Day 13 (Tuesday)In the morning Sally wandered back to the swimming pool to ask about paying. I like to pay my way, and feel if a community have spent money on something like this for our benefit and everyone avoids paying, they won't maintain it and other communities will think twice before wanting to invite RVs in - next they will start putting up height restriction barriers.
We set off north again, rejoining the highway. One of Sally's favourite films is Where Eagles Dare, and while on the highway she pointed out a large castle above us saying "Wow, just like in Where Eagle's Dare". Later, when reading the guide book on Austria she realised it WAS the castle from that film!
We entered Salzburg. I had done some research on the internet when we last had a free connection and checked for camper-friendly parking locations in the city. There appeared to be one right in the centre by the river. I was still dubious about this and worried by the proliferation of signs as we drove in that could easily mean we were breaking any number of laws about width, height, commercial vehicle type, etc. But we arrived at this car park and the barrier opened and issued us with a ticket. I was secretly hoping it was a really expensive car park. Cheap car parks get filled with locals, and several we had passed appeared full. As we negotiated the tight car park I was pleased to see a few spaces at the far end and some local commercial vans parked there too - these were all sticking out of the parking bays due to their length, again something I was relieved about - if the locals parked like that it implied you weren't at risk of being fined for parking a vehicle that was too long for the space. We did however back the camper all the way until it was almost touching the wall behind - this also adds to security preventing anyone trying to get in the back:
Salzburg is a nice little city, but very busy with tourists. We took the funicular railway up to the castle - we were packed into the carriages like sardines in a tin. From the top the city opened out before us:
We walked around the castle, but the main areas could only be accessed by guided tour using those digital players that tell you about each part of the castle. Our ticket covered the cost, but it meant queuing with others and then being herded around from room to room. I prefer to go at my own speed, separate myself from the crowds and bypass things I am not interested in. The tour became a bit of a farce when our group exited a room and ascended stairs to a tower at the same time as the next group, a party of school children were supposed to enter the room. They saw our group and assumed they had to tag on, so we now had 2 groups clogging the stair cases. At that point we gave up listening to the handsets and sneaked off on our own.
We decided not to head down on the funicular we had paid for, but instead found another exit and walked down a road the carriages would originally have used.
We crossed the river to the less touristy side of the city and had coffee sat outside a small bakery. We than picked up some shopping in a local supermarket before heading back to the camper via the gardens:
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Salzburg is near the German border, so we decided to camp in Germany that night. At this point we had hit our most eastward point and would now be heading west, in the direction of home.
Rather than take the highway I had put a couple of waypoints in the GPS that would take us over a mountain to the south west of Salzburg. The first waypoint was a salt mine, the city is clearly named after that commodity - you could take a tour inside. However, all the pictures advertising it implied it was a bit too family-friendly for my liking - lots of interactive adventures for small children and rides. So we bypassed that and instead headed for the next waypoint - another scenic toll road, the Rossfeld Ringstasse:
There was a nice view from the top looking back over Austria, and more wild flowers:
Tomorrow my plan was to visit the Eagles Nest at Obersalzberg (I now know that is where it is) - the mountain lookout given to Hitler in the '30s with wonderful views. However I seemed to have mislaid the waypoint for it on my GPS. The GPS contains a directory of points of interest too, so we looked through those. Sally said "I think it is Berchtesgaden", so I looked for some castly type attraction in that area. I found one and set the GPS to go there. As we descended the 24% roads down the hill we passed signs for a documentation center - I wonder if that is related I thought, but then decided it would be more clearly marked, so carried on descending. We passed a hotel with a sign indicating the footpath to a bunker. I hesitated, but Sally was pretty sure it was Berchtesgaden and that we were wasting our time up here. Eventually we get to the waypoint I found on the GPS, and it turns out to be a real historic castle, and not what we were looking for. We stop at a car park and read the tourist information signs. I am becoming convinced it is up at that documentation centre we passed. So we head back up the hill for that. The drive shaft on the truck is now really starting to suffer from these climbs and descents and we are getting a lot of vibration under load at 10 mph. I end up driving up the 24% incline much faster than I would want to just to avoid the vibration. We at last find the place we are looking for and ask around about buses to visit the Eagle's nest. It is all a bit confusing and several people seem to be wandering around looking for the same thing. At least we know where we need to go and the opening times now, so can head for our campground, so we tackle the hill for the third time.
The campground is small and the spot they squeeze us into is tiny, but it has hookup and showers and we can dump water and waste, so it serves the purpose. Plus it has internet for a small fee.
