Thursday, our last day in Austria

This morning we headed out to explore more of Lienz. We found this Martin Luther church not far from our hotel. 

Our first destination was the Kosaken museum.This museum commemorates the Cossack tragedy that occurred in May of 1945. 40,000 Cossacks and their families arrived in Lienz as they fled the USSR via Italy. When they refused to board the cattle cars for their deportation to labour camps in Siberia, they were beaten to death and many of the women and children committed suicide by drowning themselves in the Drau river. 

From there we continued our 5 mile hike mostly along what is known as the Iseltrail. This trail runs along the river from the arctic glacier gate in Hohe Tauren National Park to the town of Lienz. Again this is the longest free flowing unobstructed glacial river in the entire Alps. As a result it has become populated by several rare, specially adapted animal and plant species. 

We then returned to the Hauptplatz (main square) where our hotel (the red building) just happens to be located near all of the shops.😊