We are staying for 14 days in Velden on Lake Wörthersee in a beautiful apartment. Velden is ideally located to explore the surrounding countryside, even across the Austrian border to Italy or Slovenia. Unfortunately, the weather does not always play along, which limits our activities a little.
At the Wörthersee there are permanent events of all kinds, such as the annual Golf GTI - or the Harley meeting with hordes of people. Therefore, if you are looking for some peace and quiet, you should rather choose the lakes Faak or Ossiacher.
During the guided tour of Velden, we learn about the origins of the town with the 'Castle on Lake Wörthersee', a TV series with actor/singer Roy Black as the hotel manager and the water-skiing waiter, which is known far beyond the borders of the country. The celebrities go in and out here and this radiates the place.
After a few rainy days we are rewarded with beautiful autumn weather and we hike around the Fusine Lakes near the border in Italy. Simply overwhelming.
A beautiful view of Lake Faak can be seen from the ruins of Finkenstein Castle ...
... or after an hour hike from the Taborhöhe.
The Enzian-Granat-Steig is a highly recommended hike, which leads from the Lammersdorfer Hütte above the Millstättersee to the Lammersdorfer mountain. The ascent is moderate, the view at the top is magnificent. The descent is quite steep and runs mostly through the forest with many roots. I would recommend the same way, which one goes up back again.
With the Kanzelbahn from the lake Ossiach to the Gerlitzen Alpe. The cable car goes steeply up and you have a beautiful view of the lake. Unfortunately, from the very top you can see the lake only to small parts.
It is worth taking a short detour to the Landskron castle ruins above Villach. Very impressive castle with a view and a bird of prey and owl park with daily flight demonstrations and the monkey mountain (we only visited the castle).
We take part in a 2-hour guided tour with interesting history in the dragon city of Klagenfurt and stroll through the attractive city center with large squares, beautiful old town buildings and the cathedral.
We continue to Flachau in the Salzburgerland. As soon as we arrive, we learn that Switzerland has put the Salzburgerland on the Covid quarantine list. This means for us a 2 days early departure towards South Tyrol so that we can enter Switzerland quarantine-free on October 23. Because also the weather does not play along completely we have only 3 tips, for it all the more beautifully:
Up from Ramsau with the glacier cable car to the Dachstein. We are lucky and are one of the 10 chosen who may make the trip on the terrace of the cabrio gondola.
Auf dem Skywalk ist die Aussicht gewaltig.
Over the suspension bridge we go to the stairs to nowhere (is not so bad, even Thomas overcomes his fear of heights).
A visit to the ice palace with numerous ice sculptures may not be missing, of course.
The Liechtensteinklamm in St-Johann im Pongau is said to be the most visited gorge in Austria. It is very impressive but quite difficult to photograph. Impressive is the floating spiral staircase 'Helix' which leads 30 meters into the depth.
Shortly before the onset of the next bad weather front with snow far down, we drive to the Rossbrand (1770m) with a 360° panoramic view from the Radstädterhütte. Unfortunately, the first clouds are already up and cover the mountain peaks of the Dachstein massif.
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