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.
The bus dropped us off at Gosausee, the lake region just south of Gosau, & THIS was the first view we had…
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 lake 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…
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.
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.
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 very 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.
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. Aghhhhh…for the love of pastries. 🙂
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.
In hindsight, we should have saved our legs & taken the bus (Eric estimated we walked a total of 12mi that day), but it was SUCH a pretty walk.
