Written 25th May 2012
In the evening of the day we went rafting we ventured back to the castle above Bled to see if we could admire the view unimpeded by fog.
We got our wish and the view was very beautiful.
How did they build that thing up there? It's right on the cliff. It's amazing it hash;t crumbled into the lake yet!
Afterwards we didn't feel like going back to the hostel so we walked into town and had a look at the castle lit up from below.
We had an ice cream and a stroll before heading back to bed.
The next morning we were up bright and early (for once!) ready to drive to Austria. Lisa and Peter had told us about the Grossglockner High Mountain Road. So we decided to head in that direction, stay the night on the southern side of it and then drive over the road the following day and head towards Saltzburg.
Here are some photos of the beautiful scenery from the drive.
That wooden thing on the left is a giant rack that they hang the cut grass in to dry int hay.
Steve in our car.
When we got onto the road that goes from Slovenia to Austria we hit a little obstacle! The road was gone! So we had to turn back and go to Austria via Italy!
When we were nearly to where we were going we saw a pretty waterfall. So we decided to do the walk to it. It is called Maiden's Leap (in German). The story was that a long time ago there was a beautiful dairy maid and all the local blokes were keen on her but she wouldn't have any of them. Then one day the Devil himself decided he wanted her. But she wouldn't give up her virtue to him and she fled through the forest from him. But she came to a cliff! To protect her virginity she leapt from the cliff and landed safely in the pool at the bottom and ever since then the waterfall has been named Maiden's Leap. Probably if she wasn't such a good girl she would have dies in the story like the story we read the next day. You can hear it soon. :)
There was a nice view from up there and we could hear the cows bells ringing in the fields opposite us. It has been nice to see cows again! (You wouldn't think you would miss them.) They tend to have light colored cows here though rather than black and white. Peter said that the black and white normally produce more milk but the light colored ones can better withstand the cold.
When we came back down again we decided to follow another track on the other side of the waterfall. It came out at about the level of the platform and we climbed up next to the waterfall until we were getting a bit too wet. So we ventured back into the forest again and found our way back to a track.
We followed it and followed it and it was really steep but we wanted to find out what was at the top of the track. Eventually when we made it we were greeted by a pretty little clearing with a hunting hut in it.
Then we made our way back down the steep incline and back to the car. Down was hard on my knee because I hurt in Australia and it has still not come right. I bought a brace for it which helps a bit though.
When we got down we looked at this map to see where we went. You can see the clearing where the hut was. If you look in the middle of the picture and then go don slightly and to the right slightly you can see a green patch and that is where the hut was.
Then we drove to Heiligenblut which is the last town on the southern side of the High Alpine Road. It is at 1301m. It was a big hostel but we were the only people staying there! We ordered dinner at a local restaurant and had a relaxing evening. In the morning we got up to a delicious breakfast just for us!
And this was the view from the window.
We wanted to get on the road early. Here is our hostel and in the background is the cute pointy roofed church.
It began to rain on the way up the mountain. We payed the fee for using the road (32 Euro) and continued on up.
And it began to rain even harder!
Everything was really soggy up there. Even the view!
But it was still very beautiful.
We drove up to the Grossglockner which is the highest mountain in Austria. It is 3798m at the top but the road does not go all the way up there. You can have a look at the road website at www.grossglockner.at . The road opens in May and they use big machines to clear the snow. In the old days they used to use 300+ men to clear it and it used to take 80 days or something like that!
When we got up there it was raining and all the flogs were hanging soggily from their polls.
So we decided to look in the museum. It was really cool and had exhibitions about the mountain and also the road (which was opened in 1930) and also on the history of cars. They were all really interesting. Steve was much faster than me as usual because I always want to read everything. Haha!
Here are some pictures Steve took from in the car exhibition.
After that we went outside to look at the glacier. It is called Franz-Josefs-Hohe.
You could hear the ice or snow cracking which was really quite surreal.
And we read a story about the mountains in the area. It goes like this. One day there was a fellow who was blaspheming the church and was having a big party with his mates and they were using balls of cheese to nock down skittle made of some other food product. Then an old woman came and was begging to have on of the balls of cheese but they would't give one to her. So she was all angry and made a premonition that a big storm would come and get them all. Then she shuffled off. A while later the storm did come and they all set off in different directions through the mountains. But the storm froze them all and now the mountains where they froze are named after them. Even the vengeful old woman was frozen and has a mountain named after her. See what I mean about the good maiden story?
Next we tried to spot a Marmot but we couldn't see any - they must have all been hiding from the rain.
We headed back down the mountain road after a hot drink and stopped at this nice place.
The waterfall here has healing powers (because of how the air is disturbed and infused with water particles or something scientific like that.) They have done studies there in the summer with asthma sufferers and have had massive improvements by exposing them to this waterfall. I wonder if other waterfalls work too? It was not running heaps because it was still too frozen.
We drove down a bit more.
And then back up!
It was pretty spectacular scenery even though it was cloudy.
We had to go through a tunnel.
And emerged on the other side to more snow.
And some fog. Can you see that this part of the road is still cobbles?! Imagine building that! This is when we went up to visit Edelweiss Spitze. But unfortunately it was too foggy to see anything up there.
We drove down the other side and admired yet more stunning scenery. We really like Austria!
You can see in some places where there has been avalanche damage!
Then we headed for Saltzburg. The motorway goes by massive mountains too.
We passed by Salzburg and found our way to Thalgau where Lisa and Peter live. (Lisa was my an exchange student who stayed with my family and was my host sister for a year from mid 1996 to mid 1997.)
I was so excited to see Lisa and Peter too when he arrived home from work a bit later!
We had a nice night just chatting and playing logo quiz on the iPad with Peter when Lisa had to do a bit of work. Peter was really good at it. :)
Then we had a lovely sleep in a comfy soft bed.
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