The last days of our Italy trip

You think I'm being careless?!?!?! ... the intervals between my reports getting longer?!?!?! Well, since I locked my phone myself (deeply relaxed or absolutely stupid - you can choose), there was also no hotspot in the remote regions of our overnight stays to write a report. I have become quite dependent on this little box. So ... where do we go from here?

Ah yes ... the Timmelsjoch! The weather app promised a beautiful morning, so we made our hiking sandwiches and tied our hiking shoes. The dream of Kaiserschmarren + Apricot Dumplings died the moment the mountain innkeeper put up the sign 'closed today' at the roadside. Manno!!! I was so looking forward to the reward ... and the morning coffee at the mountain inn was just as much a part of our hike as the toilet visit (always a somewhat delicate matter in the great outdoors). Micha did his best to persuade, but the Alpine farmer blamed the absent Alpine farmer's wife and all culinary dreams burst - bam.... But we let ourselves be inspired for the ascent to the Königsjoch and gave up on the original Seebersee round - climbed and climbed and sweated in the morning sun ... ate our sandwiches and kept climbing; of course, sweating continued, until ... the clouds darkened, we cursed the stupid weather apps, and - when it started raining - resigned ourselves. Which 3,000-meter peak shows itself in the rain??? No gain without pain! We turned around. Of course, the sun came out again below - neener neener. Not with us - there was still the Seebersee round and it turned out to be beautiful and sunny and ... just great.

In search of Kaiserschmarren, shade, and a nice resting place, we continued and it got hotter and hotter again. Oh man, we already knew this game. All selected places were discarded due to the temperatures... annoying. Just drive over the Alps to the rainy side ... I don't care... I just want to move... just quickly buy a jacket against the rain... hooray :-) Austria here we come; or to be exact: Sölden, here we come! Reveal yourself, Ötztal! We found a quiet sleeping spot and made the plan for the next day clear ... climbing - yay. We went straight up at a waterfall - if you wanted it with an overhang, please go left, we went right. And as spectacular as the pictures always look, the via ferratas are safe and easier to handle with a little fitness and courage than the stupid descents that inevitably follow, because... somehow you have to get down again. But my arthritic knees don't like going down; especially not when I foolishly decided not to bring bandages and hiking poles. The Kaiserschmarren at the mountain inn didn't taste good and made me feel heavier and my knees creaked. When Micha then 'lovingly' asked me in the evening if I wanted to take another walk, I would have liked to push him into the creek ... provided, of course, that I could have made it up again. I felt his plan to tackle the via ferrata again tomorrow as pure provocation and so only a 'senior citizen round' around the nearby Piburger Lake remained... slow and on level ground ... wonderfully shady and with glorious bathing water. I wasn't happy, but content. Our vacation was coming to an end and Micha always gets a little restless and more focused on going home. We'll drop off the broken hiking shoes at Hangwag in Vierkirchen right away, take a look at Augsburg, pick up the shoes the next day, and finally... finally(?) go home.

Augsburg is really interesting. This city can be traced back to the Romans, but it became famous through the Fugger family. And this family founded a settlement for the needy in the Middle Ages, which is still alive today (!!!) (monthly: rent: 88 cents + utilities + 88 cents for the settlement chaplain + (and now it gets tough...) 3 prayers DAILY for the lords of the foundations). Of course, I can't move in there tomorrow - there are criteria... that I don't meet.

Okay ... we drove all day today, with brand new Hangwag shoes in the trunk, in beautiful temperatures and glorious sunshine and not quite so glorious mood, because it would be the perfect day to do something nice. If it weren't for this sense of duty... I'm curious how Micha will cope with being separated from his little house for half a year - that's a whole different ballgame. It starts in a week.