Tuesday 1 July 2008

DACHSTEIN MASSIF

WARNING - If you suffer from vertigo then go no further!

Today we went up the Dachstein Massif. To get to the top we went up in a Gondola and had to change half way up. The top station was at a height of 6,800ft. If you come to Austria you really do need to get up high to take advantage of the scenery, and unless you want to try and walk up! the only way is a cable car or gondola. Myself I prefer cable cars which generally hold 4 people with seats at either side, although unless it is particularly busy they generally let you go up in 2's. A gondola on the other hand is one large car which can hold anything up to 60 people. The one we were in holds about 5 tons which greatly exceeds the number of people you would fit in.

At the top there was still snow, although it was looking rather mucky by now! We hiked round to a viewing platform called the "Five Fingers" which is the first photo. There are five walkways which stick out over the mountain, you can see John stood on one in the second photo. Well worth going up, you feel like you are on top of the world. Unfortunately the photos do look rather hazy, it was a very hot day and being so high up it was difficult with the new little camera we bought, I really needed my big camera with it's various filters.















We had brought a picnic with us and stopped off at the lake you can see in the picture to eat. I love picnic's and it was really relaxing. We stopped off at the Konditori on the way back and bought cakes to bring home to have after tea. I had the nut concoction and John had the other which was filled with fruit in a soft jelly and topped with a very soft meringue/marshmallow.
I had to have a lie down when I came home as I had a really bad headache but it was very hot.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

OMG!!!!!! You aren't wrong about the heights!!! You would NEVER get me on one of those platforms! i feel dizzy just looking at the photos of them!!!

cakes look good though! lol

becslb said...

Oh wow Val - that view is AMAZING! Gonna have to be on my "must visit" list!!