A beautiful mountain trip to reach the Grossglockner. Trip across Austria

content:
photos:
Vote this travel review

Brief tour of Austria, not defined at the start, the legendary Grossglocknerhochenalpenstrasse single fixed goal, the road to Grossglockner.
After the first stop in San Candido, we stop to eat in Sillian, where you can experience Austria and beer, eat goulash with knodeln. Arrived in the area of Lienz, quick detour to the valley until Matrei then try to sleep in Winklern. In Austria, the welcome is legendary, every house rent rooms and make you enter their homes and in their lives .. In the evening we visit Lienz, but it's a bit 'cold and the desire to turn into the ice cream and coffee Apfelstrudel.
Winklern continue in the valley below, looking for the cableway Molltaler Gletscher, find it is a business, the road climbs, comes at a big square, but do not see anything. People dress, wearing heavy shoes: where do they go? Finally we understand, the cable car is nothing but a funicular to the mountain, which rises 500 meters above sea level at a speed of 40-45 km / hour in a tunnel going uphill. The experience is strong. We go out in the mountains, there's hardly any vegetation and the people are gone. We walk for a couple of hours along the reservoirs and cold. In the afternoon we continue to Seeboden, a village lying on Miltstattersee, it's hot. Visit Spittal dul Drava river, but we are not convinced.
And 'the big day, stop in Heiligenblut, where the party Grossglocknerhochenalpenstrasse, you pay the entrance and then head towards the high peaks of Austria. The ride is about 50 km long, at the beginning there are wide bends, the road continues to climb up to 2500 meters. We stop in all the places staging reported, it is surprising to see how the glacier Pasterze is being gradually reduced. Walk up to amazing views, to the summit Edelweiss. Going back and the view goes green ed'azzurro, waterfalls and small glaciers in the distance. Dinner and overnight in Werfen.
Visit the castle of Werfen, the Hohenwerfenschloss, and finally show the Austrian Falconry with eagles and hawks.
Return to the valley, I decided to go and see the cave of ice, the Eisriesenberg. Need to take a bus to go to the cable car that will take us high up and here I discover by chance that the temperature inside the cave is 0 ° and the residence time inside is 75 '... ... sweaters and jackets. After 5-6 km with the van ... .. walk uphill for 20 'and reach the cable car, the tail is hallucinating after an hour going up and lunch is now gone. Taking up a path below the ridge of the mountain, we are at 2,000, and after another 20 'we are facing a huge hole, closed by an iron door from which cold air comes out every so often, we get into a freezer. We dress, we are given a lantern, we form a group of 50 people, the door opens, the impact with the cold air is terrible, dark, cold that penetrates everywhere .... the lights go out. We walk inside the ice cave. ... Start the steps, will climb and then 600 in the same down, the legs moving by themselves, the show is unique. We go to 25 ° of the exterior seem few. Appalled by the experience we continue to Salzburg.
We have already visited years before, walk through the Mirabell Gardens and along the Getreigasse, the road of Mozart.
Walk in the park of Hellbrunn and then we head towards the lake Mondsee, Wolfgangsee in the afternoon and the flower beds of Strobl. Evening in Bad Ischl, where there is the villa where he spent his holidays Francis Joseph.
And 'the day of return, the weather worsens. Last cable car at high altitude but there are too many clouds. We stop for lunch in a meadow sull'Haltstettersee, eat two "Bosna" sandwiches with sausage, onion, ketchup and mustard .... Go Austria.
Continue south along the Salzburgerdolomitenstrasse through gentle hills and green landscapes.
We have made many trips to Austria, every time a good experience.