To tickle the fear of heights a little and see if it still existed, we grabbed the cable car up the Stubnerkogel mountain and spent a really good day up there. The view from the top was fantastic – the opportunity to jump around like a happy mountain goat was present.
We didn't see mountain goats, but there was an unexpected bonus in the form of wildlife. While quite a few other tourists walked around unsuspectingly and fanned the selfie stick and Instagram beautified their sunburnt features, it turned out that even close to the hiking trails there is life.
A marmot showed up on a cliff face and felt suitably anonymous to just walk around and do it – as Marmots do. There was no stargazer, it frolicked around, scavenged a bit for food and was generally completely indifferent to both gravity and a photographer with a long telephoto lens.
Somewhat later in the day, it turned out that a younger fox lived not so far away from the actual cable car terminus and a busy restaurant. Among the guests eating and toasting, not many noticed when it crept out of the fox pit. However, it attracted a lot of attention when two Danes with photo equipment stood in the same place and looked in the same direction for 20-30 minutes at a time. With patience, pictures must be made - and the attention of noisy people must be captured.
Actually, it was the presence of a suspension bridge that had lured us up there.
The fear of heights had to be tickled - but all the other experiences during the day put a really big mark on the I.
Austria is fantastic and a candidate for Europe's friendliest country.