whilst in zell am see yesterday, we booked a trip. a coach trip. in my head, i associate coach trips with old people. but i think this is more the case in the uk; within europe, i think (i hope) that it is a little more cool for a group of twenty- and thirty-somethings to sit on a coach as it winds it’s way towards the highest mountain in austria (second highest peak in the alps), listening to a bi-lingual commentary. although it was raining hard again today, we reasoned that our coach would keep us relatively dry. we caught a lucky break in the rain when we walked down to the bus stop, and our luck held in that at the bus station in zell am see there was a coffee shop that was open at this early hour.
the coach was a double-decker, and although we nearly clambered aboard the wrong vehicle, which would have led to a day of finnish commentary, we managed to settle back into our comfy dry seats, and watch town become suburbs become hamlets become fields. very soon, we were climbing. the rain continued, and occasionally we found ourselves actually within the clouds. when we emerged from these, the views were always spectacular.
negotiating the hairpin bends allowed both sides of the coach an equal view. after a little short of one hour, we stopped at a small cafe (constructed in the omni-present music box style), where our guide promised us ‘surprise’. we sat down with some coffee, by-passing the tacky gifts, and then noticed a bearded gent had entered the room. he was surrounded by a small cooing crowd, and the reason for this was that he was the 'surprise'. or rather, it was marmot which sat on his neck that was drawing the crowd. you see, marmots are one of the features of the local landscape, so why not cash in by placing one on the neck of a bearded man? i only wish i'd thought of it first. on with the journey, next stop, the glacier. here are some nuggets:
the grossglockner high alpine road was constructed between 1930 – 1935, and gave employment to around three-thousand austrians during the depression. the road, which officially runs between fusch and heiligenblut, is 48km long, and rises from 805m to 2504m above sea level. it is always closed from the end of october until the beginning of may, due to snow (which is no longer cleared by hand). the road passes through the hohe tauern national park, at the centre of which is the 3798m grossglockner mountain. we disembarked, and boarded a postbus, travelled about ten feet up a short hill, and disembarked for the second time in as many minutes. we trudged through the rain to the visitor centre, where we took pictures of posters and generally larked about, perhaps buoyed on by the thin air. cloud completely obscured the grossglockner, although we were just about able to view the 9km long pasterze glacier.
i returned to the coach a little early; i had received a text from my mum giving a phone number of thompsonfly’s lost luggage department. I managed to get through, and spoke to an unsympathetic voice that informed me that my bag had been located and would definitely reach me that evening. ‘mmm, we’ll see’, i thought.
now we descended to the afore-mentioned town of heiligenblut, where we were advised to take pictures in and around the pretty church. we did, and the sun came out. we pressed southwards, to the medieval city of lienz. being close to the italian border, our guide told us we simply must sample the local ‘gelato’, and soak up the ‘italian flair’. i had a gelato, and bought a t-shirt. lienz is the only place in austria where i saw a shopping mall. we returned to zell am see via a different, lower route, and once there (and at length) we plumped for a suitable looking restaurant, complete with wise-cracking waiter. there was an outdoor music festival in town this evening; small bands played short sets, before rotating their location, so all could have a chance of hearing a variety of music. we were treated to a two-piece jazz-guitar-trumpet-singer combo, who played a couple of numbers. they were stopped in their tracks when their amp blew up, the cause of which was surely the thunder storm which was now dumping lots of rain onto the town.
we remained at our table, in the relative shade of the restaurant canopy. when there came a break, we dashed to the taxi rank, and, having analysed the previous day’s transaction come to the conclusion that austrian taxi’s probably do charge per person, agreed to pay 42 euros to be driven to our real door, behind which sat my bag. hallelujah! indoors, out came a secret chocolate cake, which both served as pudding and symbolised chistina's birthday, which was today.
