We passed snowy mountains, meadows with crocuses and cowslips and green lakes and even a lake almost entirely covered with ice but the highlight was visiting the Ehrenberg castle complex in Austria.  It was strategically built at a narrow gorge where it guarded one of the most important trade routes between Italy and Germany while today the main road and railway to Innsbruck from Germany passes through the gorge.   There are four different buildings with the Klause Fortress in the valley having been the main fortress where tolls were collected. Today there is a funicular elevator running up the steep slope to Ehrenberg Castle which was built in 1296 and towering above is the Schlosskopf Fortress with the Claudia Fortress on the other side.  There was a very informative exhibition about the buildings and the defences but our time was limited to explore everything.
The castle is on the centre hill with the Sclhosskopf Fortress on the high hill behind the conifer
Connecting the two sides is the “Highline 179”  footbridge.  It is 406m (1320 ft) long and 114m (375 ft) above the ground with the traffic below looking like tiny toys and people like ants.   I was actually relieved to get off it.
In the extra three of the pictures show the footbridge looking down on it from the castle, near the end of the bridge and looking up from the Klause Fortress.