M a i t r e y a G a n g u l y - 13 years
Sweden
This year, my grandmother came to stay with me and my parents in Sweden for three months. I was super excited because we only get to see each other in person in every one or two years since we live so far apart. Whenever she visits, we always go on trips to different countries and explore new places. This time, we decided to visit Austria and some parts of southern Germany, mainly in the Alpine region for ten days which was a really fun surprise!
Our adventure started with a 1 hour and 30 minutes' long flight from Copenhagen airport (Kastrup) to Vienna (Wien). When we landed, we noticed right away that the weather wasn’t great—it was rainy and foggy. After we got off the plane, we went to pick up our rental car, but it took us almost an hour to find it! We searched all over the rental car area, and we found it finally parked on the top floor. We had to drive down this spiral road to get to the basement and then we were ready to start our trip.
Our first drive was from Vienna to a place called Heuberg in a small village named Embach. The last time I was on the Autobahn was in 2018, and my dad’s friend was driving over 200 km/h, so I was both scared and excited to be driving on it again. But then I remembered that the parts without speed limits are only in Germany, so I calmed down and started enjoying the ride. The drive was about 5 hour long, including a few breaks along the way. We passed through several cities and small Austrian villages, including Salzburg and parts of Zell am See. Even though it was a long drive and was rainy, we got to see a lot of cool places on the way!
When we booked this place, we thought we’d get to walk around and explore since it was up in the Alps. The Airbnb was on the plateau close to Zell am See. You could have seen the majestic Alps with green pastures and pine forests. But instead of sunny weather, we found snow! The weather was chill and the green pastures were covered with white snow. After we arrived, we had a nice evening with music and chitchats with my grandmother before falling asleep really fast!
On day 2, we took a 1 hour and 30 minute drive from where we were staying to a place called Hallstatt - a UNESCO World heritage. It's famous for being home to the oldest salt mine in the world and for its stunning views of the Alpine region from the shore. There was a surprise awaiting me as my father drove fifteen minutes to the other side of the lake to Obertraun. Its a small village that I had visited eight years back. What made this really special for me was how it brought back memories from the first time I visited Austria. We stayed in Obertraun for 5 days, and I remember jumping on the trampoline at our Airbnb and celebrating my dad's birthday. It was such a memorable time, and coming back felt magical. This visit to Obertraun is something I’ll never forget.
On the way back, we were super hungry, so we stopped at a pizzeria in Bad Gosau where I tried my first ever tuna pizza. I will make sure never to try that again! As the first day, we ended day 2 with music and family time.
My favorite day of the trip was day 3 because we got to visit northern Italy and see the Dolomites. The whole region is called Tyrol, and the part in Austria is called North Tyrol. So, we decided to visit South Tyrol, which is in Italy, and it was awesome! There is a history behind why Tyrol is divided into two parts - one part being in Austria and the other part in Italy. Before World War I, Tyrol was a unified region within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, after the war, the empire collapsed, and its territories were divided. The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1919 gave the southern part of Tyrol, which includes present-day South Tyrol to the Kingdom of Italy. The northern part of Tyrol remained part of the newly formed First Austrian Republic which remains as is till today. The whole region largely consists of German speaking population,
It was a beautiful 4-hour drive, and we got to see all the mountains from the Austrian Alps to the Dolomites in Italy. During our trip, we visited a town called Bolzano, and the best part was walking through the whole town and getting a clear view of the mountains. The weather was perfect, making our visit to this amazing town even better!
In our short three day stay in Embach, these were all the amazing things that we did. Even though the weather was not always great, we managed to sneak around and visit places with great views. We had a truly great time there and since it was up on the Alps, the upper alps was seen right in front of our eyes.
On day 4, it was time to move to our next place. We woke up early and headed to a house in Obern, which is located in Seefeld region. The first half of the car ride was kind of boring, but then we made a stop in a place called Kitzbuhel. Ever since I found out we were going to Austria, I had really wanted to visit Kitzbuhel because one of the biggest tennis tournaments is held there, and the best players in the world come every year.
When we got to Kitzbuhel, it was awesome! We saw the Alps right in front of the village. However, we couldn’t stay long since we needed to get to our next house. On our way, we made a quick change of plans and decided to visit Nordkette mountain, which is at the top of Innsbruck. We took our first cable car ride in this tour. It was super cold up there — almost 2 km above sea level with snow everywhere!
Finally, we arrived at our new house. After a long day, we ate dinner and quickly fell asleep. Honestly, this house was a thousand times better than the last one with holi themed utensils, bed linen!
Obern is a very small village in Leutasch valley in Austrian Tirol region. A small alpine river flows through the village, creating a gentle melodic sound coming from the water splashing against the rocks. We strolled along the river bank enjoying the beauty of nature.
Anyone who stays at a hotel or homestay in this area receives a free bus pass for the entire Seefeld region and free swimming pass to the romantic Alpenbad in Leutasch-Weidach. My father was delighted that he does not have to drive the car, instead he can use the bus ride to visit places and enjoy the pristine beauty.
On day 5, we decided to check out the picturesque village of Mittenwald which is just 11 km from Obern. It had lots of walking streets filled with museums and souvenir shops. While we were there, I got to visit the violin-making museum, where they showed how violins are made from scratch. It was really cool to see the inside of a violin and learn about all the different parts! My two favorite things from this visit were taking a picture with the biggest violin I’ve ever seen—it was three times my size! The second favorite was the Indian restaurant we found there because it had the best Indian food I’ve ever had in all of Europe. For dessert, we had gelato ice cream, which was amazing! It was such a great place to visit, and if the weather had been sunny, it would have been perfect!
The next day, we woke up early and headed to the famous Neuschwanstein Castle. This castle is also known as the Disney castle because it featured on the front of Walt Disney’s logo, which made me super excited to visit. It was an amazing sight, sitting right in the middle of the Alps, and it looked so beautiful!
We got to see the castle from a bridge named Queen Mary's bridge. Honestly, it looked like something out of a fairytale, especially when we stood on the bridge and looked over the entire town of Füssen and the castle. The bridge was built across the Pollat Gorge in 1845 by King Maximilian II of Bavaria as a tribute to his wife Queen Mary.
On our way back we thought of visiting the town Füssen in southern Germany. It was a bit cloudy in the afternoon, but the evening turned out to be really nice as we passed through a beautiful green lake - Am Plansee. The route was stunningly beautiful where we crisscrossed German-Austrian border several times and enjoyed views of the Bavarian Alps.
Once we got home, we went to a swimming arena - Alpenbad. It was really cool because part of the pool was outside in the cold air. It was so much fun to swim in the hot water while the temperature was freezing above our head!
It was day 7, and time to bid adieu and head to our new temporary place in the city of Mozart. We got up early in the morning, quickly checked out Innsbruck and then set off for Salzburg. Until now we were in the Alps and the next three days will be mainly in Austrian cities of Salzburg and Vienna. The drive took about 2 hours and 30 minutes, and we crossed through Germany. We wanted to get there as fast as possible, so we took the Autobahn. Just like the day before, we got to enjoy the views of the Bavarian Alps. Since we were on the Autobahn, my dad drove over 150 km/h, which felt like the fastest he’s ever drove!
Thanks to the Autobahn, we arrived quickly and dropped off our stuff at our new house so we could explore the city. We had taken a 48 hours online Salzburg pass to get discounts in numerous places and free travel. Our first stop was Mozart's birthplace, which I was really excited about because I’m a huge fan of his music. We got to see stuff that Mozart used in his lifetime with those of few other contemporary artists.
Next, we visited Mirabell Palace - a UNESCO world heritage site built in 1606, where there were stunning baroque garden and staircase. I really wanted to see this place because it’s one of the famous sites of the Hollywood cinema - "The Sound of Music."
On day 8, we explored more of Salzburg, starting with Fortress Hohensalzburg. Inside, the castle there were few chambers like the puppet chamber, a chamber filled with paintings, thousand years history of that fortress from its inception to its present being. After that, we took a guided boat tour down the Saalach River, which gave us a great view of Salzburg. Once the tour was over, we had ice cream and burger as we were super hungry.
After lunch, we headed to the city zoo, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I expected. It was quite small and only had a few interesting animals, mostly from the alpine region. I wouldn’t really recommend it. However, the zoo is situated in a beautiful location. On our way to the bus stop, we took a lovely walk and enjoyed the stunning views of the Alps and everything around us. The bright yellow cornfields, lush pastures, and the impressive green Alps in the background created a picturesque scene that any nature lover would appreciate.
The crazy part was that while we were returning, we accidentally took the wrong bus that dropped us on the other side of city. My dad's phone, which had our Salzburg 48-hour pass was switched off with empty battery. It was 10 PM, and almost everything was closed! Thankfully, the shopkeeper at a nearby Indian restaurant helped us out by recharging my dad’s phone for few minutes and driving us to Salzburg Hauptbahnhof. We even enjoyed some Dunkin’ Donuts on the bus ride home!
Our final day in Salzburg was quite brief. We went to the top of the city to take in the stunning views of all of Salzburg. On our way to our hotel in Vienna, which officially marked the end of our journey, we made a quick stop at Mondsee, another filming location from The Sound of Music.
On our last day, we had our flight in the evening. In the morning we visited Schönbrunn Palace, ate Appel strudle and briefly explored the city center on foot as we had returned the rented car the day before.
We had an amazing time during this trip and hope to visit again someday!