Sounds like the perfect escape from the city
If your typical day is constantly interspersed by sirens, engine hum, excitable shouting or random tooting, it’s fair to say it’s not a conducive soundtrack to settle down and relax to when you want to switch off.
Thankfully, there is an easy way to block out the white noise of urban din which will not only feature the dulcet tones of nature but also allow you to revel in that oft sought sound: peace and quiet, and Austria is the key.
Listening to your inner self rather than the city’s various disruptive playlists is easy when you’re surrounded by beautiful scenery of the Gesäuse National Park in Styria, a playground for more than 90 species of birds, marmots, chamois and deer.
The High Mountain Nature Park of the Zillertal Alps will almost demand you compose your own symphony of sight, sound and colour, hiking in the heavens where eagles soar, while the 650km of walking, hiking and climbing trails in Tirol’s Olympiaregion Seefeld, including Reith’s Cultural Walking Trail and the Spirit Gorge Trail in Leutasch, will take you away from the ordinary and humdrum and fill your ears with the thunder of waterfalls and bubbling whirlpools.
Austrians like to say in the mountains, the day begins differently, as you’ll find with pleasant surprise in Zell am See-Kaprun’s majestic peaks. Instead of cramming onto a tube, listening to the racket of a hundred different musical styles leaking from wireless headphones, you can revel in the gentle twittering of the birds or the chiming majesty of a church bell. The only rival noises you’ll need to contemplate are from the cows, horses, sheep or ibex which roam freely.
And for that ultimate zen-inducing soundtrack, what could beat doing yoga with the stunning backdrop of the Austrian alps to feed your positivity and entice wellness to ooze out of every pore?
The annual Mountain Yoga Festival in St Anton am Arlberg will implore you to enjoy the peace and quiet, with nothing in your head apart from the sounds of your breathing and your mind letting go of the trials and tribulations of everyday life.
It’s fair to say there is much more to hear in Austria than the sound of music.
