Day Trips from St. Gilgen

Old May 11th, 2014, 01:56 PM
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Day Trips from St. Gilgen

We will be visiting Vienna and St. Gilgen in September. We have plenty of time in St. Gilgen to do a number of day trips. The obvious ones are Salzburg and St. Wolfgang. A few others I have been looking at are:

Gmunden
Hellbrunn Palace
Bad Reichenhall
Laufen Germany and Oberndorf Austria
Bad Aussee

We have been to Berchtesgaden and Bad Ischl on another trip and have been to Hallstatt numerous times so we are looking for some place else of interest that is not more than 1.5 to 2 hrs round trip from St. Gilgen.

Any thoughts on the places I've mentioned or others that you think are worthwhile?
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Old May 11th, 2014, 02:21 PM
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Hellbrunn can very easily be a part of your visit to Salzburg and it is easily reached by local bus services from the "old town" area.

How late will you stay in Salzburg? I was thinking you might enjoy one of the marionette shows but they might happen too late for your overall timeframe.

Hellbrunn is great fun.
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Old May 11th, 2014, 02:59 PM
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Thanks, Dukey. Hellbrunn looked like it would be a fun way to spend an afternoon.

I'll also look into a marionette show.
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Old May 11th, 2014, 03:12 PM
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Good for you Betty---wish I could go too.

I assume you have seen Gosausee. If not, you should.
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Old May 11th, 2014, 03:38 PM
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Melk or Mondsee?
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Old May 11th, 2014, 05:19 PM
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Bob, wish you could go too! We are staying at the Schernthaner for 10 days. Decided we'd use the extra time to relax and visit some of the places in the area we haven't seen yet.

And we have been to Gosausee, as well as Melk and Mondsee. But Gosausee I believe would be worth another visit.
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Old May 11th, 2014, 09:38 PM
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Hi bettyk,

I wouldn't be in a rush to get away from the Wolfgangsee. Two of my best days from St. Gilgen were bike trips around the lake. I rode to Strobl, I recall. You can always take a lake ferry back if you don't feel like cycling back.

Have fun as you plan!

s
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Old May 11th, 2014, 11:57 PM
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Oberndorf can be seen in an hour; you just visit the memorial site of Stille Nacht, with the museum, the rebuilt chapel and the riverside. The historic town was destroyed by floodings and rebuilt at a distance; the rebuilt town is not particularly interesting. Even Laufen, on the other side of the river, is not worth a stop. You may see if you can visit the area when going or returning to St. Gilgen from another trip.

Bad Reichenhall is a spa town, quite sleepy and mostly modern. - Its main attraction to me is the Wassermann household products shop, that is to say that there are not many attractions to see. A curiosity is a very strange device in the Kurpark, the Gradierwerk. The ancient way to separate water from salt was filtering salted water from the spring trhough an huge mass of wood branches; most of the water evaporates and you are left with an high percentage saline solution in a bottom tank; but the surroundings of the device are saturated with saline water drizzle in the air. So the device now operates as a free spa treatment; you just walk around this very long building (150 meters) and the air (a bit cold and very damp) is said to be good for your throat and lungs.
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Old May 12th, 2014, 01:51 AM
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betty - I assume that you've done the Wolfgangsee things - the train up the Schaffberg, boats on the lake, the walk from St Gilgen to Ried, Bad Ischl? I know that you've been to St Gilgen a number of times but I can't remember if you've been to Vienna.

there are a few ideas of things to do in Vienna on my TR from a few years ago if that would interest you?
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Old May 12th, 2014, 07:13 AM
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Well, doesn't sound like Laufen or Bad Reichenhall are worth leaving Wolfgansee for.

Swandav2000, bike riding is definitely a possibility but we will probably not be doing many long walks, annhig, as DH suffers from arthritis in his feet/ankles so we try not to walk any more than we have to.

annhig, depending on the weather I think we would enjoy going back up the Schaffberg with the boat ride on the lake. Did this on our first trip several years ago.

We have been to Vienna before. We actually lived there in the early 80's for 2 yrs. But I will definitely reread your trip report.

After spending time with friends, I want to go to the Upper Belvedere and see the Klimt exhibit as well as maybe do the Burgtheater tour. And, I want to see the Anker Clock and Roman Ruins again.

Has anybody visited the Salzbergwerk in Altaussee where the Nazis hid all their looted treasures -- as seen in Monuments Men?
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Old May 12th, 2014, 12:44 PM
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Hi Betty,

Enjoy your trip! Have you been to Berchtesgaden/Konigsee area? If not, it's worth a day out. For a scenic drive there, go via Hallein, Oberau, Unterau to Berchtesgaden instead of via Salzburg. Our favorite restaurant in the area, the Gebirgshausl, is just a few minutes outside of Berchtesgaden.

Paul
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Old May 12th, 2014, 12:58 PM
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Yes, Paul, we've been there on two different occasions but it might be worth another visit, especially on a nice day. Some things we didn't do on previous trips are the Jennerbahn and Documentation Center.

If we do go, we'll try to check out the Gebirgshausl.
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Old May 12th, 2014, 02:12 PM
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After spending time with friends, I want to go to the Upper Belvedere and see the Klimt exhibit as well as maybe do the Burgtheater tour. >>

betty, when we were there there was an amazing sculpture/pottery exhibition in the Upper Belevedere of mugs decorated with weird and grotesque faces. quite extraordinary.

I doubt that there's much we can tell you about Vienna,as you lived there for 2 years but I suppose you never know.
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Old May 12th, 2014, 03:52 PM
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Hi Betty, Your info has helped us over the years....I am so glad you are going on this trip!
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Old May 12th, 2014, 05:50 PM
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annhig, there are always new things in Vienna which is why it is such a vibrant city. Plus, there is a still lot that we never got around to doing when we lived there.

deladeb, thank you so much for that! Hopefully, I'll have some new information to pass on when we return.
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Old May 12th, 2014, 09:28 PM
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We found plenty to do and see from St Gilgen when we were there some years ago. Here is an extract of what I wrote at the time:

Day 11 - 16: St Gilgen
We travelled to St Gilgen via Mauthausen where we visited the concentration camp. Whilst certainly a very thought provoking and sad place, it was a disappointing place to visit. Large parts of the camp seemed to be under reconstruction as a recent storm had created some damage, and the audio guide seemed to not follow the layout of the camp. We met several tourists who declared they had simply “given up” on the audio guide as it did not seem to follow any pattern.
By the time we entered St Gilgen (about 30km from Salzburg) it was raining lightly, but even the inclement weather could not detract form the breathtaking beauty of the area. We all immediately fell in love with the place – the mountains, the lakes, the villages …. Just all of it! I personally think this must be one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited and I loved every single day of our stay, even though the weather was not very kind to us. Once again, it was a definite highlight of the trip for us.
We had battled to find suitable self catering accommodation in St Gilgen on the internet, but what we found was absolutely lovely. We stayed in apartments run by Family Weissenbacher which are next door to the camping ground which they run in Abersee (on the outskirts of St Gilgen) (http://www.birkenstrand.at/fewo_eng.htm) . The apartments were beautifully refurbished, spacious and extremely reasonably priced. This is certainly some the nicest accommodation we have stayed at in Europe, and definitely some of the cheapest! A wonderful find and I would love to stay there again!
Our first day in the St Gilgen area was an absolutely magical day! The weather was kind to us, and we headed off for gorgeous Hallstatt. We explored the town, the church and the very pretty graveyard. The bonehouse with its beautifully decorated skulls was interesting too. From Hallstatt we drove to Dachstein where we visited the ice caves, before heading for the salt mines at Bad Aussee. This was the secret hiding place of art treasures stolen by the Nazis during WW2.
Unfortunately most of the rest of our stay in this area was wet or overcast, with very few sunny patches. However, we still had a fantastic time. We visited Salzburg one day which we enjoyed. As it was a VERY wet day, we only visited the fortress and spent most of the rest of the day sheltering in shops. Our friend Andrew spent the morning on a tour of the town and the afternoon on a sound of music bus tour. We met up with him in Mondsee (outside the church used for the wedding scene in the Sound of Music) which was the last stop of his tour before it went back to Salzburg.
When it wasn’t raining we enjoyed going up mountains on cable cars for some lovely walks, summer tobogganing down some slopes (which the girls really enjoyed!) and visiting a deer park.
We also enjoyed another special day visiting Berchtesgaden in Germany. The museum, Dokumentation Obersalzberg was a wealth of information and really worth a visit. The views from Eagles Nest over the valley and the Konigsee were also special. The highlight of the day for us was however the boat trip on the Konigsee. We went to the furthermost point and then walked across some lovely countryside to another lake. It was very pretty and we took some beautiful photos to remember it by.
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Old May 12th, 2014, 11:21 PM
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I am assuming you are going to Halstatt and Dachstein, it's beautiful.
You could also go to Gosau/Gosausee, take a bus to Bad Ischl and then another one to Gosausee, it's one of my favorite sites in Austria. You can have a look at my page on Gosausee: http://ashwinbahulkar.wordpress.com/...blic/gosausee/
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Old May 12th, 2014, 11:57 PM
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bettyk, if you will be in Vienna during the last weekend of September, I can suggest the WienWein Wandertag. Two days devoted to hiking and sampling of the new wines in Vienna's vineyards. The trails are marked, there's lots of food to eat, as well, and even some bling (a wine bottle pin) for those who complete even a portion of the route.

My report from last year's outing is here if you're interested. http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-september.cfm
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Old May 13th, 2014, 10:42 AM
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PRLCH, thanks for that info.

ashwinb, Gosausee seems just like what I was looking for. I'll definitely put it on our list. We were in Bad Ischl a couple of years ago, visiting the Kaiser Villa and Café Zauner.

fourfortravel, unfortunately, we will head back to the US on the 18th. It does sound like great fun. Fortunately, there are several little cafes in St. Gilgen that will be serving Sturm, one my husband's favorite drinks!
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