Three deer are out for an early morning graze...
I take the car down into the valley to buy some rolls for breakfast. I buy some cake too for this afternoon. Then I go for a drive up the neighbouring valley whilst listening to Berlioz again...
By the time I return to the house, Anne is up and ready for breakfast. Today’s accompaniment is Beethoven’s Oboe Trios...
We leave the house at ten and this time head south towards Ebensee. Here we take the cable car up into the mountains – it’s an eight minute journey which makes the ears pop such is the steep climb. Yesterday there was an accident involving an Austrian cable car. A helicopter accidentally dropped its cargo onto a car which plummeted 200 metres to the ground. All the occupants were killed. We put this to the backs of our minds as we admire the spectacular views out over the Austrian Alps...
Once at the summit, we take a walk around. There are a few walkers up there but, once they’ve headed off into the distance, the silence is amazing...broken only by the occasional lowing and bells of a herd of cows nearby...
After 90 minutes, and again, much photography, we take the cable car back down the mountainside – it seems much higher up on the way down for some reason...
Back into the car, we drive to Halstatt, a World Heritage Site. It is quite simply gorgeous. A little town perched o the lakeside surrounded by steep mountains. Our intention was to drive on to the Dachstein mountain and some ice caves we’d read about there but Halstatt was too beautiful...
After lunch, during which I had the best gnocchi I’ve ever tasted, we walked around the little tow, had an ice-cream and considered hiring a motor boat. In the end we settled for a trip around the lake on larger boat purely as passengers...
It was very sunny and very hot...
The boat takes us right around the lake. If you travel to Halstatt by rain, the station is on the opposite side of the lake and so a boat ferries the passengers from the station to the tow...what a way to arrive...
As the sun disappears behind the mountains we drive back north to Traunkirchen and Anne reads about Linz – we’re planning a trip there towards the end of the week...
Back home we sit out on the balcony listening to some lady singer-songwriters and drinking win and beer before having an evening meal which consists of open toasted sandwiches and coffee – we’re leaving the cakes for tomorrow...
Once it gets a bit cooler we go back inside and find coverage of the U21 International between Germany and England – it ends in a 1-1 draw. England are dirty, Germany are skilful – Germany remain top of the group apparently....
Tomorrow we’ll be going up another mountain...
No comments:
Post a Comment