Today we’d be hiking to Villach but first have a detour to the Baumgartner Höhe. Actually, the direct path of the AAT would lead over the Baumgartner Höhe to Kranska Gora but we decided to do the circular route, too, which means a 6-day additional hike around the Dreiländereck.
Therefore the way to Baumgartner Höhe would mean we could leave our backpacks at our accomodation because we’d have to return the same way anyway to continue to Villach afterwards.
So we had early breakfast at 7 a.m. which meant we were the only people at that time of the day. 😉 Breakfast was not a huge choice but fine for us and we started today’s hike very lightweighted.
At first we had to go through Faak (with a short stop at the pharmacy to get some cooling ointment for insect bites – yes, a third horse fly caught me the day before, damn this awful creatures!), and it was on asphalt road in direct sunlight. It was gonna be a hot day. Somewhere along this route we saw this pretty, small church:
After 3km we came to a forest and started ascending. It was really nice in the cool beneath the trees and without the backpacks we nearly flew up to the Baumgartner Höhe. 😉
On the way up we also passed the ruins of castle Finkenstein which we wanted to have a better look at on the way down.
Up at Baumgartner Höhe the view was fantastic, the air cool and fresh and one of the prettiest AAT information points was to be found here.
We had something to drink at the restaurant up there and started our descent again. This was truly a very nice spot, especially after the boring stage yesterday.
On the way down we also checked out castle Finkenstein. There are many open air events like concerts in Summer up there and I’m sure it must be spectacular from the looks of it.
After returning to the Gasthof Lutschounig at around 10.30 a.m. we grabbed our backpacks and off we went to Villach.
At first we hiked through the Faaker Moor, a great wetlands area next to Faak being home to many animals, plants etc. It was a very enjoyable hike with many interesting information plates along the way.
After 2km of hiking through the Moor we arrived in Finkenstein where we intended to have lunch at the local Kirchenwirt. Unfortunately, they only opened in the afternoon. So we continued and decided to make a break later on with our food provisions of bananas, nuts, dried fruits and Duplos. 😉
After a short ascent on asphalt we continued on a very beautiful path through a forest. It was very enjoyable to hike and all the heat was blocked out.
At a lovely Marterl in the middle of the forest we made a short break. I could have stayed there the whole afternoon. 😉
After leaving the cool atmosphere of the forest we quickly came to a bridge crossing the river Gail, and this river we hiked along for a little more than 2km. There were quite some people bathing in the river, and oh, I was so tempted, too! 😁
After the hike along the Gail it was only another kilometre to Warmbad Villach. A little while later we reached our accomodation for this night, the Pension Fürstenhof, an inn above a pizzeria.
We showered and being rather hungry we walked 15 minutes to the large shopping center of Warmbad Villach. There was quite some action there, and it’s been now over 3 weeks that I’ve seen numerous shops at one place, let alone a whole shopping center! We ate at the restaurant of the supermarket Spar and then went to do our usual shopping, fresh fruits, smoothies, sweets and crackers.
In the early evening we strolled to the Kurpark (spa gardens) and ate most of our shopped goods there. 😉 It was quite nice, no one was around (obviously everyone of the spa hotels was at dinner 😂) and it was much cooler than during the day. When we wanted to have some cake afterwards at the pretty looking café Warmbader Hof we had to realised that it had already closed. Well, cheaper for us anyway! 😁
So we headed back to our accomodation.
Today was quite a bit of a surprise because I had thought this stage and Warmbad Villach to be very boring. But the hike, especially the way up to the Baumgartner Höhe, was great! And I really liked the Kurpark!
Some figures for today:
- 22,8km
- 490m up
- 660m down
- Hiking time: 4h 16m