On a mountain

We go to the Ötscher, a mountain in the province of Lower Austria, where i wanted to go for years but never made it there. Approaching the mountain area in a bus we pass beautiful, partly wooden houses, from the beginning of the 20th century. Charging from those houses I think that the area must have been very rich in the past and maybe still is...
The Ötscher itself stands alone and is situated in an extremely beautiful area of limestone mountains and rivers. It offers a spectacular view of the Alps in the West which seem to be endless.

On the second day of our stay we go down through the Ötschergräben, a steep river valley close to the Ötscher. The hike through the valley takes several hours, it almost seems endless.

We arrive at a cottage which serves as a restaurant. It is situated right over the river valley.
From there we leave the valley and walk to the Erlauf reservoir. The Erlauf is a river in that area. Even that reservoir is beautiful.

After that we get to a train station of the Mariazeller Bahn, which is a narrow gauge railway running from the famous place of pilgrimage called Mariazell. Even the pope comes there sometimes. The train ride is superscenic but takes 2,5 hrs for 85 km. The first 1,5 hrs the trip is beautiful. The train goes down from around 900 m altitude to around 250m.