Wonderful place, Austria

Austria has to be the most beautiful place on God's earth.  The light green colors of the pastures interspersed with the darker greens of the trees, the neatly kept and painted houses with the window boxes full of a vast array of colorful flowers, the cleanliness of the entire place, all in the foreground of those massive, rugged snow capped mountains.  I wish I had the words to adequately describe it.  What a place.  Not only is it picturesque, but the people are wonderfully friendly.

The number of hiking trails throughout Austria is staggering.  Everywhere one walks there are new markers describing new destinations.  And what adds to the experience is that all the trails are so well marked that even the most novice hiker won't get lost.

My Wednesday hike started with a bus ride to the borough of Gargellen (gar-GELLEN) where the gondola transported me high up the mountain - 2130 meters (+/- 6,500 feet).  The weather on this day was absolutely perfect.  It was comfortable eating outside even at that altitude with the bright sunshine and light wind. It was so pleasant that a dog had to find shelter in the shade from the sunshine.  So, my foot touched Schweiz for the first time.  What is Schweiz you may be asking?  That's the local lingo.  Perhaps you would know it better as Switzerland?  The pass elevation is 2,379 meters, or more than 7,000 feet.

I feel bad about not eating dinner at Drei Türme, but at €20 for the evening meal, I'm just too much of a miser to part with that kind of bread!  Speaking of grub, it's a comfort to begin to understand the language well enough to order food.  Today's lunch was a nice tomato and mozzarella cheese salad with a little bread on the side.

I forgot to mention in the last entry my new moniker.  I am now known as the "cow whisperer."  You see, simple minded people are easily entertained in simple ways.  While returning from Lindauer Hütte on Tuesday I espied a nice jersey cow in a nearby field.  So I told Eli, "I'll bet you I can talk to that cow."  Of course she was intrigued. I sauntered over to the fence and bellowed to the critter.  And, of course, she answered me.  Impressive, right?  Like I said, simple minded people...

Tomorrow is the start of the "big" 5 day trek with Oli and friends.  Pray for good weather, we'll need your prayers.  The forecast for the first two days is good followed by rain for the remainder of the trek.  It looks like rainfeather may strike again!