Days 10-14 Highlights @ Lake Fuschl

We spent these five days enjoying the food at the Landhotel Schützenhof https://www.schuetzenhof.com/?lang=en and exploring the Salzkammergut, Austria's Lake District. The Lake District is a UNESCO World Heritage Site featuring 76 lakes and dramatic mountain peaks (of course we didn’t explore all 76 lakes—just the large, nearby ones including the famous Lake Attersee.)

Each lakeside village had its own personality and “feel” and we agreed that our favorite was St Gilgen set on Lake Wolfgang https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Gilgen

Of course we also fell in love with Fuschl, our base for the week. Our hotel has been in the same family for several generations and here waitresses still wear traditional Austrian costumes, because heritage never goes out of fashion… and dirndl pockets are unbeatable for stashing strudel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirndl

Speaking of strudel—the meals here didn’t just live up to the reviews—they staged a full culinary coup. We’d never tried a half-board option before, but the nightly five-course menu with matching table settings (see photo) quickly convinced us this is a habit worth forming. The only downside? Our waistlines are now submitting formal complaints!

As in any new environment, there’s a certain amount of cultural adjustment. We quickly learned about lakeside seating. At sunrise, the lakeside deck of our hotel transformed into a silent battlefield, where savvy guests deployed towels with military precision, staking out prime lounge chairs by clipping their towels to the headrest (see the photo collage of the clips!) By 7:00 a.m., the frontline would be completely secured, and the victors would retreat to breakfast, smug in the knowledge that their chairs await. Did we partake once or twice? Of course!

The lakeshore offered its own quiet theatre: men confidently sporting uncomfortable-looking bikini bottoms, safety-conscious swimmers venturing out with trusty floats in tow, and—most intriguingly—everyone emerging from the water only to vanish into a well-rehearsed quick-change act, swapping damp suits for dry ones in record time, then laying their wet suits out to dry and be ready for the next swap. #WetSwimwearProblems #SoakedSeatSquad #BeachBumBlues #DripDryLife #BanTheSog

Our noncompliance didn’t stop lakeside. There’s a spa on the property and we broke the rules by wearing our bathing suits in the sauna, luckily there was no one following the rules to point this out to us.Read more