Castles & Waterfalls

After another wonderful breakfast, we said our good byes to the Bloberger Hof, (a word that Marty really enjoyed saying). The staff at this Guesthouse was friendly and they were wonderful hosts. We opted to have dinner in house and we were treated to a delightful meal out on the terrace, complete with espresso and Apple Strudel for Marty and Nougat Creme Brulee for me. Yummy!

So, this morning, we set out on our way to the town of Zell am Ziller an alpine village nestled deep in the mountains of Tirol.

Our drive was filled with scenic adventures along the way. We stopped at the little town of Golling, where we explored the Golling Wasserfalle by a foot path through the woods. Getting to this point was certainly interesting, traveling down narrow country roads to reach our destination. On the way to the foot path, we passed a little church, St. Nikolaus, built in that area because this saint was devoted to water, and the town depended upon this waterfall to keep the mills running. This waterfall has been a favorite of many romantic painters and it is certainly easy to see why.

From Golling we drove to Werfern where we decided to ride the funicular to the top of the cliff and tour the Burg Hohenwerfen fortress/castle, which was erected in the 11th century. We were happy to have the option for an English audioguide, although we were required to stay with the group under the direction of the German guide. The tour began in the chapel, which offered some interesting sights. My favorite was the hand extending from the pulpit, holding a crucifix. One's first inclination was to wonder if it was there to warn the congregation of the sermon, but the guide explained that this was a symbol that this chapel was a Catholic Chapel, as this was built following the Catholic Protestant wars.

Marty's favorite from the chapel was the painting of the Bishop holding a fish. Marty is sure that this man was so proud of the fish that he caught, that he hired someone to paint him holding it, and he put it on display in the chapel for all to see. Of course, that is a fisherman's viewpoint. Personally, I don't think I would have given it much thought.

When I planned this trip, I decided to fore-go my fears and have Marty drive the scenic route to our destination. This required driving on a road that was imbedded into the side of a cliff. I did have to keep reminding him to keep his eyes on the road, as he is always tempted to look at the view while he is driving, making the journey extremely stressful for me. This reminds me of that Mr. Potato head commercial where Mrs. Potato head ends up losing her mouth on the way down the hill in the car with Mr. Potato head. Just for the record, I kept my mouth shut...probably from shear fear!

This drive offered a spectacular view of the Krimml Wasserfalle, the highest one of its kind in all of Europe (1, 247 ft.) It has three cascading tiers. We parked and walked to two levels, but I decided against climbing to the top since the elevation was not being kind to my asthma, and I feel the beauty of a waterfall is at the bottom. In the long run, we were able to see the waterfall in its entirety as we stopped at vistas on our climb up the mountain.

At one of the viewpoints, we were startled to hear a cow bell, and when we turned around, there was a group of cows, all with bells tied to their necks, getting into line behind one lead cow who was mooing her head off. Must have been time to head back for dinner.

Our drive took us to the top of the mountain, and then we had to descend down the very curvy, narrow roads to the valley. We arrived at our hotel just as the heavens decided to break open with pouring rain. Thank God that it waited until we had reached our destination!

Once at our hotel, it was obvious that there were not many patrons in house. The woman who runs the place does not speak a word of English and she had to call her son, Karl to help us check in. Karl was interested in our last name, Geisler, as it is a local name. Marty explained that his gr. grandfather, Josef Geisler was born in this town.
Karl was quite impressed with that fact. And I think that Jo Ann was right on the money with her blog comment regarding Marty's hat. He must look so great in it because he is of Austrian decent! And, when we saw a local farmer wearing the same hat, Marty felt right at home.