Alpbachtal or Alpbach

Today dawned bright and sunny for our first full day here in Austria.  We are approximately half way between Innsbruck and Salzberg on the outskirts of the small village of Karmsach.  Leo and Mary-Ann Meixner (www.www.ferienhaus-meixner.de/) our hosts for this apartment are more than helpful in giving us ideas of what to do and see in this area known generally as The Tyrol.

Thought we saw St Jakob up ahead

The layout of the town is different with all streets in the same neighborhood having the same name so you just keep driving around 8-10 streets until you find their house number.  Coarse the GPS took us to the correct house right off.  What makes it confusing is that in the centre of town or Zentrum, there are numerous streets named Zentrum so you really need a number to go by otherwise you are always on the same street.  Makes it difficult to give or take directions too.  Their method is - go to the church and turn right then left at the first yield sign...but we are getting oriented the more we nose around. BTW - no stop signs in Switzerland or Austria - only Yield signs with a saw-tooth type line painted on the road -  come to a corner, look and keep rolling if nothing is coming.

Small power generator along the trail

First thing this morning we decided to hike The Jakobsweg Trail - it goes right past our house, around 5 lakes just close to us but none of them visible from here - they are up and over the mountain and around the lakes and back down the other end of the mountain.

Many rest spots along the trail

The  Jakobsweg Trail system goes from one end of Switzerland to the other and the same through Austria here. Took us 2 hours but some beautiful scenery along the trail. The path was an ancient pilgrimage of a St. Jacob.  It has rest stops with food and lodging every 30 km or so - considered a day's journey.

One of the 5 lakes linked by rivers

Some of it winds through old villages,  some around lakes and some over mountains like the Alps here in Austria.
On arriving back "home" we headed immediately to the TI office in Zentrum for more info on things to see.

The largest lake Reintaler See

Leo worked for some 42 years for the TI office here before retiring last year and advised us to head up to Alpbachtal today since it was sunny.  We had toured similar high altitude towns and he said this one was the best in Austria.

Most of the trail is of finely packed gravel

The small ski gondola car did not thrill Jean but she agreed to go up.  It was definitely the longest ride we have been on. At the top we looked around for what made it the best but failed to see much.  Turns out we were at the wrong town - should have been Alpbach a few km up the road further.

Small church at the highest point today

Basically this was a ski lift in winter and used as a tourist drop for long distance downhill hikes during summer just about any direction you wanted to go - just hope there was a train or a bus to get you back home at the bottom.

Part way up on the ski lift

The sign on the shack at the top said elevation 2067 m - over 2 km high - it was way up there.  We will get to Alpbach another sunny day hopefully.
We were back home by 3 and rested a bit before going to the market for groceries for supper.  Just before heading to the market, Mary-Ann brought up some yummy apple cheese cake - still warm from the oven.  She invited us down to their apartment and we sat for over half an hour chatting with her and Leo about many things.  They both speak English very well.

View from the top - walk/ski down any direction you wish or take the cable car as we did.