The Same. But Different.
Four years ago we spent an idyllic week in a splendid hotel near the Achensee in the Austrian Tirol - and as so often we said “we must go back” but it was tinged with the thought that it couldn’t be as good again.
It’s taken a while, but eventually we decided to go back - but this time to see Pertisau in it’s winter guise.
Our first visit to Pertisau was in May 2016 - and at that time of year it really is a lakeside resort - lots the activities revolve around the water and the regular ferry services that chug up and down the lake (and the old steam railway that brings people up the hill from Jenbach).
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| Pertisau in the Snow |
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| Achensee Lakeside |
A winter visit to Pertisau is very different. The resort turns it’s back on the lake and looks towards the mountains, and now it’s all about snow. There are lots of downhill skiing options, an excellent network of cross-country skiing routes and a great network of winter walking trails too. I was fully expecting to spend time on skis on this trip, but the winterwanderweg were so good that we wound up sticking to these.
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| Tristenautal - Paths prepared for walkers (and horses) |
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| Rofangebirge - Ready for skiers |
And in both seasons there also the Almen to visit. There were, once upon a time, the refuges used by farmers when they were looking after their flocks in the high pastures. These days they have been developed into cafes/guest houses/mountain resorts when the exhausted(!) walker or skier can stop for fortification (in the form of soup, coffee, beer and - of course - strudel ).
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| Gramai Alm |
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| Falzturn Alm |
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| Pletzach Alm (and evidence that sometimes the snow does fall) |
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| Topfenstrudel at Gramai Alm |
Will we go back again? I'm pretty sure we will.
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| Der Wiesenhof (and Pertisau) from the Karwendel cable car |
But it might take a while to decide if it’ll be in the summer or winter.
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