Hiking in Bad Gastein, Dorfgastein, and Werfen

In the morning, after breakfast of cereal cold cuts, we drove to Stubnerkogel Mountain in Bad Gastein to walk on the suspension bridge and hike around the top.

After getting on the gondola, we exited on the top and walked to some amazing overlooks into the valley below.

At first, we could not find the suspension bridge as we walked away from it. Eventually, we found it on the left side of the gondola.

The views were amazing, but the wind and slight drizzle made everyone cold. I started to get a big headache.

We hiked some more but decided not to walk down and save that energy for the next mountain in Dorfgastein.

We took the gondola down to the base and then drove to our home village of Dorfgastein to eat lunch at the Almstadl Restaurant.

Everyone had the delicious beef broth soup, while I had the salad with chicken (Backhendsalat).

I had a headache and wanted to know if the large 0.5-liter Stiegl beer would help.

After lunch, we headed home for a short rest and then to the Ski Amade/GroBarital Hofgastein ski lift for a nice hike on another mountain.

Since we arrived a bit late – 3:00pm, we did not have time for a significant hike – from the top of the chair lift to the middle station. Instead, we decided to just explore the surroundings.

We saw one man on a hang glider take off and soar before us. We also saw beautiful views of the valley below.

Here is a short video of the Hang Glider flight:



When it was 4:00pm, we returned to the top chair lift and took the gondola to the base.

Since it was still early, we decided to try exploring another town. The closest exciting town we found was Werfen, about 30 minutes away. We headed there, arriving just around 5:00pm.

One of the major attractions in Werfen is the Burg Hohenwerfen (Castle). Unfortunately, it closed at 5:00pm, but we decided to hike up anyway.

We hiked for about 20 minutes to the top and explored some of the still-open castle grounds.

We returned a different way and then headed to downtown Werfen. Inna hoped to find a highly-rated restaurant in Werfen, but when we found it, it seemed closed.

We got a slice of cake for our effort in scaling Berg Hohenwerfen and found a lovely local Café, Konditorei Castello Bar.

I decided on the raspberry cake, while Inna chose a special house cake (meringue and cream). We liked both of the cakes!

We returned home to check on Alex, who was taking a break from all the natural activities due to his bad allergies.

Since he was not hungry, we tried one of the interesting, well-regarded restaurants in Bad Hofgastein – Café Pirnbacher. We arrived relatively late – after 8:00pm and the kitchen was closed. (One of the reasons for being late was that Google Maps was working very poorly; directions in small Austrian villages seem to be highly inaccurate.)

Nevertheless, we ordered some tea, cake, and ice cream. I also had raspberry-flavored water (hebeer soda). The ice cream was this giant concoction of various flavors and berry compote.

The cake was a peach strudel and was delicious. It seemed to be where only locals hang out; we were the only tourists.