Day 8: Austrian Alps

Wed. Sept. 19th

We awoke in the morning to the sound of rain. looked out the window and saw were were enveloped in clouds. The Alps were there some place but nowhere to be seen.

We had a nice breakfast in the German way, a large assortment of rolls and jams and hazelnut (nuttella) spread, a plate of cheeses and meats (sans all the meat for us) and some tea.

Then we hit the raining roadway for the large Austrian National park, Höhe Tauern. The plan is to take the road trip around the Großglockner mountain in the park. Not sure how much of it we will see today.

While driving we noticed that unlike the US there are farms in the cities and towns. It is really pretty amazing. The farmers barns and cows next to the shopping center and main roads. Corn and hay fields blend in with parking lots and hotels. You could see the farmers fields everywhere. It really seemed like the people are connected to their food source. Over all it felt very harmonious. I will add, in case you assume that is because we are in the middle of nowhere, this is in and around Innsbruck, the Olympic city.

Well, we did make it to the park area but, the rain was hard with a very chilly wind and the clouds so thick we could not even see the mountains we were in that we decided to move on to the ice caves since they would be inside and out of the rain at least, and the dense cloud cover would not really be a problem.

This is the map of what it would have looked like if we could have seen anything behind the vail of thick clouds.

This is what we actually saw, what you can not see in the photos is, every now and again the clouds would thin a bit and you could see a brighter shades of white and dark vague masses very high up.

The Alps would occasionally revel themselves here and there. The road twists and turns though little villages not unlike with you would see in the Adirondack Mountains. Only the mountains are higher here and some have snow on them (which we can not see though, because of the clouds).

The homes along the way are amazing most done in the Chalet style we see at home, only these are much more elaborate and built on a larger scale. That is not to say there are not any like ours, there are but, not that many. We also noticed that the construction of these buildings are amazing will done. Everything is looks and feels very sturdy. Many also have some wooden decoration on the top of them.

Well we made it to the famous ice caves at last. They are very high up a twisting road almost to the top of a mountain. Once we got to the ticket center with the rain still falling hardish, we found it was another 40min walk up the mountain to the cave opening. It was already three o’clock, walking in this cold rain did not appeal to either of us, so we decided we would move on to yet another of out planned outdoor adventures for today.

This castle is on the mountain top across from the cave. You can just make out some of the road to the ice caves on the mountian across from the castle. The Castle is authentic and another place that you can visit. It is well place on a smaller mountain between two larger ones. They have falconry show and other examples of midlevel life.

Onward to St. Wolfgang!!

On the was to St. Wolfgang there is a privately owned toll road you must pass over. You wind your way up and down a mountain pass a very small road. This road was right up there with some of the Scottish Highland roads we have traveled. The amazing thing is that the tour busses also use this road. I am happy to say we did not meet one on this cold, windy, rainy day.

Also, now we know why ALL the cow in these fields where bells.