Day 21

I can’t believe I’m half way done already. It feels like it was just yesterday that we were planning this trip out. And now I only have 3 weeks left. Well, day 21 was a very interesting one. We started the morning off at 4 am. We had a 5 am train and a 1.4 mile walk to the station. It was still dark when we arrived in Zell am See. But at least it wasn’t raining. We checked in our luggage and then started off to hike up the Schmittenhohe Mountain. We made it part way up one of the trails before we realized that it was not the correct path. After backtracking for a few minutes, and getting some decent pictures of the city, we decided to head down to the lake to see what time the boat rental office opened. Unfortunately, as soon as we left the mountain, the rain started coming. It started out light, but by the time we made it to the lake, or Zeller See, it was coming down pretty hard. We decided to tough it out for a little bit and walk around some more and try to get some decent pictures of the area. While it was very pretty, the rain did not make me want to stay in Zell am See. We stopped inside a café to grab some coffee before heading off to Bad Gastein. After several hours of train ride and the continued downpour of rain, we made it to Bad Gastein. It was lunch time by now, and I didn’t get a chance to eat breakfast that morning, so I was pretty hungry. We kept pushing through however and walked down into the city to find the waterfalls. Before going there, we found a life sized checkers board and decided to play a quick game. And for the record, I won. The rain was still coming down pretty hard, but we were determined to find the waterfall. That wasn’t a problem though, because as soon as we were within 200 feet of it, we could hear it. It sounded like a flood coming through. It was amazing. And pretty tall. Despite the weather, I was very pleased with the city. We spent a good bit of time taking pictures and making videos of the surrounding are before we started heading back to the station. The rain was still going. We got on the train and were in route to Heiligenblut (still hungry). We made it to Lienz in good time. The last leg of our journey was an hour long bus ride up the mountain to the city. We were very surprised to find out that it was going to cost 8 euros just to get there (and another 8 tomorrow to come back!!). But we made it. We checked into the hostel and were told that we were on the second floor. What I have found in Europe is that second floor really means fourth floor. We were in the “basement floor” and walked up a flight of stairs to the “lobby floor” And then walked up two more flights of stairs to the second floor. That seems to be a reoccurring theme. It was early enough and clear enough to go outside. And by the time we got up there, the skies were somewhat clear and the rain was gone. It was breathtaking. The city is 1300 meters up in the mountains and you can see all of the surrounding peaks. We could even see Grossglockner, which is the highest mountain in Austria. And as an added bonus, Grossglockner is covered in snow year round. So that was pretty cool to see. After spending some time out in the city we stopped at the store to pick up dinner. Luckily we had use of the hostel’s kitchen so it was chicken and mushrooms for dinner. Instead of green onions we used spinach, which was just as tasty. I couldn’t believe the time when I looked at it because I felt so tired. After we finished dinner around 7 pm, I was ready to call it a night. But because we had to leave the next morning, we went outside again to get some night shots of the city. I really enjoyed it. After that, we went back into our room, laid out clothes for the next day, and then called it a night at 9. Day 22 is another castle day. Hochosterwitz!