Vent - Langenwang, to the Krimmler falls (560 km)

After the last few rather cold nights we feel very well after one night in the Kleon hotel and we get up early and refreshed. First we take the open chairlift from the village Vent to a height of 2400 meters. Although the sun is shining it still feels very chilly in the wind.

The views from the chairlift are splendid, especially since there is no glass between us and the landscape and our shadow moves quickly before us.

At the top we are glad we brought sweaters, but the view is makes it all worthwhile. The mountain tops are shining in the sun and we can see kilometers ahead. The way down is even better than the way up.

At half past 10 we are down in the village again and we drive northwards, through the Oetztal. We pass dozens of waterfalls and we have trouble deciding which places we like best. So we regularly stop to make a picture, make a walk or just enjoy the view.

In Schwaz we take a short break. We are still in doubt about where we go today: shall we rush towards Vienna or take smaller roads and see when we get there. At least we want to drive over Col Gerloss to have a look at the Krimmler waterfall, the highest in Europe (380 meters).
From afar we can see the waterfall falls down in several steps, so we won't be able to see it all when we go nearer.

When we realise that we have to pay for the walk to the waterfall, we decide just to go to the lower one. For a 5-minute walk we have to pay € 1,50 per person. The Austrians surely know how to make money with their treasures of nature. In the last 2 days we have paid more than € 50 for passing through nature parks and toll for beautiful roads. At this place they seem to have elongated the road to the waterfall so they could put more shops and restaurants along the way. We see three centres with shops within a 10 minutes walk. We just came here to see the waterfall, made by nature, not by the Austrians.

Still, it is a mighty spectacle and we pretend the commercial part is not there. Tourism is and will be a major source of income for all those places on earth where nature has created something beautiful. Who are we to begrudge the people who live there and live from it, but to us a piece of untouched nature means a lot more.