When visited:  May 2014        Weather 10-20C

Pictures :  Leica M9P 50mm noctilux, 28mm summicron, 90mm summicron

Leaving Frankfurt at 10am with stops at the Wertheim outlet and the Steiff Museum, we arrived in Salzburg as the sun set at 7pm, not bad going for the >600km journey. I had never driven at speed on a German autobahn before but the Volvo S80 I hired was eminently suited to cruising at high speed…I found 150-170kph to be my comfortable cruising speed although it was easy enough to touch 200kph in places.  Unfortunately there are many road works and places where speed restrictions of less than 80kph prevail. Note that you  need to stop at a gas station just before the Austrian border to get the electronic toll sticker to put on your windscreen..costs 10 euros I think…or you get fined.. arrived in Salzburg as the sun set…

So why Salzburg?  Never been there before, beautiful old city, Sound of Music and Mozart…..

The Altstadt Hotel is a grand old lady type of hotel, right in the old city on the shores of the river. Conveys the mood of Salzburg very nicely. Walking the streets, charming and lively.

Mozart of course was born and lived in Salzburg and you can visit his birth place or where he lived…they both have museums…

Of course the Sound of Music tour had to be done and though the movie was made 50 years ago, the places in Salzburg look just like they do in the film….beautiful locations surrounded by snow capped mountains…

 

 

 

 

So departing Salzburg early in the morning, we drove back into Germany heading to the Bavarian Alps, specifically the town of Berchthesgaden and Konigsee or Kings Lake.  The scenery grew prettier and prettier as we approached….just like the mountains in the Sound of Music. And then we reached Konigsee and found the carpark.  Now the plan was to see Konigsee and depart the area and head for Stuttgart as a half way stop on our way to Wetzlar, north of Frankfurt for the Leica 100th anniversary event.

Most tourists would take the electric powered boat to cruise the lake for a few hours and hop on and off and I’m sure that would have been very nice but I’m not really a boat person and don’t like being captive on a boat however pretty the surroundings might be….so we elected to take a walk around the lake’s edge, have breakfast and then take an hour long hike from the left of the ferry jetty to the base of the Jennerbahn cable car..this would bring us high up and get a different view of the lake and also see the peaks…

 

Look for the Malerwinkl trail which is just beyond the water houses and start climbing …it’s a gentle trek through the woods and really very pleasant….

 

 

And soon, reward for the climb…after walking about 30 min we arrive at a viewpoint with an elevated view of Konigsee…probably much nicer perspective than from the boat…

and 11/2 hour later, we arrive at the Jennerbahn cable car station…the sun is now blazing and the temperature started rising…we boarded the cable car….

 

 

Even though this was late May, there was still snow around so make sure you wear proper footwear..the slope at the peak is steep and slippery and there’s nothing between you and Konigsee 1800m below if you fall….

So all in all, I would say that for a 4-5 hour visit, doing the Malerwinkl trail and the Jennerbahn cable car meant we saw the lake from a different perspective and also saw the Alps up close…

On to Stuttgart….