Grossglockner/Passo Giau

Out of Kaprun, the Grossglockner High Alpine Road, highest surfaced mountain pass in Austria. 

This is what we were supposed to see

What we saw

and a lot of snow

Above my urinal at the summit...  

I wondered what they were selling.

It's OK as long as you don't get it in your open wounds or mucus membranes.

 Avocado Wasa

At the Lucknerhaus, perched on a hillside at the foot of the Grossglockner, highest peak in Austria, we saw this...

Well... actually we saw this tourist billboard..

The apparently real mountain was not to be seen

(That's Susan in the corner)

Bits of blue appeared but the mountain didn't

There was a farm and some cows on the hillside

They're like mountain goats, grazing on steep pitches.

This one is on a road and I took a picture anyway.

 I once saw a group of Chinese tourists taking pictures of a chipmunk.

Larch are a high alpine species, growing up to the treeline.  

In the morning it had snowed

Susan went looking for Grossglockner

The clouds never lifted, so we moved on toward Passo Giau.

Austrians take their woodpiles seriously

In Italy the weather began to clear and we stopped at one of Reinholt Messner's mountain museums.

There are six- this by Zaha Hadid

Paragliders were twirling like turkey vultures

The iconic Tre Cime di Lavaredo

Above Passo Giau

 With Pordoi, it's the highest pass in the Dolomites

You can hike out across the high meadows for miles

Susan waiting for sunset

 Passo Giau

New day from a bedroom window.  Driving out of the mountains and into some logistics..

Hallstatt/Salzburg/Kaprun

Hallstatt has its feet in the water

and its back to the mountain

and all the falls - there're a lot of them -  pour in channels through the town...

Its essential grace, even with all the tourists...

and the fact that Austrians still smoke like Vesuvius

 seems to have remained intact

Cat ladder

We hiked up to the salt mines which kept the princes' coffers stocked for centuries and where Rupert built a cool tower.

The town is just built on the delta of all those falls whose waters were directed through the mines, piped down the mountain and boiled so the recrystallized salt could keep the Prince-Archbishops out of the poor house.

If you don't want to hike, you can pedal a swan

And the weissebier is excellent

Salzburg (salt town) is a small city with a fast green river 

and apparently no suburbs.  The buildings just bump up against green hills

In 1854 Franz Joseph opened the Mirabelle gardens to the public - 

the Public

... and the fountains have the cleanest water we've ever seen in a city

We also found, in front of the cathedral, a stand of absolutely flawless fruits and vegetables

Went to a baroque string concert in the Marble Room of the Schloss Mirabelle... 

where Susan sat at intermission inappropriately swinging her feet

after which, it was too late for a restaurant, so we ate in our room

We drove out of Salzburg in swirling clouds and a steady rain but arrived in Kaprun in sun. 

So we decided to take a walk

\

Susan and I were also on the lookout for an Alpine Coaster 

which in time seemed like a mistake

though Susan likes to drive faster than me

We made our way up the side of the Kitzsteinhorn

There are 1000 alpine huts in Austria

but you have to climb, in and out of cloud and sun

to a pair of high lakes

which are really power-generating reservoirs

with impressive dams

 

 

and, well...  lunch