Tourist Sites

The weather was still ok this mid-november, so we went to southern province of Styria (Steiermark) to climb a small mountain and search for another "treasure".

View down on "Frohnleiten", a cute town surrounded by small mountains.

Soon we reached a viewpoint with a small hut...

... and had a rest and some drink there.

The official name of this hut is "Julius Warte", but the local people call it "small house of delight".

Later we continued to climb higher...

... but unfortunately the top of this mountain was a bit disappointing.
All was surrounded by high trees, so not any interesting view up there!

So we didn't stay there for long, but left soon to search for the treasure...

... which we finally found under those white stones in the center of this picture.

Our second "treasure" so far.

This day we combined a hike with a treasure hunt.

The "treasure hunt" goes like this:
Some people have hidden a small box at some secret place and published its GPS coordinates in the internet. Other people can try to go to this place and hopefully find the treasure.

This treasure was hidden near Altausseer See, a nice like in the south of the Salzkammergut region.

Most of our path was just beside the lake.

Small rock climbed, big rock to the back.

Close to the hiding place of the treasure.
We took some rest at this lovely place.

Later we searched for an hour and it was nearly getting dark when we finally reached this place.

Is there something?

There it is!

The "treasure" consists of a box with a log-book and a few small items inside.

If you found the treasure you can take one of the items and keep it, and place another item in there for exchange.

Writing down our names in the log-book.

As the sun had went down just at the moment when we finally had found the treasure, we had to go back in the dark. Scary!

It was my first time to see snow, really felt very exciting, although the view was not so colorful like in autumn, the white snow still looked nice.

My honey and me aways like hugging together on top of a mountain.

Watzmann, the second-highest mountain of Germany, in the sun.

It's shape is very famous and there are some fairy-tales about this big mountain.

Lovely pose in front of Watzmann, wearing my new hiking jacket.

Funny skiing pose.

Standing on the snow and enjoying the sunset.

This time was not as dangerous as before, and the route was also not so long. But hiking was not so interesting as climbing, so it made me feel more tired easily at the begining.

Looked like a stupid farmer girl, haha...

Taking a break at nearly every resting point...

Poor girl, so tired, but still had to keep on hiking...

Fortunately we soon reached the top.

The feeling on the top of mountain was not bad.
The temperature up there was really nice so late in autumn, so we very much enjoyed the warm sunshine.

Beer, beer, I love you, haha...

Going back down and enjoying some views on lake Attersee below.

On Sunday we finally had to go back to our home and there was not much time left for much sight seeing.

But we still wanted to visit a special place along our route back:
The castle Churburg.

This castle is a very interesting place, telling lots of stories about the life at medieval age.

Unfortunately it was not allowed to take pictures inside of the castle, so we have only a few shots from there.

Some lucky kids had the chance to experience how those knights must have felt in their heavy armour.

Later we had lunch at a restaurant just a few kilometres from the Italian-Austrian border.

These lovely iron clothes are for sale - whoever wants to wear them.

Nice church, but unfortunately we did not see it from the inside.

When leaving the hotel on this day we also took a few pictures at the entrance.

All in all it was a very new, nice and clean place, and the people there were also very friendly. All that at a very affordable price.
We thoroughly can recommend Hotel Flora in Meran!

After spending the morning in the center of Meran, in the afternoon we visited a very special place:
The botanical gardens at castle Trautmannsdorff.

When we visited there, autumn was at its prime time.
So those many different colours, nice parks and beautifuls trees and flowers gave us a memorable experience.

In this garden we passed by some beautiful paths...

waterfalls...

pieces of art...

and strange creatures.

We also reached a viewpoint...

which gave us some nice views of the castle and its surroundings.

Lake in the center of the park.

Us in front of castle Trautmannsdorff.

Famous princess "Sissi" of Austria (on the left), who also loved to spend her holidays at this place and take walks in the surrounding forests.

Who wouldn't like taking a walk a such at beautiful place?

European art can be a bit erotic.

Beautiful plants, which usually can be found growing near lakes.

Cute rabbits - not only kids love them!

Isn't this place beautiful?

In early morning we took a walk in the centre of Meran, where many beautiful parks and buildings can be found.

The Meran convention centre.

The most beautiful church of Meran is located right at the beginning of the main shopping road...

...where they sell many different products, including bacon...

...and wine.

In the afternoon where were driving down further south, for some different activity: Going up a secured climbing route.

The route is the most difficult we climbed so far,

but I still could climb it nicely...

...and reach the top safely!

Happy on top!

On this short trip we were visiting the northern-most province of Italy, which is divided in two parts: The "Südtirol" or "Alto Adige", which formerly belonged to Austria and thus most people still are speaking German language there, and the "Trento" where all people are speaking Italian language only.

So this province is an interesting mixture of German and Italian culture, and thus one can find different types of food, buildings and people in this part of Italy.

On our 2nd day we went to the biggest city of Südtirol, which is called "Bozen".

Here you can see the cathedral, which is located near the main square of Bozen.

Photos from the interior of the beautiful cathedral.

The "victory monument".
It was built by the Italians after World War I, when they conquered this region and annexed it to Italy.

Even near the city centre beautiful landscapes can be found easily.

At the entrance of the archeological musuem, where they keep the famous "Iceman", which lived here 5000 years ago.

Unfortunately it was not allowed to take pictures inside the museum.

At the Bozen fruit market.

In the front you can see some very typical food of this area: Marones.
They are most delicious when they are been eaten in autumn, when they are fresh and ripe.

In the afternoon we took a drive to the nearby hills...

...to visit the old castle Hocheppan...

...and have some tasty chicken there.

Inside the castle.

When going down to Italy, we took a short break right at the first village after the border, to take a walk along the central road.

Sterzing is famous for its original old architecture.

In the evening, after we had arrived at our hotel, we went out to have dinner, and decided for probably the best part of Italian food: Pizza!

Sunday, 21st of October, was a very sunny autumn day again, so we wanted to make use of the still good weather and go outdoor again.

However, on this day we wanted to go more than just a hiking path, so we selected a route which also has some climbing parts to make going up more interesting and also more challenging.

This is why we chose to do a route in eastern Austria, which includes some iron ropes, artificial steps and a long steep ladder.

The beginning of the climbing route.

Soon we reached a nice resting point to stop for some food and drink.

This route is very popular so many other people were visiting there on that Sunday.

The route is clogged up with slower people ahead, so we have to wait.

At the long ladder. It's really very steep!

After that ladder we soon reached the top and could enjoy the view up there.

A lovely area with beautiful nature.

One of some restaurants, which not only have delicious food, but also nice views and beautiful surroundings.

This day saw some lovely autumn weather and we passed by many colourful trees.

When going down we had to do some more climbing again.

It's a bit scary but also lots of fun.

Finally on safe ground again.

Before driving back home to Linz, we decided to go to the eastern-most province of Austria, the "Burgenland", to have dinner there.

We had mixed barbecue with lots of french fries.

As the east of Austria is famous for its wine, we were drinking some more "Sturm" (fresh, sweet wine) again.

Cheers!