A sunrise hike, at sunset - the birthday woowoo

One of the things I was looking forward to most in Salzburg was hiking up a mountain just in time to watch the sun rising. 

The craziness of waking up in the dark and making your way up a mountain, to be rewarded with a spectacular view as the sun rises with you. 

But things don’t always go to plan, and our sunrise mission changed into a sunset mission. 

We’d been talking to some of the people on our snowshoe tour about which was the best peak to watch the sunrise and they told us that actually sunset would be nicer than the sunrise in the winter. 

This was music to my sister's ears, since she was not looking forward to the very early start. 

Convenient, huh. 

But I was led to believe it - and so we shifted our plans to an afternoon hike where we would reach the peak for the sunset. 

In the morning we had a pancake brunch to start my birthday in the best way, and fuel for our hike in the afternoon.

I actually received the first official piece of woowoo merch - handmade by my sister, and proudly shown off at the top of Gaisberg. (Where else will this t-shirt, or woowoo merch travel to!?). 

The mountain we were going to tackle was Gaisberg - rising at 1288m, overlooking the city of Salzburg. The peak is to the east of Salzburg, so the sunsets behind the city, making for a pretty amazing view. (they were right about that!)

Throughout our stay in Salzburg, the red tower at the top of Gaisberg was teasing us, calling us to come and visit.

Why a sunrise hike? And why a mountain top? 

Part training for later woowoos. Getting in some practice for future sunrise missions - whether on foot or by bike, there will definitely be more to come. 

The sunrise golden hour - great time for taking pictures, soft shadows and beautiful colours. It's a bit crazy, waking up and hiking in the dark whilst everyone else is sleeping - so about getting out there and doing something a bit wild or different - that's part of what makes a woowoo for me. 

When I say mountain top - I immediately think of something crazy, an epic adventure and with an element of danger. 

That’s not quite Gaisberg, it even has a road to take you to the top (but why would you want to drive there!?). But it was still a great day, and it wasn’t just a walk in the park either. The icy switchbacks and snow at the top of the climb added some difficulty for sure.

During the difficult sections, we were so busy focussing on our foot placement, that when we finally did look up, the tower was right there in front of us. We were basically at the top. 

We walked around the peak and found our sunset-watching spot. 

It was windy and cold at the top, we had extra layers to keep us warm, and birthday cake to keep us happy. 

We were a little bit envious of the people who drove up now, who just had to ‘brave’ the cold for a few minutes to snap some pictures before returning to their nice warm cars. 

We were on top of Gaisberg for over an hour watching the sunset and dancing to keep warm. The sunset was beautiful, but the warmth of the cafe was calling, and we wanted to get a hot chocolate before taking the bus down. 

Now, call it lack of planning, or spending too long watching the sunset, but the cafe was actually about to close, and we’d missed the last bus back down the mountain by quite a long time. 

The waiter reassured us that we would be able to hitch-hike down the mountain with a friendly visitor though, and gave us some hot chocolate for the road. 

We stood on top of the mountain, next to the road with our thumbs raised on one hand, and hot chocolate in the other. 

The second car stopped for us and had 3 spare seats, they were happy to take us back down the mountain thankfully! 

It would have been a long, dark walk back home if it wasn’t for those kind people - and we would have missed the birthday schnitzel that evening.