While in the Philippines we met Gerhard from Austria, and he invited us to visit him and his girlfriend Gabi in Salzburg. He is a chef and she is a pastry chef. A few days before we arrived they had been in the Philippines on a diving holiday and were straight back into work,
The company they work for is responsible for catering for a week for Audi who were unveiling a new car. The event was held at Hangar 7 which is a huge place owned by the creator of Red Bull drinks. Even though they both worked long hours we were still able to spend time together and have a lot of laughs.
Their company rents a house for Gabi and Gerhard and it is surrounded by farmhouses with cows in the barns and we have enjoyed watching the day to day activities of the local farmers. There is a large restaurant at the back of the farm and it sells beer and produce from the farm but is only open a few days of the week.
The farms are surrounded by flat land used for growing vegetables and at night the plastic nurseries are wrapped in bubble paper and glowing from the heat lamps. Everything was covered in about 20cms of snow when we arrived but a few days later the sun came out and the warm winds melted the snow and we had some comfortable 9 degree days.
Gabi had a couple of days off so we visited the city sights and did a tour of the castle fortress. The city still has many 17th century buildings and Mozart's family home was always surrounded by visitors.
The castle fortress, Festung Hohensalzburg was started in 1077 and was paid for by the taxes charged for salt. The salt was a precious commodity as it was used as a food preservative.
One day we took the cable car to the top of Untersberg. It went up at a 52 degree angle for 2.8kms, with a great view over the alps and towards Germany and we could see how much the snow had melted with the warm winds.
