Day 12 Friday 12th June 2009 Salzburb to Vienna

Day 12 Friday 12th June 2009 Salzburg to Vienna (Wien)
Today we had an early start heading for Vienna. We took the scenic route rather than the direct which is fast and takes about two hours. We left at 8:22am and arrived at Villach at 10:53am and the caught a train for Vienna at 11:16am both trains are were quiet, comfortable, had nice dining cars, leather seats and 230 volt power points with. Shortly after leaving Salzburg we travelled along a lovely valley with lots of beautiful mountains, some with small amounts of winter snows still visible. We saw three castles on hilltops. About an hour into or journey our altitude began to increase. We climbed from 400metres in Salzburg to about 1100 at the top of the pass. At one stage we overlooked a nice valley far below us; houses began to increase until they became a town. The town gradually gained altitude up a sloping hillside until it reached the station our train had stopped at. After this town we went through two long tunnels at the end of these we overlooked another valley far below us and on the other side of the train. This time our train descended to the valley floor before we reached the station. We changed trains at Villach. At 12:45pm we stopped at Unzmarkt we a narrow gauge railway had small ore carrying wagons on it; must be mines in the area. We had climbed to 830metres. For the next hour or so we travelled slowly through numerous curves, over viaducts and through many small tunnels. Eventually we arrived in Vienna; I did not find the buildings and surrounding environment impressive. After getting off the train we had to catch a tram to the Westbahnhof (Western Station) were our Intercity Hotel was a short walk away.