Gosau and Salzkammergut

Next stop after Hallstattsee was Gosau, our base for the next few says.

From there we explored quite a bit of the Salzkammergut, from the gondola ride to the top to Dachstein, which is the prominent mountain in the region to various Health Spas in the area, many of which have hot sulfur springs. This also used to be the get away area for the aristocrats in Vienna

Looking down at Hallstatt. Note the precarious perch on the left - the Five fingers outlook.

A local setting in Baa-alb

 The hairs on the hat come from the goatee of a local mountain antelope.

Locals in their tracht at Gosausee, at a little guest house we had beer, wine and some great home backed pastries.

Good bye from Gosau and the Salzkammergut

The Tirol and Salkammergut areas hold much of the back country and alpine beauty associated with Austria. The people are friendly but you also get the sense that for the locals making a living here is not that easy and am sure many depend on the tourist trade.

The pricing was fairly reasonable. The guest houses are very clean and well kept and run about $30.00 - $45.00 per person, including breakfast. Eating out in this area is fairly reasonable also, with the least expensive being the beer and wine, which are very good and very inexpensive. A bottle of good local wine may cost $6.00 - $8.00, and can be had for less. Gasoline on the other hand runs about the same as a regular bottle of wine. BTW, currency is the euro and all measures are metric. Hmmm, what a trade-off

Because Salzkammergut is more native, English is not that prevalent but, the people are pretty helpful and sign language works well:-). Anyways, this is the area you'd want to spend time in if you want to get away but, avoid July and August, as this is when the vacation and tourist season is in full swing.

See you in Vienna