Returning to Work

The second half of September saw us returning to work. It wasn't an unusual week for me, and I enjoyed many walks.

On Monday (14 September) I made a first round through all my email inboxes (with two employers and a small number of clients where I have my own account), finding a total of 177 messages waiting for me to sort through. That's less than what I often have after being away; I don't always record the number but a quick research on my blog tells me that there has been as many as 288 emails after a holiday.

Sunrise that morning, as seen from my kitchen

Anyway, I managed to get through the most pressing matters and used my lunch break for a neck & shoulders massage at the Day Spa in my neighbourhood.

The day was beautiful, and at 24C pleasantly warm without being too hot. After work, I put in a 12 km walk on the fields outside the southern end of town.

It was warmer at 27C on Tuesday (15 September), but still not too hot for meeting my sister after work for a pleasant stroll in the palace grounds.

Wednesday (16 September) saw me at the office for the first time since our Bregenzerwald holiday. The day started and ended with sunshine, but we had a precious bit of rain in between.

I left the office on the usual local train but got off at Kornwestheim, one stop before Ludwigsburg, to walk the rest of the way to my Mum's where I spent the evening.

Temperatures on Thursday (17 September) ranged from 12 to 21C - it can be tricky to choose what to wear on such days, especially when you leave the house in the chilly morning and spend all day at the office with no chance to adapt your outfit other than taking a cardigan on or off, or similar.

For my way home, I got off the train at Zuffenhausen and decided to walk via Kornwestheim, instead of Schwieberdingen which is what I nearly always do. Several times I had to take detours because of roadworks, ending up with 2 hours and 12 km under my soles. One of the detours took me through a part of Kornwestheim where I've never been before, which made it interesting in its own way and less annoying about the unexpected and enforced deviation.

I finally had a long-needed haircut on Friday (18 September) between working and doing my weekly cleaning.

My trains to Offenburg were unusually punctual, and I arrived shortly after 7:30 pm, so that my husband and I had our customary meal to ring in the weekend a little earlier than normal.

Since Saturday (19 September) was again sunny and dry, O.K. worked around his mother's house and garden for most of the day while I occupied myself with a walk to the bakery to fetch us a snack for lunch, a quick trip to the cemetery to look after the flowers on the family grave and another walk to the allotment where I harvested tomatoes and beans, and of course the ironing, which I have made "my job" almost from the start since the two of us started visiting each other.

On the way to the allotment

Early evening, O.K. drove us and his Mum to Oberharmersbach where he had booked a table at a farm restaurant. The food was good, service friendly and the view from our table in the garden lovely, especially as the evening light fell on the hills opposite with orchards and pastures and the Black Forest on top.

Sunday (20 September) was warm at 25C and sunny - no way we were going to stay put on such a day! After breakfast, we went on a hike of 18 km starting directly from the cottage to Zunsweier - Sägereck - Handwerkerhütte - Diersburg - Riedmühle - Niederschopfheim and back to Hofweier.

Sägereck

The Vosges mountains (France) on the horizon

In the vineyards around Diersburg we came across a goat which had somehow gotten out of the pasture where the rest of the herd was grazing. She wanted to get back in but the gate was shut, and we couldn't see any opening in the fence. While I talked to the goat and kept her close by (fortunately, she was neither aggressive nor too scared, just a little nervous, and wore a collar), my husband opened the gate (which took some strength) and I ushered the stray goat back in.

She immediately went towards her herd, and we were relieved that all had gone well. Not many cars come that way, but it wasn't entirely impossible that the goat could have been in danger from a car or people with a large dog not under control.

That evening, O.K. made us a salad from the tomatoes I had harvested the day before, which was quite delicious and tasted of summer. 

The Rest of The Week

View from our balcony on that last morning

We left Bizau on Wednesday, 9 September after breakfast, stopping in Bezau to buy edible souvenirs for ourselves and our loved ones at home (mainly cheese from the local farmers) before O.K. drove us to Ludwigsburg. The roads were busy, and it took us 5 hours to get there.

After I unpacked and started the washing machine we had a quick coffee and I went to the ALDI around the corner to get a few things for tomorrow's breakfast. At 6:30 pm, we met my Mum and my sister at the nearby Italian restaurant for our "welcome back" meal.

We had the rest of the week off and were only to start work again the following Monday, and so on Thursday (10 September) my husband and I strolled into town for an errand or two and later took a local train into Stuttgart to visit one of our favourite shops where we had a late lunch at their café.

Back home after a rest, we went out again for a sunset walk around the fields.

O.K. drove home at noon on Friday (11 September) to give himself enough time to sort out his things after our holiday and get ready for the return to work. 

I caught up with a few jobs at home, and early evening was picked up by a friend for the short drive to Markgröningen (a small town 8 km away) where we were meeting a couple of friends for a meal at an Indian restaurant. The food was delicious and the four of us had a good time.

I made Saturday (12 September) a quiet day with a brief trip into town in the morning for some things and then generally taking it easy. 

Afternoon sun filtering through the blinds while I was reading in my favourite armchair and snacking on an apple.

In the evening, as part of my "homecoming", I walked to Benningen.

Sunday (13 September) was Open Heritage Day ("Tag des offenen Denkmals") with many places open that usually aren't accessible to the public, some of them offering guided tours or simply allowing visitors a glimpse behind the scenes.

My Mum, my sister and I visited Kornwestheim, the small town right next to Ludwigsburg. There, a museum we have enjoyed before was showing an exhibition about how the perception of town & country changed within a few decades starting with the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, through the 1920s, 30s, and after WWII. 

To exemplify this, areas in our federal state were looked at, such as the Black Forest, the city of Heidelberg, Lake Constance, and our hometown.

Poster from the 1920s to attract tourists

My Mum posing at a photo stop in the museum prepared for Instagram users

Playing a game with my Mum, another of the interactive offers at the exhibition

Playing a game of memory (not successfully, I must admit)

Tourist poster from the 1950s advertising my home state of Baden-Württemberg

We found the exhibition very well presented, informative and entertaining.

Next, we walked the short distance to what used to be the town's library (it was moved to a new building some years ago) and is now a storage for all sorts of objects from the town's past, ranging from kitchen items we well remember from our childhood and youth to industrial machines, musical instruments, advertising boards and many more. 

We could have spent HOURS in there but by now were quite ready for a break. My sister drove us the farm café just outside Ludwigsburg where we sat at a table in the garden and had HUGE pieces of delicious cake with our coffees.

A beautiful day and nice end of my last proper holiday for this year.

Damüls

Our last day in Austria was Tuesday, 8 September. We wanted to mark it with a "Grande Finale" as our good-bye hike and chose the Damüls round tour we'd done three years ago. Click here if you want to read my post from back then and see the pictures.

It was once more a sunny and warm day at 29C/84F, but most of the hike was going to be at around 2,000 m above sea level, where it was going to be a bit cooler.

The view from our balcony at 7:42 that morning

To get to the start of the tour, we opted for the car; it is possible to reach Damüls by bus, but it would have involved changes with longish waits in between. 

From the parking lot, a funicular took us up to 1,800 m.

The path leads up and down several hills and covers two peaks rising above 2,000 m, the Hochblanken and Ragazer Blanken, not far apart. 

The landscape has many more features apart from the rugged peaks; there is also a water reservoir (man-made) and a natural lake further on. Alpine plants, some of them rare, line the way; there are butterflies and birds, and somewhere in the distance you nearly always hear cow bells, even though we didn't come close to their pastures this time.

As always, I found the uphill bits challenging, and some paths required me to use not just my feet but also my hands, they were so steep and rocky.

Naturally, the views made it all worth while, and the fresh air and sunshine felt so good.

O.K.'s shadow hovering over me as I use my hands to climb Ragazer Blanken :-D

We walked for about 3 hours and 45 minutes, climbed 500 m up and more than 800 down (which presented its own challenges). It truly was the grand final we had wanted!

I remembered this small private chapel from 2023.

Dinner at the hotel seemed even more delicious than usual, but maybe it was us knowing that we'd have to leave the next day after breakfast. An evening walk after the meal allowed us to take in the sunset and say "good-bye" to Bizau.

Diedamskopf

Our next-to-last day in Austria was Monday, 7 September.

Kanisfluh at 7:15 am from our balcony

Like the day before, we had blue skies to begin with, and at a high of 28C/82F it was almost too warm for anything strenuous. But we were going for a hike that would see us cross the 2,000 m threshold, and we rightly expected it to be somewhat cooler up there.

First, though, we had to get to the bottom of the mountain we wanted to climb and took the bus to Schoppernau, only a short-ish bus ride away. Above the village rises Diedamskopf, with its peak at 2,090 m above sea level. One can take the funicular or walk - we decided to walk up and take the funicular down.

Kanisfluh from the other side, just after leaving the last houses of Schoppernau behind on our way up Diedamskopf.

Our trusted booklet gave 3 1/2 hours for that hike, and 3 1/2 hours it were, steadily upwards for 11.5 km, covering a difference in height of 1.272 m - quite the achievement for me, although true alpinists will merely laugh at this.

As soon as we got off the bus I realised that I had not brought my sunglasses, but I knew my eyes would really suffer without any protection. A shop near the funicular sells all sorts of hiking gear, and I found this visor which really did the trick without making my head too warm and sweaty. I didn't mind looking daft - apart from my husband, few people saw me anyway :-D

At first we thought this was a chapel, but it was someone's private summer hut and not open.

The peak is in sight, but still quite a bit to go.

Most of the uphill I found surprisingly easy; the path wasn't too steep, and maybe it also showed that I had been going up and down mountains for a whole week. Only the last 20 % or so of the hike I found VERY hard, but once we were at the top, I soon recovered - how could I not, with such views!

We enjoyed our customary shandy at the outdoor bar by the funicular, took the funicular down to the village and there had an ice cream while waiting for the bus back to Bizau.

On the funicular

You won't be surprised to read that after dinner, we went for another sunset walk around the village :-)