Austria - Late Summer day trips to Grossarl and Dienten

Grossarl - visiting the neighbours

The mountain village of Grossarl is over the mountain to the East in the next valley.  We often ski over there from Dorfgastein in Winter. This was Summer and it takes about an hour to drive over there in the car. We first have to go to St Johann and then double-back on a winding road via Alpendorf.

A lot of big new hotels have been built near the ski slopes in recent years but away from them is a pleasant village centre. Our walk today took us up the Elmau valley to a nice modern Hotel for lunch, the Lammwirt. We should really have put the bikes on the car and headed up to an Alm but this was a bit of a last minute decision. That is, we took the wrong turning! We were actually heading for Dienten.

The Ellmau valley looking West. Straight ahead over the hills to Gastein

 It really was pleasantly rural with distant cowbells jangling on the surrounding hills. We had a good lunch at the Lammwirt alongside local extended families. As it was end of season we were a bit concerned it might be closed but our luck was in.

Good spot for Lunch - a nice Hotel in the Ellmau Valley

Old farm with a personal cable car

It's not that unusual to have a private cable apparatus to carry the milk and produce down to the road.

Dienten - out of the valley and up the hill
Dienten is North of us, we drive down the valley pass through the exit tunnels and then turn left and then right up a steep and winding road. Under an hour away from home, it is a pretty village in quite a narrow valley that benefits from the fine backdrop of the Hochkonig.
It's on our ski pass so we head up there sometimes in Winter as well. Dienten links to Muhlbach on the RHS and MariaAlm on the LHS as you head up the road so there is plenty of skiing. They have invested a lot of money in recent years on new lifts. There used to be a massive long drag lift when we first came.  There's another new lift for this season that has replaced a cranky old chair so hopefully we will find our way up there again. We particularly like the SteinbochAlm which is a lovely modern hut at the top of the hill on the left.

The Hochkonig for a backdrop

We had lunch in the Dorfstubn in town. It was our second visit to this hostelry. The first time it was just for a drink and it seemed to be a lovely, typically Austrian, family run Gastof. We were not disappointed on our second visit, good food and a friendly atmosphere.

We will just have to come back and do some more walks to justify another good lunch!