21/06/2023

The HIVE Tour - Episode 22 - Gulasch, Almdudler and other Austrian pleasures for the tongue (and the eyes)

I can't thank my host Markus enough for the long and nice walk around Graz but as if the sky is the limit he now offers to drive me back North via the route I took when I made it to his place a couple of days ago. And you might say, why thank him for doing the same route? Well, because the weather was so bad that I couldn't see much, if anything at all especially around Gaberl pass.

So here we are in this lovely route but this time under much better conditions:





I'm laughing to the fact that I am given a chance of replay for a route I felt lucky to survive in the mad weather I faced. It's the B77 road in case you wonder:


Only some sporadic houses up here:



And pure Austrian mountainous green grace:



If these next images give you a sense of speeding that's because Markus does go a little fast indeed:


Only to slow down a bit later at Salla cause we started smelling his car's transmition.
Luckily, cause that allowed me to picture the local church:


The next sign will stay permanently in my memory:

The reason is that when I passed it on my bike it was so rainy and foggy that I could barely see it even though it's right next to the road:

Yes, it reads Gaberl and its altitude (1551m). It's right outside the local guesthouse:

Opposite side is the ski lift:

Markus wants to lead me to the local mountain hut so he drives me through the gravel road that starts from the ski lift. It's full of paddles and potholes so pardon me for the shaky pictures but here's a few to get an idea:




In the last one you can see the hut in the background and the next one helps you imagine that fog and rain are pretty regular up here:

Did I say fog? Wait for it...

This is the view from our table inside the hut:

Keep it in mind...

And this is the hut inside:


I guess that's the looks of Austrian tradition. In case you wanna go back 120 years have a look at this one:

The super kind lady here tells Markus something in German that gives him full disappointment and as she turns to me to explain me what happened I tell her "The kitchen has closed right?". She lights up her face with a "Yes!". Given the limited options I am proposed to drown my sadness in an Almdudler:

As far as I understood it's something like a Radler with some special kind of water in it but not sure. Feel free to apply your local input on that.

Halfway through my Almdudler the lady says she can get 2 portions of Gulasch for us. You know my answer don't ya? A few moments later...

Now do you remember I said something about fog? Great. Do you recall the picture I told you to keep in mind that I took from inside the hut looking out? A few moments later:

You can still see a few things though right? Exactly 12 moments later:

Fog deletes objects faster than photoshop🙂

The owner of the hut brought us 2 snaps made from pine at the end of this meal and that thing was fantastic! He makes it himself.

With a pair of full and happy stomachs it's time to leave the place and step out.

Quite the decoration they have up here:



Our drive back on this gravel road is a tiny wee bit foggy as you can imagine:




You might think that my day should be over after 5 long posts of content I harvested already but with a host like Markus impossible is nothing so stay tuned cause the day is still young!

See you on the next one 🙂


*Read about HIVE at https://hive.io

No comments:

Post a Comment