Anita gets lost in a cow pasture and makes a new friend

Two interesting adventures today. Jim went out skiing, he can tell you about that himself. Since it was another blazingly sunny day, I decided to go for a little hike. I got a local Oberperfuss hiking map, but I found out that it is very hard to figure out how long the hikes are or how steep they are. Anyway, today I set off from the house on from what looked on the map to be a nice little hike. It started up steeply through a Tannenwald. I was wearing my sneakers, which those of you who have hiked with me know are the only shoes that don't kill my feel after I have developed hiking blisters. But the footing was good and I was very careful. It was dry and frozen ground, not slippery (until later....wait till you see the picture of the last part of the hike!) But pretty soon I got lost, couldn't figure out which way the trail went. Tried several different possibilities but none were obviously the continuation of the trail I wanted. From the trail map, it seemed that I was supposed to go through the cow pasture, so I did, but eventually I saw a town down below that wasn't supposed to be there (shades of Brigadoon) and figured out that I must have gotten totally turned around, so I marched back across the pasture. It was actually quite nice, very quiet, and I enjoyed the solitude (no cows even.) I wasn't ever so lost that I didn't know the way back. I wanted to do a loop, but I could have just turned around anytime. Anyway, I finally figured out that to continue on the trail I wanted you were supposed to do a U-turn and I got on the right path, which went further up the mountain. When I saw a path heading down, I decided to take it, since I had already been out an hour and didn't want to end up lost up on the mountain. The path I took down turned out to be the lower part of the Gondola-Rodelbahn. The good news is, it was a great shortcut and I was down at the bottom of the Gondola in 5 minutes. The bad news is, it was glatt Eis!! But somehow, I made it without falling. I will figure out these paths eventually.

When I came back, I was hungry for lunch and as it was warm and sunny, I decided to eat outside on our terrace. I heated up a plate of soup and cut some Schwarzbrot, yummy. There is a hedge in front of the terrace, on the other side of which is a walking path. Along comes an elderly lady with her walking stick and we start chatting. Actually, she does most of the chatting. She is our almost next-door neighbor, lives in an old farmhouse down the lane, is an artist and a very interesting character. Her name is Dagmar Balogh. She invited me and Jim to come visit her (well actually, I sort of invited myself) and said she would serve us single-malt scotch since that is the only kind she likes. I think this is a promising sign. I will bake a cake to take to her. I think I should make something American, like a carrot cake or a New York-style cheesecake. Have to buy a cake pan. Fortunately they do have Philadelphia cream cheese here, I saw it today in the supermarket. Tonight for dinner I am going to make my first batch of Knödl. Turns out it is easier to cook vegetarian here than I expected (since Jim has become a vegetarian) because the traditional food does not contain much meat. I was reading in my Tyrolean cookbook that the soil is so poor and the climate so harsh that it is not good for cattle grazing so livestock production was traditionally not what they did. I guess every farm family had a cow for milk, so they do a lot of grains and dairy. Jim is hoping to find a source of fresh goat milk soon so he can make his own cheese (he brought his supplies with him.)



This is at the end of our street, a marker for those of you who will be driving here. It is where you make a sharp left to go up Bichlweg.



The start of my hike - this is our neighborhood.


The end of my hike. The icy lower Rodelbahn!



The gate to our house. You see it almost as soon as you turn up Bichlweg. It is the first house on the right, #2. You can park here in front of the gate or follow the fence around and park in the spaces there (where it says Park Verboten - but that doesn't apply to you!)