The Slow Train to Salzburg

When I was finalising my own plans for this trip, I was looking for something special to do after completing the ride. Although I had been in Austria several times before, I had never visited its famous city of Salzburg, said to be one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Salzburg is probably best known for being the place that the Sound of Music was mostly filmed in. Surely that alone would justify giving the place a visit. It was also the birthplace of Mozart.

There was a second reason for visiting Salzburg. In the old war time documentary films I had seen the spectacular location high in the Alps known as the Eagles Nest. This incredible spot is a short distance from the nearby town of Berchtesgaden, and was often visited by Hitler and his cronies.

Unfortunately, all our plans changed a few days ago. We were informed that the train from Vienna to Salzburg was cancelled because of severe flood damage to the line. After some frantic research I discovered that it was still possible to get to Salzburg by travelling on an alternative (and much slower) train.

A bigger problem arose the following day when I discovered that the road from Berchtesgaden to the Eagles Nest is currently blocked by a landslide. There will be no way to get around that problem. Life is like that sometimes.

This morning Ken, Pauline and myself caught a taxi to the Vienna HBF and then climbed aboard our substitute train to Salzburg. Apart from an initial jam of completing suitcases as we found our allocated seats, the rest of the journey was quite civilised. Although the train was not a high speed one, it was smooth and almost silent, so I soon found myself fast asleep.

Three hours later we were at Salzburg. It did not take long to found my hotel, as it was only 200 metres from the station. When I entered my room on the sixth floor, I was delighted to discover that I have a view across to the nearby snowcapped mountains.

Tomorrow, I will take myself on a walk of the city.Read more