St Gilgen Day out trying Nockerl and enjoying the swimming spot at Strandbad St. Gilgen

It was going to be another 31 degree day today so another fantastic day to go swimming so we thought we would venture 45 minutes out of town to the lakeside suburb of St Gilgen.

We boarded the 150 bus and there wasn’t any seats available and people were already standing. We worked out the reason why, and that is because the bus we were on also went to Hallstadt so we needed to stand half the way but the scenery was so beautiful it went very quick.

We didn’t know what to expect from this area but it was beautiful. In all the cafes, restaurants and terrace houses were the most colourful bouquets of flowers and in the background were the mountains and surrounding all of this was the most crystal clear turquoise lake.

We wound our way down through the town while looking in at the little shops and reading the menus and found the lake and then played guess which way to go and we picked correctly as the pathway opened up to the cutest swimming spot. There was a platform to jump off, a diving board and it was very inviting.

We hired an umbrella set up our spot and went in. Brrrrrrr it was freezing to start with, and at the pleading requests of Jessy I dived under and swam out to the boat area and when I emerged it actually was really nice. We enjoyed our time in the water and the diving board doing tricks with the locals and then just relaxed and took in the warm sun.

As usual the kids don’t like to stay in one place for very long and they were hungry so we packed up and headed off to look for lunch. We found a restaurant that looked like it was right out of a fairytale and chose our table right next to a beautiful fountain.

Of course the menu was Italian so we chose pizza, pasta and salad but the standout experience was the nokerl.

Ben and I had this on our to do list before we even came to Salzburg. We were researching this amazing desert that looks like a huge soufflé so we ordered it. First impression was super impressive. The desert comes out in a big dish and is overflowing, it is covered with powder (which we thought was icing sugar) and is big enough to feed 3-4 people (it says) but it would feed 8 or more. We were very excited to dig in and then…….. super disappointed. There was no flavour. It tasted really bland like egg whites and lemon, unfortunately it was bitter and the texture at the end was powdery. I really wanted to like it so I kept trying to eat it but I couldn’t it really wasn’t a desert at all more like a savoury dish missing the meat and Jessy and Daniel didn’t like it either. Ben said it was ok but he wouldn’t get it again. Perhaps it is an acquired taste as I guess I like bold rich flavours.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the town and having a look at what we would like to do when we re visit as it is definitely a town we would like to spend more time in. They have a cable car that runs all the way up to the mountain and a ferry that goes to 7 different ports including Wolfgangse which also has a rail car that takes you up the mountain to a wonderful restaurant. We will be back.