Wanderweg

wanderweg

Wanderweg

These blogs were started to record our Europe May to August 2011 trip. The Blogs were great for us to diary each day, for others to follow and for us to review when back home. Several have been published into personal books. And so it has continued adding:

Europe - Italy,Switzerland, France, 2011
The Hurunui High Country Walk 2011.
Tasmania 2012
Europe 2013 - Austria, Switzerland, France and Ireland.
Alps2Ocean and Clutha Bike Trails 2014
A Christmas in Switzerland and Germany 2014
Biking the Danube, the Italian Dolomites and Austrian Lakes 2015
Vancouver, Lake Chelan (Washington State), Whistler, Powell River, Victoria (Vancouver Island) 2016
Switzerland and Germany 2017. Some with Brendan and family
Switzerland, Austria and Germany 2018
South of the South NZ 2021
Italy, Austria and Switzerland 2024

Goodbye Hatzingen, hello Lucern

Europe » Switzerland » North-West » Lucerne May 30th 2024

Goodbye to Marc, Karissa and Irvy

wanderweg

Our morning started with packing, breakfasting, cleaning up amd walking over to Irvahn's for a coffee before catching the train to Lucern. Sadly, it's time to move on and it has been fabulous to spend physical time with my favourite niece, her kids and her husband, Marc. We returned to our house and Marc drove over to pick up our luggage and take us to the station. The weather was looking dicey so not a day to drive over the Klausen Pass so we had chosen to get the train to Zurich, have lunch, then train to Lucern. On arrival in Lucern, we had to find our Ibis hotel which looked not far on a map. Towing luggage isn't easy when it's for a kilometre. We booked into our rooms and were surprised how small they ... read more

A fine painted building in one of the squares

Note the fine features of these buildings

A day with friends and Linth water engineering

Europe » Switzerland » North-East » Glarus May 29th 2024

One of the many canals

wanderweg

Today we met our Swiss friends, Bruno and Gertrud at the Nafels station, down valley to spend the day with them. As always it was great to catch up with them and enjoy their hospitality. Bruno is a retired engineer and spent some time working on the Linth plain melioration project. What is it? That was what Bruno thought we'd find interesting and had put in a lot of planning to show us aspects of the whole project. I'll try to explain it briefly so as to jog the memory as I re-read it in the future. Essentially, the flat area of the Linth River outlet from the valley upstream to the flat outlet plain was prone to flooding in the past hundreds of years. Back in the early 1800s it was decided to straighten and ... read more

Linds at one of the canals outside a pumping station

Braunwald

Europe » Switzerland » North-East » Glarus May 28th 2024

One of several waterfalls coming off the glaciers above

wanderweg

After the usual morning rituals, we got the 10.05 train to Linthal-Braunwald Station and then onto the funicular up to Braunwald. This funicular is very steep indeed going up to 1256m. It does not flatten out as I had expected so we trudged on uphill through the village that isn't really a village. It is carless and spread out up the hillside above the station. We figured that a coffee sounded pretty good so we went on a hunt for a cafe that was open. We followed a wanderweg until we found a sign that indicated a hotel with a restaurant. This was the Crystal Hotel near the seilbahn going up to Grotzenbuel. We ordered some coffees with bread and continued on a path she had indicated that we should take. This trail was absolutely spectacular ... read more

The fire and a walk up the Linth Valley

Europe » Switzerland » North-East » Glarus May 27th 2024

A family walk up the valley

wanderweg

The day started with a neighbour giving us a fire lighting lesson. The fire place and structure is one of the huge tiled affairs you see in old houses and castles in Europe. The fire is lit in the kitchen but the main heating box is in the next room. We lit paper, followed by a few kindling sticks, 6 logs and a bundle of straw fire lighters. You open the dampers, light the fire and leave it for one hour to burn down to embers, then push all the coals forward to the front of the fire box in the other room with a metal pusher, then close down the dampers. When we came home later in day the room was nice and warm, not hot, and the ceramic fire box was warm and touchable. ... read more

A water trough with a date we think of 1769

Travel to Glarnerland

Europe » Switzerland » North-East » Glarus May 26th 2024

On the train to Bregenz

wanderweg

Today was mostly a travel day from Innsbruck in Austria to the Glarus canton in Switzerland. We left around 9am and travelled first class to Bregenz where we changed for a short journey to St Margarethen, then another short journey across the border to Rorschach. Here we had a wee problem. We found we were the only ones on the train for some reason or other and the train was supposed to be going through to St Gallen and Zurich. Strange we thought. We got off and a man asked us what our problem was. He then told us there was a problem on the line (a slip) and the train had been replaced by a bus and it was leaving imminently. We made fast steps down the steps, up the other side and finally into ... read more

Steep valleys and mountains along the journey

Closer to the Rhine the land levelled out

Swarovski Kristallwelten

Europe » Austria » Tyrol » Innsbruck May 25th 2024

Linds and I at the entrance to the pavilion

wanderweg

Our objective today was to the Swarovski Crystal World at Wattens about 20kms from Innsbruck. They have their own shuttle bus so it was just a case of us meeting it at the Hauptbahnfof almost outside our hotel. We have been there before but figured this was a "must do" for Lynny and Kevin and we knew we'd love to visit again. Last time we were on bikes on the Inn River Trail so this was a much more sedate visit. How do you explain the Crystal World? It's impossible, as it's like nothing you would see anywhere else. Nearly everything and every scene you see is created by hundreds and thousands of crytals. It is truly amazing. A glittering Wonderland! First there is the huge inside pavalion built into the hill with eighteen themes. The ... read more

A performance costume covered in spartling crystals

Silent Night, complete with real snow and crystals

Top of Innsbruck

Europe » Austria » Tyrol » Innsbruck May 24th 2024

Innsbruck from the Kaiser Hill

wanderweg

We've had a day of heights. Our Innsbruck Card more than paid for itself with buses, the funicular and gondalas. We got the Hop On Hop Off bus first to take us around the town and describe the features and history. This was lovely except we didn't know to push the Stop button to stop where we wanted so by passed it. We had intended to head up the mountains on the North side of Innsbruck and visit the south side later. Instead we ended up on the Kaiser hill on the South side. Here, we first visited the Kaiser Jagermuseum and Panorama display of the Tyrolean War. It doesn't sound great but it is amazing. The Panorama is a huge circular painted 3D display of some 1000 sq metres of the Tyrolean struggle for freedom ... read more

From the 2256m Berg Station looking down at the 1905m station

Moving on to Innsbruck

Europe » Austria » Tyrol » Innsbruck May 23rd 2024

Goodbye Hochmuth

wanderweg

Our week in Mayrhofen is over and we've moved on to Innsbruck. We got the train around midday and headed off down the Zill valley to Jennbach where we changed the train to Innsbruck. The Zillerthal valley was populated most of the way down with pockets of residences, small towns and higher farms and lifestyle properties. I'll remember it as a very attractive place to visit and a nice peaceful place to stay although no doubt winter and skiers will make it pandemonium. On arrival in Innsbruck we found our Ibis Hotel just across the road from the Hauptbahnhof (main railway station). It is a strange building. A big long black oblong of a building above the road level and station. It is a relaxed hotel but has very clean rooms and is amazingly quiet. They ... read more

Last day in Mayrhofen with incidents

Europe » Austria » Tyrol » Mayrhofen May 22nd 2024

A farm scene on the way to the dairy site

wanderweg

Our last day in Mayrhofen was to be a walk up to Brandberg or down to the dairy site which we did not find the other day. However, Brandberg turned out to be a steep climb to the town and we had yet another incident to stymie that idea. Believe it or not, Lindsay has an infected foot and needed to see a doctor as the redness was creeping up his foot. He was finding difficulty with walking too. What a pair!! Was he going out in sympathy with me? Now I hardly dare to put into print our happenings each day as I wonder what I will report next. A broken toe and a swollen foot are a bit ridiculous for two people who wanted to get out and hike here. We have managed to ... read more

An unexpected rhododrendron in full flower

A valley of waterfalls

Europe » Austria » Tyrol » Mayrhofen May 21st 2024

Me, Lynny and Kevin ready for rain

wanderweg

We had been recommended to visit the Stilluptal valley with it's resevoir, waterfalls, guesthouses and popular hiking and biking path. We had thought it would be a narrow winding road up a valley to a lake and a waterfall, and yes it was, but it was a lot more. The weather was dicey. It was overcast, looking like rain, but calm. As it turned out we got a smattering of rain but it was perfectly suitable for a hike. We were picked up by the shuttle bus in town and headed off to the Stillup side valley. The narrow winding road led up to an open valley with a serene reservoir lake and not one, but many waterfalls. We were dropped off at the beginning of the lake and arranged to be picked up at the ... read more

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