Europe › Austria
Carinthia
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All places →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.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.