It is a mark of a great holiday when one is really sad to see it end.  

It was a great start to the day at our nice hotel set in leafy surroundings.  Proper breakfast again, hooray fruit & joghurt!  We have all been completely taken with this beautiful town of Füssen.  Liam was happy to spend the whole of last night wandering the streets but the ice cream settled him down in the end. We so liked the atmosphere that we walked everywhere and left the car parked.  Must come back here sometime, with bikes and perhaps camping.  Love it. 

We drove to Munich via back roads to start with.  Again, totally taken with the Bavarian countryside.  Green, pretty villages and proper cycle paths everywhere. Must do it. 

Now sitting at the airport after lunch and seeing the boys off. Feeling quite down actually, and sure to miss the banter that has been my life for two weeks now.   Proud of how my grandsons have turned out; vowing to myself to try and spend more quality time with all of them. 

  
This blog will now take a break while I process a the other photos (the “proper” ones). Will post them in the next week or so including the videos. 

Now killing time before my late flight.  Will be wonderful to be back with my long-suffering Astrid who has had to contend with dog walking, pressured job, taxi to Charlie and keeping the show on the road while I swan around in the hills!    I think it will not being before we are back in these mountains together. 😎♥️😎

On the way back from rock climbing we found a pleasant hotel in a quiet and beautiful village adjacent to Füssen. Then spent the next couple of hours exploring the town.  Magnificent big castle and parkland above. So many of the buildings had painted effecs that we wondered how it was all maintained.  The vibe here is so relaxed and I’m feeling incredibly happy, although sad that this is our last evening.  Stopped for crepes opposite the “Rathaus ” since we had missed lunch.  Then managed to get lost for a bit before retuning to base.  

 Later and refreshed we walked back to town for sundowners and proper supper.  It seemed a crime to use the car because everything around us was so pretty.  

Everyone out on the streets because it was so hot.  Liam experimented on a spinning pole follies later by Guy. Both miraculously managed to keep their supper intact.   Finally on the walk home we just had to indulge one last time …….  

Stayed at a great hotel in Partenkirchen last night.  I at least got my money’s worth from the Spa – great swim but the sauna just topped it off. Later we all headed downtown to the same place where we spent our first night so long ago. Best pizza around. 

Murals abound, this one on our hotel and so many buildings have painted window surrounds

 Back to today :  proper breakfast with fruit, joghurt and all.  Mothers you can be proud of your sons appetites.  They each had about 6 helpings of everything.    Waterwheel  next to our hotel was a source of amusement 

 Afterwards picked up a hire car and headed through Austria and back out to Fussen.  Why?  Because apparently there are good limestone climbing cliffs here.  Roads and scenery out of this world – green and beautiful.  Looks like a great area for cycling.   Checked out the town for the obligatory kaffee und kuchen (you got me into that Astrid).  

   
The Lech river which runs through here is beautiful and has the most unusual light blue colour. 

Now I am propped up against a pine tree overlooking a lake while boys are scaling a cliff next to me 

On our way by 08:00 as there was an 800m descent to negotiate. We all agreed that downhill was the worst – kills our knees.  
After 2.5 hours reached St Anton. End of our hike. Tidy town with loads of window boxes as expected. Astrid would be envious
 

 Like so many towns here, they seem to be so quiet a during the day. Cafes only open around 11:00.  

 Big modern station but soul-less. Not even a ticket office and only one machine which did not accept credit cards or large notes!

Fast train to Innsbruck – once again very modern and quiet. Decided to walk around centre of Innsbruck.  

 Not the best way to be a tourist with full packs.
 

 
Best find if the day: a restaurant that offered as much as you can eat for Euro 8.60. Needless to say, the boys went to town so we left the city feeling pretty stuffed.  

Now on the small train that climbs around the mountain via Mittenwald to Garmisch. Brings memories of my first Alpine hike with Astrid some 13 years ago. 

   
For Astrid. Memories of our first Alps, starting Mittenwald

  
Need to verify the Odometer, but the Ascent/descent is right.  We have the knees and toes to prove it. 

For logistical reasons we are staying 2 nights here at Leutkirche Hütte. Makes it easier to escape off the mountain and catch a train back to Garmisch tomorrow. 

 Sleeping in a Mattraslager is always too hot, too noisy, blighted with snorers or just uncomfortable. So we tend to be up and about by 7:00am every morning. Today we took our time because we planned an out and back walk to the next hut. No packs! Fantastic. 

 Beautiful walk in beautiful weather. Stopped for a snow fight. Challenged Liam to hit my camera from 20m. He did unfortunately!!  

  On arrival at Kaeserjochhaus we indulged in kuchen and drinks. Good alternative to lunch. Like rock rabbits we lazed in the sun for ages before heading back. Guy was half crippled with a sore knee so he opted for the same route back.  

  Liam and I set off on an extended alternative route which involved plenty of down hill and eventually a long climb back up.  

 Accidentally got down to civilisation and landed in the midst of a Bavarian type Sunday afternoon on a farm. Men in trad outfits, lederhosen, Tyrolean hats and girls wearing Dirndls. And the live music. Very nice. 

 Liam however was in dire straits with running itchy eyes, sneezing etc. Not surprising with all the flowers at this lower level. A long climb up the mountain again, arriving back by 17:30.   Liam’s new friend: rabbit. 

  I love the evening meals here; everything has meat in it however so the boys have been opting for the bergsteigeressen which is like the house meal of the day. Trouble is that is usually spaghetti bolognaise – I think they are sick of that now! To celebrate our last night in the mountain we had kaeserschmarren which is like chopped pancake with apple sauce. Yum.   

Whiled away time with guitar and cards. Possible thunderstorm and rain later so could be a wet climb down to St Anton tomorrow. What timing perfection.

While I was prancing through the daisies yesterday, the boys took the shorter high route. Afterwards they informed me that it was not more difficult than anything we had done previously. “What about the 125m of vertical ledge” I enquired. “No problem” said Guy, it was a well worn ledge. “Actually…” said Liam, “it was a bit narrow, I had to place one foot in front of the other”

Enough said. I made the right decision.

  
After our minimalist breakfast of bread, jam and coffee (since we not big on meat and cheese at breakfast) we were on the road by 8:00am. Everything feels much easier now I.e. the scale of pain is less. Climbed a ridge & descended to an Alm where an enterprising high altitude cattle farmer sold us drinks.  

 After reading the write up which described the climb ahead as unsuitable for anyone with vertigo, I made the decision to take a lower and longer route. The boys however were undeterred and more than happy to climb a peak which included a shuffle along an unprotected narrow edge (no rope) with a huge drop below. Right decision for me – no pressure to catch up now, I ambled along for the next few hours taking photos and surrounded by flowers everywhere.  

 En-route I found another cattle farm at Boden Alm where I got really great home-made sausage, sauerkraut, mustard & bread. Delicious.   So far I had been getting on fine with my German, but some dialects are hard to follow. Maybe just country folk.    

  The overall trade off for my wimpy detour was that I eventually had to make a long detour and an 800m vertical climb to get to Leutkirche Hütte (2251m)  

 where the boys were already waiting. A leisurely afternoon was spent at the hut, indoors this time since a chilly wind was blowing off the snow. Plenty of card games followed. . and huge maths discussions 

  Really hungry these days and couldn’t wait until dinner at around 18:00.

Another night in the Mattraslager…….. communal sleeping can sometimes be interesting!  Being Saturday night, a number of folk had made this a weekend Jaunt, so much partying and noise (them, not us)

Back to the hills again. We were woken from our comfortable beds by the chiming of a massive church bell close by. 6:30am! OK the sun was up but so were we before long. After breakfast said goodbyes to our very kindly host Frau Hubertus and hiked to the station for the journey to Sankt Anton.  

 The trains here are clean and spacious. All electric and immensely powerful it seems for a lot of the track is uphill and through tunnels. 

 From there we caught another bus which climbed even higher into the Arlberg Pass. Just to complete it all we took a cable car from Lech to the mountain top at 2450m high. 

 The good news – for once the hiking part was really easy. Beautifully clear crisp and sunny day, spring flowers and snow all around plus stunning mountain vistas.  

 These photos certainly do not do it justice (will have to wait for the Nikon pics later)  

  Got to the hut relatively early sometime after lunch. As the afternoon progressed the place got busier due to it’s accessibility to Lech and the cableway.  

 Consequently supper was somewhat hectic and although we played many rounds of cards, we were finally driven to bed by around 21:30 by the noisy kids and parents.Tomorrow will be another serious all day hike with high altitude, cliff side paths and sheer drops. Damn; at least the next hut should be sparsely populated….. 

We needed this. Lie-in, relaxed breakfast then explored Zams, starting with the outdoor shop of course. De-mistified the bus system and went to next town Landeck with a view to hiring bicycles. None available, probably a good thing since not many small roads around here.  Invested in Voltarin which got applied liberally to all our sore bits.
 

 Towns around here exist in flat valleys flanked by massive mountains. The bus system is fantastic, with gleaming yellow Postbus everywhere.  

 The river Inn running through the valley towns is hectic at present from melting snow. Reminded me of the Sjambok rapid on the Orange River in RSA.  
 
Later returned to base at Zams where Guy faded into a PM nap after spending all night on mathematical mind games. Liam and I walked to Zammer Lochputz which is a spectacular waterfall gorge draining the vast mountain valley which we hiked yesterday.  

Been a hydroelectric plant there too for about 100 years. Metal walkways and tunnels led us at high level through the area.
 

 Splurged on an early dinner because we all starving. 

Then back early to prepare for tomorrow’s trek into the hills – our last 4 days of mountain.

We needed this break!

Well we could have stayed another day at Wurtemberger Haus. Apart from sore legs and blisters it was raining.  But no, in the firm belief that things will get better, we set out on another extreme day which went totally off plan. 

 
After a difficult ascent to our highest point so far we were enveloped in cloud and rain. Vertical drop-offs, narrow crumbling ledges and all the things I really love (not).  Apparently the views would have been spectacular but fortunately I could not see any of that otherwise I might have never made it.   The clouds hid the scary bits, the rain drove us on but when thunder and lightning arrived we scrambled under the nearest small rock and huddled there for about half an hour lest we got zapped.  Black gekko-like creatures seemed to like it however and were mating all over. Furthest thing from my mind.  

The route followed the ridge of the mountain at ~2600m altitude. Problem arose when we finally started to descend. The GPS lost its downloaded map during a battery change, the paper map was packed away out of the rain, and the hut sign at the next junction was missing.  So we followed our noses.  

After a knee-wrecking descent of nearly 1000m with a hut in sight that actually wasn’t, we realised our mistake.  Lunched in the drizzle with the invaluable solid-fuel cooker and re-evaluated our options.  

 The decision was made.  3 hours of steep uphill, or descend completely to civilisation (also 3 hours).  It was the latter because Guy’s knee had packed in so he was hobbling with a stick. At least I’m not the only one now.  En-route came across a remote and totally inaccessible farmhouse which provided us with land jäger, bread coffee & beer.  

   The remaining descent to town of Zams through a incredibly deep gorge seemed to take forever. 

 Arrived around 8pm, found a very nice Gastehaus run by an elderly lady who was even prepared to take on our stinky washing. Boys got off lightly there!   Late night pizza and a comfy bed. Everything aches – at least that is not just an age thing….