Having seen the forecast, we decide to cut short our time in Salzburg to 3 nights, rebook at another Mercure hotel in Vienna (this one is full Monday) at about twice the price!! And buy ferry tickets to Bratislava for next Tuesday.
I had booked with an agency OnDayTrip to send a car and driver to take us to Vienna. At 9am sharp the affable. Hugarian driver Peter L arrived at our hotel, stowed all our bags and we were on our way. First fast motorway toll road chewed up the miles, then we took a detour to Melk, famous for its abbey set on the Danube, with the most ornate Baroque church loaded with gilded everything and a 100,000 book ecclesiastic library in 12 rooms. Still an abbey with a school attached, it also had lovely gardens for a quiet stroll.
Then back in the car first on highway, then along increasingly smaller and smaller roads through beautiful agricultural land to the Alps, and a brief sight of snowy peaks over the alpine lakes. Some of the terrain was reminiscent of Canmore, but the lush green meadows, happy cows and cropped land was altogether different.
We made a stop for an hour or so at World Heritage village Hallstatt, home of the salt mine tour straight up a steep mountain. We skipped that. But we enjoyed a stroll around the neat little town, preserved for centuries intact and now especially for the tour buses and many visitors.
The trip billed as 7 hours took 9 and we were relieved to pull into another Mercure hotel, but sadly a bit far from the centre of Old Town and all the things to visit in Salzburg. E2.60 each for a 5 minute bus ride through dull suburbia, not a pleasant stroll back, or subways like in Vienna.
Fortunately no rain fell on our journey and we were able to wrap up and walk down the road to a traditional Austrian eatery without an umbrella. Almost full, we were seated at the end of a table of 28 civil engineers, having a loud and raucous 20 year reunion. Good pub grub and strudel and beers were the order of the day.
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