Month: July 2022

When I set out to visit Austria, I had all the places in mind that we had visited as kids. Maybe seeing those places now with adult eyes would be interesting? As I was looking for my next stop after Innsbruck (or rather Mutters, see the previous post for details), I noticed that I would in most cases have to change trains in Jenbach. And that lies just below the Achensee, which a colleague had strongly recommended to me. So, I looked for a place to stay there for a bit and found a hotel in Pertisau.

Fjord in the Alps

Prior to staying there for two nights, I had never heard of the Achsensee, which is the largest lake in Tyrol. It sits on almost 1000 meter of elevation and is almost 9 kilometers long. Apparently it’s 133 meter deep at some points. What really makes it special though, is how it’s nestled between two mountain ranges. Compared to other spots in Austria, what makes the big difference here is that in summer you can not only hike in the mountains, but also have a wide variety of activities in and on the water to choose from. Beach vacation surrounded by mountains? Check. That probably explains the popularity of the place. It was definitely a bit odd to see that Pertisau pretty much consists of nothing but hotels and appartment houses.

Originally I had booked only one night (as this was the only availability online on the previous evening), but luckily could extend it by one more. To make the most of my 2 days, I immediately went for a hike along the lake on the first afternoon. While the Eastern side is disturbed by a street, the Western side is only accessible by boat or via a narrow trail that hugs the mountain side. I especially enjoyed crossing the small bridges and passing underneath a small waterfall that had been redirected with an improvised wooden roof. About halfway along the lake is the Gaisalm, where I had a drink and then waited for the ship to take me back. It’s quite unexpected to have a proper cruise line setup here, but it makes sense and is very convenient.

On the next day and I wanted to go back up into the mountains, so I took the Karwendel cable car up to the “Zwölferkopf”, one of the peaks surrounding Pertisau. I didn’t feel up to hiking all the way up, but had found a nice path around the area up top and then back down into the village. It provided plenty of beautiful panoramas of the lake and the mountain range. And the path down even had three small tunnels.

Königsleiten

On Sunday I left Pertisau and made my way back down the hill to Jenbach. Here I boarded the Ziller valley train (“Zillertalbahn“) to Zell am Ziller and from there took a bus up the mountains to Königsleiten. As I mentioned, we had been in Austria fairly often as children and Königsleiten was our default winter holiday location for years. However, this was over 20 years ago. So, I was curious to see if I would recognize anything going back there now. And also how big the difference would be to see it in summer rather than covered in snow.

In the end I definitely recognized some things, e.g. the street that leads into the village and the mountain on the opposite side of the valley (“Hochkrimml”, another village I know from the past). But 20 years is a lot of time and of course there have been plenty of changes. It was a very nice experience anyway and I enjoyed my time there, strolling through the village and trying to figure out if I really recognize something or whether my mind is just trying to make things fit.

I stayed two nights and for the full day I was there I had two options: Go up the mountain and check out what I only knew as a skiing area or hike to the waterfalls in Krimml, which apparently are the sixth highest in the world. In the end I decided on the former, because it was more convenient and more flexible as I didn’t have to rely on a bus to take me there and back again. I took the Königsleiten cable car, which didn’t exist 20 years ago. Back then there was only a chair lift. I explored the area and it was fun to see how different it is. Not only due to the changes that had happened over time, but also to see it green and populated by lots of cows.

After walking up to the peak and exploring some other panorama spots, I took a trail back down to the village. This was absolutely gorgeous as it took me over to another peak and then along a ridge slowly (and sometimes more steeply) down and around the mountain. With over 2000 meter of elevation, it was the highest up I had been on this trip and being above the treeline was a nice change of pace. (Luckily it was fairly cloudy, so the sun was very bearable.) I enjoyed seeing the vegetation change as I reached lower altitudes and trees started taking over.

Wrap Up

After my two nights in Königsleiten were over, I made my way back to Berlin. There were some things I had to take care of at home, I had noticed a certain lack of energy in myself (and in my camera’s batteries) and I felt quite happy with what I got to see and do. It’s always a good idea to end on a high note and that’s definitely the case.

I enjoyed my time in Nürnberg and in Tyrol a lot. It worked out very well and I’m honestly very surprised how easy it was to get around with public transport, even to very remote places. I took a bit of a gamble booking my stops spontaneously and while it created the sense of freedom, I also did not particularly enjoy having to do so much planning every other day, because it lead to more screen time than I had aimed for.

All in all I’m very happy with my decisions not to visit larger cities. Even though I’m definitely interested to see Vienna and Salzburg at some point, I already noticed during my day in Innsbruck that I wasn’t really looking for that on this trip. So, staying in villages and hiking in the mountains was perfect. However, for this kind of vacation, it would probably have been easier to pick a spot and stay there for longer rather than moving around every 2 or 3 days. This way I got to see different places and that was great, but I think next time I will pick one area and explore it more thoroughly.

Photos

There are over 200 photos on my memory card now and I already sorted and whittled them down to about 70 or so that I find tolerable. A few of them are already contained in this post and some more can be found in the “Discovering Austria” album in my photo blog.

Nürnberg

After I arrived in Nürnberg, I took my usual walk through the city: without a clear plan, just going where it looked interesting. This is how I usually approach any new city. My walk lead me all over the old city and up to the Imperial Castle (“Kaiserburg”). It is surrounded by many parks and gardens, which provided some urgently needed shade on a very hot day.

Nürnberg is definitely worth a visit. Many old buildings, a lot of history to discover and a very active vibe are the main points I noticed.

On the second day I was looking for a way to survive the heatwave that swept across Europe. So, I spontaneously decided to visit the zoo (“Tierpark”). This turned out quite well as large parts of it are in a forest. The biggest surprise for me was that they also have a lot of focus on water animals, including a big artificial lagoon with dolphins and seals! At the end of the day I strolled once more through the old city.

Towards Innsbruck

For the next leg of my journey I traveled towards Innsbruck. Going by train through the Alps is something quite special, when the landscape slowly changes and you can no longer see into the distance. My destination was a small town called Mutters, just a little outside (and above!) Innsbruck. I had decided against staying in the city and on my trip there it became clear that I had made the right decision.

I was quite impressed how easy this place could be reached with public transport. From Innsbruck main station it was a 10 minute walk (or a quick bus ride) to the station of the Stubai Valley Train (“Stubaitalbahn”), which is actually a normal tram, but it slowly winds its way upwards towards various villages. My hotel was actually just a 5 minute walk from one of the stations. Super convenient!

First Taste of Mountain Air

After a small walk on the first day to explore the village, I took the cable car (“Muttereralmbahn“) the next day, which brought me from about 800 meters above sea level to 1500. From there I hiked along the “Innsbrucker Almenweg” to the “Birgitzer Alm” on 1840 meters. I chose this route, because it was advertised as being mostly a forest path. Perfect for a very hot day. Initially I thought I had made a huge mistake, because the path was quite wide, fenced in and a bit boring. After a while, however, it turned into a proper hiking trail as I had hoped for. It was quite exhausting for me, but felt equally rewarding in the end. It was exactly what I had hoped for.

Tyrol’s Capital

The second day I spent down in the valley in Innsbruck. It’s an interesting city. There are a lot of narrow streets with old and beautiful house there. It also felt very busy to me in general, but also especially in the more touristy parts, which were very crowded. On the lookout for something fun to do I decided to take the “Hungerburgbahn“, which connects the inner city directly with a part of the city that lies several hundred meters higher. It’s a curious contraption and a nice small adventure by itself.

One of the stops is the Alps Zoo (“Alpenzoo“). So, I gave that a try as well and enjoyed it. It’s a very interesting concept to have a zoo on the side of a mountain. They made full use of that and created very unique enclosures with viewing points from different angles, all connected with sometimes quite steep pathways. The most unique thing about this zoo is, however, that they only have local wildlife there, no exotic animals. The focus is clearly on educating people about what’s around them already and, of course, to raise awareness that nature needs to be protected. I especially enjoyed the wildcats, which I had never really seen before.

It took me a little over two hours to see everything and afterwards I went all the way up to Hungerburg and had initially planned to go all the way up to Hafelekar (which they call “Top of Innsbruck”), but it was a cloudy day and there would not have been much to see up there. So, instead I returned to the inner city, got dinner and then made my way back to the hotel.

It should not be a surprise at all, but it still amazes me every time how long a week can stretch when you’re staying active. This only covered the first half of the week, so I’ll add a second part for the other half later.