Austria is beautiful! Everywhere you look there are mountains or hills, dotted with picturesque towns, pastures, lakes and churches. In autumn the colours are incredible.  Starting with the dark blue lakes, and moving along to the bright green pastures, up the hill to the orange/yellow/red/dark green trees on the hillsides, up further past the bare rock to the fresh white snow on top, and we were lucky that above the hilltops everyday was clear blue skies and bright yellow sun.

We spent most of our time enjoying this beautiful scenery, walking every day in the hills, with a brief stop to experience some culture in Hallstatt and Salzburg. Our last three days were spent in Vienna as we had friends visiting from the UK, and visited some friends who now live in there.

The route: Villach – Gailtal Alps – Grossglockner High Alpine Pass – Zell am See – Eisriesenwelt Ice Caves – Filzmoos – Hallstatt – Salzburg –  Mondsee – Melk – Vienna

Mountains

Gailtal Apls – A wonderful first hike in Austria. Our walk was meant to start from Dolomitenhutte, a mountain hut up at the top of a toll road. After taking Scooby a little way up the very steep narrow ‘road’ at the base of the hill, I decided enough was enough and we parked him before the toll road began and hiked the rest. It meant we didn’t quite have time to reach our final destination before dark but starting in the mountain pastures was really nice. We worked our way up towards the shear rock tops where the bright yellow of the trees clashed amazingly with the bare grey cliffs.

Grossglockner High Apline Pass – This day was equal parts terrifying and stunning. RAC described the mountain road as ‘a magnificent test of man and machine’. Well Scooby and our nerves were certainly tested. Before we even got to the toll where the road officially starts, Scooby had climbed 700 meters and had almost over heated, so we had to take a rest by the side of the road for a while. We debated whether this was a ridiculous idea, but Scooby cooled down while we chilled out and we decided to press on. Graham drove it all, I found it hard enough being a passenger. But once we stopped at the many rest places it was always worth it. Incredible views of freshly snow covered mountains all around. We managed a few short walks but snow cover had already closed some areas. Scooby reached the top at 2504 meters above sea level!!! He then failed to start again….. Not sure why but he just kept stalling. There was a slight incline on the parking area, maybe he was knackered, maybe the altitude?! We decided to try and reduce the load so Graham stood at the side with various heavy water carriers and finally Scooby managed to start, and we were off again… once Graham joined us up the hill carrying our water supply. The way down also had many stops to rest the brakes. At one stop we could see 6 glaciers! Once at the bottom we immediately parked for the night and drank some beer to settle our nerves.

Eisriesenwelt Ice Caves – A very ‘cool’ experience. To get to the cave you have to drive up a narrow pass. We decided after Grossglockner to leave Scooby at the bottom and get the shuttle bus. There is then a walk, an incredibly speedy cable car and a further walk to the top, all offering great views. The cave at the top is the biggest ice cave in the world. They don’t use any artificial electric lighting, so we were given small gas lights to guide the way. We walked on small and extremely steep wooden stairs through walls of ice which in areas were 25 meters thick.

Filzmoos – This was my favourite day. We walked from 11am – 7pm, covered around 13 miles and around 700meters of elevation. The walk started in a town along a stream, then gently climbed through woods, up into green hill pastures, past a very lively mountain hut, round a small but beautiful lake, and up until we were alone, walking along the bottoms of the steep cliffs at the top. The views in the distance were insane, rows and rows of snow topped mountains.

Lakes

Here are some photos of the three lakes we went to. Zell am See a large lake at the base of a ski resort, nice scenery around but the lake didn’t have the wow factor I was expecting. Maybe because it was somewhere on the wish list for a while so my expectations were too high. Hallsatt See was beautiful, clear water and steep hills all around gave it a fjord-like feel. We had a lovely kayak in the sunshine and the following morning I braved the cold waters for a refreshing autumn swim. We had a brief stop at Mondsee on route to Vienna. A small town with a famous sound of music church which sits on one side of the lake and gentle hills around the rest.

Towns

Hallsatt – What a strange place! There is lots of hype around this little town. The town has 800 residents and gets around 1 million tourist a year! Its so popular with Chinese tourists that they have even built a replica in China. Yes, it is a pretty village and a very pretty lake. But if you travel around Austria you will see many houses of similar architecture and much nicer surrounding hills. We spent a peaceful day kayaking and decided to go to the town in the evening when we thought it might have quietened down. We were wrong, there were still coach loads of tourists. I wanted to enjoy the village but the main thing I took away from it was how incredibly self-obsessed people are. Unfortunately, we have seen this lots when travelling, but nowhere quite like Hallsatt. No one seems to be looking at the scenery everyone is just taking selfie after selfie, slightly rearranging their hair, slightly different pout, sunglasses on, sunglasses off and then repeat in a different area. If you don’t like crowds and you aren’t obsessed with Instagram I personally wouldn’t bother going.

Salzburg – beautiful city (more like large town) situated either side of the gorgeous blue Salzach river and surrounded by hills. The predominant architecture is baroque with large white and pastel coloured buildings giving the city a very clean and open feel. There are many impressive churches and wide open squares. If, like Graham, you’re a fan of Sound of Music then you can also have fun spotting the film backdrops.

Vienna – We had a lovely weekend in Vienna because two of my oldest friends Harriet and Georgi visited us. We spent our first morning in the natural history museum, a beautiful building with some very well-preserved exhibits but not quite enough interpretation or education. Lunch was at Naschmarkt, which seems predominantly owned by the same falafel chain. In the afternoon we covered all the sights in central Vienna (from the outside, unless free to go in) scession building, opera house, cathedral, the river, all the squares, Spanish riding school, the library, museum quarter and the town hall. Day two we met for a walk around Schonbrunner palace grounds, we also walked around Belvedere palace, went to see the funky Hundertwasserhaus, scootered around Jesuitenwiese park and over the other side of the river and strolled along new daunbe. We had some great suggestions from a friend on places to eat and drink so very much enjoyed that side of Vienna. The city reminded us of London but on a small scale (with a much cleaner and efficient transport system). In our opinion Vienna is missing the cute old town feel of a lot of other European capitals we visited. There’s no narrow cobbled streets to explore and get lost in and we didn’t find a quirky independent quarter to wander around. Most of its attractions are very expensive to go in, so the city doesn’t suit the budget traveller. We finished our trip with a visit to an old university friend and spent a lovely afternoon catching up with her, her husband, their dog and their very cute 6 month old baby girl. Thanks for the hospitality Fani! A lovely way to end our visit to Austria.