Everyone has their favorite places and landscapes where they go to relax and recharge. Every place has its own energy that affects us. I really like mountains and mountain lakes, but different places affect me differently. My favorite place here in Austria is the Salzkammergut region, where we have traveled every year so far, discovering different parts of it and lakes and mountains (this region have 76 lakes). This region is like a charging station for me, time to time unlocking in me different vivid past life memories or strengthening my psychic ability (strongest energy point is around Hallstatt - truly magical place). When I went on holiday to Tyrol - Innsbruck, the mountains and the energy there had a very calming effect on me.
This year we decided to go to Germany now. First we thought of Neuschwanstein Castle, but then we decided to go somewhere closer, so Königsssee became our destination. To be honest, I didn't look into this place in the internet, I let myself be completely surprised. We usually stay for 2 nights, that's what our budget usually allows, but in the hotel we chose, the minimum stay was 3 nights. We didn't regret it, we needed those 4 days.
At first, the plan was that we would be at this place from Tuesday to Friday, but since my friend's mother had other important things to do on Friday (she takes care of my cats during vacation time), it became Monday-Thursday. Out of curiosity, I checked the weather and unfortunately it showed rainy weather for the complete week. There is nothing to do in this situation, only to make the best of it.
This year we invested in a navigation system, but now we used it "abroad" for the first time. On Monday morning, we loaded our package into the car, and my boyfriend fought bitter battles with the navigation system, as our new "little friend" did not want to accept the name of the street where our hotel was. "We'll find it," he said. "Of course" - I answered, since we always found our hotel about half an hour up and down, driving circles around the town/village.
The weather was cloudy and cool, a really good travel weather. There was a lot of traffic on the highway, there were a lot of trucks, and the trucks often fought their acceleration duel on the uphill for one truck-sized advantage.
We were already more than half way there when the nightmare of every car drivers appeared on the car's display - the engine symbol. Bruh, a shock, we pulled over to the emergency lane. We stopped the car, waited a bit, and then started it again. The symbol disappeared, but reappeared a few minutes later. There was nothing to do, we drove to the nearest highway rest stop and since none of our phones have an internet connection, my friend called ÖAMTC (Austrian car club) centre to find out where their nearest service station is. We were both nervous, as this had never happened before on vacation, when the car indicated an error, even our car survived the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße (here get tests the new cars).
We got the location of the closest service to us, and then we set off. There is a very nice place next to the highway, it is called Mondsee,, where there is a filling station, a hotel-restaurant, and there we found an ÖAMTC service station. As it turned out, this was the closest one, not the one the call-center mentioned. We parked and waited in the office for our turn.
Since my friend is a member of this club, he can ask for help anywhere at any time within or outside the country. When it was our turn, he told the mechanic what was wrong, then rolled our car into the workshop and ran a diagnostic on it. My friend suspected the catalytic converter, because there was such a problem a long time ago, but it was replaced, and I suspected the engine to be the problem. I've been telling him for months that when he slows down the car, the engine always makes a strange "squeal". He didn't hear it, but the mechanic did. He said the motor belt was too tight after I said it had been replaced a couple of years ago. We received the diagnostic paper, the mechanic sprayed the engine with something, filled the brake fluid, because it turned out that it was also below the minimum, even the windshield wiper fluid, and according to him we can continue, but we should definitely take it to a mechanic and replace the few things that it was on paper. The car was already booked in for a brake disc and pad replacement on Friday, so he had to call the service mechanic to say that the replacement would be different.
Since we were also hungry and the stress was a bit worn out, we ate a sandwich in the canteen of the nearby filling station, then "praying" and hoping for the best, we continued our journey. There is a saying that if something starts badly, it will end well - and it did. The "engine" symbol did not come back, and we not met other "resistance" during our vacation.
We didn't manage to find the hotel the first time, we drove further at the fork in the road and the GPS took us to the center of the village, to the parking lot. In the dropping rain, we drove carefully through the crowded parking lot, looking for a way out. We drove out of the village and then found the junction that would have been the shortest way to the hotel and when we finally found our accommodation and parked, it started to raining cats and dogs (strong rain).
Our hotel - Hotel Bergheimat - was a 3-star building with very nice and comfortable equipment. Our room was on the 3rd floor, with a large balcony and a beautiful view of the opposite mountains, which we could not always see due to the gray rain clouds.
If the mountain was not covered by clouds, then you could make out a face, I named it giant sleeping grandpa mountain, because it looked like a face with closed eyes, a big hooked nose and as if the rock showed a skinny face. If I was "idling", I just sat outside on the balcony and just looked at the beautiful scenery.
Since this is not the first time we are on vacation in rainy weather and "we are not made of sugar", and it was already half past 3 in the afternoon, I thought we should explore this village and find a good restaurant where we can have dinner later. Near the hotel we found the cable car to the mountains, next to it was a large sports shop, where among the discounted goods I found a summer trekking jacket in my favorite color. The "Universe" knows what I needed sooner, before I knew what I needed". We also found two restaurants nearby, and again found the large parking lot and the village square. Souvenir shops, sport stores, various restaurants, small shops, at least 3-4 mineral shops full of all kinds of stones, necklaces, salt lamps, etc., which really took a lot of willpower to walk past, because if I went in, my boyfriend would be bored to death, and I would spend a lot of money. But then, in front of the next big store, I smelled the various soaps and couldn't resist it. We could choose from a variety of handmade herbal soaps and packages, different kind of shapes like mountain, heart, animals etc. Now I became richer with a medicated soap with algae - green tea and verbena - lemon grass, and my friend's mother also got it as a souvenir . One of the specialties they sold was Sheep Milk Soap. I started using this soap and it´s really very good.
The lake was at the end of the village square and here you could buy a ticket and go on the boat tour. You could take the information booklets outside for free, and they were translated into about 10-15 languages, among which I found Hungarian.
At the "end" of the lake there was a dam, called Seeklause - that serves as a bridge, and the lake continues over it like a river, the name of which is Königsseer Ache. The river has been regulated with this dam since centuries, which was the primary route of transportation for timbers to the salt mines of Berchtesgaden.
When we crossing this dam which you could get to the other side of the lake and there we found the perfect restaurant right next to the lake with a beautiful panorama. We couldn't see it from the other side, so it was a surprise for us. Browsing the menu, I found my favorite Austrian dish, but I wasn't sure about it because it was listed under a different name - Kasspatz´n . We asked the waiter if it was this food, who assured us with a smile that yes, it was Käsespätzle. Later we found this dish under another name in another restaurant.
Schweinshaxe, which is worth trying here in Bavaria, which the Austrians called Stelze.
After an early dinner, we went for a walk and discovered that we can walk along the lake for a while.
Part 2 -
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