Gosau, Austria: The secret to happy travels

By Brian Johnston
Updated October 22 2014 - 4:18pm, first published 3:17pm
Picture perfect: The lake and village of Altaussee is considered one of the most beautiful places in Austria.
Picture perfect: The lake and village of Altaussee is considered one of the most beautiful places in Austria.
Picture perfect: The lake and village of Altaussee is considered one of the most beautiful places in Austria.
Picture perfect: The lake and village of Altaussee is considered one of the most beautiful places in Austria.
Picture perfect: The lake and village of Altaussee is considered one of the most beautiful places in Austria.
Picture perfect: The lake and village of Altaussee is considered one of the most beautiful places in Austria.
Picture perfect: The lake and village of Altaussee is considered one of the most beautiful places in Austria.
Picture perfect: The lake and village of Altaussee is considered one of the most beautiful places in Austria.
As happy as Heidi: The Michelin-starred and Gault Millau-endorsed Hubertus restaurant in Filzmoos.
As happy as Heidi: The Michelin-starred and Gault Millau-endorsed Hubertus restaurant in Filzmoos.
Don't look down:  Open mesh provides dramatic, if unnerving, walkways on the Dachstein viewing platform.
Don't look down: Open mesh provides dramatic, if unnerving, walkways on the Dachstein viewing platform.
A calendar-designer's dream: Hallstatt, generally considered one of the Salzkammergut's most beautiful towns.
A calendar-designer's dream: Hallstatt, generally considered one of the Salzkammergut's most beautiful towns.
Picture perfect: The lake and village of Altaussee is considered one of the most beautiful places in Austria.
Picture perfect: The lake and village of Altaussee is considered one of the most beautiful places in Austria.

Never has such a glorious place been given names so ugly-sounding to the English speaker. I'm deep in the heart of the Salzkammergut, which sounds like a stomach complaint, and where many of the villages have names like unfortunate diseases: Bad Goisern, Anger and the scratchy rash of Bad Ischl. But beyond the windscreen, the passing scenery is ridiculously pretty. Narnia-like villages are draped in petunias, rivers tumble in a pale blue froth, lakes mirror mountains. It's the happy landscape you see in kindergarten drawings: tall steeples, triangular peaks, perfect pine trees, sunflowers tall as people.

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