Austria - zwei

In the second week we took a journey to Salzburg outskirts to the Grossglockner High Alpine Road.

This is real Top Gear ground with hairpin bends, climbing roads and spectacular views.  There were lots of motorbikes and more than a few nutters on bicycles!  We stopped to talk to one German cyclist who said this was his third adventure on the roads, this time with a proper light weight road bike, not like the clumpy old mountain bike he had used twenty years before.  The endorphins were obviously rushing around as he was a very smiley man!

This was a photo taken at the highest point on the road at 2571m.  (This was a moment I was glad to be the quiet wife as my hubby managed to fit our car into the tiniest space in a very busy car park so I could take a photo for my blog!)

Heart- shaped snow!

We travelled on to the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Hohe Visitor Centre, where you park up and get to see Austria's biggest mountain the Grossglockner 3798m with its impressive glacier.

From the top here, where the boys are standing, you can see what look like ants dotted about, only to realise they are of course people.

With the enthusiasm of very ignorant tourists we set off along the very rough and rocky paths down to the glacier.

After lots of walking, tripping, sliding we got to the bottom of the path and stopped for a breather to look at the spectacular glacier.....Hubby was feeling very disappointed that walking further was going to be too much for all of us, but after saying well lets try a bit more, we ventured down onto the glacier.

Foolish probably looking back, but what an experience...truly awe inspiring, one of those never forget moments.  The walk back up was one of those too....it was gruelling, I was near tears, the boys did all have their moments too...but somehow we all got back to the top in relative sanity

One thing that was just amazing were the stones...I've always been a stone collector, but these were off the scale....just like lumps of silver, sparkly and beautiful, if I hadn't had to carry everything back up the paths I would have brought home a truckload!

Another day was spent visiting the Krimml waterfalls, with 380m of fall, they are the fifth biggest waterfalls in the world.

I took photo upon photo, but nothing captured the magnitude of the falls

This is us at the highest point at 1470m...smiles here, but they only appeared when we reached the top. Littlest, at only four, did extremely well, there were a fair few adults....no most adults fell by the wayside on the climb up.

Despite the day starting out rainy and grey, the views from the top were wonderful

This is the last drop photographed from the bottom of the falls... and the ice cream featured in middle boy's hands may have been part of a bribe  reward for doing the walk.

Year of projects - 01.09.13

Well we are all home after our epic holiday to Austria...epic for the miles driven (2626), for the miles walked uphill and mountain, for the fun had, for the number of wow moments.....it is lovely to be home, but know that a little part of my heart remains in the mountains.

So here I am after more than a few weeks away from the Sunday updates...not sure how I managed to do it every week before, as now it seems near impossible.

The things going on at the moment? 

This was a quicky project for a birthday gift which I filled with a mix of chocolates, all tied up with cat paw ribbon, for a cat loving friend.

My multi-stitch stripe blanket, following Little Woollie's CAL is out of the bag again, and in fact travelled to Austria to be crocheted on in the evenings, so it is a little further along, although a way to go.  It is bright (my hubby does not love it) and I am so enjoying each section of it....how lovely it is to whizz along with my crochet hook after a lot of delicate knitting.

And last but not least, I am part way through my second Boo Knits shawl...and here I am at the foot of the Grossglockner (the tallest mountain in Austria) This is New Beginnings knitted in a part ball of fingering silk/BFL blend yarn  in a blue-green colourway.in fact it is rather glacier like, so may get a name to suggest it, as it has been worked on here at the glacier.  We drove through the High Alpine Roads to the stop point and walked down After we had recovered from the walk down to this point, we walked down onto the Paterze glacier...awesome and scary all rolled into one.  This was one to add to our memories.  It was a gruelling walk down, and far worse back up...tears from the boys and nearly tears from me too if I am honest!  Some of the stones here looked like they were made from silver....amazing!

Impressive eh?  This imposing peak is not the biggy...the Grossglockner is out of shot to the left.  No matter which picture I look at, none of them show the sheer vastness of the area...this one was taken from the glacier zoomed right in.....mind blowing.....

 

Sorry, a quick meander of topic... to catch up with other YOP projects, check out the ravelry page.