A Day in Bizau

I have explained already a little about how cow farming works in the Alpine regions of Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland: 

Usually, cows only spend the harshest winter months in their stables on the farms in the villages. As soon as the snow is gone and pastures start to show fresh green grass again, the cows (and often goats along with them) are taken to a mid-level height on the nearby mountains. This mostly happens around April, and they stay there no later than June. Once summer arrives, the herds move further up the mountains where they usually spend at least July and August; depending on the weather and other conditions, they may arrive at their highest pastures (called Alpe or Alm, depending on the region) as early as mid-June and stay until the middle or even end of September.

In any case, the return of the herds to their villages for the winter is a pivotal day for the entire village, signalling the "official" end of summer.

Saturday, the 5th of September, was that day for Bizau.

Kanisfluh at 7:30 from our room

On Friday, hotel staff had already advised all guests to move their cars from the central square between church, school, hotel and shop to other places where they would be out of the way from the herds walking through the village to the large pasture near the sports fields where they would be sorted and handed back to their owners to take them to their farms for winter.

My husband had wisely moved the car to such a safe place on Friday evening; it would have been rather difficult to find a good spot on Saturday morning.

The first animals and their minders arrived shortly after 10:30, eagerly awaited by the crowd on the square and along the route. Some of them had been on their way since sunrise; several of their summer quarters are quite far up, and you can't rush a herd of cows along steep, narrow mountain paths. The herders marked the important occasion having adorned their hats with wild flowers and branches, as well as their cows wearing "crowns", some with crosses, and bearing the names of their Alpes.

The noise, sights, sounds (and a bit of smell) was quite something to behold! I want to show you a video that O.K. made, but I'm afraid it's too large for here; I'll ask him to send me the shortened version he also made.

In the meantime, here is a photo showing the back end (literally) of the procession of cows on their way to being sorted.

We followed the last of the groups to the sorting field and watched the sorting for a while. It's clearly not a job for the faint hearted! The young men and women handling the cows had to be very much "hands on", and most of them looked a little worse for wear after a while, but as far as we could see, nobody came to any harm; most of the cows were placid. Only two large ones - obviously the "bosses" of their respective herds - briefly got into a fight, but were quickly separated by their skilled herders.

Eventually, we had seen enough and went back to the hotel to change into hiking clothes. Since it was already early afternoon, we opted for the "Goßarweag" (goat herder's path) around the village, the same one we had done in 2023. (Click on the year to reach my post from back then, if you want to learn more and compare pictures.)

It had rained early in the morning and intermittently a few times, but not enough to make the paths dangerously slippery (some of them are quite steep).

After the walk, we still had time for a bit of a rest in our room before showering and changing for dinner. And of course, we went out again after the meal for a short evening walk and were rewarded with this fantastic sunset view across Bizau:

Schröcken to Warth

In the 14th century, immigrants from the province Wallis in Switzerland settled in the Bregenzerwald in Austria. Having developed agricultural methods that allowed them to live off much higher grounds than the native population, the rulers of the time welcomed them, offering tax-free living and no interference in administrative or religious matters. The Walsers (meaning "from Wallis") soon founded their own small settlements, and a string of "Walser villages" around Tannberg opens the possibility to follow the traces of this particular ethnic group.

Our booklet suggested a tour linking two such settlements, and so on Friday, the 4th of September, we took three different buses to arrive at the village of Schröcken to start the tour.

7:30 am from our balcony

Seat of the local administration in the village of Schröcken

Village church in Schröcken

I liked the zig-zag roof.

Steep paths start as soon as one leaves the village, first down...

...across a mountain stream...

...and then up with a view of the village far below.

This time, it wasn't a round tour but ended in Warth, another village where we took the first of three buses back to Bizau.

I don't know how many km we walked, but - with a few short breaks - we went up and down many a hill and some steep paths for about 4 hours. It was beautiful and varied, if rather exhausting. 

Many times we walked among cows with no fence between them and us, but similar to Schönenbach, the animals were relaxed in the presence of humans, and so was I mostly (but I do admit that I always felt better once we had put some distance between us and them, and preferably a closed gate). 

We even came across what was voted in 2017 the "most beautiful place in Austria" - the Körbersee, a small lake that can only be reached on foot. We found it pretty enough but with so many beautiful places and fabulous views all around, we would have been hard pressed to decide on just one as the most beautiful.

Not far after this one, another, larger lake came up, the Kalbelesee. Once again, there were many cows around, but there was also an Alpe where the family had not yet shut shop for the winter. It was a welcome chance to sit down and have a refreshing shandy before walking on.

Warth village, where our tour ended

By 6:00 pm, we were back at the hotel. We showered and changed and went downstairs for another delicious dinner, after which of course we went out for a short evening stroll before calling it a day.

If you want to find out more about this particular region, their official website (in English) is here.

Schönenbach Revisited

Oh no, not another "revisited" post, I hear you groan. But I'm afraid that's what it is - we revisited Schönenbach on Thursday, the 3rd of September, and there followed the same paths we did back in 2023.

Kanisfluh from our room at 7:38 that morning

The bus to Schönenbach leaves from the square between our hotel, the tiny supermarket, the church and the school. Distance-wise, it's not far - less than 8 km. But the bus journey still feels rather long, as the bus has to go slowly for most of the way on a narrow winding road through dense woods along a stream. Two vehicles passing each other is very difficult, overtaking as good as impossible. I remembered the bus ride well from three years ago and consider it part of the adventure.

About Schönenbach itself I have written before (click the link at the top of this post, if you like), and we found it unchanged - there were still many more cows than people, and because those cows are so used to walking and resting everywhere and having people around, they are completely relaxed, and I wasn't at all afraid of them.

They weren't interested in us anyway, and we set off on our hike, a round tour above Schönenbach, reaching the bus stop again after 3 hours and 10 minutes of walking, which we enjoyed greatly.

Just like in 2023, the alp houses where the cow farmers and cheese makers live during the summer (and often sell food and drink to hikers) were closed already until next May or so, such as this one:

I was happy to spot gentian along the way:

Coming back towards Schönenbach, the last part of the hike was on the same path where we had started:

We had about an hour to wait for the bus back to Bizau and reached the hotel mid-afternoon with enough time for a rest and a shower before getting changed for dinner.

Afterwards, of course we went on our customary sunset walk, and it was really quite spectacular that evening, as my husband's photos illustrate:

We also passed by the tiny private chapel on a hill on the outskirts of Bizau we had discovered three years ago:

Andelsbuch and Schwarzenberg

Wednesday, the 2nd of September, was one of the few times we used the car during our stay in Bizau.

 Kanisfluh from our room, just after 7:00 am

None of what we did that day was a repeat from 2023.

We had read about the "werkraum" in Andelsbuch in a magazine in our hotel room, and since we are interested in architecture as well as in craftmanship and design, we wanted to see this rather unusual place.

It only takes about 15 minutes by car to reach it. Werkraum literally means work room in German, and here in Andelsbuch, it is the name of both the building and the association of craftsmen and -women in the area who take pride in their work. Many of them work with wood as joiners and carpenters, but there are also painters, designers and makers of furniture, textiles (clothes as well as other items), crockery, lamps and much more. Part of werkraum is a school for apprentices in those crafts, and another important feature of werkraum is a festival plus contest called "Handwerk + Form" held regularly in and around Andelsbuch, showcasing contemporary design and craftmanship from the Bregenzerwald.

When we arrived there just after they'd opened for the day, we were told that we could join a guided tour which would also allow us a glimpse in the building's cellar, where many prized objects from past festivals were stored, normally not accessible to visitors. Of course we joined that tour, which was really very interesting. We also had the opportunity to check out their shop (of course!) and the current exhibition, and had a refreshing cold drink before we left.

After another short drive, Schwarzenberg was our next stop. 

Schwarzenberg

I had found a tour described as "easy" around Schwarzenberg in the booklet in our room, and although the tour was short enough at a mere 7.5 km, it took us about 2 hours and was anything but easy! 

It was a long uphill slog from the village through woods to St. Ilga's spring and chapel, and another hour easier to walk back to the village. 

A whole meadow of autumn crocus!

St. Ilga's Spring (which was dry)...

...and her chapel, which was open.

St. Ilga, painted by a local woman

Back in Schwarzenberg

We enjoyed the walk in spite of my puffing and panting on the uphill part (I must admit I was dressed a little too warm for the weather) and had a good rest at the hotel before dinner.

At 7:00 pm on our balcony

Afterwards, of course we went for another sunset walk of about an hour around the village, seeing many cats and taking in the beautiful evening light. My husband took this photo looking west just before we went back inside: