On Top of the World

The weather forecast for our stay here in Obertraun was not looking great, so when we woke to blue skies on Tuesday morning, it got us moving fast! There is a gondola from Obertraun that goes up the Dachstein mountains. At the second gondola station, you can walk to a viewing platform called “Five Fingers” which is at the top of the Krippenstein mountain. There are also lots of other exciting things in the same area and it was obviously going to be much better on a clearer day.

The gondola opened at 8:40am and we were there ten minutes after that – a bit of a shock to the system and Anna was still half asleep! We had planned to call in to the supermarket for picnic supplies, but the clouds were increasing so we didn’t want to take the time and thought we would take our chances on the mountain restaurant.

The gondola whisked us to the top after a quick change at the first gondola station. We had memories of sharing our gondola with a cow on one of our visits to Switzerland, but this time the only creature on board was a chihuahua which took up a little less space.

We were surprised how much snow was still up the mountain. The kids had fun with snowball fights and Matt made a little snowman. We headed straight to the five fingers platform (about a 20 minute walk from the gondola station) and were very surprised to find we had it to ourselves. Some cloud had rolled in, but we still had beautiful views across the mountains and straight down to the lake. We can see the platform from where we are staying, so we were looking straight down at our village.

The mountains in Austria are not as high as some other places, but the sheer number of them makes for an impressive landscape. We really did feel like we were on top of the world all by ourselves. It was about 20 minutes before more people (and the chihuahua!) arrived at the viewing platform. There was another viewing platform in the shape of a spiral, which had great views in every direction. Just below the platform there were wooden recliners, a great place for a snack with a fabulous view.

The weather forecast proved to be accurate as the clouds closed in on the mountain top. It was time to head back down to the first gondola station for the inside adventures. We had a combined ticket to both caves on the mountain. The first tour we did was through the Mammuthohle. This cave system is formed in a similar way to Waitomo Caves, but on a much larger scale. The tour was only in German, but we were given a booklet in English that explained what we were seeing. It was an impressive cave system and they had used lighting well to maximise the effect.

Our plan was to get lunch at the cafe before we toured the ice caves, but it was all fancy sit down meals and not really suitable. I had breadsticks and chocolate in my back pack so we survived on that. As we walked 15 minutes uphill to the ice cave entrance, the rain came down. We were glad to escape into the caves – the temperature was freezing but at least it was dry. The ice caves were more popular and the tour was in German and English. The caves were one of the most impressive things we have ever seen. They are very cold and when the snow melt seeps through cracks into the caves it freezes. There are frozen waterfalls, stalactites up to 9m long and ice up to 25m thick. It is a winter wonderland hidden deep inside the mountain. We were so amazed by what we saw that we hardly noticed the 500 steps we climbed inside the caves.

After the caves we spent a bit of time exploring the other activities at the first gondola, but the rumbly tummies eventually got us off the mountain. After a quick stop at the local supermarket, we finally had lunch at 4pm! The weather turned hot and sunny soon after lunch reminding us just how fast mountain weather can change. We couldn’t resist walking five minutes to the lake front to enjoy the sunshine and Anna was brave enough for a dip in the alpine lake. It had been another tiring but fabulous day on our Europe adventure and we all slept like logs again.