I dreamed of preparing today’s post for a very long time, since it will talk about the most beautiful place of our entire trip. I really like alpine mountain passes. Firstly, the roads are laid in very beautiful places oh, secondly, the Europeans made sure that tourists here were as comfortable as possible. The Austrians are not at all behind Switzerland in this regard. Today I will tell you about one of the most picturesque mountain routes in Austria - the Grossglockner panoramic road. Welcome to Austria!
Immediately after Verona we headed to the Austrian town of Lienz, which is located very close to the Grossglockner road. To be honest, it turned out a little crumpled due to the long distance (300 km) and the late departure from Verona. We had to cover part of the route in the dark: we hardly saw Lienz and the Dolomites. We spent the night in a small country hotel on the outskirts of Lienz.
How nice it is to wake up early in the morning, leave the hotel and breathe in the cold mountain air. This is an indescribable feeling!
Europeans tend to get up very early, especially in rural areas.
The village where we spent the night is called Lavant. There is a parish church of St. Ulrich, located on the mountain:
We didn’t go up there, but here’s a photo of the interior of the church from Wiki, isn’t it cool?
Michael Kranewitter via Wikimedia Commons
Someone left several cases of beer cooling in the fountain opposite the hotel entrance:
Starting from Lienz, the road smoothly rises into the mountains and passes through the most beautiful places with an abundance of observation platforms.
The Grossglockner panoramic road itself starts from the town of Heiligenblut, 40 km from Lienz.
The road got its name in honor of the high mountain Austria - Grossglockner, whose height is 3798 m. Here it first appears in view (snow-capped peak):
The Grossglockner road is not an ordinary road for utilitarian purposes, rather it is a tourist attraction. For more fast movement The A10 expressway is used.
The panoramic road is a serpentine of 36 turns, about 48 km long. At the very beginning of the road it has a small branch that leads to the Pasterze Glacier and the Kaiser Franz Joseph Center. There is the maximum approach point to Grossglockner.
Image from websitewww.grossglockner.at
Well, here we are finally on the road itself. A little historical facts: It was put into operation in 1935. However, when in 1924 a group of Austrian experts presented a plan to build a road through the Hochtor Pass, it was met with skepticism. At that time, in Austria, Germany and Italy there were only 154 thousand private cars, 92 thousand motorcycles, and 2000 km of asphalt roads. Austria suffered catastrophic economic losses in the First World War, reduced its size sevenfold, lost its international markets, and suffered crippling inflation.
Even a simple 3 meter wide gravel road project with passing lanes proved to be too expensive. The impetus for the construction of the road, which would open the barren Alpine valley to motorized tourism, came from a downturn in the New York stock market in 1929. This disaster greatly shook poor Austria. Within three years, production fell by a quarter. Then the government revived the Grossglockner project in order to give jobs to 3,200 (out of 520 thousand!) unemployed. In the new project, the road was widened to 6 meters, counting on 120 thousand visitors per year. The state decided to cover construction costs by introducing tolls for road use.
On August 30, 1930, at 9:30 am, the first rock explosion was carried out. Four years later, the head of the Salzburg government drove along the new road for the first time. In another year high mountain road Grossglockner was put into operation. And the very next day the international automobile and motorcycle races Grossglockner Races were held on it.
Construction costs turned out to be less than planned, and attendance in the first years significantly exceeded the most optimistic estimates. Subsequently, a phased modernization of the road was carried out. Its width and the number of parking lots, located in the most picturesque places, increased.
From the first day of operation, travel on the road was paid. Now the fare averages 20-50 euros, depending on the validity of the ticket and the type of transport. A standard 1-day passenger car ticket costs 32 euros.
The road is open to tourists from May to October. In winter, the passage is closed because the snowfall often exceeds 10 meters.
Here is a short video taken on the way to the Kaiser Franz Joseph Center. By the way, it was filmed just a few days before we visited there:
Around the next turn there is a magnificent view of the glacier and the Grossglockner peak. The Pasterze Glacier is the largest in Austria, its length is about 9 km.
The melting of the glacier began as early as 1856 due to high summer temperatures and low winter precipitation.
Despite record summer temperatures in Europe, scientists from the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences attribute the melting of glaciers to long-term climate changes.
Find two tourists in this photo:
A branch of the road eventually leads to the Kaiser Franz Joseph Center. In addition to the standard tourism infrastructure(restaurants, tourist centre), here you can find several exhibitions, for example, the Grossglockner Glacier and Peak Museum. There is even a museum of automobile history, although I could not find information about it on the Internet. Apparently this is a temporary exhibition. In general, the Grossglockner road attracts owners of vintage cars from all over Europe, but more on that later.
This place is visited by a huge number of tourists, so there are several spacious parking lots, including one multi-level one.
The overwhelming number of tourists are pensioners. They sit on the veranda of the restaurant, bask in the sun and have lunch. Happy old age!
Grossglockner was first conquered in 1800. The first attempt to climb was made a year earlier, but failed due to bad weather. A day after the first ascent, a wooden cross was placed on the summit. In 1879 it was renovated and dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the marriage of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth, who visited Grossglockner in 1865.
The name Glocknerer first appeared on maps in 1561. Grossglockner first described in his book Balthasar Ake: naturalist, geologist, geographer, doctor, scientist, who is considered a pioneer of mountaineering. Interestingly, until 1918 the mountain was privately owned. Currently, Grossglockner belongs to the Austrian Alpine Community.
When you zoom in as far as possible, you can see the previous photo as in this moment a large group of climbers conquers the peak. I noticed this quite by accident when I was preparing a post. Now there are about 5,000 ascents of Grossglockner annually.
To be continued in the next post.
Materials used in preparing this post.
The panoramic road Großglockner Hochalpenstrasse is a magnificent a tourist route, which introduces the beauty of the national natural park High Tower n and leads to alpine attractions: Mount Großglockner and the Pasterze Glacier.
Grossglockner high mountain road, photo novofotoo
The Großglockner-Hochalpenstraße road is laid among the most beautiful Alpine peaks. A winding serpentine road passing through natural Park, connects the lands of Salzburg and Carinthia.
Grossglockner
Observation deck
Observation deck on the Edelweissspitz
Heiligenblut cable car
Gate Hochtor
Road construction
The road was built in 1930–35. When the new highways Tauern and Velbertauern opened in the seventies, the Grossglockner route lost its status as the main transalpine route. However, it remains a popular panoramic route.
Where does it take place?
The tourist route passes by thirty peaks with a height of about 3,000 m, and it was named after the highest peak - Grossglockner (3798 m). The name of this mountain translates as “Big Bell”, due to its dome-shaped shape. In cloudy weather, clouds descend on the elevated parts of the route. The tallest observation deck route (2504 m) is located on the Khokhtor pass. Mountain rivers and waterfalls flow along the green velvet slopes along the road; Herds graze in lush meadows, and “toy” alpine houses stand in the valleys.
The entrance to the highway is in the village of Fusch an der Großglocknerstraße (altitude 805 m). At the beginning of the road there is a branch of Grossglocknerstrasse - it leads towards the Pasterze glacier. There is a large tourist center of Franz Josef with restaurants and museum exhibitions.
Pasterze Glacier, photo by Ben The Man
From the glacier the road passes through national park to the Carinthian commune of Heiligenblut - the final point of the route (altitude 1301 m). Along the route, travelers encounter representatives of the local fauna - alpine marmots and mountain goats.
In the high mountain village of Heiligenblut at the foot of the Grossglockner mountain there is a unique Gothic temple - the pilgrimage church of St. Vincenzo. The church's tabernacle contains a precious reliquary. It keeps the Holy Blood of Christ, a relic brought here in the 10th century by the knight Bricius.
For your information
The width of the Grossglockner road in different sections is 6–7.5 m; length – 48 km. Along the way there are sharp elevation changes and sharp turns (there are 36 of them in total). Tourist infrastructure facilities have been built along the entire route: parking lots have been equipped, convenient viewing platforms have been created, from where you can view panoramas and take magnificent photographs.
Road opening hours
Fare
There is a toll on the road. The fare for a passenger car in 2015 will be 34.50 €.
Other Alpine roads:
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Today is a photo report about one of the most beautiful mountain roads in Europe. To be honest, I have only seen more picturesque serpentines in China in the town of Zhangjiajie - that’s already enough famous to travelers serpentine with 99 turns.
And in Europe, the most beautiful and highest mountain road is located in Austria, the Austrian Alps.
This is what the serpentine looks like:
This is a toll road, something like a national park. You can enter by car, motorcycle, electric car, and pay an entry fee.
Back in 2012, entry by car cost 32 euros; today the price has risen slightly to 35 euros per day. If you want to buy a ticket for a month, the cost is 54 euros (by car).
Yes, my photos were taken in 2012, and for 4 years I didn’t know how to put a thousand beautiful photos into one post. It was so difficult to choose 40 pieces.
Today, this panoramic road has a separate website where you can get acquainted with possible walking routes, choose hotels and restaurants (there are several on the territory).
And 4 years ago I was just planning a route from Vienna to Munich and on the map I found an intricate serpentine road - I really wanted to go there. Well, let's actually go. Just like that, seeing a point on a Google map. (follow the link for the location on the map itself). There was not a word about this road on the Russian-language Internet.
Beautiful Austrian landscapes along the way:
We turn left in the Zell-am-See area (coming from the direction of Vienna), approach the entrance where the toll is paid:
And immediately the beauty begins. We admire the sky, the clouds that are unable to hold the rays of the August sun.
The cows, which we immediately nicknamed Milka, are also here, enjoying nature.
Looking around, you see a lot of noisy mountain waterfalls. Although it was the end of August, they had not yet dried up. We believe that there will be more snow ahead. August mountain snow:
Great, really:
Serpentines and a shelter with a hotel in the middle:
High mountain panoramic road Großglockner-Hochalpenstraße walks around national park The High Tower is named after the highest mountain in Austria, Großglockner, which is 3798 m high.
Length Großglockner High Alpine Road about 48 km. This is a serpentine road with 36 turns. The road begins at an altitude of 805 meters and ends at 1301 meters. The maximum height is the Hochtor pass - 2504 m above sea level. The maximum slope of the road is 10.2%.
Since 12 January 2016, the Großglockner high mountain road has been a candidate for inclusion in the list world heritage UNESCO.
To be honest, when I came to this road, I was sure that it was modern. It just opened, in the year 2010. But while typing these paragraphs, I decided to look for history. I’m surprised, the road was built back in the 1930s and was considered a national treasure of Austria.
In 1924, a group of Austrian experts presented a plan to build a road to Hochtor (high pass), but everyone was skeptical about the proposal. At that time, in Austria, Germany and Italy there were only 154 thousand private cars, 92 thousand motorcycles, and 2000 km of asphalt roads. Austria suffered from the disastrous economic results of its losses in the First World War, reduced its size sevenfold, lost its international markets, and suffered from crippling inflation. Even a simple 3 meter wide gravel road project with passing lanes proved to be too expensive.
The impetus for the construction of the road, which would open the barren Alpine valley to motorized tourism, came from a downturn in the New York stock market in 1929. Then the government revived the Grossglockner project in order to give jobs to 3,200 (out of 520 thousand) unemployed. In the new project, the road was widened to 6 m, counting on 120 thousand visitors per year. The state decided to cover construction costs by introducing a toll for road use.
On August 3, 1935, the Großglockner high mountain road was opened and put into operation. And a day later it hosted the international automobile and motorcycle races Grossglockner Races.
Instead of the projected 120 thousand visitors in 1930, the road attracted 375 thousand visitors and 98 thousand cars. After World War II, the number of visitors increased and by 1952 reached 412 thousand visitors and 91 thousand cars. In 1962, 360 thousand cars and 1.3 million visitors crossed the pass. In general, this road is the real historical pride of Austria.
The opening of the Felbertauern motorway in 1967 and the Tauern motorway in 1975 not only reduced traffic by almost 15%, but also forever changed the character of the high mountain road: from a utilitarian transalpine route to an excursion panoramic road with beautiful natural views.
Today the road is open for travel from May to October. The exact timing of road opening and closing depends on weather conditions. More exact information It’s worth checking the road website before visiting. It is also closed at night. In summer it is open until approximately 21:30. It is very scary to walk in the mountains in the dark surrounded by wild animals.
The annual traffic of the road is approximately 900 thousand people. It is said to be one of the most visited places in Austria today.
There are several stopping points along the way, all with designated parking spaces, picnic tables or views. There are also restaurants or cafes with souvenir shops in the main points. There are definitely stands with views of the mountains, signed with names and heights. There is also visual information about local vegetation and local wildlife. There are places from which you can see the most significant points.
At this pass we found snow and had a lot of snowball fights:
Serpentines with farmsteads:
This is what the highest Hochtor pass looks like, 2504 meters high:
It was getting dark, it’s good that it’s not raining: 
Fensterbach waterfall, begins at an altitude of 2058 meters: 
The same waterfall passes under the road and rushes down: 
This is Lake Margaritzenstau, and above that is Lake Sandersee. They are connected to each other by a small stream. But the height difference in this picture alone is at least 250 meters.
This stop is Alpencenter Glocknerhaus. There is a parking lot and a hotel with a restaurant. And several walking routes into the mountains.
You pass this place when you go to the Pasternze glacier. And to do this you need to turn right, before reaching the town of Heiligenblut. That is, if you are driving from the northern entrance to the panoramic road and have reached the town of Heiligenblut, then you need to return to the roundabout that you passed a couple of km ago.
If you don’t turn off, you’ll end up in Italy right at Dolomites, or to Slovenia.
Waterfalls, more waterfalls:
Signs for walking routes. The red dot is high level difficulty, target - easy. The time indicated is how long to stomp to the point: 
Thus we approach the Kaiser Franz Joseph Center. It is located at an altitude of 2369 meters and offers views of the Großglockner mountain (the highest in Austria) and the longest glacier in the eastern Alps - Pasterze.
The center is a 4-story building in which visitors are shown everything that is most interesting about the most high mountain in Austria - Großglockner. Located near the center a large number of parking spaces, as well as a multi-storey garage. But apparently we arrived too late, the parking lot was empty, just a couple of cars. And not a soul.
Here is the glacier itself. Its length is about 9 km, located at an altitude of 3463 to 2100 m above sea level.
The melting of the Pasterze Glacier began in 1856 due to a combination of high summer temperatures and low winter precipitation. According to the pictures, since 1852 the glacier has already decreased by 200 meters!!! 
You can walk along the glacier by going down. Part of the descent can be done by cable car from a 143-meter height (85% slope), or by walking down the steps. But the ice is already breaking. Photos of fractures:
We looked at the mountain along the glacier, saw a path and decided to take a walk along it: 
This is what the road looks like: you walk along a huge rock, passing through wet, cold tunnels. There seemed to be 6 of them in total from 250 to 800 meters: 
Along the way we came across posters with the names of mountains, descriptions of vegetation and animals. In the photo below right is a gopher. Do you see? It disguises itself as a dry landscape: 
There is a shelter right next to the glacier. I think this is for winter walks: 
Suddenly mountain goats came out to cross our path. Photo without enlargement. They actually walked like this, side by side. You could easily grab one by the horns. This is how, walking through the mountains, you find yourself in a real safari park. This meeting makes me feel a little uneasy and I want to get back into the car before dark. Then we realized why the road was closed at night: 
We later had a similar meeting with ungulates in Israel. There is a very soulful town there, Mitzpe Ramon, where mountain goats live among people and walk in their yards.
And we are returning to the Alps. This is the highest peak in Austria - the shy Großglockner, hidden behind the fog: 
And this is our path. We returned along the same route. 
Where were we going? I don’t know, they just wanted to go around the glacier and see what was behind it. We reached the remains of gentle waterfalls and signs that you can go down there to Italy, and there to Germany. We decided to return. 
A little mountain sunset: 
Rest with a view of the most high peak Austria: 
It is at this moment that you understand the insignificance of human existence. And the insignificance of all our huge and serious problems. Once you get to the mountains, you don’t care about anything at all. This is the place to get a small dose of not giving a fuck. Helps a lot in setting life priorities)))
Additionally about the Alps and beautiful pictures:
1. Our trip to the Dolomites:
We are returning - there is simply nowhere to go!
And we go down from the conquered peaks,
Leaving in the mountains, LEAVING YOUR HEART IN THE MOUNTAINS.
There are several panoramic mountain roads in Austria, but the most spectacular and dangerous is of course Großglockner. I can’t remember where I first saw photos and videos of this mountain, but it was then that I began to dream of seeing one of the most beautiful places in all the Alps. But here's the problem. I don't have a license and I don't know how to drive. Found excursions from Zell am See to summer time, but it's not for me. I don’t want and won’t be part of a big herd. Either completely, or not at all. Glossglockner was shelved with a 0.0001% chance or, like Patagonia, with a diagnosis of “not in this life.”
But a miracle happened named Alexey or simply Lekha. A longtime colleague of mine, a programmer and an avid traveler with so much experience. Especially camping ones. Lekha, I know that you will read this report about our crazy trip. Thank you for Gloglockner and the emotions (delight and sometimes fear) that we experienced together in our beloved Skoda Fabia or simply “Zina”. But more about this and more below. Go!….
What is the most important thing before traveling? mountain road? Powerful car? Nope. Those who wish can also ride bikes. There are crazy people on Austrian soil too. The main thing is the weather and not only clear sky over your head. A plan was prepared in advance for the trip along Großglockner. If you don’t see all the beauty the first time, then on the way back from the second. And if necessary, we will rush back directly from South Tyrol. Luck was on our side and October 23 was a clear day. And so off we go. Early in the morning, it was decided not to devote the entire day to Großglockner and to walk around the fabulous lake Zell am See and a little bit around the village of Kaprun for at least a couple of hours. More on this later, but for now I’ll note that we exceeded the plan and set off for Großglockner only at lunchtime. I don’t know what Lech was expecting (he certainly prepared in advance for the trip), but I was looking forward to a feast of mountain views. I’ve seen enough of my favorite snow caps, but believe me, not a single video on YouTube, not a single report on various sites has conveyed or even prepared me for what will happen next. And so on the whole trip. You have to see it with your own eyes and nothing else!!!
What is Großglockner? What awaits us? Glossglockner is a high-altitude road 48 kilometers long and passing through a valley of three-thousanders to the peak of the Austrian mountain of the same name, almost 3800 meters high. It works from May until the beginning of November for sure. By car, the cost of entry for our dates is 25 euros per day. Details as always on the official website. Be sure to check out the webcams there. Better than any weather forecast. Don't forget that you will be at an altitude of approximately 2500 meters. And so we had to drive 48 km along serpentines with numerous stops. Found it on the Internet good diagram roads with peaks, hotels, restaurants. I hope it will be useful.
