Italy to Austria.
Up early on a foggy morning, we sucked down the coffee and hot cocoa and hit the trail. It is seven kilometers down to Sexton; the first four are tough, steep downhill.
We watch our step, trying to save our knees, thankful we are not grunting uphill instead.
The fog moves in and out, so we are cool, then hot, then cool. We drop into the trees (we have been above treeline for three days now) and down along the creek. There is a big waterfall, giant rock slides off the cliff faces, and the trail is loose and rocky, tight turns, and big step-downs on the rocks.
We see marmots on the hill across from us. I watch a while as two of them fight by an (abandoned?) cabin. Flowers everywhere.
It takes us two solid hours, this first section, and when we drop to the valley floor we have lost about 3000 feet in elevation (the Dreizinnen Hütte at 8000 ft / 2438 m down to the Talschluss Hütte at 5013 ft / 1528 m).
Ugh.
Walking downhill can be tougher, though less sweaty, than going uphill. definitely gets the knees.
We get a well-earned, early morning beer at the beautiful Talschluss Hütte, then walk easily and fast down the wide, level, gravel road leading to Sexton. Now there are groups of people, tourists out hiking on a sunny morning, even people pushing strollers along the packed trail.
We are excited to be heading out to meet our friends in and around Lienz, Austria.
We make a stop in Sexton, where I wait in line for a half hour to buy the fresh, local cheese at the Käserei Sexton. This is a must-stop place if you are in the area. We know this place from the last time we were here, when we spent a week hiking and climbing in 2015 with our friends. We made a stop here back then, as this is Jürgen and Veronika's, Ralph and Angelika's favorite cheese.
We thought it would be fun to take them a present.
So I got in line, and as I finally get in the door of the small shop I realize I don't know what cheeses to get. And I'll be damned if I am going to ask for taste samples, with a half-hour's worth of people lined up behind me.
So I watch and listen closely. I am memorizing the names of the most-picked cheeses. When it's my turn, I point and name like a local, except for the part where the guy asks me how big a piece I want. I just open my eyes wider, he puts the knife down on a wedge, I mumble "Jah" or "Yes" or "Si" depending on what pops into my brain, and WHOMP! another chunk is wrapped up. I grab a bottle of the local red wine, and he totals it up. Five huge chunks of cheese, the wine... at home I am looking at $50 or more. Here? €30.
What a great deal. I wish I could bring some home.
We catch the next bus to Innichen, from there the train to Lienz, and we are meeting Ralph and Angelika at the station within an hour.
Our first stop is at the little coffee and pastry shop, where we split three küchen and have coffees. Then they take us to Amlach, to the Tiefenbacher Haus, where we stayed before. It is a wonderful place, and we are glad to be here again. Ralph and Angelika drop us off, promising to pick us up about 18:45 for dinner at Jürgen and Veronika's house.
Mrs. Tiefenbacker is glad to see us again, and she shows us our room (the same one from before). It is cozy and charming and beautiful.
Gail's suitcase has arrived and is waiting for us. We spend a lazy afternoon unpacking, cleaning up, showering, and resting. We dig out the present from California we brought for our hostess, and she is pleased and surprised. We dig out all the other presents we have been packing around for a month and half now, and soon Ralph and Angelika arrive to fetch us up.
It is so great to arrive at Jürgen and Veronika's house in Tristach and find that not only have Lorenz and Petra arrived from Munich, but his two sisters, Agnes and Maria are here as well.
We spend three delightful hours eating (Veronika is a great cook, tonight we had lamb, potatoes and fresh green beans. The sauce is so great we are all slurping it up, getting seconds.) and laughing and catching up on things. We plot and plan for tomorrows hike/climb, drink more wine and coffee, pass out the gifts to much laughter, and just relax in each other's company.
So, we are here for five days. The plan is to get in as much hiking and climbing as the weather will allow, and on the down times go into town.
Amlach is a special place, where the city hall building is left unlocked, 24 hours a day every day so you can stop in and use the bathroom or pick up free information about the area. Where there is one beer hall and five trails out of town right up into the high peaks and the first hut, only 3.5 hours away. (That hut is Dolomitten Hütte, by Simonskopf, where we climbed two years ago.) A place with little town parks along the creek where you can pull up your van to sleep overnight, and the white steepled church that is oh so charming. The bells ring every morning at 6:00 and then hourly after. It is so peaceful here, picture perfect, the flowers all just so in the window boxes, farms and barns mixed right in with the houses, roosters call, cows graze and horses run in the fields. The trees are loaded with apples, the fields high with corn. There is a public bulletin board with notices for the village, a little weather station next to it, and a sign for the bus that runs into Lienz hourly. There is a colorful preschool and a public hall/stage for performances and meetings.
It is the kind of innocent village where the public water fountain of Pinocchio has Jiminy Cricket perched on his nose, giving everyone the finger, and nobody even notices or realizes it (except, of course, me).
Where the bull statue is artfully done and anatomically correct with balls and penis.
This is a very beautiful, but relatively overlooked area to visit.
There are photos below, and here are more photos of downtown Amlach, and Lienz from our last time here.