Maximiliansweg Day 1: Brannenburg to Hochrieshuette

Day 1: Wednesday July 13

We caught an early train to Brannenburg and by 8:45 am were taking our first proof-we-were-here photos in front of the Brannenburg train depot.

Leslie and I are both contestant alums of Durham NC's Beaver Queen Pageant (she as Beaverella, I as Adélie Pygoscelis Beaver), so of course we paused for a photo next to Brannenburg's Biber-Apotheke.

The Inn River flows in a remarkably straight, tidily edged, German-controlled route between Brannenburg and Nussdorf.

As we headed past Nussdorf and up into the woods, a garden display issued a warning to snails:

Why look, in the middle of the woods past Nussdorf--it's the historic pilgrimage church, Maria Heimsuchung:

One of the few signs we saw for the Maximiliansweg. The trail overlaps with the trans-Europe E4 trail (Portugal to Cyprus). The red and white striped blazes aren't specific to the Maximiliansweg--they just indicate this is an alpine route.

Look, way up there--our destination for the day, the Hochrieshuette:

We saw a lot of butterflies as we emerged from the gravel trail onto the road toward Duft:

Aglais io, the European peacock butterfly

Argynnis paphia, the silver-washed fritillary

(Not a butterfly)

This was the first trail sign we noticed that mentioned our destination for the day, Hochries:

The higher we climbed, the more mountains came into view...

The trail went up up up...

Bayern looked pretty flat to the north, thanks to glaciers carving their way out of the Alps during the last ice age:

Sometimes Alms have drinks and food for people; other times, they just have cows lying in manure.

More up: 

The bees and butterflies were very obliging all day:

More up--the last few meters before arriving at the Hochrieshuette:

Some people arrive at the hut via gondola, which is probably easier on the knees but not as spectacular.

Johannisbeer Schorle (half black currant juice, half seltzer) never tasted so good: 

The views at the top were expansive. Flat to the north, mountains to the south.

"Hut" means something different in German than in English. This hut was built by the DAV and was spacious and comfy. They even had showers (unlimited cold water for free, 5 minutes hot water for 3.50 Euros). I ate Kaiserschmarrn for dinner, and was disappointed to discover it was fluffy--more like cubes of French toast--rather than thick crepe-like (the way Tante Puppi makes it--and, come to think of it, way the Rischart coffee shop in Munich's Marienplatz makes it too). This led to a conversation, auf deutsch, with another hiker who had ordered Kaiserschmarrn, about regional variations in batter prep. Apparently the cubed French toast-like version is fancier than the Munich version--although if I had to guess, I'd guess it was really cubed French toast stored in the freezer and pan-sauteed to order. 

Simsee

Alpenglow illuminating the treetops...

Ta da! 9.83 miles.

Annual bugs and butterflies photo dump

Still catching up with da blog. Annual German bug photos from late June/early July, thanks to several afternoon Kaffee und Kuchen get-togethers with family. First from Tante P's garden:

...and from R & R's garden:

My photo editor did something weird here, but I like it.

...and from the walk from H's house to our rental apartment:

Six-pack abs

It is lovely having a child who gets out of the bathtub, sees his reflection in the mirror, and gasps, "Look! I have abs!," and who, when he learns he'll need to put a special cream on his peeling toes, observes with satisfaction, "cool, I have an athlete's foot."

Schauinsland

Some Schmetterlinge (butterflies) from Elias:

On the possibility that dirt might in part be comprised of cow poop: “That’s what haunts me about dirt.”

On fundamental forces: “That’s what I don’t like about gravity: If you’re walking downhill on a rocky path and gravity pulls you down, you can get hurt.”

On seeing the two-time Bulgarian national acrobatics champion at Circus Roncalli Saturday afternoon: “I used to be really good at that.”

On Sunday we hiked up Schauinsland, the highest mountain near Freiburg (1284m). “Schauinsland” means “look into the countryland." We chose one of the noisiest possible days to hike up, as there was an antique car race up the mountain and none of the cars had mufflers. We encountered two ADAC officials when our trail through the woods crossed the race road. The men suggested we should have known today wasn’t a smart day to hike, and Stefan explained we weren’t from around here. Their response: “what, you can’t read the papers?” Tsk. The race ended at the two gigantic windmills about two thirds of the way up the mountain, so things were a little quieter heading to the top.

Elias enjoyed his first cuppa decaf ("Kaffee Haag"--Haag is the brand name) when we made it back to our starting point in Horben, then bounced off the walls until 10:30 p.m.

Today we head back to Helen's in Steinebach, to visit her once more, to welcome our friend Susan (our first visitor from the U.S.--and we don't have our own place in Freiburg yet, alas), and to pick up the rest of our suitcases and Stefan's bike. Stefan will drive our stuff to Freiburg on Friday and will sign our lease. Elias and I will join him by train on Saturday, and then we'll call Freiburg "home" for the next few months.