Best (and Worst) of Austria

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Wednesday 20th May. Not a good day. It started out OK, and finished well, but the middle of the day was not so good. I set off from Vienna for Obertraun. This place is a little off the beaten track, and required two changes of trains to get here. The first leg was on a RailJet train from Vienna to Leoben. This train went through the Semmering Pass, a section of railway that is World Heritage listed. It was quite a spectacular trip, winding along the valley, twisting and climbing, many tunnels, bridges and viaducts. Once over the pass the train descended into a valley with a fair amount of towns and industries.

Five minutes before Leoben we stopped at Brück am Mur, and probably at that stop someone stole my backpack from the rack above my seat – probably just swiped it as they rushed past. No-one seems to have seen it happen. I was very panicked at first, because I would usually have my travel documents and passport in there, and camera and laptop, if on a flight, and thought that my passport was indeed in there. I couldn’t find the train conductor, some English-speaking Austrian people on the train used the SOS intercom to call the conductor and tell him what had happened. He held the train for a few minutes to get details, then called the station master, who said I should stay in Leoben (my connecting train was about to leave). He called the railway security guy, who had a lot less English than the conductor and station master. I asked him to call the Polizei.

While waiting for them, I checked my suitcase and was happy to discover that my passport and travel documents were inside. Since I was going by train, I had kept most things in my suitcase, not backpack. I was holding my camera on my lap when the bag was stolen, so luckily the loss was limited. I phoned the travel insurance assistance people, and they said to get a Police report. So I got to ride in an Austrian Police car to the station, where I spent a couple of hours. The officers were very good, and one particularly spoke English well enough, but their rules are that they must call an interpreter, a local lady, who understandably took some time to arrive. They took all the information and the Polizei drove me back to the station. I had an hour so put my suitcase in a luggage locker and walked to the shopping centre, where I bought a brand new Austrian skiing backpack. Hopefully the travel insurance company will pay for it. I also bought a new umbrella (also stolen), which was a good idea for later that afternoon.

Good rail system - a train with connection to my destination every two hours (in Australia the line to a place like Obertraun would have been closed years ago – like the Cooma line). The scenery from Leoben to Obertraun (changed trains at Stainach-Irdnung), became increasingly picturesque and alpine, really beautiful.

Talking about it being a bad day, it had started to rain about 3pm. I arrived at Obertraun at 4.30, and was walking in the rain to the hotel (about 500m), 'under' my new umbrella. A people-mover pulled up next to me and some tourists from Shanghai asked me if I knew where Haus am See hotel was. I replied that I was going there too, and it was just along and then left. And did they offer me a lift? No, just drove off and left me in the rain. On arrival, they were checking in, which took half an hour – at least I had time to dry out a bit.

I had arrived at the hotel just 4 hours later than planned. Time to take a few photos of the extraordinary scenery, right outside the hotel, which is on the lakefront. I had butter-fried trout from the lake for dinner! I was talking to an American family at dinner, and they gave me one of their German phrasebooks to replace mine, which had been in the stolen bag (actually ‘mine’ was borrowed from one of my Year 11 students – I hope he likes the replacement… for Eddies staff reading this – Aaron Bruchhauser!).

I had chosen to stay here in Obertraun after looking on the web at highlights of Austria, seeing a picture of Hallstätter See, and deciding it was a must-see. Its unbelievable! Huge towering limestone mountains just plunge down to the lake. The town of Hallstatt clings to the steep western side. Obertraun is at the end of the lake, where the river enters, and about 5 km from Hallstatt. Why Obertraun and not Hallstatt itself? To get to Hallstatt you have to get off at the station and then take a boast across the lake, then walk. A bit of an inconvenience. Plus, Obertraun is where the Dachstein cable car is, which takes you up to the Ice Cave, and beyond to see the glaciers and the view! However, as you’ll read below, the weather put paid to any plans to look at glaciers.

Thursday 21^st May. This morning I took the suggestion of the hotelier and walked along the lakeshore to the Hallstatt boat, and took it across the lake to Hallstatt. Both the walk and the boat ride were excellent. The scenery here defies description in words, I have done my best with photos, but the clouds really made photography a bit difficult today. Hallstatt is extremely pretty, mostly accessible only on foot, only residents’ and delivery vehicles allowed, many little alleys and many stairways. I was there around 9.30am or so. After about an hour I decided to check out in advance where the bus stop was for the bus back to Obertraun and Dachstein. As I headed towards the end of town, I encountered a tidal wave of arriving Chinese tourists – the coaches had started arriving. I found out later that the Chinese are obsessed with Hallstatt for some reason. (Another tourist later told me they have built a replica Hallstatt town in China – and its true! Wikipedia tells me so… Apparently they have built replicas of other Western cities too, including parts of Venice, Holland, Paris ???). Here, there were many coachloads of Chinese tourists.

I also discovered the Hallstatt funicular, so took a ride up to the extraordinary “World Heritage Viewpoint” (Hallstatt, like Dachstein, is World Heritage listed). This is quite a lookout – see photo. Hallstatt is also known for its prehistoric saltmine and burial sites up in the sides of the valley. At the top of the funicular you can do a saltmine tour (I didn’t, as I had heard that it was pretty ordinary compared to the Ice Cave, where I was heading next), and there are also displays about the 800BC burial sites found there (young compared to New Grange in Ireland!).

So I headed down the funicular and took the bus to Dachstein Seilbahnhof (cable car station). Now the whole area of the mountaintops, glaciers, etc was completely covered with cloud, so they were only operating up to their middle station, where the Ice Cave and Mammoth Cave are. Quite a fast ascent, with ears popping again and again, brought us to 1450 metres (The Schneeberg was 400 metres higher, and the top cable car station – not open today – is at about 2150 metres. None of this is close to the height of Jungfraujoch in Switzerland, where I went in 2011, which has a cog railway inside the mountain, up to around 3400 metres from memory). It was cold up there, but today I was well prepared. It had snowed last night and there were plenty of snow patches around.

The Ice Cave is quite simply amazing – it has many features (huge features!) similar to limestone caves, but all made from ice! The stalagtites, flow’stone’, minarets, etc have built up over hundreds of years. Below freezing (of course) inside the cave. Just amazing. They are expecting that the ice will be lost (and the glaciers gone) by 2050 due to climate change.

After descending, I walked back to the hotel through the woods and the village, seeing more perspectives on the surrounding scenery. I sat and just stared for about half an hour at one lookout point.

Tomorrow I am heading to Salzburg, planning to stop in Sound of Music country on the way, weather permitting.

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Photos

View of Hallstätter See from my hotel's garden
Sorry about the slope!

Scenery on The Semmering Pass
This railway line is world heritage listed

Strechau Castle
The second biggest castle in Styria (according to a fellow passenger) - snapped from the train

Ski Jump
Somewhere between Stainach-Irdning and Obertraun