Winter morning drive around Lake Wörthersee, Austria

Woke up early one winter morning while staying at a local Austria inn around Wörthersee and decided to take a morning drive, to leave the first pair of footprints, so to speak.  The stillness of an Alpine morning is deeply spiritual.

Wörthersee lies in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia, sharing a border with Slovenia to the south, about 330km southwest of Vienna, 150km from Graz.  It's a long, horizontal lake on the map, with Klagenfurt on the eastern end and Villach on the west.  Its colour has a wonderful blue-green hue that is almost crystal clear. I imagine the lake will be full of bathers and vacationers during the summer; but now, in the early morning fog, the ducks were the only ones enjoying the water.  

Historically, Viennese nobility loved the Wörthersee as their vacation spot.  One can still spot grand old villas dotted around the lake.

On the western end is the city of Villach, which had been inhabited since Roman times.  Several severe earthquakes destroyed much of the town during the last millennium, but that was nothing compared to the bombing by the allied forces during World War II. Much of the old buildings were bombed flat.  Now, Villach is as cosmopolitan as one can imagine, with a thriving market place and a touristic center for vacationers.  Let's hope it stays this way for a long time to come.

Official website: http://www.villach.at/inhalt/englisch/7682.asp