Hungary and Austria: Gross Glockner and the Alps (6.16.25)

There are so many gorgeous places in Austria!  We decided to spend one day driving through Austria's mountain areas, another driving along Austria's lakes, and a third day relaxing in Hallstatt, a quaint town near Salzburg.  On June 16, 2025, we headed northwest from Villach, heading into the mountains.  It was only as the road kept circling higher and higher that I noticed signs advertising "Gross Glockner".  I knew the name from when I drove with my parents, as a little girl, through the Alps of Germany, Switzerland,  Austria, and Italy.  My father loved each Alpine pass, and Gross Glockner was one of his favorites.

 

We soon were driving through green valleys, filled with wildflowers, steep-roofed Alpine homes, and mountains high above us.

We passed stone walls, waterfalls, and signs for "gasthofs," or guest houses.  Again, I remember my dad driving through little towns, watching for signs for "zimmer frei," where we stayed in private homes in a "free room," under down coverlets.  Sometimes we could faintly smell manure from the animal stalls just outside the house!

We drove higher and higher, stopping to look down at the green valleys far below.

Finally, we were up in the clouds, nearing Austria's megamountain, Gross Glockner itself!

Time out for one of those great European Magnum ice cream bars.

As we drove back south to Villach, we looked towards the Dolomites of Southern Austria and northern Italy. They were as beautiful as the Alps!

Hungary and Austria: Klagenfurt and Bled (6.15.25)

After Dave saw this photo, he forbade me to take another one like it until he has finished his diet!  It was Sunday on June 15, 2025, and we had no church to attend.  Instead, we wandered through Klagenfurt, Austria, and Bled, Slovenia.

The nearest LDS church to our Villach condo was in Klagenfurt, some 25 miles away.  When we arrived, the church was empty.  Dave called the bishop, who said stake conference was being held in Munich, with Elder Gong as the visiting authority.  If only we had known!  We would have loved to attend a European stake conference addressed by one of our favorite Church speakers.  We did discover that our son-in-law, Steve Ebert, served part of his LDS mission in Klagenfurt and had often attended this very chapel! 

There were festivities in Klagenfurt on this weekend.  An Ironman race was being run, and we applauded several runners, as they crossed the finish line.

We stopped at a tourist information center and picked up a copy of a self-guided walking tour of Klagenfurt.  This statue of Queen Maria-Theresa on the town square showed how pervasive the influence of the Hapsburgs was on Austria and Germany, and particularly the influence of this powerful queen. 

We checked out the imposing town hall, the city monuments, and also the streets of homes of aristocrats.

Our brochure pointed out one home which had been owned by a man who helped devise the German plans for the Holocaust.  He was never brought to justice.  As in Hungary, World War II left many scars and unanswered questions in Austria.

We paused, from the serious business of sightseeing, for a slice of apple strudel and an ice cream cone.

And of course there was a gorgeous baroque cathedral.

During the afternoon, we drove past the beautiful Worthersee, one of the largest lakes in Austria, to Slovenia to see Lake Bled.

Lake Bled is as beautiful as all the photos I have seen of it.  

I smelled the roses, bought a glass pendant from an artist at a small shop, and shared a seafood dinner with David at a cafe by the lake.

Hungary and Austria: Graz (6.14.25)

I decided we needed a rest stop on June 14, 2025, as we drove from Keszthely, Hungary, to Villach, Austria, to begin our week exploring Austria.  I chose a walking tour in Graz, in southeastern Austria. Graz is Austria's second largest city, with a quaint, historic core.

As we waited for our tour guide on Graz's main plaza, I had the perfect lunch--a typical Austrian parfait of three scoops of ice cream covered with apricot sauce and whipped cream.

There was a terrorist attack in Graz the week before we arrived.  The plaza was filled with votive candles, flowers, and notes commemorating the victims.

Dave and I realized, as we surveyed the square, that a wedding party had just emerged from the town hall.

Our guide was originally from China, although she had lived in Austria for twenty years.  She often leads tours for Chinese tourists.  It was interesting to hear, on our walking tour in Austria, comparisons to the architecture and culture of Beijing and Shanghai!  We do live in a multicultural world.

Our guide pointed out a building built during the Renaissance and still in Renaissance style.  Much of Austria, like Hungary, was rebuilt during the baroque age.

Graz, in southern Austria, has the feel of nearby Italy.  Our condo in Villach, equally far south, was just fifty miles from the Italian border.

We wandered the quaint "old town" and visited the magnificent baroque cathedral.

The palace, linked to the cathedral by a private bridge, included a stone spiral staircase.  The views upward were dizzying.

Our tour ended at the entrance to the cable car hoisting people to the "schloss," or castle, on top of the hill.  We rode to the top, although we didn't take the circular slide from the top down--an adventure which created screams we could hear all the way to the schloss!

The views of Graz were spectacular.