Blogs from Bad Gastein, Salzburg, Austria, Europe

Bad Gastein is a famous spa town in the Austrian Alps. But it is no ordinary spa since the water is naturally infused with high concentrations of radon. Many people come here for treatments specifically to absorb the radon into their bodies either by bathing or spending several hours in specially constructed caves breathing heavy doses of radon. Patients swear by it but I did not come here to expose myself to radioactive gases. Bad Gastein is only a little more than 1½ hours from Salzburg and right on the edge of Hohe Tauern National Park. I think the name means High Tower possibly referring to Großglockner mountain, Austria's highest peak at 3798 meters. I did not get nearly that high but I did hike to Graukogel at 2492 m. Accommodation and Food I reserved 3 ... read more

I decided to hold off the blogging until I get home that I can have SOME stories to tell you guess when I get home. I will write all the blog once I am back in Canada, I don't seem to find anytime now anyways to write them but here is the pictures. (There was no pictures allowed in the caves ;( )... read more

I had an early morning bus to catch to Vienna and from there I take a train to Bad Gastien. While waiting for the bus these drunken people came along who were still drunk from the night before. When they saw my Canadian flag patch on my backpack the one girl overly excited and started asking me a lot of questions and Canada, and if I like Slovakia and such, it was pretty funny and she was helpful in the end letting me know when to get off the bus at the bus station. My bus ride was only an hour long so that was good. On the bus there was a Jewish Rabbi sitting in the seat across from me. Not long into the trip he stood up took out his huge shawl/blanket, some leather ... read more

Ok, today was due to be an action packed day, And it was. We got up fairly early at 8 to organise ourselves and get a bit of food into us. (Yummy hostel buffet of bread and cheese and ham and cereal) On a side note, would it kill hostels to invest in a bit of apple juice. Anyway we (the three of us, three australian girls and Annie and Sinead) were picked up from the door of the hostel to be brought to the adventure centre. Sweet. I spent the trip convincing Annie and Sinead that they should do both Canyoning (legend) and Rafting (also legend). It worked, and the three of us as well as the two girls were kitted out to do some jumping into and off stuff (waterfalls mainly). The first up ... read more

We seem to time our travel to be on rainy days so we bundled ourselves up and caught the tram to our stop and we were off and running. It took about 9 hours to get to Bad Gastein by train via Salzburg but well worth the effort. Bad Gastein was our choice to do adventure travel options mainly canyoning. After checking in (and being up graded to a private room - like the place even more) we headed down to book ourselves in for Canyoning the next day and sort out some food. With luck the chef here is fantastic with food and ordering the special for the day (a 3 course meal of soup, main with salad and dessert) we headed up stairs for some well earned sleep and to get ready for canyoning. ... read more