Knowledge without frontiers Knowledge Without Frontiers | Page 118

AUSTRIA KLAGENFURT-VILLACH JULY 19, 1908 /…/ As I was looking around the street, all of a sudden the tourist in me awakened, it was as if the mountains were beckoning me – and so I went. THE CLIMB TO MITTAGSKOGEL 2144 M. At 11 in the morning I headed south out of the city along Italianer Strasse, which is the main Trieste- bound road. As soon as I left the 118 city, I was out in the open, or better said, among the mountains. First, I arrived at Villach Bad, where there are many different spas and baths. However, an anything but pleasant surprise was waiting there for me, for as soon as I left the place it started to rain. I put on my loden coat, but the downpour was so heavy I was afraid I would nevertheless be soaking wet. I was forced to stand for half an hour under a tree with a lush canopy. When the rain subsided, I pressed on until I arrived in a small village whose name I was not able to learn. Here a trail branches off the road heading towards Latschach through the villages of Techanting and Mallestig. In Latschach I could see the Faaker See up north,