Visiting Austria's Salzkammergut on holiday? Don't miss beautiful Gmunden in the heart of Austria's Lake District! Here's everything you need to know for a great vacation day out in my new Travel Documentary.
Film by Deanna Allison.
Extract from the narration:
This is Gmunden in Austria, seen from the local cable car.
It’s a great view, isn’t it?
In this film I’ll show you around this great little town.
Gmunden, with a population of about 15000, is a town on the north shore of the Traunsee lake.
Now, it’s not surprising that the area around Gmunden attracts a lot of people because it is spectacularly beautiful.
Recreational opportunities here include winter sports, hiking, mountaineering and cycling. At the lake itself, Swimming and water sports are popular as is sailing. If you don’t own a boat, there are plenty of lake tours available or you can hire a small boat at the lakeside.
This part of Austria, the state of Upper Austria or Oberösterreich, is close to Germany and the Czech Republic and it’s just a couple of hours away from Vienna by train.
If you arrive at the railway station, ancient trams can carry you down the hill to Gmunden lakeside and its well worth the ride. They’re improving and extending the tram system but I hope they keep the old tram cars because they really do add to the charm of this place.
The Town Hall is well worth a look. Its stucco decoration dates from 1756 and the bells below its clock aren’t metal. They were actually made out of Gmundner Ceramics.
Next, we walked around the northern end of the Traunsee and at this boatyard we encountered a mute swan sitting on the bank with six cygnets. She took them away from us into the water as we walked past and her mate arrived shortly afterwards.
Note that despite their name, mute swans aren’t actually mute.
Our next stop was the Grünberg cable car, or Seilbahn, which we reached after walking for a few minutes more.
Each of the two cable cars holds up to 60 people and takes you from Gmunden town, which is about 425 meters above sea level to about 1000 meters at the top station.
I enjoyed the cable car ride - to me it feels a bit like being on a slow but very high rollercoaster.
As you ascend, there’s a great view of Gmunden, the lake and the Austrian countryside.
The dominant mountain here is the Traunstein which rises straight out of the Traunsee to a height of 1691 meters.
There are plenty of hiking trails on Grünberg.
The network of trails is about 20 kilometres long, with well-maintained routes.
They are well signposted and there suitable options for everyone, from easy routes to more challenging trails.
Those trails which are suitable for mountain bikes are also signposted.
Many of the trails are family and pushchair friendly and in fact some of the trails are quite wide and suitable for wheelchair users.
The Laudachsee mountain lake was our destination for this hike. This idyllic small lake nestles in a natural hollow in the mountains and is 894 meters above sea level.
It’s popular with hikers and families. It’s also a good lake for swimming and maybe a picnic.
And the lake makes for a natural rest stop during a hike.
The lake is also small enough to walk around in 40 minutes or so at a leisurely pace.
This area is also a nature reserve and during our rest stop this butterfly landed on me and stayed with me for about 15 minutes. I think it’s either a False Heath Fritillary [Melitaea diamina] or perhaps one of its close relatives.
Before leaving Laudachsee, we stopped at the Ramsaualm, a restaurant above the lake. It was very busy there but our food arrived quickly. This is my beef soup with vegetables and shredded pancake. And it definitely helped to fortify me for the walk back to the upper cable car station!
Finally, it was time to ride the cable car back down. I particularly like the bit where you go over a pylon. The structure rushes at you and then you go over it with a lurch.
And of course the view on the way down is just as good as the view on the way up!
As you clear the second pylon you can see the cables running down towards the lower station - they seem improbably thin considering the load they are carrying and seem to disappear from view as they snake into the distance, carrying you home.
So - that's Gmunden.
It's well worth a visit - and if you’re visiting Austria it’s easy to get to!
We got there by train, starting our trip on the fast intercity line that runs between Vienna and Salzburg. We changed trains at Attnang-Puchheim and it was then just 20 minutes or so on the local line to Gmunden.
Now, before I finish, here’s a closing thought:
If you haven’t heard of Gmunden before now, you might have heard of Conchita Wurst.
The winner of the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest was born there in 1988.
