Baumzipfelweg–Part II

After crossing the majestic span of the Alps bridge, a sign pointed us in the direction of the actual Baumzipfelweg.

Unsurprisingly, this involved taking many stairs to get to the tree tops.  We told the boys that it would be like walking around an Ewok village since they were both pretty big Star Wars fans.  This was about all the selling they needed, anything that was in any way connected to Star Wars was OK by them.  That attitude was eerily familiar to my own.  The stairs up were not really all that bad.  I would say it was about the equivalent of the 4th or maybe 5th floor of an average building.

Walking along the boardwalk and platforms was pretty neat, but a little shorter than we had hoped.  the complete route was supposedly 1km, but I would not be surprised if they included some of the stairs distance in that to make it seem longer than it was.  I enjoyed it, but it just seemed like it should have been a larger experience for something you would make a special trip for.

There were a couple of observation points, but since we were more or less in a valley, I don’t think that they served a great purpose.  Really you could not see all that far, it was not like you were on top of a mountain or something.  Still, Liam enjoys any opportunity to look through a telescope or binoculars.

At the end of one section was this glass walled bit, which was kind of cool.  Claudia is striking a nice pose here with some of the gnome hats, but I really forget what statement she was trying to make.  At the time it was funny as I recall, but now I have lost the context of the pose… 

So a bit of a walk along the tops and then it was back down the steps to the ground level.

The other great attraction of this site was a rope/climbing garden.  The grown up one cost extra and required about a 30 min training on the use of the safety equipment, but over at our section there was a kids version which was fairly much a big playground/obstacle course type thing.  The kids had some fun running through that a few times.  Since I had the fun man strapped to my back, Henrik and I just did a couple more rounds of the tree top walk while the others enjoyed the ropes.

That is it for this experience.  I will leave you with a cool image of Gnomerik enjoying a rice cake.

Baumzipfelweg

After such a strenuous and tiring hike, we thought we would take it a little easier the next day and look for something that was maybe a little less difficult.  We settled on a visit to the “Baumzipfelweg” or “tree-top way” which looked very nice in the brochure.  Essentially it is a path on elevated platforms on top of some trees with nice views.  It was also quite close to where we were staying, so the prospect of a shorter drive was also quite welcome.

Like pretty much every activity, this started out with a nice long walk from where we parked.  There was about a 30 minute stroll along this path next to a nice river.  Compared to the past days massive inclines, this seemed pretty easy.

There were also some cows enjoying the path, so we enjoyed the cows too.

At the end of this path, we got to the “Golden Gate Bridge of the Alps” and the kiosk where we had to get our tickets to the path.  Possibly the greatest part of the whole experience was that with every entry ticket, you received this amazing gnome hat.  Here is the Anderson family in full gnome mode, standing before the mighty bridge.

The Starrs looked just as cool decked out in their hats.

The bridge was pretty cool, I have only ever seen the real Golden Gate bridge from an airplane, but I have to say this one may be just as good in my books.  Mostly because the real GG bridge leads to Oakland and this one leads to Schnitzel.

I have a moderate fear of heights, so the very see through grating of the bridge made me feel a little nervous.  I did however suck it in and look super calm and comfortable so I can maintain my manly he-man image in front of the children.  I know they clearly see me as some sort of super macho dude.

Oh, and I did not really mention that again I had the pleasure of all this walking and climbing with some extra pounds of joy strapped to my back.  This was the 3rd or 4th outing in a row carrying Henrik though and I have to say I was actually getting rather used to it.  I don’t think I would have managed another 5 hour trek right away, but it was not so bad. 

Stay tuned for the next update when we cross the bridge and enjoy the tree tops.

 

The Big Hike–Part 3

Well, since we were all feeling fit and adventurous and the kids had not uttered a peep of complaint we decided to take the long route back.  On the posted sign/map it did not look too tough and it was not particularly late.

We started out ok and went on this trail that took us out of the gorge.   As the sign says, we bid goodbye to Taxenbach.

The trail was long and winding as it took us up away from the gorge and we had some very nice views of the woods and river as we walked along.  I do like to notice how much less “safe” touristy things are in Europe.  There are tons of trails that go right along the edge of cliffs and drop offs without a single fence, warning sign or other lawsuit-preventing accessory.  They count pretty heavily on people to exercise some common sense and behave themselves.  Maybe I am cynical about North America, but I every time I see a nice path like this I just imagine a version where someone’s kid falls off the edge and a train of American lawyers are rolling up to sue the life out of everyone in range. 

This is not even the most steep drop off we walked along, but it was a nice bit of the trail.

Every now and then a little stream would cross the path, often with a nice little waterfall like this one.

Mike of course had to stick his head in it.

Sometime shortly after this, it became evident that it was not going to be a leisurely walk, but more of a tremendously strenuous hike up very steep and uneasy terrain.  About an hour out of the gorge, we were all questioning the decision that we made to take the long route home.  This nasty section has no photos because both Mike and I became too tired to stop and take out the cameras.  I was struggling up the hillsides with a laughing frolicking Henrik strapped to my back, and Mike was carrying his belly.

At about 1.5 hours of all uphill walking  we came at last to an Alm where we could stop and have an ice cream break.  Some very much needed cold treats and feet resting took place before we started out again on the final leg of the trek back to the starting point.  We were refreshed enough to bring the cameras back into play.   Here we are as we head out for the (thankfully) downhill portion of the hike.

Austria has a lot of beautiful landscape and we really enjoyed the nice sights as we crossed fields and villages on the way back.  I think one of the highlights was walking through a herd of cows that were enjoying lunch on the trail.  Cherie is posing here with her new friend.

All in all the hike took us about 4.5 hours and was somewhere around 18km.  A little more than we planned when we had set out that morning… 

Here we are in the home stretch, walking down the final big hill.

There were still very nice views right through to the very end though.

One of the last things we saw on this route was a big hollow tree that all the kids loved.  Of course each child had to climb inside and have their picture taken.  This is Liam’s version, where he is also showing an interesting rock that he picked up at some point of the journey.  I forget why it was interesting, but he assured me it was.

There you have it, the big hike came to an end and my feet and shoulders demanded that we would take it slightly easier the next day….

The Big Hike – Part 2

The gorge was quite large and the hike started off fairly close to the bottom.  After a bit of a walk we enjoyed a walk up many many stairs to get to the upper portion of the gorge.  Still walking along the river that fed the waterfall we had just seen a few moments earlier.  I think the kids were enjoying all the walkways and steps while the adults had fun with the nature.  It was a pretty good outing for all concerned.

On the upper section of the hike, there was a nice bridge spanning the gorge that called out for a group photo.  I only learned later on that this bridge was actually the sight of a tragedy a few years earlier.  Apparently a school trip had come to the gorge on the hike and the entire group went out on the bridge for just such a photo.  They overloaded it and sadly the bridge collapsed into the gorge, killing a few of the kids.  Now there are strict warning signs advising of the safe capacity.

Below is a long shot and a close-up of us enjoying the nice spot.

And a reverse angle of Mike the photographer taking the previous images.

Trails like this are always big fun and have steep bits, flat bits, and even tunnels through the rock wall.  The boys always enjoy a cave.

Followed by a nice high up walk along a steep bit.

So after walking about 45 min or so we came to the end of the gorge hike.  At this point we had to make a choice, do we go back the way we came for about a 30 min hike to the start (downhill more and easier than the way up) or take the long way back and keep hiking in the larger circuit. 

Next post shows the outcome.

 

The Big Hike – Part 1

So, after a nice relaxing day at the animal park, we felt we were ready to take on a bit bigger hike.  We reviewed many pamphlets and decided on visiting a nice gorge that was nearby.  Given the hot weather, it is my experience that gorges are usually both nice to look at and a little cooler when you are down in the bottom near the river.  So we packed up and drove about 20 min to the starting point for the hike. 

Of course when you begin any hike, you are full of enthusiasm since your feet and your back have no idea what is in store for them…

Mike liked this warning sign since it contained the word “Achtung!” one of the few German words he had encountered prior to this visit.

The hike started off pretty easy with a nice gentle slope down into the gorge.  We could hear some rushing water up ahead.

We came to this rather nice waterfall.  There was also some pretty impressive lens flare going on here.

I stitched together this panorama shot of the falls to show it from top to bottom.  One of the ongoing problems with a gorge hike is that I don’t have a wide enough lens to capture the whole scene.  There is not always the chance to stand far enough back from the subject in the limited space.  So I just took a bunch of photos and stitch them them together later with the magic of computers.

I really enjoy hikes like this.  There was a lot of interesting scenery and the difficulty was not too bad.  Going in and out of the gorge was a bit strenuous with all these steps, but it was easier than a mountain trail of similar steepness.  Oh, keep in mind I was doing this with 12kg of baby in a backpack, adding to the fitness for me.

No matter how much the boys complained about being too tired for a hike in the morning, as soon as we were out on a trail, they ran off like little rocket-men.  Here is a rare moment when I managed to get ahead of them on the stair climb and have a nice reverse angle of them clowning their way up.

That is it for the first stretch of the hike.  more to follow….

 

Some more of Ferleiten

Other than the animals, the attraction of the park were a bunch of kiddie rides.  The ticket was not an all inclusive one, and every ride had to be paid for individually, but the prices were actually pretty reasonable.  Fairly much everything was 1 Euro for a ride, with some of the things actually being free.  The general rule was if electricity was involved, it cost a Euro.

 

I think one of the biggest hits with the kids though were these pedal go-karts.  Free, and there were three carts and three kids so the math worked out perfectly.  They raced around the little track for many many laps.  Despite his scrawny looking little chicken legs, Liam had no trouble rocketing around in that thing and I am surprised he has not been after me to get him one for home.

 

Right next to the free carts was a pretty fun merry go round.  There were actually quite a lot of playground type activities for the kids that did not cost anything, sort of unusual for a tourist destination in my experience.  I just expect to have everything cost an outrageous amount of cash.  Cherie got into the act and rode with the kids while Mike put his back and enormous belly behind spinning the ride.

 

 

Although most of the rides were there to be enjoyed by bigger kids, Henrik was not left out altogether.   He got to have a go on this sweet helicopter.

 

 

There were some electric motorcycles that of course the boys had to try out. 

 

 

I think this was the coolest ride they had.  You sat in a little boat that was pulled up a slope, then released to fly off a jump into the water.  Mike really wanted to do this, but he was nervous that he was a bit too big for it since it was essentially designed for children.  This was also the only ride I saw with a queue while we were there.  Here is some random kid flying through the air.

 

 

That wraps up Ferleiten… but don’t worry, I still have plenty more vacation fun to deliver.

 

Ferleiten Animal park

After our nice day of hiking and swimming, we thought we would do something more child focused.  We had many many brochures and internet pages to go through outlining the various activities in the area.  After some deliberation, we decided on the “Wildpark Ferleiten.”   This was described as an attraction combining a small animal park with examples of local wildlife, along with a sort of kiddie amusement park/playground.  It was also only about a 20 min drive from the house, so it seemed like a pretty good choice.

The entrance had a nice looking bear statue that the kids of course had to climb all over.  Notice that Liam is fully decked out in his German Fußball fan uniform for this trip.

The animal area was nice with very large enclosures on the mountainside for them to walk about.  The actual selection of animals was not particularly exotic, deer, mountain sheep, some wolves.  Mostly things typical to the region which to be fair is not super different to what can be found in Canada.  So I don’t think anyone was super impressed with the “exoticness” of them, but it is always nice to look at animals.  The kids got to feed quite a few of them as well, which is always a popular choice.

There was one super-exotic animal that was heavily promoted all over the region.  Seriously this was one of the main attraction getting top billing over wolves and bears… here is the very special and hard to encounter…. groundhog.  Cherie even managed to get a photo of this rare beauty.

The location of the park itself was also one of the main features.  It is on the side of a mountain, next to the entrance to a national park, with an enormous waterfall across the street.  There was all kinds of natural majesty shoved in our faces and we did enjoy it a lot.  Here is the lovely Claudia standing in front of some mountains that still manage to have snow on them this late in the year.

A nice photo of Cherie with the huge waterfall in the background.

Here is the behind the scenes photo of how Mike took that picture… I just thought it was funny to show the “behind the curtains” view.

Here are the happy Starrs.  Look how nice they can smile when the children are off amusing themselves and not needing any entertaining/supervision. 

And I thought it was funny that in between taking the first and second photos (just in case)  Liam managed to run in and insert himself in the portrait.  He also managed to smile nicer than he ever does when I want him to pose for a family photo as will become evident in future posts.

So that covers the first bit of the Wildpark.  Stay tuned for the rides….