Thursday 14 October 2021

September Holiday: 21.09.2021

Only now, when writing this post, did I realise that I had the date wrong for the previous post - the day of our arrival was not the 21st, but the 20th of September. It has now been amended.

By the way, as I said in my reply to Bonnie's comment to yesterday's post, O.K. had been at the same place (same hotel, too) six years or so ago, the year before we met. When we were planning our September holiday, our original idea was to go to Austria, but there was no way of knowing what the Covid regulations would be by the time we returned home; it could have happened so that we'd be quarantined in spite of being fully vaccinated. We did not want to risk such hassle and therefore went to Bavaria. Not actually very far from last year's September holiday, but still a different place with different hiking routes for us to explore.

And as you will see in a later post, we still made it to Austria for a hike - the border is just a few miles outside Oberjoch.

Right, let's get started on our first full day, Tuesday, the 21st of September. The first three pictures show the views from our hotel room greeting us that morning:




Our first hike of this holiday took us across the valley and up on the other side. You know I am not good at steep, long uphill bits, and so I panted and puffed my way up. But I made it, and we were rewarded with beautiful views.





You can just about spot O.K. in this picture. Can't see the path? Well, neither could we really at that particularly steep and rough part of the hike. But it was there, and we reached the peak eventually, being glad we were going up here, and not down, which would have been much harder with the constant danger of slipping.




We could see all the way across the valley and the village of Oberjoch. Our hotel is a bit out of and above the village; see the yellow arrow.

See the tin box near the base of the cross? It contains the Gipfelbuch ("peak book") and a stamp. Ambitious hikers can collect stamps for their own "peak pass" to prove they have been there, and leave an entry in the notebook that is always kept at the cross. You can find similar boxes at almost every peak in this region; I don't know how typical they are for other countries or regions. We do not have peak passes and did not leave an entry in the book; our own memory and photos (and this blog) are enough proof that we've been there.

The entire hike had been only about 11 km long, but that was enough with the rough and steep paths. By the time we were back at the hotel, it was only mid-afternoon; plenty of time to visit the spa and then have a shandy on the sunlit hotel balcony.

8 comments:

  1. 11km uphill (and down) must be equal to 22km on flat terrain. :) Glad you were rewarded with such wonderful views.

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    1. You are probably right about the 11/22km, Mary :-)
      If it weren't for the views, I don't believe I'd do it.

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  2. Those views were worth the huffing and puffing! Easy for me to say as I get to enjoy the views in your photos without any hiking! Thanks!

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    1. They were indeed worth it, Ellen!
      I am happy to share my hiking with others and spare them the physical effort ;-)

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  3. That's quite a hike but the views are beautiful! I love the pictures where the clouds just touch the top of the mountains. The views from your hotel room must have been wonderful to wake up to each morning!

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    1. It was "for starters" and not the most strenuous hike of the holiday, but hard enough to be more than just a nice little walk.
      I love looking at the interplay of clouds and mountains, too. Drawing the blinds first thing in the morning to see what the sky had in store for us was always nice.

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  4. Makes the hills in my town look like flat ground on comparison, although they don't feel like it ;) (Nowadays I don't have to go up them very often, but in the past I lived on top of one and worked on top of another.)

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    1. When I went to Librarian school, we were staying on top of one hill and the school was on top of another - we had to walk down, cross the valley and up on the other side every morning. In winter, that could be something of a challenge!

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