Liechtensteinklamm, Austria 🇦🇹 2022

Date: 27th August 2022

Travelled: 150 kms from Schladming to Krimml in Austria   

Visited:  Hohenwerfen Fortress and Liechtensteinklamm Gorge    

Stayed: Camperplaats Friedburg, €23, N47.23890, E12.24140  

Budget: 94 days @ €108 per day

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We pack up, service the Hymer and make for the road reasonably early this morning. There’s little traffic on the B320 as we head west. Whilst only a single lane it’s an easy drive just taking in the beautiful Austrian scenery.

Turning onto the A10 north its a different story, lots of traffic so less watching the scenery and more watching the Austrian drivers who like cutting in front of the Hymer. It’s even worse south bound we pass a roadworks diversion that has the traffic banked up for 20 kms.

The A10 the most direct route from Germany to eastern Italy, Croatia and Slovenia. All those campers and motorhome will be late getting wherever.

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Our first stop of the day is Hohenwerfen Fortress. It stands high on a ridge with the Tennengebirge mountains as a backdrop.

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So we find ourselves a spot in the carpark. The fortress hasn’t opened yet and there’s already a queue. We pay our €15 pp entry fee which includes going up in the funicular and go in. There’s no an English speaking tour for a couple of hours so we just wander.

We’ve come to Hohenwerfen mainly because it’s it was the backdrop for one of my favourite Saturday afternoon movies, Where Eagles Dare. As we are passing why not.

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Frankly we were a bit underwhelmed walking the fortress. Just a lot of static displays mainly centred around keeping kids entertained. There are some great views down the valley but that’s about it other than some movie posters and some information panels.

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We were getting ready tobail when I noticed the Hunting Bird Show was about to start so we head outside to get a seat. The birds and there handlers put on an amazing show. It started with peregrines and falcons that are so incredibly fast you struggle to keep up with them. Then it’s time to bring out the big guns, a couple of European Eagles and the most beautiful American Eagle.

They slowly circled and dived for food thrown up in the air. They are most majestic in flight as they passed by me a couple of time with barely a foot to spare. Lastly they release some Griffin Vultures who can fly but it seems they would rather run around through the crowd jumping over whoever’s in there way.

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So the fortress is done, we climb a hundred stairs back up to the funicular’s top station and catch a ride down to the carpark. We need to back-track about 15kms so we take the B road runny adjacent to the A10 and avoid the queue. Then turn west for the B311 for our next stop Liechtensteinklamm.

Our guide book claims it’s the deepest and longest gorge in Europe. The walls are 300m high in part and 4 kms in length, unfortunately we can only walk the first kilometre, but it’s a challenge all the same. The best thing about walking up the 444 steps is you get to do it again on the way back. Given we are parked in carpark 4 it’s a full km to the ticket office where we paid our €11 pp, it’s a good walk.

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Our walk culminates at the falls and we turn around and walk back. Despite the carparks being full we didn’t strike that many people actually walking most are sitting on seats or wishing someone would move so they can sit down.

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Back in the Hymer we continue west. We plan a walk to the Krimml waterfall tomorrow so we have the coordinates for a farm stay close by in the GPS. It takes the best part of an hour to get there but the views are amazing.

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Krimml, Bezirk Zell am See, Salzburg, 5743, Austria

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Michael + Pam