Europe holiday destinations: Hills are alive with sounds of Austria

st wolfgang chapel

CHOCOLATE-BOX SCENERY..St Wolfgang chapel stands above the pretty village (Image: Getty)

While most people on their first visit to Austria’s Lake District might take a boat trip, sit and fish, or laze on a sunlounger with a G&T on a hotel lawn overlooking the shore, my friend Jane and I thought we’d get straight into the action. We’re canyoning in Almbach Gorge near Ebenau, a 20-minute drive east of Salzburg. And it’s raining.

“When it rains,” our guide, Maximillian, shouts, “we say we hope the lakes fill up fast! Because then… it stops!”

The rain has some pouring to do, if Maximillian’s claim of 170 lakes in the region is to be believed (the tourist board says there are 76).

We’re staying at Lake Fuschl. It’s a three-hour (7.5 miles) hike round its turquoise waters. Fuschl is the gateway to Austria’s Salzkammergut, or Lake District.

The sleepy village has vanilla-coloured houses, carved wooden balconies and window boxes bursting with geraniums.

schloss fuschi

Schloss Fuschi at the western end of Lake Fuschi (Image: Thomas Stankiewicz / LOOK-foto)

lake fuschi

GLORIOUS.. Lake Fuschi features a 7.5 mile hike round its turquoise waters (Image: Getty)

Night-time entertainment consists of a 64-piece brass band which performs, in traditional costume, twice a week in the cobbled square. It’s an impressive show, with audience appreciation boosted by schnapps sold by women in dirndls from wooden, handbag-style barrels.

At the western end of Lake Fuschl is Schloss Fuschl, a 15th century castle, now a luxury hotel, and a small fishery, known for its birch-smoked trout.

One of the workers opens a small shed where the fish hang neatly in rows. We sit in the restaurant and try some. It’s delicately smoked and melts in the mouth.

A spell of drizzle clears quickly (seeming to confirm a 76-lake top up) and Lake Fuschl glistens. Some say it’s because an untrusting soldier threw his hoard of silver coins into the waters, planning to retrieve them at the end of the Second World War.

Another of the region’s popular lakes is Lake Wolfgang with the holiday resorts of St Wolfgang, St Gilgen and Strobl on its shores.

Among the chalet-style buildings of St Gilgen is the House of Mozart although the composer never lived there. In fact he didn’t even visit the town. But his mother was born in the house and his sister, Nannerl, moved there after she was married.

The museum was once the home of St Gilgen’s tax collector and judge. It has an intriguing collection of iron handcuffs and 17th century expenses claims for executions.

On a lighter note, the Sound Of Music’s Do-Re-Mi was filmed in a nearby meadow, although I failed to work out which.

From St Gilgen, we took a ferry to Strobl at the far end of the lake. Ferries have been operating on Lake Wolfgang since imperial times. We glided past creaking boathouses and tiny bays.

Strobl has a baroque-style church with ancient, wrought-iron crosses in its graveyard. In the surrounding hills is a deer park which serves local produce for lunch: trout from the lake, cheese from neighbouring Abersee, alpine honey and the inevitable smoked and roast deer.

strobi

Strobi has a baroque-style church with a dramatic backdrop of mountains (Image: Getty)

To the west of Strobl is Blinkingmoos Nature Reserve where we follow a cycle trail through meadows, marshland and forests. It’s an easy ride along well-marked paths. Clouds drift low over the mountains and the lake plays hide-and-seek through the trees.

We cycle to St Wolfgang at the foot of the Schafberg mountain. On fine days you can take what is said to be Europe’s oldest steam-powered cogwheel train, built in 1893, to the top. St Wolfgang is a place of pilgrimage, centred on its 14th century church.

Legend says the saint persuaded the devil to help build it, promising, in return, the soul of the church’s first living visitor.

Apparently the devil flew through the roof in anger when he discovered that visitor was a wolf. I imagine this was metaphorical, as there’s no record of the saint starting building again.

bike

Austria has perfect cycling trails through meadows, marshland and forests (Image: Getty)

St Wolfgang is also known for the White Horse Inn, the inspiration for a play which became a Broadway hit in the 1930s.

The musical, of the same name, was inspired by a head waiter whose painful wooing of his female boss over breakfast amused a theatre director who was staying there.

As for Jane and I, it was a toss-up between the Inn’s apple strudel and the richest sachertorte. We ordered one each, and one to share.

Then we sat on the terrace by a sparkling lake and discussed what it was like to be wooed. And that, of course, is another story.

source: express.co.uk