Monday, December 11, 2017

Heiligenblut am Großglockner,
a beautiful little spot in Austria


This looks like a nice place to retire to. It's a postcard of the municipality of Heiligenblut am Großglockner (we'll just call it Heiligenblut moving forward) in central Austria. The community of about 1,000 folks is situated within the Alps, at the foot of Grossglockner, which is, at about 12,400 feet, the tallest mountain in Austria.

From Heiligenblut, you can take the scenic Grossglockner High Alpine Road, which climbs to 8,200 feet and offers majestic views of the mountains. (You'll have to wait for it to re-open in May, however. It's closed during the winter.)

Another of Heiligenblut's notable attractions is St. Vincent church, which can be seen on the left side of this postcard. The church is home to a vial that is said to contain the blood of Christ. And thus that's how the town got its name. You can read the story of the "Heiligen Bluet" on this tourism website.

I believe this postcard is from the 1960s. It was mailed with a blue, Deutsche Bundespost stamp that was issued in 1966 and features the Brandenburg Gate. The postmark is too obscured to read the year on it. Here's the message that was written to a family in Irvington, New Jersey:
Aug. 19
Hi!
Here we are in a very quaint town. The country around here is spectacular. Raymond has done lots of the driving. The mt. passes are really something. We had a good flight but this plane that was to pick us up in iceland [sic] was 8 hours late, motor trouble. They set down in Canada for repairs. I was scared to get on the darn thing. Regards from Erna, Max and Raymond.

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