Wasserfallweg, or waterfall path in English, is a circular hiking trail that starts at the Gasteiner waterfall in the town of Bad Gastein and travels along a raging stream all the way down to the town of Badbruck, and possibly beyond.
The trail starts at the bottom of the hill, past the last tier of the city's waterfall and right after the Kraftwerk Brewery and restaurant.
After our hike up the Stubnerkogel mountain we had a few hours to kill before dinner, so my wife and I went for a long walk along the trail.
It was early to mid afternoon and the sun was out and the weather was about as good as it gets - warm without being too hot.
The path was paved and smooth with a gentle slope that was easy to traverse, downhill at least.
I suppose even a gentle slope can be surprisingly tiresome when you're walking in an uphill direction for prolonged periods of time.
The trail went through the woods and back out to the water and parts of the hike almost had a canyon like feel about them.
We saw this aqueduct along the way. I think that it would be considered an aqueduct.
It was flowing from some unknown location up the hillside.
The water in the stream was clear and had a refreshing turquoise blue hue to it.
The stream was surprisingly powerful as well. It moved down the mountain swiftly and fierce, making white water rapids anywhere it passed over the rocks and large boulders sticking up past the waters surface.
There was a miniature waterfall along the way that looked man made and purposeful to me, though I don't know what it's purpose would be really.
We walked the trail for quite some time until we came to the outskirts of badbruck.
There we saw some cottages on the edge of town that didn't appear to ne lived in but I could be wrong about that.
We turned around shortly after reaching them and made our way back up the long and gentle slope of the trail.
Feel the burn in your legs and glutes.
Let's stop for a rest, I'll take your picture.
After our hike we stopped at the Kraftwerk restaurant that I mentioned previously.
It was located next to part of the city waterfall and had a big terrace right on the waters edge. You can't beat the view anywhere. It wasn't too busy when we sat down so we were able to snag a table right next to the water. It was somewhat unfortunate that there was a glass covering because it obstructed the view of the water a little, but I'm guessing that it was necessary to stop the spray from the falls slowly soaking any restaurant patrons.
I ordered a beer and my wife ordered a cocktail of some sort. We also shared a large slice of cake. It was a great way to end our hike and a nice snack in the late afternoon before dinner time.