With my trip to Kitzbuhel and the Austrian Alps coming to an end I thought I should do at least one sightseeing tour in order to take in some of the scenery outside of Kitzbuhel. The weather forecast for today wasn’t great either so I thought if I was out and about, even if on a coach I’d at least be doing something rather than just hanging around the hotel. With this in mind I booked onto a trip to Glossglockner with Thomson.<\/p>\n
The Glossglockner is Austria’s highest mountain at 3798\u00a0and the alpine road that leads to it is supposed to be quite a feat of engineering and a road well worth driving.<\/p>\n
I met my fellow excursionist at the bus stop in Kitzbuhel in the pouring rain and we all boarded our coach and set off at 8:30am. The first part of the drive took up up over the Jochberg pass out of Kitzbuhel and the province of Tirol into the Salzburg Land Province. It was still misty and murky out there but good to be seeing some other parts of Austria and I was already thinking of nice cycle routes with good hills and fast descents.<\/p>\n
We then continued on our way through the valleys of Salzburg Land through Kaprun and it’s hydro electric power stations and on into Carinthia, another province of Austria. From here we started on the amazing Glossglockner High Alpine Road.<\/p>\n
This famous alpine road was built between 1930 and 1935 and take you across the main alpine ridge. Covering a distance of 48 kilometers the high mountain road goes up the mountain from Bruck at Salzachtal, through the Hochtor Pass and into the heart of the Hohe Tauern National Park. At it’s highest point over the Hochtor Pass it reaches 2,504 m then descends again to a mountain hut and cafe alongside a small lake which is supposed to be the coldest lake in the Alps. From here it descends for a while then climbs again towards the Pasterze Glacier and it’s associated visitor centres and shops from where you can see views of the Grossglockner which at 3,798 m is Austria’s highest mountain.<\/p>\n
Each of the 36 hairpin bends on the ascent are named and numbered, and by number 2 I was already wishing I could cycle up this beast of a hill. I’ll have to come back one day as it certianly looks like a challenge and on a nice day would be an amazing experience. Today wasn’t a nice day though and we spent much of it driving through mist and murk so the views weren’t as good as they could have been. We drove out of the tree line and then into snowfields. We stopped for coffee and cake at the Glocknerhaus mountain hut and the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-H\u00c3\u00b6he visitors’ centre where we took a few photos and then continued on our way to the glacier.<\/p>\n\n\t\t