Dam Tour Without the Tour: Welcome to the Top of Austria

I arrive in Vienna, Austria, at 6:00am Saturday after a no-sleep night (or flight) in London.  The goal is to stay awake all day.  Ha, yeah right.  My body may have been upright and moving, but I think I was asleep.  Tom gave me a small city tour, of which I remember nothing; then we went walking for some sausage and ice cream, but not mixed, cause that's gross!  I honestly don't remember what else we did that first day (and I don't think I would have if I wrote this right after that first weekend in June, either), but Tom had the Monday off, so we took off to go to a dam.  Yes, a dam.  But look at the view from it, it's amazing! 

It's the highest dam in Austria and that funky-looking circular building was our sweet hotel.  It's actually my favorite hotel I've been in for a long time, because you can (ability-wise, not permission I'm sure) get on the roof, but more on that later.

The reservoir

The view from the dam viewing platform

The reason we wanted to go to this dam is because of the drive.  Looking at the drive on Google Maps, the road kind of looks similar to this: (_/)_$~~~@
I was struggling to stay awake for the first bit, but when we started getting into the region with lakes like this, I couldn't help but take in all the beauty.

Little did we know, but soon found out, that the valley we were in, in Malta National Park, is nicknamed the "Valley of Cascading Waterfalls".  Driving up to the hotel, I'd look left and see a few waterfalls, I'd hear one on the right, and see a couple up ahead.  Waterfalls were everywhere, it was surreal!  Here are just 4 of the better-looking ones.

The waterfalls definitely added to the grandeur of the place, and the overall enjoyment of the ride.  In fact, seeing them all kept me awake, so that's saying something.

After a quiet evening at the dam, I decided I wanted to have some fun, which means wake up around 2am and take pictures.  I'd never gotten any pics of the Milky Way before, and figured this could be a great chance.  Here are my attempts:

So, welcome to Austria, they lock the hotel at night. I found that out the hard way.  Morning light had begun to show, so I wanted to get a little bit of sleep, at least.  I head back up, but can't get in.  I try another door, locked.  I go up to the main floor, locked.  I head to the front door, locked.  I had my room key, but it didn't work in the lock I saw on the front door.  I call Tom, wanting to have him wake up, come down, and open the door for me.  But then I see a ladder. :D  Oh yeah, I'm gonna try it.  I climb up and get to the roof.  I'm creeping along the rooftop, hoping two things: 1) that I don't find a soft spot and fall through the roof, and 2) that I don't get seen and get the manager called on me.  I sneak my way around to our room and finally climb in.  Sorry, Tom, for waking you, especially when I could've scared you crawling in the window.

Morning came way too early, and we set off for the Gossglockner, the highest peak in Austria.  The Grossglockner High Alpine Road was similar as the earlier one, but with higher peaks and more snow. It was hard to pay attention to the road, so we filmed some of it on my birthday present.  Tom put together a short video of a little bit of it on YouTube; here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBfMPcxLjx4 (in HD), and normal resolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Put8RrT3SiE
And here are some pics:

At the bottom of the valley

Grossglocker on the left, glacier on the right

A little view of the road from above

I wish the pics and the view could do it justice, because it was so majestic.  What a great way to welcome me to Austria. :)