For the 15th Polyramblers annual snow-walking weekend, we went to Bad Gastein, a spa town in the mountains in Austria. This year there were 12 of us including newbies Jackie C, Julie and Wendy (Christine Bignold’s daughter). We flew from Heathrow and Gatwick and met at Salzburg airport. We had a lovely train journey to Bad Gastein with magnificent scenery. But we should not have sat in the quiet carriage! We were told off twice for being too noisy. After a short walk to discover the town or to the nearest supermarket to buy shower gel, we had a very nice but enormous dinner at the Schafflinger Alm. How can they eat such huge portions?
There were blue skies for our first walk on the Saturday in the Kotschach Valley. We walked down into town and crossed the Gasteiner waterfall and then followed the lovely Kaiser Wilhelm Promenade above the valley to the tiny village of Kotschachtal. We passed the restaurant Himmelandhutte where the Strollers – who left one hour after the main group and followed the same paths as us – had lunch later. We followed a snowy path through the forest and entered High Tauern National Park. The scenery was beautiful – a magical winter wonderland. The path climbed steadily for a long while and we were overtaken by a horse drawn carriage. We saw a house in the distance and were relieved to have finally arrived at our lunch stop but, worryingly, the path seemed to continue beyond the house. Thankfully, it turned back towards the house, and we reached Alpenhaus Prossau at the end of the valley where we had lunch. When I say lunch, I mean dessert and a hot drink. The walk back was faster as it was downhill all the way.
We caught up with the other group as we reached the bus stop and the bus arrived. Once back in Bad Gastein (minus 4 who walked back), a few of us went to a bar for a hot drink and tried to sort out evening meals. The town is quite busy with skiers, and it is difficult to get a table for a group. That night we had to eat at 18.00 as it was the only time available. But it was in a nice restaurant where portions were not as large as last night. We walked 8.7 miles – 14 km. Up 289m / 948ft – down 318m / 1,043ft.
On the Sunday, we took the bus to Sportgastein for a lovely trip along the narrow valley of the Nassfelder Ache river. The plan was to walk back to Bad Gastein along the river. But I changed the plan. What I had mapped out would be a great summer walk but, in winter, it was too risky as the snow was too high and the path had not been cleared. But there was a 4.5 km cleared path for walkers in the wide Siglitztal valley. So, we did this walk with a strong, very cold wind against us.
We had a ‘light’ lunch at Valeriehaus cafe and took the bus to the pretty village of Alt Bockstein. We had a look inside the baroque pilgrimage church ‘Maria von guten Rat’ or ‘Mary of good counsel’. We walked back to Bad Gastein following the Kaiserin Elizabeth promenade along the Gasteiner Ache river. A few of us went for a coffee and a walk in the town and back to our B&B listening to the wind howling outside. Dinner was in the friendly Panorama Restaurant Silberkrug.
No wind on the Monday and a beautiful blue sky. We walked along the pretty Erzherzog-Johann Promenade and then up and down to Anger with beautiful views of the Gasteiner valley. We crossed the Gasteiner Ache river and walked alongside it to Bad Hofgastein. There were many walkers on this path.
We had lunch in Cafe Konditorei Schwaiger which consisted mainly of coffee and delicious cakes. Then, while four Polyramblers continued the walk in the valley, seven of us went up on the Schlossalmbahn cable car to the top of the mountain where we met Danny who had a ‘me’ day. We did a short walk to the viewpoint and, afterwards, we had a hot drink and went down by cable car. We returned to Bad Gastein in a crowded bus full of skiers. Our last dinner was at Gasteiner Wirtshaus where we went Saturday night.
We had an uneventful journey back to the UK, leaving Bad Gastein at 9.30 and arriving in Gatwick at 14.10. I think we enjoyed our annual ration of snow, mountains, schnapps, schnitzels and apple strudels. Suggestions welcome for the 2027 snow-walking trip.
Dominique