Krimml Waterfalls and Rattenberg

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OK, so we knew this was going to be a bit of a trek on the coach, nearly 2 hours, but our driver gave us plenty of commentary on what we were passing, and we stopped after about an hour for a view-stop - pretty cool stuff! We then continued onto the Krimml Waterfalls, and after a slight false-start in which we tried to get into the water museum rather than the waterfalls (they need better signage!), we walked down the path, successfully got the tickets (only 1.80 Euro), and split off into those who were racing to get to the top, those who were aiming to get to the halfway point, and those who were going to go to the bottom first and stand in the spray (me), and then see how far up they could get. Another beautiful sunny day and it was an experience standing in the spray at the base of the waterfall as it slowed down to spread out into the valley. You could just hear the power of the water crashing down, and my trousers were soaked through in 60 seconds! So, we then decided to see how far we would get up, with only myself, Maggie, Charmian and Hannah left at the base by this point... using the postcard we worked out where we were, and decided we could probably get to the restaurant at the mid-point, but we then stopped to take so many photos we weren't sure, so headed back down one-stop early - and then realised halfway down we could have kept going, but it was too late by this point. Never mind, once again all were on the bus on time (and note, if you're going to use toilets, use the ones in the coach car park, as the ones at the ticket-entrance were not very nice!), and headed off. About 10 minutes later we stopped for another view-stop, this time back onto the Krimml Falls.

The morning had been planned to include a trip to Kitzbuehel but the group voted and decided that they'd rather spend the time at the falls. On the way back, though, we had time to stop at Rattenberg, famous for its glassblowing, although we didn't see any happening. A lot of Austrian shops shut on a Saturday afternoon, but being a tourist village, no such problems here. Several people stopped for strudel and coffee, some took another opportunity to check out the Swarovski - I managed to chat (no food!), bit of checking out the shops, and then did a quick hike up the hill to the Castle, and found an open-air theatre, some views (obstructed by cranes, as everywhere seemed to be on this trip), and then we headed back down the other side in time for the bus. Very small village, can all be done in an hour! Back for more great food, the meeting, and the first half of The Sound of Music, in preparation for our visit to Salzburg (where appearently 60%!o(MISSING)f the visitors come because of ThSOM, the other 40%!f(MISSING)or Mozart).

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