The Js are Silent

Hollywood eat your heart out. Big sign at the top of Stubnerkogel Mountain.

By Rory

A very short language lesson–the word “Bad” is German for bath or spa. There are numerous towns in Austria and Germany with that word in their name, and usually it means that the town hosts some sort of naturally occurring thermal spa. Austria’s Bad Gastein is one of those towns, located about 3 hours north of Ljubljana by train. And train is a perfect way to get there–the Bad Gastein train station is right at the main gondola station to go up the mountain. It was also 200 m from our friendly, family-run little pension.

We spent a long weekend here in mid-February, at the height of the snowy season. Gastein has both some great high altitude skiing as well as a couple of large “termes,” or large complexes of pools, saunas, and features for the kids. While we were there, which was peak skiing season, it seemed about 90% of the people in town were there to ski.

Hotel Europa

Much of BG was developed during the late 19th to early 20th century, and much of the architecture is the Belle Epoque style that was all the rage in resort towns like this one. If you’ve seen Wes Anderson’s “Grand Budapest Hotel” you know what I mean. The town is built into a gorge, and a waterfall cascades through the middle of the town. If someone needed a model town for one of those dioramas you see in old model train museums, this is it. It has everything you’d want to put in such a thing–mountains, gondolas going up those mountains, chairlifts, colorful buildings, a waterfall cascading through the center, and a train station running right through the center. A few photos from around town….

It seems numerous celebrities have vacationed in BG. We saw signs or photos indicating Amadeus Mozart (born in nearby Salzburg), Franz Schubert, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Hugh Grant, Nicolas Cage, and Bono have visited.

And then there are the mountains. The town is in a mountain valley. While there are a number of mountain peaks, the center of the action is Stubnerkogel, which is 2,246 meters tall. Its summit is accessed by two gondolas and a few chairlifts as well. We were one of the few visitors who were not there to ski. Rather, we went up with our hiking boots, “cramp-ons”, trekking poles, and were able to hike around the summit a bit. There are a number of fun features for the non-skiers, like self-promoting signs to pose in front of (see sampling below), some Jetsons-like viewing decks, a cozy restaurant, and one of Europe’s highest suspension bridges. And, of course, the breathtaking views.

This one will all turn to water by springtime.

Our third day, we went to one of the two big “termes”, this one called Alpentherme, the type of which we visit frequently in Slovenia. What was different about this one is that it had an aquarium you could swim underneath. We didn’t take any photos, but there is this promotional video of the place that gives you an idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKrz_zobAm0. It also had a “Sauna World” with 10+ Finnish saunas of all temperatures and mini alpine lake for the hearty cold plungers.

The last day we received some heavy snowfall in the town, and we left BG and school holiday skiers in a much more wintry state than when we arrived. We will be back!