""Karnten is a Wahnsinn (Carinthia is a Madness)!!!" Top 5 Page for this destination Bundesland Karnten by Anjutka

"Karntn is a Wahnsinn" is a very popular slogan intended to promote tourism in the southernmost Austrian state. It refers to the wealth of beautiful landscapes and the sometimes more relaxed way of life as compared to other Austrian regions. It means the specific local narrow-mindedness concerning bi-lingual (German-Slovenian) roadsigns in areas where both ethnic communites are living (in the almost neighbouring South Tirol German-Italian roadsigns are everywhere and nobody is worrying about).

I was unfortunately only a very short time in this beautiful country but I had the chance to experience both the area around Austria's highest mountain Grossglockner (3800 m) and to swim in Austria`s warmest lake Faakersee, 25 degrees water temperature in late September. And both is only a three hours drive separated from each other.

I have chosen Kaernten as location for my page because half of the time in Kaernten I spent in the area of Grossglockner in the Hohe Tauern National Park enjoying the great Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse and a woderful scenic hike above the Pasterze glacier on the popular Gamsgrubenweg. See also the Fusch an der Glocknerstrasse page of my friend Lothar. And the other half I spent on the tiny warm Faakersee.

View from Fuscherlacke (Salzburg) to Carinthia

This road was not build to cover urgent transport needs - just as a luxury to provide a scenic drive by car through one of the most attractive landscapes of the Central Alps. And all this luxury was built under Austria's darkest economic period in the 1930ies when only a micro-minority in Austria could afford to drive an own car and to enjoy such a trip. One third of the population was unemployed and even those working for lousy salaries hardly could affford a bus ticket for the road.

Faaker See

From the Pasterze glacier (the name - as the vast majority of the topographic denominations in Kaernten - is of Slovenian origin) it is less than three comfortable hours drive to the warm lake Faaker See (it is said to be the warmest lake in Austria but many of the lakes around it are quite similar in temperature). It is the perfect contrast to the ice of the Glockner and its neighbours and it was great to swim in it with all the fresh memories of the great mountains almost nearby.

• Pros:High mountains and warm lakes in great harmony
• Cons:Narrow-minded stupidities around bi-lingual roadsigns...
• In a nutshell:A must to complete the picture of Austria