Austria
June 17 - July 14, 2009
June 18 - Hexenwasser
Since the weather forecast called for 'beach weather' today and then nothing but rain for a while, we decided not to waste today on trying to get over jetlag. Instead we decided to go to 'Hexenwasser', a fun park up on the Hohe Salve Mountain based on the theme of water and walking barefoot. There are a lot of these types of parks around, not just for the tourists, but to get the local children hiking more. In North America these parks would probably have a minimum 30$ per day entrance fee... here they are all free and you pay only for lift tickets if you don't want to hike the mountain.
We met up at Uri's and Annermarie drove us to Soell to take the lift up to Hexenwasser. Rubby took the opportunity to find one of the Kaiserwelt geocaches - a series of geocaches at various lift stations in the Kaiserwelt ski network. Once at the top of the lift, the kids put on their bathing suits and off we went through the various little streams and ponds and water games. The water was pretty cold but it didn't seem to stop the kids... just a few gasps from Christopher when he lost his footing and got a good dunking. We walked through the witch's woods where the highlight for Samantha was meeting a real witch who taught her how to grind flour, make bread dough, and cook the bread over an open fire. In the afternoon Oma treated Sam to an icecream at the restaurant where they sat outside at a table where they could cool their feet in water while eating. Christopher in the meantime had discovered the wet sand area and the water slides.
It took most of the day to complete the approximately 4 km circuit, most of which Christopher walked himself. Then we took the lift to the top of the Hohe Salve, enjoyed the view and the playground at the top, and then took the lift down the other side to Hopfgarten. From there we caught the bus back to Westendorf. A quick stop at the Billa to get some groceries then it was back to the hotel for supper. The kids were super tired so they went to bed fairly quickly and slept soundly through the night.
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