Walking to Italy - Day 9 - Steinach to Vinaders

Day 9: Steinach am Brenner to Vinaders

We were both tired when we left Steinach. This was perhaps due to having hiked a ton up and down over the previous few days, but I suspect spending a rainy night in a hotel under the freeway in a town surrounded by freeway tunnel construction dust and wildflowers contributed to re-igniting my usual spring allergies. Alas, my bottle of Flonase was back in Steinebach. This was our slowest day of hiking, and we both felt wiped out enough that we adjusted our route, opting for longer distances but less steep trails.

Just outside our hotel stood a 7.9-meter diameter drill bit used to explore the rock before digging the 10-meter diameter tunnel. This particular drill bit is named Guenther, after a local magistrate. S regrets that he is not in this photo to provide a sense of scale. Guenther is very big. 

Our ascent goal for the day was the Nösslachjoch, so up we headed.

Ah, dust. When you build a massive tunnel through the mountains, the resulting gravel has to go somewhere...

We aren't entirely certain, but we suspect our alternative route probably had more open views than the originally planned steeper route through the woods. We were glad not to have to work so hard. 

Azaleas!

The higher we went, the tinier the flowers were. The little things that look like pink blueberries are actually flowers. Incredible.

These teeny tiny flowers are alpine azaleas!

Nearing the top. The reddish stone was a surprise atop all the granite.

We heard marmots before seeing them. They seemed pissed that we were tromping through.

The trail became steeper near the peak--steep enough that my cellphone camera actually conveys "steep."

Another peak, another Gipfelkreuz:

The views were OK:

Many of the wildflowers made me think Dr. Seuss must have hiked in the Alps at some point.

Seen from a distance, all those flowers are lost in the green leaves. Stunningly beautiful either way.

Hello, Brenner Autobahn. Our destination for the day was Vinaders, a little over a mile west of the freeway.

The flowers got bigger as we tromped down the mountain.

It rained long enough to make it worth using our rain gear, which made us happy, because who wants to lug rain gear through three different countries without ever actually using it? 

As we headed down, we made our nth decision of the day to extend distance in exchange for a shallower grade. Humans invented switchbacks for a reason.

One of the bonuses of that decision was happening across this early 14th-century chapel, Sankt Jakob. 

The entryway was open, but the chapel itself could only be viewed through two windows with metal grates, presumably to protect the centuries-old altar. 

We continued downhill...

Lo, Vinaders!

After dinner, we went for a verrrrry short walk up to the church and back. A cup of tea, a comfy bed, and a brook babbling outside the window made for a lovely evening.

Ta da! 12 miles hiked, ~4,000 ft elevation gain, ~3,400 ft descent.

The one-second rule

Driving from Freiburg to Steinebach today, I realized I forgot to mention the "one-second rule" in my previous post about the Autobahn. The one-second rule is a useful aid for the aggressive driver. In simple terms, it means you should always follow one second behind the driver ahead of you--that is, regardless of what speed you're travelling, the front of your car should pass by a roadside object one second after the back of the car immediately in front of you passes it. This practice ensures that all cars on the Autobahn will stop en masse more quickly than if drivers were to waste precious pavement space by leaving larger gaps between vehicles. For some dramatic consequences of the one-second rule, consider this 259-car pile-up last week on the Autobahn between Hanover and Peine.

Roadtrip to Freiburg

I’ve just come off two hours of listening to an eight-year-old sing the same one and half phrases of Puff the Magic Dragon over and over, non-stop, out of tune and with a mix of original and newly invented words. The kid scores points for enthusiasm; his parents score points for endurance. Thank goodness we’re finally in Freiburg.

We left Steinebach this afternoon a little before 1 p.m. and took the Autobahn to Lindau, the city farthest west in Bavaria before you enter Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Driving on the Autobahn is just like driving on American highways, except that every driver gets to choose his or her own speed, regardless of the posted speed limit. For example, if the speed limit is 120 km/hr, you might drive anywhere between 60 and 140km/hr, unless you are driving a Ferrari, in which case you get to drag race with other Ferraris at 200km/hr. Be sure to check your blind spot before changing to the fast lane, as cars too far away even to be seen in the side-view mirror will be on top of you in the blink of an eye. In case road construction necessitates merging, do not take advantage of the driver who’s trying to let you into her lane, but instead wait with all of the other fast cars so you can all try to change lanes together at the last possible moment.

We pulled off the highway in Ueberlingen in the hopes of finding a cafe, but found something even better: ripe, fresh fruit, everywhere. Miles and miles of immaculately pruned pear groves and apple orchards; fruit stands offering strawberries, blueberries, and cherries; and vineyards and fields of hops. We bought enough fruit in Ueberlingen to supply us for our first few days in Freiburg, and then ate most of it before we reached the end of the Bodensee.

From there it was up onto a plateau to Donaueschingen, source of the beautiful blue Danube (Donau), and into the Black Forest, which is neither black (as expected) nor exactly a forest (unexpected). Turns out the Black Forest is more a region than a contiguous forest; many of the trees on level ground disappeared, probably centuries ago, to make way for farm land. The long, steep descent into Freiburg was more in line with expectations, with stunning, steep cliffs and dense forest.

And then we arrived in Freiburg. We strolled through the center of the old town, over mosiac cobblestone streets and past the Muenster with its pealing bells (announcing that it was 7:47 p.m.?), and found dinner at a middle-eastern restaurant near the University. We enjoyed inexpensive falafel and hummus and--bestill my beating heart--copious and myriad fresh and crispy vegetables! Hooray for university towns!