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.