We’ve been here almost two years ago. We stayed on a ranch with horses and all kinds of animals which is not usual for a city girl like me. I spent most of the time on the mountain enjoying the sun and the lovely scenery.
I visited the tunnel within the mountain and it was so impressive. I could literally hear the water traveling inside of the mountain!
Pictures from two years ago: Kaprun in November 2012
Fast forward to today: after a nice healthy breakfast I set out with a map in my hand (yes, an actual paper map, call me old-school) and no clue where I am going. My destination was Tauern Spa after asking at our hotel reception about the gym and finding out that they only have a treadmill and an elliptical bike somewhere hidden in the cellar, which is not my idea of a real gym. I immediately changed my training plan on Endomondo and set my running days to Saturday and Sunday. For today I planned to go to Tauern Spa by foot and also walk back and have a relaxing day plus swim a bit. Unfortunately the gym at Tauern Spa is only for the hotel guests so I had to compromise.
I walked through the city to the other end and found the way quite easily to the road leading to the spa. This city is much smaller than I expected. I met some cows and sheep on the way, very rustical, and I could’ve swore that this one was looking straight at me.
I continued my journey on unknown territory surrounded by fog till I eventually arrived to Tauern Spa. This spa has literally an outdoor pool on the balcony with glass, see on the upper left side of the picture.
I took a 3-hour entrance card and that was exactly the right amount of time to try all the indoor and outdoor pools, do a water gymnastics session and in bettween read one of the 15 Kindle books a bought in the last weeks but never had the time to read. If you like thrillers, I highly recommend Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn!
On the way back to the city, I visited the castle of Kaprun but unfortunately the castle was closed for visits.
I also found some nice hiking/walking/running trails which I plan to explore tomorrow. I am really anxious to go running again but I stupidly didn’t pack any outdoor running clothes so I went to the biggest sports store in the city. I swear I am addicted to buying sport clothes and I spent hours browsing through all the cool and super-expensive things they had. I eventually bought quite a few asics stuff which I always wanted to try anyway and even found running shoes on sale so now I am all set to go running in the next two days.
This little shopping spree wasn’t so cheap and I found out only later that by staying at this hotel we get some discount. I went straight back to ask for the discount but I only got a disappointing 1 euro back since most of the things I got were on sale and the discount wasn’t valid.
The hotel includes not only breakfast and dinner but also an afternoon snack so after I packed away my precious running gear, I went straight to the food. I was starving, I had nothing to drink or eat since breakfast and I usually get a cake and coffee around noon when I am in Austria but I didn’t find any cafes anywhere. I was super-glad for the snack at the hotel although the choices weren’t so healthy and I had to settle for some breaded fried meat with cheese, which were the only healthy-ish dishes I could find.
I tried not to overdo it because dinner was in a few hours and I was saving place for the good stuff!
I skipped the soup, cheese plate and the fruits and had only a small salad as appetizer, Mediterranean fish & vegetables fry-up with pasta as the main course (the black pasta is usually colored with squid ink so I was afraid to try it but I couldn’t taste the difference to the normal one) and chocolate mousse for dessert.
Workouts today:
- 20 minutes water gymnastics
- 20 minutes swimming
- 2.5 hours walking, total 8.5 km
More pictures here: Kaprun in November 2013
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