Heiligenblut, Austria

After the last lot of city visits I thought I'd be happy to put my feet up for a bit, but in a surprisingly short time I was itching to be off again.  This time I fancied something a bit different, and I read about the Tirol mountains in the Lonely Planet's Europe on a Shoestring, with europe's highest waterfall and the Hohe Tauern national park.  Always a fan of mountains I thought this would be a nice trip and only a couple of hours drive from Bled. 



Heilingenblut



After some research on the internet about where to stay we settled on Heiligenblut near the Glossglockner pass which I thought would be good to explore.  We couldn't pronounce the name of the place but when you book via our favourite accommodation website (booking.com), that doesn't matter! I checked if the pass and waterfall would be still be open, and the websites all said until the end of October.  So we booked for the last week hoping the weather would be good. 

We were very lucky with weather - it had snowed previously so there was a beautiful sprinkle on the mountain tops but had warmed up again so we had lovely warm autumn days (13-18 degrees).  I would recommend it as a time to visit this bit of Austria as the pass and the waterfall weren't overwhelmed with tourists and they'd probably be crowded in the summer.  Plus you have the lovely autumn colours. Only problem was that not much was open in the villages, Heiligenblut only had one restaurant open and one bar in the evenings, all the hotels were closed before the ski season.  The one restaurant was very good, though so we were okay.



Glossglockner and Pasterze glacier



I would definitely say that the Glossglockner alpine road is the most beautiful I have ever driven, especially on a glorious, sunny autumn day.  It isn't just a pass over the mountains but a full day of lovely scenes, mountains over 3000m, glaciers, lakes, windy roads and exploring the stopping points.  There is a huge visitor centre directly below the highest mountain, Glossglockner, and you can walk down to the Pasterze glacier if you want (we didn't fancy the steps down!), but also a walk above the glacier called Gamsgrubenweg which I was very keen to do, but unfortunately it was closed for upkeep. 

We did do a walk up to the observatory where we tried to spot ibex on the mountain slopes.  Pictures don't do it justice as the scenes were immense. The side trip to Glossglockner takes a couple of hours with all the exploring, and you haven't even started to tackle the actual pass. 





Top of the pass at Hochtor

Although the road over the pass is in excellent condition, easily wide enough for cars in both directions, I wouldn't recommend it to the faint-hearted as it is a difficult drive, especially up to the highest point at Edelweiss peak which has a lot of narrow switchbacks. In Heiligenblut we were at 1288m, and the top of the pass is at 2504 m, a huge climb. I felt seriously sorry for the couple of cyclists we passed on the way up!  The price might make you wince as well, as it is 32 euros for a car, although with the Prius we were charged as an electric car and only paid 22 euros... handy!



Fuscher lake



Edelweiss peak





  









The road at the top of the pass passes through a short tunnel, then continues on passed lakes and more mountains.  There is another side trip you can do to the highest point on Edelweiss peak, from which you have the most glorious views of dozens of mountains over 3000 m and a handy cafe for lunch sitting in the sunshine.

The other big attraction nearby was the Krimml waterfall, europe's highest according to the book!  It wasn't quite as close as I'd hoped and took a couple of hours to get there from Heiligenblut.  But the waterfall was magnificent, again pictures don't do it justice as it isn't a straight drop so doesn't fit in one picture and even the bits you try to take are nothing to the  huge amount of water in front of you. The small boy in the picture on the right gives you some idea of scale, but this is only the very bottom section, there is 380m above over three levels.  The waterfall is very good value - only 2.50 euros each for the walk, they have some sort of water theme park there as well, but this was closed for renovations.  Once you've been soaked at the bottom of the falls, you can walk up the side and see it from loads of wooden platforms all the way up. The path goes all the way to the top at 1460m, starting from 1070m and takes several hours to walk.  We just managed up to 1245m (the middle section) and then felt the need to go for lunch!

 Overall, I was very impressed with the Tirol mountains, and we had a fabulous couple of days exploring, I would recommend it if you like mountain holidays, with lots of hiking, wonderful views, clean mountain air and possibly cycling!