Touring with Talia: Gastein and Hallein

One advantage to jet lag is that I wake up super early.   It's easier to take time to blog when the house is completely quiet.

For Talia and I, the next step in our European adventure included a couple nights in Austria's Gastein Valley.  I'd booked a place without knowing much about the area besides that it looked mountainous and had some thermal spas.  Full of ski resorts in the winter, I imagined it would be nice for hiking in the summer.

We took the more scenic route there through winding roads and stunning mountain passes.  I would have been delighted to stop and stay in any number of places, but when we finally pulled up to our little parking spot, it felt like we'd found the best of them all.

Talia and I had a large room on the bottom level of an old farmhouse, complete with a lovely balcony and access to a huge kitchen.

The best part, of course, was the view.

The steep mountain slope made it difficult to get a good picture of the front of the house, but here's a picture of a similar farm home that we passed on the way in.

Talia heard the jingling of cow bells and went outside to find to two young calves in a small enclosure.  Annika would have run right through the electric fence to hug them.  Then Talia's phone slipped out of her hand and rolled all the way down the hill!  Can you spot it in this photo?  Here's a hint--it's to the right of the tree.

Not wanting to miss the beautiful evening, we drove into Bad Gastein for a stroll.  (I'd originally hoped to follow this five mile loop trail, but the light ran out.)

The Gastein Valley is known for its healing alpine waters, many of which come straight from this roaring waterfall.

Yeah, I could live here forever.

As we continued on our journey, we discovered this Elisabethquelle--the source of healing thermal waters that were used by the Empress Elisabeth (Sisi).  Talia was surprised to feel that the waters were so warm!  Bad Gastein and Bad Hofgastein both have extensive thermal pools for guests to visit.  Is anybody surprised that Talia and I spent so much time hiking that we didn't have time to bathe and relax?  Fair warning that vacationing with me usually involves far more adventure than repose.

Getting close up to the falls.  Our trail was called Wasserfallweg--wonder why.

Can't blame Talia for having enough of all the pictures.  In my defense, there weren't many other family members around to photograph.

The next morning we set out on a hike with some specific criteria in mine.  I wanted to visit a mountain alm, Talia wanted to swim in a mountain lake, and we both wanted a trail significant enough to be considered an adventure.  Mission accomplished!

Perusing a guidebook about the Gastein Trail, we decided go on a one-way adventure from ski resort Angertal to a different resort called Sportgastein.  Alltrails lists it as 8.1 miles.  Be warned: Alltrails lies.  By the time we were done, I'd clocked 11.2 miles with 3,934 feet of elevation gain.  (A half mile of that can be attributed to my inability to read a map.) Worth every step!

I was delighted to discover that our trail was also known as the Salzburger Almenweg, as the Gastein Valley is in the province of Salzburg.  (In case anyone needs more proof that Salzburg is the best.)  We passed a few of these adorable benches on the way.

We also found some of the most adorable (albeit poisonous) mushrooms.

30 more minutes to our alm!  (High mountain pasture.)

I love this sign with its encouragement: "Es ist nimmer weit"--it's not far away,

Crossing the barbed wire fence.

At last, our alm!  The cool, fresh water felt so good!

A refuge for hikers, backpackers, and mountain bikers, the alm offers high mountain refreshment.  There were multiple groups relaxing with a beer at 11 in the morning, but Talia and I opted for ice cream instead.  Plus, we purchased some of their homemade cheese to take with us on our journey.

We would have liked to stay and relax longer, but we knew that we had many miles left to go on our journey.  At least a cute chicken kept Talia company on our way out, running along right beside her.  

Continuing on our journey.

Whether on trees or stones, the path was always well-marked by these painted stripes.  (Red-white-red is also the Austrian flag.)

At one point in the journey, I told Talia that I thought a fence was electric and then touched it to make sure.  It was.  Can't really rationalize that decision--perhaps it was the high altitude and lack of oxygen to the brain...

At last we made it Miesbichlscharte (say that three times fast), our high point at 2237 meters.

On the other side of the pass we were greeted with tremendous views of the other side of the valley.  These alpine mountains were even taller than the first with lovely patches of snow.  To celebrate, Talia and I sat down and ate the tastiest Rainbow Salad we've ever had.  Why does everything taste so much better when you are hiking?

We even collected a hiking stamp that we put in our Gastein Trail guide.

From this point, it was all downhill--thank heavens!

Before long, we could see the beautiful Bockhartsee, or Lake Bockhart.  My phone ran out of battery right now, so I don't have photos of us walking all around, nor of us swimming in the clear alpine waters.  Let's just say that it was as wonderful as it sounds.  Bucket list accomplished!

After our swim, we booked it out of there because we knew we needed to take a bus back but didn't know exactly when the last bus would come.  Thankfully we made it down to Sport Gastein resort around 5:10, with enough time to catch the last bus at 5:30.  So glad we didn't miss it: according to Google Maps, it would have taken us 65 hours and 271 kilometers to walk home!  (Their route literally takes you around all the mountains instead of up and over on the trail.

Fortunately the bus was able to drop us off quite close to our Airbnb.  It was too late to take a second bus up to pick up our car from the trailhead, so we just stayed close at home and relaxed, ate dinner, washed laundry, and watched an epic storm roll in.

The next morning was still overcast when I took the bus up to fetch our car.

The mountains were calling, but we had to check out of our place by ten so it was back down into the valley for breakfast.

It's barely over an hour drive from the Gastein Valley to the city of Salzburg, so Talia and I stopped off in Hallein to experience the Salzwelten.  Salt mining has been happening here for 7000 years!

The tour gave us awesome jumpsuits to wear, then we got to board a wooden log/train to take us deep into the mountain.

Wishing everyone "Glückauf"--the Salt Miner's greeting.

While there are three different salt mines that you can visit in the Salzkammergut area, I think this one is particularly fun because you literally cross into a different country from inside the mountain.  Here we are crossing the border between Austria and Germany.

During the tour we got to learn all about the history, ride a boat across a salt lake (funny for us), and sample the brine.  At the deepest point of the tour, there is a skyscraper's worth of mountain on top of you.  The pressure is so great that the galleries lose 1.5 centimeters of height every year.  I tried hard not to think too hard about that one--you start to feel claustrophobic.

Everyone's favorite part is the miners' slides.  We liked it so much that we even bought the picture.

Back across the border into Österreich.

Thanks to Brianna for recommending the Salzwelt Tour!  With so many fun things to do in the area, we might have driven right by.  It was a great way to wrap up our journey before heading into the city of Salzburg.