The Austrian Alps

We had seen most of Austria and so decided that we should take a glimpse at the mountains. Our plan was to go to Innsbruck for 3 days before heading south to Venice. On arriving, we decided to try out the free hiking program they offered there. They gave us boots, drove us into the most beautiful valley and guided us on a 5 hour hike... all free! We fell in love with the Alpine scenery and could not pass up the free hikes... so we stayed 16 days! We went on 10 guided hikes (enough to get a gold medal in the prgoram!) before we felt confident enough to take on a mountain. On our last day, we climbed to die Hafelekar Spitze. It took 5 hours to climb and another 4 to decend, although we stopped for beer, strudel and espresso!