Austria / Germany

Großglockner

We wanted to do several bus excursions on our trip but a week after we got there they stopped the tours since it was no longer the main tourist season. Luckily we still managed to get in a tour to the Großglockner, the highest mountain in Austria (3798 m) and even luckier still, we managed to get a beautiful sunny day for it.

Getting There

We had an early start but 7:00 am came and went and the bus never came so Rubby ran to the taxi station where we'd bought the tickets and sure enough they'd forgotten about us! So another taxi had to shuttle us to meet up with the bus again. The drive to the National Park was pretty. The mist was slowly rising to uncover a beautiful day and we enjoyed seeing the little towns along the valley. The tour guide was also great, giving us lots of information about the country. We stopped for a short break at the entrance to the park where there was a little restaurant, play area and alpine zoo but there wasn't enough time to see much there.

The Großglockner High Alpine Road

The Großglockner is located in the Hohen Tauern National Park which covers parts of the three provinces of Salzburg , Tyrol and Kärnten. The Großglockner High Alpine Road was built in the years between 1930 and 1935 to create work during the depression. With 36 bends it is a significant engineering feat as well as the loveliest panorama drive in the eastern Alps .

Fusher Törl 2428m – A memorial to those who died during the building of the road.

Hochtor 2503m – The highest point on the through-road and the border between Salzburg and Kärnten. The trail used by the Celts, pack-animal traders, and the Romands, leads over the crest from one end of the 311m long tunnel to the other end.

Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe

At the end of the road we arrived at the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe at 2369m. From here we had a beautiful view of the Großglockner as well as the Pasterze, the longest glacier in the eastern Alps . We saw lots of marmots begging for handouts from the tourists, visited the Wilhelm Swarovski Observatory along the Panorama trail, and took a short jaunt along the tunnels of the Gamsgrubenweg.

On the Road Again

On the way home we took a slightly different route which took us past the mountains bordering Germany , referred to as the Stone Sea . In these mountains, Hitler had his hideaway called Eagle's Nest. We stopped for a short break in a town called Zell-Am-See before heading back to Westendorf.

[ panorama ]