Salzburg/Garmisch Trip: Untersberg

To maximize our time in Salzburg area, we purchased a Salzburg card for our whole family. The card included most of the city’s attractions’ entrance fees, so all we had to do is make time for all those attractions (which is quite impossible in two days). On our way home that first evening, we stopped by at Untersberg—one of the highest peaks around Salzburg. A cable car to the top was included in our Salzburg card, so despite the weather, we decided to go for it.

This is the view from the bottom.

We caught the last cable car up, and had a limited time on top before the last car was going down.

We were only a tiny bit high up in the air, and I could feel my fear of heights letting me know I was crazy. I bring to you a very dramatic picture.

Honestly, I wasn’t that scared.

A very cloudy day…hmm…will we see anything on the top?

Still going up.

Whoa! What? I can’t see anything out of our window suddenly…and that actually makes me feel more at ease as we feel a bit disoriented.

Yep…still going up. But apparently no views of Rositten Valley and the surrounding mountains

Before we get to the top, here are the stats:

• difference in altitude of 1320 m,
• largest distance from the ground 286m,
• enormously long free-hanging span of 1.548 km between the valley station and post I.

Pretty cool, right?

Well, our adventure did not end in clear blue skies and a surprising view from the top. We came out into temperatures of about 2C (34F), and took this picture.

Mark and Robert walked off on their own into an unknown to me direction, disappearing in the clouds.

I was actually very worried about them since it was really hard to see further than just a few feet in front of you. The last cable car was leaving in about 15 minutes, so we had little time to just walk around, see the clouds and get back to the platform. They appeared out of the clouds maybe three minutes before the cable car was leaving.

Apparently, this is what the valley looks like on a nice sunny day.

Well, maybe next time.

Yes, it was a bit disappointing to not go on this cable ride on a better day, but we simply were running out of time, as this mountain was a bit out of the way of our next day plans. It’s all right. We still had a fun time going up this high into the clouds.

Lyana.