No yaar, got work in office.. you know the condition of Prepaid these days“, was the usual response we were getting when we were planning for Salzbarg, last friday.

Very few showed real enthu, for a trip to Austria, but then amidst uncertainties we finalized the trip to Austria. Nagappan (excuse me for Spelling mistake if any 🙂 ) who has been to Salzburg before, came to the rescue, with final planning for the trip. And in total, ten of us, agreed to join the trip…

8:15, in the morning was scheduled time to meet at Munich Hauptbahnoff. Getting up on a weekend morning, and that too when you have not slept well for the entire week, is really a difficult task, but fortunately we all managed to reach station, in time.. just in time.

Except for Purna, who got some last moment work, we all were there…

We left Hauftbahn off, München at around 8:45. We would have missed the train, had we not shown our Atheletic skills, in completing a 500m sprint, to catch the train. And then we all were in… 1..2..3.. yes. All 9 of us were on board for a memorable trip..

Abhishek, like he has been always, took the responsibility of tax free entertainment (nagappam always called it a nonsense Smile) during the train journey…

A coffee break in between, and Bhakarwadi from Smitha, was the only intake we had during the journey, which lasted for around two hours. Enroute to Austria, is very beautiful, with view of Alps, and greenary.

After reaching Austria, and spending a couple of minutes at Info counter, we had our ticket to Werfen booked. Outside station was a turkish restaurant, where we had our Falaafals, and Doner kebaab. Yousef, the man, gave an expected answer “Alhamdullilah” when asked “Is the food Halaal“.(which I get in Almost all turkish restaurants).

While waiting for the BB bahn, Abhishek got pack of tasty chocolate biscuits. Buiscuits and chocolates… And finally we left for Werfen, the home for Ice caves.

On reaching Werfen, we were greeted by sight of a mighty and beautiful castle. Read it somewhere that Hohenwerfen Castle became widely known for providing the backdrop for the film “Where Eagles Dare”. We captured the moment in the camera, and walked towards the bridge. Bridge across a beautiful, ‘green’ stream.. A stream flowing probably from Alps, and how could we move ahead without splashing in the water…

Walked down to the stream, had a refreshing splash. Water was so chilling that none of us, managed to stay in water continuously for more than ..

Now lets move on…

A bus journey upto the foothills and a walk of 15 minutes, across one of the picturesque path of the world, a cable car journey and then again walk of around 20 minutes… and there you are… largest ice cave of the world…

A number of huge stalagmite and stalactite greets you, once you cross the windy, extremely windy, entrance. The good part was guide was explaining things in English as well. The trip of around 70 minutes, was an experience in itself. My first ever, visit to a ice cave, and that too the biggest in world, so amusement and excitement was expected.

Finally we returned back, had mast cheese toast before catching the cable car back to bus stop.

Back to Austria station, we missed the opportunity which “Gupta G”, gave to us, an opportunity to shoot a video, which would have been aptly titled “A typical desi in foreign land Laughing” (sorry Gupta g.. Oopps rastogi g.. 🙂 )

And finally we departed back for München with a refreshing experience…

I know, I will InshaAllah, see more and more of Alps, in coming days, but this being the first experience will always be cherished.

And I purposefully, restricted myself, in sharing the funnier moments we had during the trip, because those are copyright of our trip. To experience it, you have to be part of it. 🙂