Austria 5/24: Zell am See and the Schmitten

We are staying in a house we rented in Viehoffen, Austria. Our house is about sixty miles from Salzburg and sixty feet from the nearest road, in a mostly vertical direction. We spent the morning there, woozy from jet lag, with plans to visit Zell am See in the afternoon. Gondolas there could take us up nearby mountains, and the city itself was also very beautiful.

When Rob learned of our plans he was indignant. “You have got to be kidding me,” he said. “We came all this way to Austria and now we’re just going to walk around and look at things? We can do that in America!”

Nevertheless, after lunch, the fourteen of us gathered cameras and hats and climbed into the two 9-passenger vans parked on the gravel driveway.

When we reached the town, we took a gondola called the Schmitten, which brought us up to the tallest, snowiest peak and gave us a panoramic view of the Alps. 

 

The lift itself was really neat, but it was also terrifying. Firstly, it was steep, secondly, it swung a little in the wind, and thirdly, it was full of people. We all had to squeeze together until we were touching at least three other strangers, and we had to take someone else’s word that Rob and T. Rex still existed.

At the top of the mountain, there were a couple of little cafes and shops. It was warm enough for most of us to wear short sleeves, but there was still a lot of unmelted snow. In many places, the snow along the cleared-off mountain pathways was piled up higher than our heads. Everywhere we looked, there were sharp snow-peaked mountains extending into the distance. It was a particularly amazing view of the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen.

 

A view of Zell am See from the top of the mountain 

We rode the lift down at about 4:30 and walked around the town itself. We took a well-shaded path that beside the lake, looked around at the small shops and hotels, and got a schedule from the train station.

I gave my camera to Sam for a while because he begged for it quite earnestly. He took pictures of everyone in our walking group. Most pictures featured the most unflattering angle he could find, and I’ve since deleted them. Some of his pictures, however, are remarkably good. I’ve decided to pretend I took them myself.

We were all hungry when we got back to the house. We couldn’t think of an Austrian meal that was easy to make, so we cooked tacos instead. They were very good.