Europe, Slow travel, Travel Diary, Trip Planning

A Tale of Two Towns

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Our last full day in Obertraun began with lots of rain, so hiking was out of the question. Lucky for us, there were lovely towns all around us for the picking & at our innkeeper’s suggestion we visited Bad Ischl & Bad Goisern.

green iron bridge over river in Bad Ischl Austria
Bad Ischl

In German, bad means bath so if you see it before a town name it’s safe to assume it’s a spa town & will either have hot springs or mineral water lakes nearby. In other words, you should visit.

tree lined river walk in Bad Ischl Austrai

Bad Ischl was the largest town in the region. It was only a 30min train ride from Obertraun & SOOO worth the trip! The Traun River meandered beautifully through town & there were several good shopping options. We tried our first Berliner (German version of a donut filled with fruit jam or chocolate & dusted with powdered sugar). Mmmmm…

woman eating a Berliner donut in Austria

We really shouldn’t have eaten the Berliner because we had been informed that we MUST eat at Cafe Zauner & we MUST order pastries there. So of course we did & GREAT JEHOSHAPHAT that place was a dessert lover’s paradise!  We walked in, picked out our decadence of choice then sat down in luxury. I felt like an aristocrat, despite my hiking boots & dripping raincoat.

If you visit Cafe Zauner, please note that you pick out your dessert first, they give you a ticket, you pick out your own table, then a waiter brings your dessert and takes the rest of your order. In case you missed that…you order dessert FIRST! #LOVETHISPLACE

Bad Goisern

After gorging ourselves on pastries, we hopped on the train heading back towards Obertraun & stopped at Bad Goisern along the way. Bad Goisern was smaller than Bad Ischl, with a meandering river running through the town & gorgeous mountain views all around. If we ever visit this region again, we’d consider staying here because it had good shopping & dining but never felt touristy. We went specifically for their Hand Werk Haus, a shop for local artisans that also had a little museum. I splurged on a beautiful hand-sewn jacket.

One last image to leave you with: both towns had little free libraries in old phone booths. LOVED it!

red phonebooth library in Austria
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Europe, Hiking, Slow travel, Travel Diary, Trip Planning, Walking Holidays

Gosausee…See it to Believe it

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woman standing next to an alpine lake in Austria

There are some places that just have to be seen in person to be believed. Gosausee Austria is one of them.

Day 6 of our two week sojourn in Austria & Germany gave us one of the prettiest hikes we’ve experienced so far. Having spent the previous day on an easy hike & lounging around, we were ready for something a little more challenging (but not TOO challenging as I wasn’t sure how my knee would hold up). Our innkeeper Larry swore that Gosausee was one of the prettiest hikes in the region, with a breathtaking view at the midpoint of the loop.

Trusting Larry’s sage advice, we sprinted downhill to catch the “5 past 9 bus.” Larry told us everything we’d need to know about what bus to take & when to hop off & get on another one, so it was fairly easy. What took us by surprise was that we were the only non-Chinese people on the bus. Seeing that one of the couples was staying at the same inn as us, we attempted a stilted conversation & that’s how we found out that it was a national Chinese 10-day holiday. The nearby town of Hallstatt is a Unesco World Heritage site, so it’s very attractive to Chinese tourists who like to check off that “I’ve been here” list. Hence why we heard more Mandarin that day than German.

car driving narrow road around Gosausee Austria

The bus dropped us off at Gosausee, the lake region just south of Gosau, & THIS was the first view we had…

people standing by Gosausee Lake Austria

I promise I didn’t Photoshop this image in any way, the sky & water were really that clear. And that’s just the viewpoint! The natural beauty just got better & better as we began the 7.5mi loop around two lakes. Crystal clear water to our left, towering mountains ahead & to our right, with glimpses of pristine forest in between…wow! It reminded me of the Cascades region of Washington, only with more layers & quirky tidbits such as death plaques & drinking troughs.

Happily frolicking past lake, meadow & forest, Eric & I thought it was a cakewalk of a hike until we rounded the first lake & began a slowly misleading trek upward. By the time we realized how steep the climb would be, we were silently cursing Larry for saying “it’s just a wee steep”…until we reached the second lake & saw this…

alpine lake Gosausee Austria

THIS view was why Larry told us to take that hike, & I promise you that the photo doesn’t do it justice. A photo simply cannot capture the 360 view all around you. It can’t relay the sounds, & the smell, & the feel of crisp autumn air.

mountains with snow at Gosausee Austria

Eric & I stopped there for awhile, just sitting in silence & munching on trail snacks. The walk back around the opposite side of the first lake was just as pretty & I was disappointed to see the trail end.

woman hiking Gosausee Austria with fall leaves

Since we still had plenty of daylight left & my knee was cooperating, we decided to stop in Hallstatt on our way back to the inn. Had we listened to our innkeeper, we could have taken a different bus route & gotten there quicker…but we’re not always the sharpest tools in the shed…so we took the very first bus that came along & ended up waiting for 45min at a transitional stop. Which was fine in retrospect, because it afforded us the opportunity to watch a group of school kids hop off the bus to pee in the woods AND to observe a bus driver patiently wait for a very old Chinese man to stop & take a toilet break as well. Our faith in Austrian bus drivers was redeemed that day.

Hallstatt was gorgeous & one of the most unique places we’ve visited. The town was small (you could walk it in less than 30min) & it was built in layers, sandwiched between hills & a lake. Some of the buildings were built into the rock wall & there was a funicular (cable car) that took people up the mountain to the salt mines (which were the heart & wealth of this area for centuries). We enjoyed pastries at Maislinger Backerei & Konditorei, where the poor worker got stung by a bee while reaching for my strudel, informed us she was allergic, stopped to take medicine while we watched her finger swell, then promptly returned to her customers.

Maislinger backerei & konditorei in Hallstatt Austria

Have I mentioned that bees were in every pastry shop we went to in Austria & Germany? Or that my husband is deathly allergic to bees/wasps/hornets & carries an Epi pen with him at all times? He couldn’t BELIEVE someone would work in one of those bakeries with an allergy like that. Ahhhhh…for the love of pastries.

church and buildings of Hallstatt Austria

With more time, we would have toured the salt mine & walked what is supposedly a very pretty loop trail from the salt mines that takes you past waterfalls & great views of the valley below. But alas, the sun was setting & quite honestly, I was tired of the hundreds of tourists constantly fashion posing & poking me with their selfie sticks. Plus, we had to get back for dinner at 7pm…couldn’t miss one of Larry’s glorious dinners! Our plan was to take a boat across the lake, but we missed the last one & didn’t want to wait for a bus. So, we walked the 3mi around the lake, through the little village of Winkl, & on to Haus Hepi…with exactly 30min to spare before dinner.

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Europe, Hiking, Slow travel, Travel Diary, Walking Holidays

Walking the Koppenwinkl Loop

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river view while hiking Koppenwinkl Trail in Austria

In my last post, I waxed poetic about how Obertraun Austria is a mecca for hiking, which is why our intent was to hike every day that we were there. Unfortunately I was reminded once again that my 37 year old body is more like a 77 year old body…it can’t just keep going without rest. The RA kicked in by day 5 and my legs were shot. I had taken a muscle relaxer the previous night so I was also dopey when we woke up to a dreary rainy day. So we opted for a shorter route close by, the Koppenwinkl loop trail which took about 3 hours.

river and mist shrouded mountains on Koppenwinkl Trail

The Koppenwinkl trail followed the Traun river & began & ended in Obertraun. The advantage of rainy weather is that we got beautiful soft images and had the trail to ourselves.

fall foliage along river on Koppenwinkl Trail in Austria

Once we crossed the river, our walk became more wooded & we began to see moss covered rocks & a closer view of the mountain.

mist covered mountain on Koppenwinkl Trail in Austria

Once we passed through a meadow, we appeared to be heading away from the water but then we reached a swiftly moving stream, a barnyard & the Koppenwinklalm (lake). I wasn’t much impressed by the lake (looked murky to me, like a place Grendel’s mom might live) but I’ve been told it’s magical in the winter.

Along the trail we noticed memorials, which honor someone who died in that spot. Some were quite old & my favorites depicted how the person actually died.

death memorial sign on Koppenwinkl Trail

It may not have been the longer trail which we had planned, but the Koppenwinkl loop certainly did not disappoint. I spent the rest of that day in a drug induced stupor while Eric enjoyed sitting in his Poang chair sipping espresso, eating cookies & reading. Not a bad day after all.

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