Apisa-B hikes

Kufstein is a charming city, which even caused husband to remark on it's beauty - and husband is rarely impressed.

The city is crowned by the medieval fortress sitting on a rock overlooking the river Inn and guarding the old trading routes from Bavaria to Italy.

The fortress can be reached by cable car (the tracks are visible in the left part of the photo), or one can walk up the long bedecked flight of stairs zig-zagging up the hill.

Every day at noon, when the last bells of the main church in the city has stopped ringing, an organ concert takes place. The organist sits in the small building in the forefront, but the organ pipes are in the top right tower. The pipes of the so called 'hero organ' can be heard even 8 km away.

The fortress was first mentioned in 1205, and was the scene of many a military conflict throughout the centuries.

'One day', we always voved when we passed it, 'one day we're going to stop and visit it!'

Well, this time we had planned to actually head up to the fortress, and spend some time exploring it. One can reach it with a cable car, or by walking app. 15 minutes uphill on a shadowy footpath through the woods.

Guess which alternative we chose.

In May there were some choir activities, cultural events and festivities, and amidst all that I haven't found much time for excursions - except that daughter and I participated in a charity run in Graz. I still hadn't managed to purchase new trail runners, and had to wear hiking shoes, which caused a toenail to turn blue. 🤦‍♀️

June was the month for travelling and biking:

One of my uncles celebrated his 80th birthday, and so we took a couple of days off work, to visit him. He lives near Augsburg, and we decided to make a roadtrip with several stops to get there. It is possible to cover the distance in 7 hours, but we wanted to do some sightseeing and go on a hike.

The bikjng part?

I bought myself a new bike, and spent much time trying out several rides to find the one I liked best.🚲 The winner was a mountain bike with electric support, which I've been trying to get acquainted with since then. Biking is fun, but I usually don't take photos when I'm out on a bike ride.

After an extensive breakfast at the hotel we loaded our bags into the car and put on our hiking shoes. The trail lead us in app. 90 minutes through airy forrests and over meadows to the "peace fortress Schlaining".

On Easter Monday - which is a holiday in Austria - I had to bring a cousin to the hospital in Klagenfurt for a scheduled surgery. Originally I had planned to go for a hike after dropping her off, but due to the cough I didn't feel up to it.

I did drive to the southern shore of the nearby Wörthersee though, and took a stroll in the woods, which has some "lost place" vibes with the ruins of a burnt down astronomy tower overgrown with vines and trees, or some iron gates standing solitary on the path.

A group of 28 "pilgrims" started the day with a short prayer in the church of St. Paul's Abbey, a Benedictine monastery app. 20 kilometers to the South of my hometown...

...to then walk southward through forests and over hills following a pilgrim's trail, the "Benedict trail", and enjoying the views towards the still snow-capped mountains.

Earlier this month I visited them. I took the night train, and was even able to sleep for a bit in the couchette coach.

At 7am I switched trains, because I had a breakfast date with a cousin from my father's side, who lives in the beautiful Montafon area:

Two years ago, I spent a couple of weeks in this area at a physical therapy facility, and have very fond memories of that time.

At midday, I took a train from the Montafon area to a city near Lake Constance, where another cousin - my godmother's daughter - picked me up, and took me on a short hike so I could stretch my limbs after travelling for so many hours.

What in summer is a quick and easy hike, turned out to be quite strenuous with snow shoes on my feet.

Yesterday, the weather was great, but my time rather limited, so I only could squeeze in a short loop near home.

The trail was wet and muddy, and I was grateful that I hadn't gotten around to properly clean my walking shoes since last week 😅

Doing chores took me far too long to be able to drive to higher regions for a walk, so I opted to do one of my regular loops down in the valley instead.

The downside: no snow.

In between soaking in the hot water pools and sauna sessions, I squeezed in a walk in the lowland forest along the river Mur (Murska), which marks the border to Slovenia in this area.

This was supposed to be my first attempt at snow shoeing ... but snow shoes weren't needed.