these counterfeit notes to cause inflation and unrest in the country. Ever since then, there were many diving attempts in the lake below by people who wanted to discover some hidden treasure but there have been accidents as well, so diving is now prohibited in the lakes. According to the guide, there is a complex system of underground cisterns and caves linking all the lakes together, so throughout the years, the supposed "Treasure" could be anywhere really... but pretty exciting stuff isn't it?
OUr final stop at this small town (which unfortunately I cannot remember now) and our guide had to point out that this was the church where they filmed the wedding scene in the Sound of Music. So I said ok, I'll just snap a picture just BECAUSE, though I must say that the inside of the church is very nice and I did light a candle for my prayers.
