Here is a large set of photographs from a visit to a little town in Austria called Matrei in Tyrol (Matrei im Osttirol). We visited it back in 2008 and stayed there for a few days, taking daytrips to various cities and places around the Hohe Tauern mountain range of the Central Eastern Alps.

The photos are of the town itself, of the surrounding countryside (including the Klaunz, Glanz, Hinterburg and Strummerhof settlements), and of a hike up and down Inner-Klaunzer Berg, the mountain that rises right next to Matrei. (You can see photos taken at the top of that mountain in this post.) There are also a few photographs of the exterior of Castle Weißenstein, which we would have liked to visit but was not open to the public.

We stayed at Hotel Goldried, which has spartan interiors but good views of the town and a funicular that you can operate yourself. It’s right next to the ski slopes, in case you should visit in winter. And on some evenings, you’ll get to see and hear people singing Austrian folk songs, which was a surreal experience for us. We were coming down from the top of the mountain, tired and sweaty, and as as we approached the town, we could hear songs echoing in the valley below. Not crappy modern music blaring from a loudspeaker, but songs sung by people and laughter, lots of it. Night had fallen around us, and in the dark, the hotel’s open door shone like a beacon, music spilling out of it. Exhausted, we stumbled in and saw a full restaurant swinging back and forth on their chairs, singing a folk song in unison. Those Austrians! 🙂