As romantic views go – swirling steam over warm bubbling water, the sun setting over stately Habsburg villas and snow-capped mountains – it was hard to beat. Rooftop pools often promise more than they deliver, but the Grand Hotel Straubinger’s outdoor infinity pool in the centre of Bad Gastein didn’t disappoint. It even threw in views of the Hotel de l’Europe, said to be the inspiration for Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel. Just below was Bad Gastein’s thundering waterfall, feeding some of the thermal springs that drew the 19th century Habsburgs to this place of healing waters – just as it drew me and my knackered knee.
Why come to a ski resort if you’re still recovering from a ski injury that’s keeping you away from those much-missed pistes? Probably because hurtling down a mountain on a plank or two isn’t the only reason to be in the Austrian Alps, compelling reason though it is. And Bad Gastein, only 80 minutes south of Salzburg airport, has a life away from the slopes, which didn’t need two fully fit legs to explore.
The author mid-crossing on the Bad Gastein suspension bridge
(Adam Batterbee)
First, though, the call of the mountains had to be answered. The cable car from Bad Gastein’s railway station led straight up to Stubnerkogel at 2,246m. Under bright blue skies I followed the snowy footpath to the observation deck and did a little jig of joy just to be breathing in that cold, crisp air and gazing at this stretch of the High Tauern Mountains. On the other side of the cable car station, I walked along the 140m-long suspension bridge, which dangled 28m above the ground and offered more panoramic views.
It was getting close to that mid-morning hot chocolate time, and Bergstadl’s sunny terrace a short distance from the cable car’s middle station made an appealing spot to dive into thick velvety chocolate with its own mountain of whipped cream. Was I missing my skis? My mind said ‘yes’, but my knee made it quite clear I wasn’t ready yet.
Forest bathing on a woodsy mountain walk above Bad Gastein
( Adam Batterbee)
That left more of the simpler pleasures of the mountains to enjoy. In Argental a little further north in Gastein Valley, I was meeting Theresa Sommerbichler for a spot of forest bathing. Not, as it sounds, a dip in the freezing Schattbach running alongside the woods, but a slow,…
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