I know it’s been a while since my last post, Liz & I have been very busy but I’m putting a couple of new posts up that should hopefully fill you in with what we’ve been up to. We have written three more post that will hopefully go up in the next day or two but the internet is being slow so please be patient!
Two weeks ago we had Thursday off and we weren’t really sure what we wanted to do since it was only one day. One of the chefs suggested that we go for a hike over the Alps to the small Austrian town of Kleinwalsertal. His actual suggestion was to hike to the base of the Alp, take the cable car up part way and then hike the rest of the way into Kleinwalsertal and then take a bus home.
Liz decided that was silly and it would be best for us to hike all the way there, up and over the Alp and then hike all the way home…So we woke up bright and early Thursday, packed a bunch of snacks and started out on what we thought was going to be about a 15 mile hike.
few days if we had gotten lost.
Also I should mention that we didn’t have a map with us, or even real directions. We only had hand written directions from the chef saying to walk to Obermaiselstein, then to Tiefenbach, then to Kornau, the up Soellereck (the Alp) and then down into Kleinwalsertal. Remarkably we made it all the way to Austria & back with just those five lines and we never got lost once.
Just outside of Obermaiselstein, happy that we were heading the right way towards Tiefenbach.
Further along in our hike when were got confused because there were no signs telling us which way to go…
After hiking for about two hours we were almost to Kornau. Liz got a little worried we were walking the wrong way so she stopped and asked for directions (in perfect German) and the lady told us that we were going the right way and our turn was just up ahead.
Almost to Kornau!
It took us almost three hours to hike to the base of the mountain. We took a five-minute break, ate some of the snacks we brought and then continued on our hike. About three minutes later we were ready to turn around and head home. Neither of us was quite expecting the mountain to be so steep. It took an hour of hard, continuous hiking for us to reach the top. We were exhausted when we got to the top but so happy, relieved and proud of ourselves for making it!
Taking a stretch break partway up the mountain.
This part might not look that steep but trust us it was.
We were so high that we were literally up in the clouds and it got so foggy it was hard to see more than five feet ahead of ourselves.
The sad part was that even though we had made it to the top of the mountain we still had to hike to Austria and then down into Kleinwalsertal. Once we started out though we realized it wasn’t that bad, since we were at the top of the mountain it was fairly flat and since we were so high up, about 6,000 feet, we had a beautiful view for miles around us.
At the Austrian border!
Four and a half hours after we started on our hike we finally made it to Klienwalsertal! After a victory high-five and a bathroom break we turned around and started the hike home.
The view of Klienwalsertal!
I made friends with some cows we met along the way.
Liz at the top of the Alp!
We were both really excited to walk down the mountain. We thought it would be a nice, easy walk but it wasn’t. It was almost harder walking down than walking up. Partway down though we realized it was easier if we ran so we started a light jog down the Alp.
Just going for a jog because she was worried we hadn’t had enough exercise for the day.
The hike back was fairly uneventful, it looked almost exactly like the hike there. When we started out on the hike it had been fairly cloudy but halfway through the day the sun came out and so everything just looked so much prettier on the way back!
Per usual mine & Liz’s greatest concern was dinner and so we were extremely happy when we made it back just time in to eat! The hike to Kleinwalsertal ended up being 25 miles and took us just over 9 hours to complete but we’re so happy that we hiked the whole thing. It was really, really painful at times but now we can officially say that we’ve hiked over an Alp into another country. Just call us the Von Trapps!
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