Natural to the alpine area around the glacier were these funny animals. We managed to see an adult and a baby. They are mammals and were about the size of small dogs. I believe they are known as large ground squirrels - could these be long lost relatives of our dear Squirrel?!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmot
No not the Kaiser - my hubby!!
The Pasterze Glacier.
There were old mining tunnels running along the glacier so I walked up a few of these to get a closer view while Harry got even closer by going down the little cliff railway to the ice itself. There was a bit of a walk back so in the thinner air I didn't fancy the exercise!!
xxsue
You can see the road
going round the top of this hill. The little building was a chapel to those people who lost their lives building the road.
A view from the coach.
A bridge on the road.
Looking down the valley from the coach window!
The Grossglockner mountain at 3798m is the highest mountain in Austria and in prominence the second highest in the Alps behind Mount Blanc! It's like a pyramid on the Toblerone boxes!!The road is 48km long and has 36 bends and rises up to 2504m!! It was a bit scary in parts as there were no barriers to stop you falling off but the views were superb!!
You can find out more here:
http://www.grossglockner.at/en/
We pottered around the town later on. The church was beautiful and what trip to Austria is not complete without a visit to an Austrian Patisserie!! The cakes and breads were wonderful!! lol! I'd eaten the cake before I thought about photographing it!!
More views from the mountain. The weather was glorious, we took our fleeces and raincoats but never took them off the coach!
Our first view of the Alps came on our way to Zell Am See , a beautiful town named after the lake it sits by. A lake cruise was included and then free time to explore.
My lovely husband!
The boat and me on the lake cruise! The lake water is drinkable apparently but we didn't like to find out!
We chose to take a cable car ride to the mountain above the town for the views.
Zell Am See from the top of the mountain behind!
A view from the top.
The view looking down from the cable car!
Our balcony was just above the circle on the left !
The grounds at the front - they laid on a barbeque night here!
This is my hubby- on the day we came home!
These are the views from our balcony in our room. Superb views to wake up to.
One morning was really misty and the mist just hung across the valley.
It was so quiet and peaceful, I don't think I heard one siren, not like home at all!
Can you see the people in the middle of the photo?
I zoomed in on people down on the glacier, the crevases were huge close up but just looked like little cracks from above!
