Month: June 2015

Saltmine Altaussee (Salzwelten)



There is an altar for St. Barbaba.Leilani tells the story really well, I hope to get her to write it down here.

They even had a light show at the end

Obersdorf

For 5 days we stayed at the Gasthof Sandlweber the very charming little Obersdorf. Just 10 miles away the region called Hinterbergtal (Behind-mountain-valley) is strangely different from the Ausseerland.

Gasthof Sandlweber in front of the Grimming. We couldn’t see the Grimming from our room, which is probably why we didn’t hike there (asides from the fact that we didn’t stand a chance of reaching the top)

Our room was very clean, nice and furnished with all real wood. I forgot to photograph it, except for small details.

This was the view from the bedroom. It inspired this hike

The view from the bathroom was nice too. We wondered about the little chapel on the hill and discovered it’s a pilgrimage destination, the Wallfahrtskirche Maria Kumitz



Obersdorf with our Gasthaus marked with an arrow

The Path down from the chapel

Churches

Altausseer Church




Obersdorfer Wallfahrtskirche Maria Kumitz


Barbara altar in the saltmine

Protestant church in Hallstadt

Catholic church in Hallstatt









Almost to the Kampl

After the Narzissenwiese and the Almhaus we decided to go on to the Kampl. Sadly it was pretty late, and we hadn’t even brought a lunch, but we tried. I put the same 2 map pictures here.

After the Almhaus we tried straight up, but the forest road dead ended where the woodworking area ended. We went back down and then took a long, very gradual forest road to the official trail.


Where the trail branched off Leilani found another fountain. It’s great that one never has to carry a lot of water when hiking in Austria.


We saw some piling clouds and turned around close to the Seidenhofalm


View of the Grimming




Hike to an Obersdorfer Paperwhite Meadow

From our hotel (Gasthaus Sandlwirt) room we saw this beautiful Alm-meadow and I supposed the white flowers were the famed paperwhites. After the crowds at the festival the previous day Leilani and I were in the mood for a remote and lonesome hike. (I drew the path we took to the meadow, and then further in pink.)

We studied the map, and decided to go off trail as there was no official trail to the meadow.

Leilani made a friend while still walking through the little village of Obersdorf


This fountain had really great water – we stopped there before to fill our bottles, and a sign to refresh one self… Leilani was certain they meant the beer that someone refrigerated there. When we came back after our hike 1/2 of the bottles were gone.


The first paperwhite, Narcissus poeticus (more rounded)

And the last farm. We chatted with the farmer for a while and continued on the wooded path



Finally we reached the start of the real paperwhite meadow







Rosa Primel Primula malacoides

Trollblume Trollius europaeus


View of Obersdorf, arrow pointing to our Gasthaus


The Almhaus

The star shaped narcissi (narcissus radiiflorus) belong to a large group of different species of narscissus and are native to Austria in the areas of Styria, Lower- Austria, Upper- Austria and Carinthia. They are particularly prevalent in Ausseerland, due to the ideal climate and nutrients in the land. They can tolerate or relatively dry locations. The bulbs are in bloom between the middle of May and the middle of June depending on the altitude. Sadly, increased fertilization of the meadows and earlier mowing has decreased the paperwhite meadows, and the flowers on the remaining meadows. The one we found was too steep to mow, and used only for grazing (and the cows obviously don’t like the narcissi).

Knabenkraut Orchis mascula

Old skies at the Almhaus