far across the desert in the sky.

it was a lazy day for us, but were still in the mountain mood so we decided to gas up (gas a bit cheaper in austria than in germany) and drove around, so we drove withouth any directions and just followed the landestrasse (i dont know how to call it in english but its just a small country street - hahaha did i said it in english??? :D) and we realized that were going up up up until 1000 meters.... in a zigzaggy road and uh oh. fog was creeping in, and yes - it snowed again, and it was really dangerous to drive through so we stopped for a while, the visibility was almost zero and when it was gone we drove to the top and we realized that were in niederthai valley  about 1,500 meters because of the signs :D and it was - wow! fresh snows everywhere and the sun was shining - it was so perfect! its not the kind of snow where theres no light and darker - here one can see ice crystals in the trees melting with the suns rays and the 3,000 meter peaks around the valley.

 

and we realized that were not far from sölden, also a ski resort the ötztal glacier about 1,300 meters, eventhough my friend was a bit exhausted from driving that zigzaggy road, we still continued and after less than an hour we arrived at sölden and oh my god! austria really has lots of snow! it is the ibiza of skiiers, lots of hotels, hostels, inns and - clubs and bars for the skiiers in deep winter (i wonder how they smell in winter though :D hehehe :D) and from sölden there is another resort up, the starting point of the skiiers into the glaciers - which is called hochsölden (high solden) above 2000 meters and we stayed there for a couple of hours, basked in the sun and watching clouds gather up at the wildspitze.

 

it was a clear and beautiful day! sun was shining perfectly! and we can see the austrian alps and austria's second highest mountain - the wildspitze beyond and the blue deserted sky above! :))

 

this is also where they found ötzi in 1991 - the  mummified ice man who lived in the this range 5,000 years ago.