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.
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.
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…
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
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 smaller 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!
