Summer Travels: Austria

After just two nights back in my flat in Vienna after returning from eight weeks in the U.S., I found myself once again heading out of town, although this time staying in Austria and traveling by train.

Vorarlberg

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve traveled to Austria’s farthest western province, which is wedged between Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Italy, and the Austrian province of Tirol, with the huge Lake Constance (over 500 square kilometers/200 square miles in surface area) on its west and with mountains galore. It’s famous for great skiing, for strong cheeses, and for its distinctive dialect (far more similar to the nearby Swiss German than to the other Austrian dialects). It’s also home to some of my favorite Austrians! : )

So, it was grand to get to visit not only such a beautiful place again, but especially to share in celebrating a dear friend’s wedding! Arriving the day before, I joined a group of women working on table decorations – to complement the beautiful décor the bride had already made from dried grasses and flowers she had gathered over the preceding months. While we worked outdoors on mini flower arrangements for the tables and the bride arranged her bouquet, inside the groom’s mother, sister, and other relatives were cooking up a storm – wonderful-smelling dishes from their Eritrean heritage.

The wedding on Saturday was held in a very old, small chapel in a neighboring town, followed by a beautiful reception that included Eritrean and European traditions. I loved that no one seemed to be in a hurry, and that the bride and groom took time to really visit with their guests. The party lasted till the early hours of the morning, but at midnight there was a particularly fun Vorarlberg-ish highlight: a collection of marvelous local cheeses stacked up like a wedding cake, a true “cheese cake”!

I stayed a couple extra days in Vorarlberg and had the chance to join another friend for a day’s walk and conversation (and fun observing paragliders).

Then I headed a couple hours east to go hiking with yet another friend, who was working for the summer at one of the mountain huts.

Tirol

After Stefanie picked me up from a bus stop in town (i.e., small village), we drove as far up to “her” hut as we could go, then had a very short jaunt on foot to the hut, where we made sure all our stuff was in order for three days of hiking. We set out around lunchtime, with splendid weather and stunning views.

Our first stretch of trail was highlighted by interesting rock formations (like this “Indian chief”), a dusty gray-green lake that provided a nice spot for lunch,

…a steep incline that included a section that made me really pretty nervous (the first ladder was only attached on one side, so it swung out at an alarming angle if you didn’t get your first foot-hold quite right),

and then up to a pass via views of ice and snow.

By mid-to-late afternoon we had arrived at our hut, where we were greeted by the resident ibex. He seemed to like showing off who was boss!

At the hut, we enjoyed views from the terrace of a glacier, and also appreciated the incredibly friendly hut staff (it didn’t hurt that Stefanie worked at the “next-door” hut, so we got a bit of special treatment)!

We ate supper indoors once it got cold outside; check out the whimsical apple strudel presentation!

The next day’s weather forecast was less than charming, so we started out early in the fog, hoping to beat the rain to the next hut. If we arrived by late morning, we could either have a lazy afternoon there or consider pressing on, depending on the weather.

We walked sometimes between layers of cloud, sometimes in the fog, and met a few sheep along the way. The route included a good stretch of cable-accompaniment – looking closely in the last photo of the collection below, you can see two hikers in red jackets, and the cable section that stretches almost to the bottom of the photo.

Although fog and clouds were constantly overhead or rising up from below, we did catch a few glimpses of a glacier.

However, the big surprise of the morning was coming across a fellow hiker, a woman about our age, who was sitting in the middle of the path and apparently taking a break. However, as we approached, we realized instead that she was injured: One eye was covered with blood, and she was sitting there trying to maintain composure after a scary tumble off the path that gave her at very least a gash in the head. It was a fortunate encounter – Stefanie previously worked as a nurse, so she could offer some basic medical assistance. Finally, we headed on together – Stefanie and I in the direction of our hut, along with our new friend, who was fit enough to backtrack in the same direction, take a ski lift down to the valley, and get to the nearest hospital. It was a rather sobering experience that put me on edge the rest of the trip!

The afternoon at the hut was unsensational, with rain coming down outside. We played a bit of Hand and Foot and enjoyed chatting with fellow hikers over dinner.

The next day was still cloudy and damp, but at least it wasn’t rainy. We set out fairly early, because we had quite a long way to go and a single afternoon bus option to catch (that would take us back to the town where Stefanie had picked me up two days early, and from which we needed to hike back up to “her” hut).

The first stage took a bit longer than we hoped, but was uneventful. After a break, we continued in the direction of the pass we had to cross to get to the next valley (with the bus stop). After passing a single person going the opposite direction, we really seemed to be the only two people on the trail, with an almost moonscape of gray and reddish rocks surrounding us, jagged peaks above, and anything but a clear idea of where we were going to cross the ridge. And time was running – the sign marking four hours to the bus stop was rather discouraging, as we no longer had four hours before the bus was scheduled to come.

We pressed on as fast as we could, but getting up towards 3000 meters (9000 plus feet) we were feeling the altitude and just plain tired. One spot seemed to merit some cable assistance, but none had been installed. So we were left to fend for ourselves and try not to think about the possibility of slipping. Finally at the top, the clouds cleared just for a moment, revealing a stunning glimpse of cold glacial water collecting below a span of ice that was scored in fascinating patterns.

With the fog rolling back in, we hurried down the other side – only to find that we’d arrived on the sunny side of the ridge. That provided some renewed gusto! We even found ourselves enough ahead of schedule to take a moment to refresh our toes in a trailside stream!

We realized that, even with the bus dropping us off in the next village far quicker than we could have walked there, we weren’t going to make it back to the hut during the dinner hour. So, we ate pizza in a local restaurant and then on tired legs and with very full stomachs climbed back up to the hut and to bed!

The next morning we took a short, steep walk together; I intended to go further when Stefanie turned back to report in for work, but I was pretty nervous about the exposed terrain, especially after our encounter with the injured hiker a couple days earlier. So, I turned around and tried a second trail, but managed to lose my way and end up with a very steep scramble that didn’t get me any further than a rock face. So, I took a very steep, long scramble back down to a frolicking stream, forded it (as a daughter of Ron Holder should!), and then met up with a proper trail – finally – that could take me to a lake.

The afternoon was memorable – stunning views, a friendly French retiree to chat with by the lake, and a further scramble on my own up to the glacier above (with plenty of run-off streams to jump across). Returning to the lake, I found myself alone with a 360-degree panorama of Creation as a backdrop for thinking about life in general and the unknowns of life back in Vienna (job hunting, etc., etc.). I knew I couldn’t put off facing those unknowns many days longer.

On the way down to the hut, I saw another beautiful ibex and also enjoyed a foot bath in a stream.

Dinner and conversation were delightful, and the next day I headed back to the valley to catch a series of busses and train back to Vienna. A good end to a full summer.