Altenmarkt, Austria
It’s late August and up on Mt Planai at an altitude of 1900m, the ski village of Schladming is a Gondola ride below. Being late summer all the winter snow has gone leaving the green pastures – high Alps, for the local cattle and the hikers, mountain bikers and families with young children to enjoy. As grandparents we are here with our London family to explore a little corner of the Austrian Central Alps, and later another corner of Germany. But this mountain, Mt Planai is certainly alive to the Sounds of Children, as having ascended the gondola we arrive to a series of children’s playgrounds and adventure trails, its brilliant!!
The day before we were up another mountain, “ Griessenkareck”at 1400m, which we drove up to from thr village of Flachau, and explored an adventure trail, with obligatory tunnel slides, water tows and lunch at the Waldgasthof, beer, soup and the dessert – Kaiserschmarrn – delicious icing sugar dusted shredded pancake with apple or plum sauce – yes, tasty and decadent.
But here in Altenmarkt we are staying at a lovely self catering apartment at a Farm, that is set up for young families to enjoy interacting with lots of animals – goats, rabbits, ponies, cats, and the whole farm operation. The farm has 90 cows, but in summer most are up on the Alm or Alp grazing pastures which in winter are ski field runs. The only cows in residence are the ones in calf or who have just given birth, and this means calves to be fed, which the children can assist with. Our nearly 3 year old grandson is fixated with tractors and joy of joys, the farm has several, tractors rides included and a host of children’s ride on play tractors .
The weather was pretty warm at times but fortunately we found a couple of neat swimming lakes nearby, again catering for families. Everywhere was very clean, no litter, super organised and ideal for what we wanted. In winter these areas would be humming with skiers, but in summer a takeover by a combination of family holidaymakers and activities like mountain biking, cross country ski training and excellent valley floor cycle trails well removed from the roads. The lakes were not cold to swim in, about 19-21c and refreshing. The kids preferred the water slides, again and again and again!
ongau Summer Toboggan Run ie modified modest roller coaster – grandkids voted it a hit!
We had plenty of other destinations to explore, the Lichtenstein Gorge, opened back in the 19th century- 1870 they had 12,000 visitors/ tourists – with tunnels, bridges, thundering waterfall and a double helix suspended walkway with 183 steps – down and up , if I counted correctly, really well worth the exploration and the grandkids loved it – snack stop by the waterfall a refuelling stop for all.
A Day Out in Salzburg
The first year of Covid scuppered our holiday plans, which had included time in Austria and Mozarts city of Salzburg. From our base in Altenmarkt, Salzburg was an easy 60 mins by train and our stay in Austria gave us a discount card that included “Free Public Transport”!! Thank you Austrian Tourism as this discount alone saved us over £55, useful indeed.
Salzburg is a pretty city and with plenty of tourists about on a sunny Saturday, we joined a Get Your Guide 2 Hour City Walking tour – quite excellent and this has become our “go to first activity” if able, in any new city we visit. The Guide, his name was Florian, was very knowledgeable, excellent English and had lots of little anecdotes that bring history alive, including inevitable scene settings from the “Sound of Music”, and Mozart souvenirs at every turn, ice cream, chocolate – all favourites of the young Mozart we are lead to believe!!
After the tour we headed to the Hohensalzberg Fortress, 11th century that overlooks the city, access via a Funicular ride, it provided some great views, but as Medieval Fortresses as tourist sites go it was clearly “work in progress”.
Salzburg was fun, ideal for a day out and the transport connections worked very smoothly, as we headed back to Altenmarkt.
Eibsee – Germany
Sitting at the head of the valley, the Zugspitze is Germany’s highest mountain at 2962m, and the highest in the chain of mountains that are the Wetterstein Mountains. Nestled beneath the peaks lies the Eibsee lake and the Eibsee Hotel where we and the family stayed. The nearest town is Garmisch- Partenkiichen, a 20 minute drive or 30 minute train ride back down the valley. Until you visit Eibsee, take in the mountains and the lake from first light , through the day and on to sunsets, you do not appreciate just how special this area is.
Ever changing Mountain and Lake Views
We had 4 full days at the Eibsee Hotel, heaps for all to do and plenty for the grandkids who both swam in the heated indoor pool, also the Lake itself which again as in Austria was lovely and refreshing. The canoes, pedaloos, paddle boards all were well used, with Amelie learning to canoe a “crocodile canoe”, just perfect. The area has some great walks, hikes and more,Sue and i enjoyed a couple of neat walks and swam every day.
The Hotel was excellent, with the food on offer quite outstanding with an array of local German food, and from further afield .With not one “food highlight” but so many, although one does stick in the memory. The cheese selections were excellent, including a wheel of Gran Padano Parmesan, that we were encouraged to dig into! Discussion with one of the chefs revealed that he bought the “wheel”, – €300 worth-then by hand cut it in half. after the first half has been “dug over”, it is then used for a “Linguine Truffle pasta dish” – yes, it was unbelievable- just as was the second half of the wheel of Gran Padano put out on the cheese boards for some fresh digging over.
So a highly successful three generational family holiday. Grandkids had a wonderful time, the grandparents certainly got to experience parts of Europe we had not seen before . We were very impressed with Austria and Bavarian, very well organised for the tourist, food and accommodation to a very high order.Fresh milk, cheese, honey and jams from the farmers own produce available every day, lots of photos, videos and memories. With friends or family now heading off to Scandinavia, Slovenia, Amalfi coast and the Moselle, where will the rest of 2026 and then 2027 take us?? Somewhere for more sounds of grandchildren, music to our ears.
Travels with My Wife 