A few remaining questions

Did we have a good trip?

Will we do it again?

Are the bags packed?

Does Ann have a lot of email to read at work tomorrow?

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German Engineering

Special thanks to Harald, Katrin, Ric and Chris for engineering such a fun visit. From biergartens to BBQs, they took great care of us. We rode in fire trucks, ripped it up on the Autobahn in convertible BMWs, flew down mountains on bobsleds, and chased the paragliding and kitesurfing winds. This was a high-speed fun time! Danke schön! (I promise to learn a little more German before my next visit.)

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Wolpertingers and other art forms

Arlo's cousin Chris is a commercial pilot and yesterday was "bring your cousin to work day." Chris and Arlo flew to Agadir, Morocco, for the day and Arlo got to sit in the cockpit with Chris. 

I amused myself in Munich visiting the Wolpertinger exhibit (think Jackalopes gone wild) at the Hunting and Fishing Museum which displays all of the animals that once roamed in Germany as well as all of the tools that killed them. I was happy to see another stuffed Wolpertinger in a gift shop later and be reassured of their popularity. (Was tempted to buy it for you, Karin A, but I'm not sure how I would explain it to US customs.) I then walked to the Modern Art Museum and saw other mod creations. 

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Fog and hogs

Seems a shame to head down the mountain after that climb and not be able to enjoy the view but the weather is getting worse instead of better so down we will go. I bought a postcard of the hut's scenic location so I can see what it looks like. The hut had a heated boot rack and it was quite luxurious to put on warm dry boots in the morning. Though they didn't stay dry for long. We had 3000 feet to descend on the wet and slippery trail but amusements along the way kept us distracted. Near a ski lift station we found a water cannon game and a restaurant where, realizing our Kaiserschmarrn days were numbered, tried out their version which was nothing to write about in what is becoming a food blog.

Then things got worse. At the bottom of the mountain we found a bus stop but had missed the bus by 15 min so we walked into the town of Fieberbrunn and found that the next bus wasn't for 2 hours. We drowned our sorrows in a very traditional way...Once on the bus we found we had to transfer in the next town, St Johann. We missed that bus by 2 minutes and had another 2-hour wait.  We spent our time enjoying the very charming small town and hazelnut gelato. On the next bus we had to go to Kitzbuhel for yet another transfer. You guessed it, a 2-hour wait. There we happened upon the European Harley Owners Group (HOG) rally and I will not soon forget the sight of a Harley rider in lederhosen. At 7:30 pm, 6 six hours after coming off the trail, we were back to the car. It was almost faster going up and over all those mountains than around them on public transport on a Saturday! But we saw three very charming Austrian towns.

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Mountain music

Not sure if this audio file will come through but it is worth a try! Enjoy!

Next stop Cloud 9

We had a big hiking day and climbed 4000 feet over 10 miles. We went up and over several passes in the Austrian clouds unable to see what was ahead or behind us. We stopped for lunch at a hut run by a former soccer star and his stewardess wife. Unfortunately the stewardess was on a plane somewhere so the soccer stud made our lunch. The trail is so little used that it was simetimes hard to follow through the tall ferns, flowers and fog. We hiked through fields of cows which  sounds charming until you think about the cow pies. One cow kept following me as if I was leading her to the barn. We then hiked up and up past a snow field until we reached the Wildseeloderhutte that emerged from the fog at the shore of a beautiful lake.

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Back to Austria

At breakfast at our Cortina hotel we recognized a young guy from Drei Zinnen. After 3 weeks of hutting it (with hotels every 3 days or so like us), he suggested a hut we'd like in the Kitzbuheler Alps. Well, that was all it took for us to take to the road and head back to Austria. Hut hiking is a lot less stressful than driving in busy towns. On a hut hike you follow the trail and your only decision is whether to have Kaiserschmarrn for lunch or for dinner. As soon as we left Italy we felt more relaxed in the open Austrian mountain valleys. The Italian roads are crowded with vacationers and drivers are aggressive. 

We parked at a trailhead near Kitzbuhel and headed up to a hut. The rain started so we rigged our umbrellas onto our packs. The Bochumer hut was built in 1842 as part of a copper mining operation. It is run by a family and they had a cozy fire in the dining room to warm us up. There were only two other hikers and it felt nice and homey to have dinner there while the thunder, lightning and rain stayed on the other side of the windows. Speaking of dinner, we ordered spätzle (think shaved pasta/gnocchi smothered with Gouda then baked in an iron skillet and topped with fried onion skins) followed by, you guessed it, Kaiserschmarrn this time in an iron skillet served with homemade apricot jam (the best yet as you can see by Arlo's expression when the skillet was licked clean).

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