Kaprun Hochgebirgsstauseen

Here’s another retrospective post on our travel adventures. Shortly before relocating to London Garry and I flew to Europe for an initial recognizance visit. At the time my company was keen to reassure Garry that our relocation would be a positive experience. We flew SWISS airline to Zurich and then on to Munich before finally arriving in the UK.

The trip to Munich was shoe-horned into our itinerary in part to allow me to meet with several key European executives based there, and visit my brother in Austria. At the time, Hamish and his family lived in Kitzbuhel, approximately two hours by train from Munich.

We flew into Munich early on the morning of Friday, 1 July. I then spent the day in meetings with the team in Munich while Garry ventured out to grab a late breakfast and explore the neighbourhood. The Munich office was located about 15 minutes walk from the grounds of Nymphenburg Palace, one of the city’s popular tourist attractions.

Nymphenburg Palace was originally built as a summer residence for, Max Emanuel, who was born in 1662 to the Bavarian Elector Ferdinand Maria and his wife, Henriette Adelaide of Savoy. It subsequently became the primary residence of Bavarian royalty for the next two hundred years, The complex and its expansive gardens cover more than 200 hectares in the middle of the city.

Unfortunately, Garry never got to see the palace. In a rare moment of culture shock, he abandoned plans to tour the grounds after struggling to order breakfast in a local café where no one spoke English. Instead, he returned to the office and spent most of his time hanging out in the lobby.

Once I’d completed my duties for the day, we caught a late afternoon train to Wogel where we were met by Hamish. He then drove us back to Kitzbuhel. My parents were also staying at the time, so our arrival kicked off a minor family reunion. We spent a busy weekend with the family before heading on to London the following Monday.

While we were in Kitzbuhel, Hamish took Garry and I on a day trip to the Kaprun Hochgebirgsstauseen, one of the region’s popular tourist attractions. It’s an incredibly scenic hydroelectric complex consisting of two high mountain reservoirs, Wasserfallboden and Mooserboden, embedded in the alpine landscape at 2,036 meters above sea level. 

Hamish drove us into the area via the picturesque Thun Pass. We then bought a combined travel pass that included two bus rides, separated by an exhilarating transfer on the Lärchwald inclined lift. This is the biggest open platform inclined lift in Europe and the largest track gauge in the world for a passenger rail car. It carries up to 185 passengers at a time and lifts you 431 metres over a length of only 820 metres.

During the construction phase of the Kaprun high mountain reservoirs, this was the only means of transporting heavy equipment, construction materials, and lorries into the mountains. After the completion of the dams, it was converted into the tourist attraction that we enjoyed. Likewise, the narrow winding mountain tunnels our tour buses passed through are another enduring dam-building legacy.

The multi-modal journey is well worth the effort. As our final bus came out of a spiraling road tunnel, we were greeted by a breathtaking view of Grossglockner, the highest mountain in Austria. It’s 3,798 metres high and is surrounded by equally photogenic snow-clad peaks. On the day we visited, everything simply dazzled in the brilliant summer alpine sunshine.