Europe

Austria

45 photographs · 4 venues

Photographs

Places worth going

Grossglockner High Alpine RoadDon't missJourneysOne of the great drives, and worth building a whole day around rather than just crossing over. Thirty-odd hairpins climbing to about 2,500m under Austria's highest mountain, the road stacking up the valley below you, a couple of little tarns and a hut at the turn, and cloud sitting right down on the ridges at the top. Lower down it opened out into blue sky and big white cloud. You stop constantly, because every corner opens onto something new. It's a toll road and it's not cheap, and I'd pay it again tomorrow.SchoberDon't missViewpointsAbout an hour up through the trees and you come out on a rocky spine with the whole Salzkammergut in front of you: the Fuschlsee straight below, more lakes stacked away behind it and the peaks along the horizon. Steep in the trees and then suddenly not, which is the best kind of walk. Worth the climb for that view alone.Altstadt SalzburgWorth a stopTownsAn afternoon in the old town on a wet grey day, the big cafe umbrellas up over rows of empty wooden chairs, market stalls at one end of the square and the smart shops down the other. Salzburg wears Mozart heavily - he was born on Getreidegasse and you will not be allowed to forget it - but the setting does the work regardless, with the fortress sitting up on its rock above everything. Rain suited it, honestly. Get up to the Hohensalzburg for the view over the rooftops to the mountains.Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-HöheWorth a stopViewpointsDrive all the way to the end of the road for this. You look straight down onto the Pasterze, Austria's longest glacier, and its meltwater lake, a pale grey-green, with waterfalls coming off the rock walls opposite. What stays with you is how far the ice has pulled back - there's bare rock and outwash everywhere it used to sit, and markers on the path showing where the glacier reached in living memory. Sobering, and worth seeing while it's still there.