Gosau Village

We woke up early in the next morning, pull up the curtain and hope we would see some miracles out there. But nope, no miracle for us. As said by the weather forecast reporter, this would be a raining day, same to the following 2 days too (a deep sigh).

All I wanted to sing looking out from the foggy window : Rain..Rain..go away, come again another day, we all want to go to PLAY!

Well, there is nothing we can do about the weather stuff, just have to accept it. After brushing and changing, we went downstairs to take a very long breakfast instead. So long that husband and I have time to crack silly jokes which I didn't register any of them in my brain. After breakfast, we went back to our room to dry the wet clothes and pack for the last time. Then, we left the Star Inn Hotel at around 10 am.

Due to heavy downpour, husband drove quite slow. It's pretty amazing to see every inch of the land was showered with extremely consistent rain drop, made us wonder if the same rainy cloud has been following us on top?

In that morning time, we were supposed to go to an ice cave embedded somewhere on a high mountain. We have struggled for a long time should we abandoned the plan on the way, but we decided to give it a try anyway.

Husband drove to the mountain foot and we get everything prepared to go. Standing in front of the ticketing counter, we asked the lady if it's safe for us to go in this weather, especially with the normal spot shoes we were wearing. She called the tour guide up there to check for the condition, then looked at our shoes, and said it's not good for us to go.

She said due to the sudden temperature drop, the snow deposition was thick and quite slippery to walk up the cave. Husband further explained to me that after going up by riding a cable car, we still need to walk for 15 minutes or so to go up to the ice cave. He couldn't tell how steep that 15 minutes walk would be, but if the lady said it's not safe to go, we just got to call it off. When the boys heard the certify, they made a fuss. We felt disappointed too. Heard husband said it is a very awesome place. Sigh.

Husband then called the lodge we were going to check if it's ok to check in a bit early, at 2 pm. Their check-in time is normally late (4 pm), and check-out time is normally early (10-11 am). Luckily the land lady said it's ok.

Around 1.30 pm, we arrived at Pension Edelweiss (apartment) located at Gosau's outskirts, that husband has booked for a night. The land lady wasn't in, but she said we could make use of the common rooms in her apartment.

The rental of this apartment is quite cheap, €57 per night. However, there is a final clean charge €30 to pay for. So, end up, we have to pay €87. But that's still cheap compared to the hotel in bigger town or downtown area.

The rented car that had served us very comfortably for the whole trip from Austria to Germany. From the booklet that is kept in the drawer, we get to know that the registration date of this car is May-08. No wonder it smell new.

The door wasn't locked and we could walk in and out like it's our own house. Compared to the cold and wet condition out there, inside the apartment we felt very warm and dry.

One of the so-called common rooms. This one must be the living room, not too common to me.

The children's playroom.

The dining room.

Suddenly, Vincent jumped out from the playroom, with this face mask on him. He asked if I got scared by him, of course I said "yes", to please him. Very funny, son.

The temperature had dropped to 10-12C. Compared to the previous sunny day, 25-28C, what a huge difference !

While waiting for the land lady to come, the rain had suddenly become very small. It had elevated our mood. We quickly ran outside to PLAY.

The scene outside Edelweiss Pension is very breathtaking, peaceful too. One of the heaven on earth.

In the past timber production and salt mining in neighboring Hallstatt have historically been the major industries in Gosau. Today, tourism is the main source of income, although raising livestock, mainly cattle, is also an important economic activity.

Vincent pointed at this cattle and asked me if this cattle can supply a lots of "chocolate" milk. Obviously he thought chocolate milk comes directly from a cattle.

Vincent and his imaginary chocolate-milk-cow.

The small wooden bridge that connect our side to the cattle's side. Of course we didn't connect ourself with the cattles, though the boys would like to do that.

Finally the land lady came, she took 15 min to check us in. Then, she helped us to carry our baggage to a family apartment, at the 3rd floor. Our apartment consist of 2 bedrooms. The kitchen was the built in type, in one of the bedrooms. It's weird to do the cooking in bedroom.

After taking a simple lunch, the rain had almost stopped. Husband suggested to go to the end of Gosau to take a closer look of the snow mountain that we could see from our room. Again, when the captain said go, we go.

15 minutes later, we reached to the end of Gosou. We parked our car in front of this guesthouse and walked up to the lake side.

Apparently, this place is one of the ski resorts in Gosau. When the boys saw the cable car descending from the top, they bugged us to take them for a ride. We got to promise them we would do it some other day, then they moved on.

At the southern end of Gosau, is Vorderer Gosausee. A mountain lake enclosed by sheer rock wall, with a beautiful view across the water to the Dachstein & the Gosau glacier.

On the right side of the lake.

It's quite windy and very very cold here. We couldn't stay any longer even though we wanted to. After snapping a few photos, we left.

On the way back to Gosau Village. This place is so quiet and peaceful.

I was thinking : what kind of pressure would they possibly have to live in a place like this? Probably zero pressure, I guess.

Back to this point, we didn't make a right turn to go back to our lodge. Instead, husband continued to drive on. He said since the rain had stopped, we should go to a nearby famous town, Hallstatt for a quick tour.

We drove on the same road that we used to go to Gosau town. A river is flowing rapidly at one side of the road.

After several turns, husband pool the car aside, at here. He pointed to that far away tiny cluster of houses, and said it was the place we were heading for, Hallstatt.

I zoomed (maximum) to that place, and that's the biggest Hallstatt Town my camera can get for me. I really should consider to buy a higher power telephoto lens now, I need to think....

Actually to many people, Gosau village is a good detour from Hallstatt Town. This is because Gosau is only 10 km away from Hallstatt, and it is truly a very beautiful countryside town.

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We were greeted by a beautiful sunny day when we woke up the next morning. Thank God the "very bad weather" as predicted by weather forecast was never happen !!

Before leaving Gosau for long, we drove back to the lake side to take another look...