September Holiday: 22.09.2021

The next morning (Wednesday, Sept. 22) greeted us with low clouds across the valley. It looked beautiful, and we knew the day would be sunny and dry again once the fog lifted.

To make the most of the day, we went out right after breakfast, starting today's hike directly from the hotel. In fact, apart from one day out of the nine we spent there, we never used the car - that's how I like it.

We had a leaflet from the hotel with recommended hikes, and chose one that would take us up the slope behind the hotel, opposite those mountains where we'd been the day before.

The first part was through the woods; always particularly beautiful this time of year.

Some of the paths were rough and uneven, some were across pastures (luckily, the cows had been brought down from the higher grounds the weekend before we arrived - I am not keen on walking through a field full of cows, never being really sure of whether they'd see us as a threat or nuisance), but much of it was on relatively easy-going small roads, good enough for the cars of the cow farmers and others who drive up there, either for work or leisure, to visit one of the alps.

We stopped at the Gundalpe for a shandy before making our way down to the valley again.

It was still only lunch time, way too early to retreat to the hotel, especially on such a gorgeous day! So guess what - we went on another walk. This time, we crossed the nature reserve again, but went right at the other end instead of left. That was the path leading to Unterjoch ("lower yoke", as opposed to Oberjoch, where we were staying).

It was easy walking in the sunshine most of the time, past cows and a small chapel (where a man with a white dog was at the door, and I did not want to wait for him to move on) - picture-book Allgäu, like straight out of a tourist brochure.

Just after that chapel, a path named Alpsteigtobel starts. It goes slowly uphill through woodland and along a small stream, and at its upper end is a house that used to be the border control to Austria. In fact, we were on Austrian ground there, with a few steps along the road before entering Germany again.

The last bit was along the busy road leading back into Oberjoch, and from there, it was only a short (but steep) uphill walk to our hotel.

All in all, we had covered about 16 km that day. A relaxing hour or so at the spa before changing into proper clothes (not hiking gear) and sitting down to dinner, and another great day was over.