Kalkalpen National Park – a hidden gem of Austria

Almost all of our trips so far were originally supposed to be somewhere completely different. It started even before we had Emilko and went to explore Portugal, even though we had originally booked flights to Cambodia. Autumn Iceland, which was originally supposed to take place in July. A road trip through Ireland, which was originally supposed to be Scotland as a caravan. The autumn Dolomites, which were originally supposed to be the way to the north.

That’s why we planned the last autumn already in the summer. But that didn’t help either, because we had to cancel the entire vacation two weeks before departure due to work obligations. In the end, although there was no big trip, only long weekends (with a limit of max. 4 hours from Bratislava), which pleasantly surprised us. For example, by finding ourselves in a different place than we thought we were. 🙂 And so our trip to the Kalkalpen National Park began.

It was Thursday evening, Monday was All Saints’ Day and we wanted some nature in Austria. I didn’t look for “the most beautiful places in Austria” before the trip. I was simply looking at the green spots on the map and looking for some nature where we could escape and recharge our energy.

I found NP Gesäuse. Oh, I’ve heard of that. Great, we’re going there. We managed to book accommodation at the last minute in the town of Spital am Pyhrn (hotel suitable for families with children in a former monastery), approx. 30 min. from NP Gesäuse. It doesn’t matter, because it’s for a jump, cool. In the morning, however, we learned that the place where we live already belongs to the Kalkalpen National Park and it is said to be nice here. To be honest, the photos in the hotel were nothing extra, but then again, what the heck…. not everyone knows how to add colors to photos in Lightroom. 😀 Ok, no bullshit, let’s risk it. And indeed, we did well. This is exactly what we needed. Almost no people, great weather and the scenery… really wow.

The advantage of such places is actually that since they are not advertised in this way (such as the “romantic” Hallstatt, which I will get to next time), one does not have high expectations, which can often disappoint them more. And for us, the biggest plus is that there are no crowds. But otherwise we are really sociable… :).

Schiederweiher

Supposedly the most beautiful place Austria in 2018. A nice romantic walk along the straight line around the lake that starts at the parking lot where the band played and ends at the donkeys and the hut where they pour wine. Austrians know how to enjoy nature :).

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Brunnsteiner See

We took the cable car to Wurzeralm, which turns into a beautiful tourist spot in summer and autumn. We enjoyed the couple of hours circuit and thanks to the wonderful views we extended it to a full day trip. There is an excellent restaurant in the center, but we preferred to have a picnic in nature :).

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Gleinkersee

Na cestu domov sme si nechali toto krásne romantické jazero. Obehnete ho za polhodinku, ale radosti z neho je na pár hodín. V lete sa v ňom dá pekne kúpať, ale v novembri nás ľadová voda až tak nelákala. Samozrejme len preto, že sme si nevzali plavky, inak by sme do neho určite skočili :D.

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Auf Wiedersehen Kalkalpen!