Lech - The Last Wild River

The fate of the Lech River was identical with that of most others: embankments and dams have tamed its wild waters. In Bavaria, between the Austrian border and its confluence with the Danube, the river has been turned into a cascade of 30 storage and run-of-river power plants. In summer you can hear a striking buzz along the banks of the Lech. Everybody knows where it comes from - the grasshopper. The grasshopper is the symbol of the Tyrolean Lech Valley. Sitting, it is a commonplace creature, in flight it turns itself into an astonishing beauty. Only along the Lech's upper reaches in Austria does the Lech still run untamed, meandering through a mountainscape of indescribable beauty - the last big wild river in the Alps.