Schafberg
Let's introduce a trekking near Salzburg in Austoria. It is Mt. Schafberg and a steam locomotive moutain railway, being famous by the movie "Sound of Music".
We stayed at Hotel Kasererbrau at an old city area in Salzburg, where Karajan used to stay a long time ago. At 8:30 AM in the next morning, we left the hotel, receiving two German breads & a portable pot of hot water with their kindness. It took approx. 30 min. to arrive Wolfgang Lake, and passed through St. Gilgen filled with tourists to take the lakeside road. We got St. Wolfgang at 9:30 AM and were told that more than 4 hours are necessary to climb up on foot. We decided, therefore, to take a famous steam locomotive railway for ascending and to enjoy trekking for descending.
We took the trunkroad indicated as a red line from Salzburg. It took approx. 1 hour to get St. Wolfgang. The trekking trail point is located in 20 min. walking distance from the railway station at the lake side. It would be recommended to climb up by the steam locomotive and to enjoy a small trekking for descending to relax one day schedule. We found lots of local school students to do so.
The railway lead us to a good view point by 30 min., passing through the plains & forests from the lakeside station. The mid station is set up in the alp-like mountainside, where many trekkers got off to climb up to the summit. We arrived the top terminal station by 10 more min. The real summit is within several min. walking distance, where a nice restaurant and shops are incorporated. From the view deck, we could enjoy a fantastic near view of Wolfgang Lake, Mond Lake, and Atter Lake, and we could see southern Europe Alps in 360 degree panorama mode.
The time passed 11 O'clock when relaxing there, however, it was too early for a lunch and we started to descend on foot. We thought it was a nice beautiful day for the trekking and took a picture of the summit as background. We found colorful flowers of highland greens in a nice mid May season.
30 minutes passed since the start of trekking, and we were cautious for walking due to steep trailways with rocks and pebbles. We looked up the summit far away and in high altitude. The mid station was very near for expecting a short break. We took, hoever, the lunch with casset coffee in the shadowside, because many trekkers are inside the station. And we devoted ourselves to watch steps due to pebble-full steep trail and no goood view points during descending.
Necessary time span is approx. 1 hour from the summit till the Alp station, and two more hours down to the lakeside. It took 5 hours in total, including a lunch break. We took ordinal jogging shoes this time, however, it is recommended to bring trekking shoes as we had painful tiptoes by steep descending trail with pebbles.