Gschnitz, Austrian Alps, Tyrol

Zurich River Walk



As we walked along the bank of the river in Zurich, we thought about our friends Hal & Charlotte, who are planning a future sabbatical there. Looks like a beautiful place to do research. Wish we'd had more than 20 minutes to look around, and we could have walked further if we'd known how long it would take David to get through customs.

David quickly got used to driving on the right (vs. Scotland left drive) and we drove toward Austria. He picked out a spot to stop for an afternoon hike near Lech. We just parked the rental car near the top of a tunnel and picked one of the trails. Threatening clouds, but wonderful to be walking up high with views of jagged, snowy Peaks, especially coming from flat Hannover.

View from Friday afternoon hike

David & JLFM hiking down, Fri. afternoon hike

Continental Divide: Top of the Pass - Water Flows to the North Sea or the Black Sea

 

When we arrived at our lodgings in Gschnitz, the landlady was sitting on a bench outside looking through binoculars. I asked if she was a birdwatcher, but she said no, I'm looking at my cows up on the meadow. She proudly displayed the many ribbons won by her cows, a special breed from Tyrol. The dull clanking of cowbells reminded me of my time at Swiss L'Abri years ago, when one of my chores was to take the milk can down into the village early in each morning to be filled with fresh warm milk straight from the farmers. Breakfast in Gschnitz included fresh milk and butter.

Gschnitz Gästehaus

View of Peak from Gschnitz

View out Guesthouse Window

We woke up Saturday morning to wonderful views of meadows and mountains. David had chosen Gschnitz to try to find some alpine primula hybrids, so we needed to get up high. We walked up by rushing streams and meadows full of wildflowers up to marvelous views of snowy peaks across the border to Italy and the Dolomites. Rich measured our hike as 17 km. (11 miles).

Alpine Flowers

Path

Snow Patch - View across to Italian Alps

 

Alps with Alpine Hut

Lest you think we suffered from too much peace and quiet, we kept hearing the dull clank of cow bells, a sound that reminded me of my time at L'Abri in French Switzerland back in 1977. Also, we heard marmots whistle. And the panting of a few mountain bikers climbing the steep roads.



 Cow bells, Alpine Meadow near Gschnitz

 

Sunday we walked up the other side of the valley to a place where the landlady assured us that there were rare flowers. We had to be back to the car at 2:00 to drive to the Chiemsee and make our ferry in time for the conference dinner, so we tried to get to the top fast, taking the steep, straight up and down route. Wished we could have had more time, but it was great to get up in the Alps, especially since we missed our usual camping trip with the Mining Arts Colony this summer.

 

Where is Gschnitz? South of Innsbruck. Can you pronounce it?