Tag 1: Let's go to Hafling!

October 9, 2021

Surprisingly, we make good progress and don't encounter any traffic jams.

In the morning, we reach the first mountains.

After a short stop, we already reach the Fernpass around 9 a.m. - no traffic yet 💪🏻

It's amazing how relaxing it is to be able to drive through the Fernpass without any traffic jams... We have had this experience regularly during our skiing holidays. Here we always got stuck in traffic - or it was snowing and we could only make slow progress.

Today is going great!

Since we don't want to buy a 'Pickerl' for the short distance on the highway, we decide to take the country road towards the Pitztaler Glacier and Kauner Valley Glacier. The landscape is great, but there are a lot of curves. Luckily, no one gets sick.

We pass through the towns of Piller and Fuchsmoor, and then continue on the Pillerhöhe road, and then on the Gachenblick road to the Kaunergrat Nature Park (Naturpark Kaunergrat / Pitztal Kaunertal), where we visit the Gacher Blick viewpoint.

The view is amazing! It's only partially suitable for my fear of heights, but what I see from a distance is awesome!

The weather is great, we have sunshine and almost blue sky. So beautiful!!!

The detour here was definitely worth it!

We continue towards Reschenpass, through Nauders.

Here too, there is not much traffic, we are making good progress.

The border crossing to Italy is also completely problem-free. We have dutifully registered online and filled out those long forms, even had the kids tested at the rapid test center the day before, where the test was also available in English... In the end, we didn't need any of it to enter 🤦🏻🤷🏻🙄

Maybe the police here do random checks - but we are not being checked 🤷🏻

Well, that's how it is... who knows how it would have gone if we hadn't done that.

Under the beautiful sunshine, we drive down the pass towards Reschensee once again.

The lake sparkles turquoise in the sun.

Upon closer inspection, we ask ourselves:

'Where is the water?'

The lake has definitely dropped several meters, and sand and mud banks have formed in the lake. It looks like the North Sea during low tide - in turquoise.

A few kilometers further, we reach the main attraction of the lake: the half-sunken bell tower of the former St. Katharina parish church, a remnant of the town of Graun that was flooded during the construction of the reservoir.

Normally, the lake has a water level of +20 m (highest value +28m), today it might be around 4-5m???

On a picture at the lake, we see a excursion boat returning to the lake next to the church tower. Um, yeah, there's easily a 15m difference in water level today.

The bell tower is located in an upper 'lake', which can be circumnavigated due to low water. Of course, we can't miss this opportunity and walk around the bell tower, looking down into the empty lake.

After a 30-minute break, we continue towards Meran. The drive through the plain takes a while, as there are many small apple transporters (mini tractors with narrow, high apple crates on the trailer) coming from or going to the apple harvest. In between, there are many campervans.

Arriving in Meran, the thermometer shows +20 degrees. Very nice!!! However, we're not staying in Meran, but continuing to Hafling 🐎. Here, we have to tackle quite a few meters in altitude on serpentine roads.

Past Trauttmansdorff Castle, the country road winds up the mountain to Hafling.

Just one last tunnel and at around 3 p.m., we reach Hafling, where a horse statue already greets us.

In the distance, to the right on the hill, we can already see our holiday accommodation for the coming week: the Gfreinhof.

The farm of Sandra and Peter Gruber is beautifully situated on a hillside with an unobstructed view of the St. Kathrein Church and the mountains of the Texel Group.

Sandra welcomes us and explains everything we need to know for the days ahead. The apartments are brand new and were first rented out this summer.

We move into the beautiful 60m² apartment 'Shangri' on the ground floor, with a breathtaking view of the mountains from the living room.

But the best part is that the horse paddock is right in front of us, and the many Haflingers belonging to the Gruber family curiously trot past our terrace. Better than a movie!

Our apartment has 2 bedrooms (1x double bed and 2x single beds), a large bathroom with shower, toilet, bidet, and sink, and the dining-living area with the terrace (outdoor seating and sun lounger) and the wonderful view of the mountains.

Next to our apartment, there is a common room with a sofa, table and chairs, children's toys, and a reading corner.

Great idea - we haven't seen something like this on our many family trips.

Sandra gives us tips on what we can do over the weekend - among other things, she shows us a flyer for the Merano racecourse, where the traditional Haflinger race will take place tomorrow. How cool!!!! We definitely have to go there! 🤪

After unloading the car, the hubby and I drive down the serpentine roads to Meran once again. We still need to do the weekly shopping.

By the way, there is almost a 10 degree temperature difference from Hafling to Meran. Amazing!!! Up there on the mountain, there is a completely different climate - much cooler - and that, even though it's only 15-20 minutes drive away.

After some discussions with Google Maps, we finally find a supermarket - a two-story 'InterSpar', which initially overwhelms us for a moment. We take the escalator up to televisions, household items, etc. and after a short search, we find the escalator going down to the groceries.

Since it's Saturday afternoon, it's quite crowded, but we find everything we need and make our way back to Hafling and the Gfreinhof, where the kids have probably unpacked all the suitcases....... 🙈

Back in Hafling, we store our groceries and Sandra gives us the ordered 10 'Gfreinhof' eggs - in colorful natural tones. They look like Easter eggs!

That's funny!

With a glass of wine - the hubby treats himself to a local beer - we start our vacation and play a few card games with the kids.

Oh yeah, if the weather cooperates now, it's going to be an amazing week!!!