INFOOutdoor 2009

Hiking
every hiker after a strenuous climb. Salzburgerland
is the Austrian province with the most Alpine pastureland
and many of its 1,800 or so Alpine
refuges can be used as stopovers on the Salzburg
Almenweg trail. Hiking on Mieminger Plateau in
Tirol takes you across gently rolling meadows
against a panoramic backdrop provided by the
Mieminger mountain chain, on endless, almost
level footpaths or up and down hill across high
mountain pastures as far as the luminous,
turquoise lakes at Fernpass. The mountain inns
and chalets in Austria’s Alps offer hikers not only
4 www.austria.info
delicious, organic fare, but also friendly accommodation.
Here the choice ranges from a mattress
dormitory to a comfortable suite. Some mountain
lodges even provide a romantic nest for honeymooners,
such as the refuge on the summit of
Carinthia’s history-steeped Magdalensberg, where
the “Troadkasten”, a wooden grain-store has been
converted into an idyllic honeymoon suite. Those
seeking a mountain lodge with history should ramble
across the world famous Krimmler waterfalls to
Krimmler Tauernhaus, which was a popular haunt
of itinerant merchants more than 600 years ago. It
is not just the mountainscapes that lend themselves
to hiking in Austria. In the far east of the
country lies Lake Neusiedl / Seewinkel National
Park, the only steppe landscape national park in
Europe. You can ramble on clearly signposted
paths around Lange Lacke, the largest of 34
saltwater lakes in Seewinkel, which is a meeting
place of eastern and western flora and fauna with
a quite extraordinary variety of species on display.
Thousands of wading birds, such as avocets and
plovers stop over here during their migration and
can be observed in their nests and roosts from
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