One of the funny things in German is that gross means large, while, in English, gross means nasty or disgusting. Some of my German-speaking colleagues find my use of the word gross to be quite funny, and I always have to think twice when I hear gross used in German conversation.
So, during our time in Austria, we visited the Grossglockner (large glacier) in the Hohe Tauern Nationalpark. The glacier's claim to fame is that it is "the largest glacier in the Eastern Alps"! It also has been receding significantly in the past few years, and it is projected to totally disappear within the next 100 years, so we decided we'd better see it while we could. The other attraction with this glacier was the drive to get there, which is supposed to be one of the most pretty (and curvy) drives in the Alps.
Between all of the motorcycles, cyclists and cars, it definitely was a wild and wooly ride at times, but totally beautiful.
One we were at the top, we were able to walk down onto the glacier! As we were down there, a big chuck broke off, which was pretty interesting (and loud).
The park was really beautiful, of course, and I quite enjoyed the outing. As an avid observer of people, it was also interesting to observe all of the different slices of humankind that were there. Since Austria is further east, there were many more people from Eastern European countries than you find in Switzerland. I also thought it was really interesting also to observe the cycling and motorcycling sub-cultures, since both were out in force. Even just their costumes are so strange- spandex on the one hand, and Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-wannabe on the other. And I have no idea why biking up 2500 meters on a busy road with crazy traffic is fun, although I guess going down would be quite fun. Or why it would be a good idea to be a chain-smoker and a mountain-pass cyclist. Anyways, I found it super interesting!
The drive back was just as pretty, and I was really thankful that I wasn't the one driving!
So, during our time in Austria, we visited the Grossglockner (large glacier) in the Hohe Tauern Nationalpark. The glacier's claim to fame is that it is "the largest glacier in the Eastern Alps"! It also has been receding significantly in the past few years, and it is projected to totally disappear within the next 100 years, so we decided we'd better see it while we could. The other attraction with this glacier was the drive to get there, which is supposed to be one of the most pretty (and curvy) drives in the Alps.
Between all of the motorcycles, cyclists and cars, it definitely was a wild and wooly ride at times, but totally beautiful.
One we were at the top, we were able to walk down onto the glacier! As we were down there, a big chuck broke off, which was pretty interesting (and loud).
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| The station that we came from was at the top of the cliff. |
The drive back was just as pretty, and I was really thankful that I wasn't the one driving!
