Velden am Wörthersee, Austria
Never take a rubber mallet to a fist fight, and other things we learned in Velden am Wörthersee.
Heavy rain and flooding in northern Austria and Hungary changed our plans this week. Rather than fight with weather, we pointed the Toyota south on the autobahn and found a new home, in Velden am Wörthersee, on the Slovenian border. It was a good choice.
The weather has improved; we saw some beautiful countryside and learned lots of interesting stuff along the way.
For example, did you know PEZ is German slang for peppermint?
The PEZ candy factory popped up on our journey. The factory has a windmill behind it and a graveyard in front, which is a little random.
For the record, this is NOT a PEZ dispenser, but I will get to that later.
I read that Wörthersee has a Pyramidenkogel. I had no idea what that was, so we took a short drive to find it.
Standing 100 meters tall on the banks of Wörthersee lake, Pyramidenkogel is a wooden tower with no obvious purpose, other than to impress. The view from the top is spectacular – sky, lake, forest and mountains.
Bear was very brave, she rode the glass elevator to the top, but we both chickened out on the water slide exit.
Back in town, we found a lakeside café and did some research on Wörthersee residents. The picturesque village attracts Austria’s rich and famous, many of whom have summer residences here.
Wörthersee’s Not So Rich and Famous
One of Wörthersee’s more notable residents was Gaston Glock, manufacturer of world-renowned police and military service pistols.
Glock 17 Semi-Automatic Pistol
Gaston Glock was a larger-than-life character, which he demonstrated in 1999 when he fought off a would-be assassin with his bare hands, no pistol required.
Earlier that year, Glock began to suspect that his long-time financial advisor, Charles Ewert, was embezzling funds from the company. Glock confronted Ewert and threatened to prosecute if the money wasn’t returned. Instead of coming clean, Ewert hired a French mercenary to assassinate his boss to cover up his financial misdeeds.
On July 27, Ewert lured Glock into a parking garage, on the pretence of showing him a sports car, while the hitman waited. Jacques “Spartacus” Pêcheur sprang from behind a pillar and struck Glock with a rubber mallet, hoping to make his murder look like a fall.
Ewert and Pêcheur both underestimated Glock’s tenacity. Despite Pêcheur landing a second blow, the very fit 70-year-old Glock got the upper hand. He punched the hitman several times in the face, relieving him of some teeth. Glock then stuck a thumb in Pêcheur’s eye and held it there, causing such pain the man fainted.
Ewert lost his stomach for the assassination. He ran from the parking garage, and eventually turned himself in.
Ewert and Pêcheur both received the maximum penalty for attempted murder, 20 years without eligibility for parole.
Gaston Glock fully recovered from the incident. He died at home in Wörthersee in 2023, at age 94.
Gaston Glock’s company has manufactured 22,000,000 handguns to date. They are the weapon of choice for police and military services around the world. The success of the Glock weapon is based upon its resemblance to the company’s founder…
… tough, and reliable.
Gaston Glock’s summer home on Wörthersee
GG
Glad you found some decent weather, we’ve been following the storms in Europe & wondered how you were doing.
Russ Paton
There has only been intermittent rain in the south of Austria, unlike the north which is getting pounded! It reminds me of home, the mountains get snow early here too.