South Tyrol: days 0-1

In mid-June, we flew to MUC. We picked up a rental car, then drove to Steinebach for a quick lunch with H & co. at Paradieswinkel, a.k.a. Woerl. Located on the Woerthsee, it's S's favorite spot for dining al fresco.

Woerl (view from the dock)

The water was amazingly clear, making it possible to photograph fish from 15 feet away.

E and I walked from H's to Woerl and back--about 50 minutes each way through fields and along the lake.

After lunch, we said farewell and drove south to South Tyrol. South Tyrol is the northernmost province in Italy, with an affinity for Austria; the primary spoken language is German. (The other languages are Italian and Ladin.) S did all of the driving; E and I slept most of the way, waking up occasionally to munch on Johannisbeeren and radishes. We stopped in St. Lorenzen for dinner, where traffic was being redirected to accommodate a helicopter evacuation following a motorcycle-car crash. (We saw lots of motorcyclists the week that we were in South Tyrol, and heard a proportionally disconcerting number of helicopters.) After dinner, we drove the last few km to our Ferienwohnung, Gschliererhof, located on a working farm nestled on the side of the hill between St. Lorenzen and St. Vigilio.

S drove a little further up the road so we could see this preview of hikes to come.

The next day, we hiked up the hill above Gschliererhof, to see what we could see. Our 5-hour loop route took us along trails and roads to Enneberg and back.

An abandoned farm house en route. My camera did not do a great job of capturing the tree growing through the stairs.

View looking toward Fanes-Sennes-Braies National Park

I said "look cool," and he did.

Holunder--a.k.a. Elderberry

The town in the valley is St. Vigilio; the church on the hill is in Corte.

Enneberg has a pretty little baroque church (altar dates from 1636).

Obligatory organ photo

After leaving the church, we tracked down some popsicles--hard to do at 3pm in a rural town of ~2,900. Even with a year's worth of freezer burn, they were the most refreshing popsicles ever.

Another view of Corte, because the view was so magnificent.

Falling hexagons, next 3km

My camera isn't great at capturing steepness/depth, but notice the nearly vertical drop left of the road.

We bought a big chunk of Bergkaese at the bio-cheesery, thinking it would last us a few days. Silly us.

Gschliererhof. This photo, like all the others, does not do justice to the steepness of the hill.