Pope, Thimble, and Scented Forests

Today, hiking was on the agenda, starting without driving, directly from the vacation rental. The Brotjacklriegel is the local mountain and from the Danube River it is the first larger mountain. Well, at least 1011 m high. The sunny weather, which is forecasted to last until the afternoon, made the hike quite sweaty at some parts, but since the route also goes through a lot of forest areas, it was very pleasant.

Just before we reach the lookout tower at Brotjacklriegel, we come across DU STEIN.

This is supposed to explain and make it clear to us flatland Tyroleans that people above 1000 meters above sea level greet each other informally. After all, the highest point of the Brotjacklriegel is 11 meters above that.

The lookout tower, which can be reached with just 127 steps, is visited by only a few hikers besides us. We suspect that it is because of the motto "Greed is good" as it costs 1€ per person. The two of us enjoy the view from the top alone and are glad that the others are saving themselves the effort. At the bottom of the tower there is a small tower cabin and we order a cup of coffee, it's still too early for a snack, we've only walked 3 km so far.

The waitress puzzles us. There we sit with our coffee and wonder why a woman who works in the service industry can be in such a bad mood. She serves the hikers reluctantly without a friendly face. What could have gone wrong with her? Did Justin Bieber not reciprocate her love? Did the wire on her push-up bra break this morning or did she simply wish for a rainy day so she could watch Netflix in peace and quiet, and now the sun is shining? We can't figure it out, eventually the coffee runs out and we continue on. Up to here, the path was nice, but nothing special. From now on, it gets more and more beautiful, with each meter we become more enthusiastic about the steep ups and downs, the forest, the stones, the flowers, and the views. We enjoy having the time and stop very often to take photos or marvel. We stroke the stones with moss growing on them, and trees that look especially great.

Our way down from Brotjacklriegel leads right past the house of Josef Hättenberger, the great-great-great-great-grandfather of Pope Benedict XVI. We would have liked to ask someone from his ancestors how the emeritus pope was as a child. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a doorbell and suspect that no one was home.

On a particularly beautiful mountain meadow, we photograph butterflies and grasshoppers, and listen to cicadas. Petra knows a lot about plants. I (Mario) not so much. Any kind of horsetails, flowers, and bushes are recognized step by step by her and immediately named out loud. She can also recognize trees better than me. Well, I have the upper hand when it comes to sawing and planing. Since we always see certain plants on our hikes, I have memorized 2 of them so I don't have to stand there with big eyes and ask all the time. In addition to orchids, the red thimble, Latin name "Digitalis purpurea," is the real headliner and can be found almost everywhere. As soon as I spot an orchid or a thimble, I call it out loudly, before Petra quizzes me for the 134th time. Now here's something: thimble is poisonous and its ingredients are used as heart medicine in the medical field. Well, I have that well memorized!

Again and again, in the forest passages, we breathe in the scent of sun on pine trees and we are happy. Terpenes are released in the pine forest, according to scientific knowledge, they strengthen the immune system, but we don't care about that, because they definitely make us happy.

The weather was still very merciful. On the way back, we had enough time for a cozy snack outdoors and afterwards to sunbathe our legs on our terrace.