EuroTour Day 7 & 8

Day 7 Prague - Zell Am See (Via Salzburg)

We were quickly discovering that this tour was a progressive series of early mornings and long drives... Having only arrived back at the hotel at 1:30am that morning, we found ourselves being woken at 6am to pack our bags and load on to the bus for the long drive to Salzburg.

As we arrived into Salzburg we were given a quick walking tour into the centre of town before being given an hour and a half to find a place to buy lunch and have a look around town.

(Salzburg's famous street of Cast-iron shop-signs)

(Even the McDonalds has an iron sign)

(Mozarts Birth place)

After lunch and an hour of shopping we hit the road again and after an hour of driving we found ourselves high in the alps.

(a "sleepy" town in the mountains)

It took many hours, travelling through the high mountains, to get to Zell Am Zee.

(The narrow streets of the mountain-side village)

(Daniel and David)

For the first and last time on the trip we had the hotel to ourselves. It was beautiful. every window sported a panoramic view of the valley and mountains.

(View from the dinning room)

(As I said, the view was just stunning)

It felt great to breath in the fresh mountain air.

Day 8 Zell Am See

Waking up to the fresh alpine air, we gathered outside to be briefed on our days activities. We were going to hike through the valleys and see some of the sites along the way.

We were driven to the base of the mountain. This was the first time I was able to get a front seat on the bus.

(Zell Am See is one of Austria's most popular Ski destinations so is home to some of the worlds largest and highest cable-cars)

We did about 6-8km of walking up and down the valley. This waterfall was as high as we went.

We then started to make our way down the mountain side to a river where we stopped for lunch and a swim.

(Wild mountain flowers)

(Fresh Glacier water; about 0.5 degrees Celcius)

(All the Aussies)

(All but one american)

After lunch we continued down the mountain valley crossing a beautiful gorge on our way

We reached the bottom point of our trip, arriving at Zell Am See's Hydro-electric plant; Austria's main source of power.

(Air vents releasing trapped air from the turbines)

(Libby supermaning the Australian flag)

(Joe and one of the giant Turbine wheels)

We then made our way back up the mountain through the gorge we saw earlier, completing a figure-of-eight track.

Returning to the bus, we drove back to the hotel for dinner after a tiring day.