Well I hate to leave this little slice of paradise. Given it’s beautiful setting I’d have to say it’s been my favorite stop so far on the trip (except for hanging out with Peter, Waltraut and Katrin).
I spent the morning doing this incredible hike through the hills behind Hallstatt. My B&B owner gave me a map for it, which helped a lot, but what was funny was the path started with a “Stations of the Cross” segment with all these little “churches” along the way (see pic). I swear I did not tell her about my church fix!
The whole trip (about 5 miles round trip) was half uphill and very wooded with a stream pretty much running beside me the whole way. So with the sound of the water rushing by and hardly anyone on the trail it was so peaceful. I saw several little waterfalls and it was cool in this one area where people had stacked all these stones. This was definitely an off the beaten path place (which I love) and there were only about 6 or so people around, mostly locals walking their dogs, thru the entire trip.
After that I took a brief break then took the bus over to the next lake over called Gosau See. While smaller that Hallstatt See, it may be a little more dramatic and definitely had much less people. It looked like it had a glacier at one end of it. There were people playing near the water’s edge and I first thought they were swimming since it was sunny and about 70 but as I got closer realized they weren’t. I’m guessing that water was chilly and it was crystal clear. Probably that pure alpine spring water they ship to us and we buy in those plastic bottles!
They had a nice FLAT! walkway all around the lake that was about 3 miles around that I walked. Very nice way to spend an afternoon.
I’ll leave you with a pic of a cute house in Hallstatt with a tree growing up the side and lots of flower boxes. That sums up the quaintness of Hallstatt.
I’m off to Melk in Austria tomorrow. TGIF to all!
Jeff
The Wandering Italian 