Blog 67 – The hills are alive with the sound of … Cowbells!

The movie, The Sound of Music, was based on the true story of an Austrian family living in Salzburg. https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/is-the-sound-of-music-based-on-a-true-story.html/ The movie itself was filmed in and around Salzburg. Stately houses, beautiful gardens, huge fountains, sweeping vistas; all true of the Salzburg area.

But, it was not the movie that drew us to the area, it was the availability of a hiking holiday outside of Salzburg in the lake district of Austria; the Salzkammergut.  https://www.salzkammergut.at/en/hiking-trails-in-the-salzkammergut.html A perfect Covid friendly vacation; Covid protocols, small hotels, and most activities outdoors. Time to pack those hiking poles!

Especially right now, few folks are able to quickly plan a trip to Austria, but if you could, or when you can, we would recommend it. What follows below are a few of our highlights from the 10 day trip. A few of our favorite things, if I may. And, while I don’t usually mention the places we stay or companies we use; this was our second hiking holiday put together by Inntravel out of the UK- we do recommend them.

We begin our holiday in Vienna with the best possible of omens; a rainbow over the river Danube.
Do you see the shadow on the upper left? It’s actually a double rainbow; we are double lucky.

The following day we arrive in St. Agatha – this is what we see out our bedroom window
First morning in St. Agatha – Andy is ready to go!
First morning in St. Agatha – Linda is ready to go too! Sporting the latest in stylish rain gear.
Day 1 starts easy; follow the asphalt path toward the hills
Up the hill we go. On the way to Rathluckenhutte for lunch
Here is a sign for the hutte now. We are on the right path.
Time for a break as we go up the hill.
Do you see the muddy pants? Yes, I did go the wrong way on a muddy hill – but just for a bit.
Andy is ready to keep climbing. Up we go.
We make it to the hutte. A cold beer, sausage, and potatoes; yum, German food.
Oh, and cash only – very much in the Austrian tradition, no credit cards taken.
Back on the trail we go.

Just up from the Rathluckenhutte we entered a mystical forest as we followed the trail to the eternal wall. https://www.outdooractive.com/en/route/hiking-route/inneres-salzkammergut/mountain-and-fairytale-trail-bad-goisern/48109691/  A lovely trail which includes carvings to depict local fairytales. A fun thing to look for as we walked up the mountain.

Andy surveys the Eternal Wall – a mountain of stone with two tunnels carved out for hiker access.
Looking back now at the Eternal Wall as we head for the inn and our pre-planned dinner.
A good walk, a rest, a shower, a clean set of clothes; plus wine and beer. Life is good.

We left St. Agatha the next morning. Time to hike over to Hallstatt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallstatt  Hallstatt has a history of salt mining going back to the Iron Age, or about 800 BC. The area was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. It has been called the most Instagramable town in the world.

We walk past the town limit sign of St. Agatha on our way to Hallstatt
Andy checks the directions again: go around the closed gate,
following the path around Lake Hallstatt
It is a lovely walk. Mostly flat with views of the water and hills.
Are we there yet? Can we see Hallstatt in the distance?
Yes, there it is! We take a boat across the lake and land in Hallstatt. Yes, this is Instagram worthy.
As we check into our Hallstatt inn, we see that our room looks out over the Market Square with a view of the mountain and a waterfall. Easiest waterfall hunting ever!
Our first day of hiking from Hallstatt begins with taking the cable car at the edge of town. Up we go.
The cable car ends fairly close to a restaurant and the World’s oldest salt mine.
We were ready to learn the story of Hallstatt’s salt.
First, you have to get suited up to go in the mine
Then you join the whole group and march right into the mine to begin the tour.
A salt mine is a difficult place to take a good picture – but, it was something to see – we learned a lot about salt. And, as we say about many places we go in Europe:
”You could never do this in the US; trip hazards, rough surfaces, uneven stairs, and poor lighting.”
Andy takes the “miner’s exit” A slide!
The salt mine tour ends with a presentation about Europe’s Oldest Staircase which was found at this mine. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-staircase-of-Hallstatt-The-3100-years-old-staircase-is-8-m-long-and-120-wide-and_fig4_294885787
After the salt mine and a bite of lunch, we are back on the trail to town.
This route takes us past glacier fields and a waterfall.
Andy is coming back up the side trail after taking pictures of the Glacier Field
Here is one of his close-up pictures from the Glacier Field
From there it was off to the waterfall and back down the mountain into town.
The next day begins with a short trip to Obertraun and another cable car ride.
We are at the top of Krippenstein and walked over to the Five Fingers lookout. Hello clouds!
Andy takes in the view from the end of the middle finger.
This is what he sees.
As we walk along the ridge, the clouds lift and it is amazing.
The landscape on the back side of the mountain is completely different. Moonscape almost
“Candygram”
For some reason, which we do not know, there is a land shark on our path.
There was some confusion regarding how exactly we were supposed to come down from Krippenstein, but we did figure it out, had a great day’s walk, and made it back to Hallstatt before the sun went down.
Yes, take care of what you love.
Our last morning in Hallstatt. The sun has come out and it is time for breakfast on the lakeside terrace.
A very easy start to the day; we take a taxi to the next town of Gosau.
The driver drops us off at the head of lake Gosau for a day hike around the lake and up the hill to a hutte for lunch.
They said there would be waterfalls on this trail; there’s one now.
And another
We have climbed up from Lake Gosau to Hinterer Gosau – do you see the hutte across the lake? That’s our lunch and turn around spot.
A lovely day in a beautiful place.
The next day brings another cable car ride and more beautiful views await us.
The next two days have great weather. The rain from the past 5 days is over and temperatures are in the low 70’s. But, this weather conspired to challenge our last two hikes. Day 6 the trail is ruined by mud, and while the helpful folks at a hutte help us get on track -the cows came – to use the same trail. You can’t argue with a herd of cows.
There seems to be only one good way down this mountain – a ski slope that has been recently mowed.
Here we go! Just like skiing, we had to traverse side-to-side all the way down. Good thing we had our poles.
Our last hiking day begins with a riverside walk through town (Gosau) before we begin a climb around the three churches and into the woods on the hill.
It is just above the last church, the pink church, that we encounter a closed gate with this sign. No need checking our directions on this one – we are not going through the gate.
We decide to go up a small path to see if we can link up with the original trail on the other side of the target practice. It is there that we see this sign:
Roughly translating to: Detour Herenweg trail Landslide. Uh oh. We try another trail.
The new trail dead ends so we turn around, walk back to town, take the bus back to the cable car and go back up the mountain.
We spend our last hiking afternoon walking around the top of the Dachstein mountain taking in views in all directions.
And while we did not stop for a drink here at one of the three main huttes, you have to admit this is one nice view to go with your coffee or beer.
We return to the inn as tired hikers one last time. The next morning we are off to Salzburg.
Mirabell Gardens with the city fortress in the background.
We spent most of our time here going through the gardens, visiting the fortress, and then out to Hellbrun Palace and a visit to the Trick Fountains.
When you enter the Tricky Fountains area, they take your picture – we thought not too bad. 🙂 This picture has been linked to a ten minute video about Salzburg.
You can fast-forward to 6:30 on the timeline to learn more about the fountains specifically.
Yes, most visitors do get wet!

With this, our ten days were over. Time to head back to Amsterdam.

But I still have Do Ri Mi from The Sound of Music stuck in my head, and I found no place in this posting to use it – so I am ending this posting with it anyway. This is a video of a flash mob performing to the song at the beautiful Antwerp train station. I dare you not to at least smile if you watch it. Happy trails!

6 thoughts on “Blog 67 – The hills are alive with the sound of … Cowbells!”

  1. Linda, this may be the most exciting, beautiful, and fun blog to date. I’m glad you guys have stayed in good shape to take advantage of such beauty by hiking through these picturesque areas. Thanks for sharing all this beauty.

  2. Looks like a fairy tale adventure! Love the pictures! You look fabulous! Thank you for sharing. Hope to see you soon. I have moved to Arizona (yikes)!
    Kathy

  3. Absolutely fabulous !!!! You guys are certainly living an awesome life. Continue and enjoy.

    Much love.
    Vicki

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