St. Ulrich to Trieste, Day 0 - Brixen / Bressanone

And away we go! 

Saturday June 20: Day 0. Turns out that the farther you section-hike, the longer it takes to travel back to the end point / starting point for the next section-hike. 

We took an early train from Steinebach to Munich Hbf and another early train to Brixen / Bressanone, and had a whole afternoon to be tourists once we arrived. This was a treat, since the last time we were in Brixen, we were just passing through.

Speaking of passing through, in the winter of 1550-51, an elephant named Soliman stayed in Brixen for two weeks on his way from Genoa to Vienna. The elephant was a gift from Portugal's King John III to Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria.

Had Soliman arrived 75-80 years earlier, perhaps the oliphant / pferdefant frescoes in Brixen's cathedral cloister and on the wall of tiny St. Nikolaus in nearby Klerant would have looked more like elephants.

S and I had been so enamored of the horse-like elephant fresco in Klerant when we hiked through two years ago, that we planned to revisit it this summer. Discussing this plan with S's brother and SIL over dinner before our trip, we searched online for information about the frescoes' painter, and thereby learned Mesiter Leonhard of Brixen, or his school, had painted another elephant a few years earlier in Brixen. Both frescoes were painted elephant-unseen--because getting a painter from Brixen to Ceylon, or an elephant from Ceylon to Brixen, took more time, effort, and money than Leonhard had at his disposal. This was when we also learned about Soliman, the real elephant who arrived 75 years later and had absolutely nothing to do with the frescoes.

We passed the Dom on our way from the train station to our hotel, so we entered the cloister,...

...passed beneath the winged lion (presumably also painted sight unseen)...

...and found the famous elephant / oliphant / Pferdefant. Beneath the elephant is Eleazar Avaran, who has just stabbed or is about to stab the noble beast, who in turn is about to die, crushing Eleazar (1 Maccabees 6:43-46).

Brixen cathedral cloister Pferdefant, ca. 1470

Across the street from our hotel, we encountered another lion, warning passersby "Ich bin ein schröcklich Leu" ("I am a fearsome lion"). (The building dates from the 15th c., but the lion was added ~1900.)

Schröcklich!

We were far too early to check in, so we dropped off our backpacks and went in search of lunch. 

As is often the way in South Tyrol, our hotel booking included a local mass-transit and museum-discount card. We still had some time to kill after lunch, so we swung by the nearby Hofburg Museum (free with the card). We soon figured out it was a diocesan museum in the palace that served as the bishop's residence from the mid-13th to early-19th centuries. 

I did not expect to enjoy the huge collection--three centuries worth--of Krippen ("cribs," i.e. nativity scenes), but they went well beyond stable scenes to include, e.g., the Slaughter of the Innocents... 

...and a scene with hyenas and PORCUPINES.

I was also fond of this ca. 1430 sculpture of Mary and Elizabeth. The way Mary holds wimpled Elizabeth's neck made me imagine what a 15th-c. childbirth preparation class might have looked like. Mary: "You're doing great! You're halfway through this contraction!" Elizabeth: "How can you know I'm halfway through until the contraction is over?" Mary: "I am highly favored!"

Good luck, gals

The Brixen card also included a free round trip ride on the not-quite-nearby Seilbahn up to Mount Plose (8,406'; the Seilbahn drops you off at 6,725'). After checking into our hotel, we caught a bus to the Talstation (7 road-km and 500 m elevation gain above Brixen, just past the village of St. Andrea), and headed up Plose for a preview of the Geislergruppe, where we'd start hiking the next day. 

To the right: the Geislergruppe

Did I mention that it was stinking hot in Brixen? It was noticeably cooler on Plose. FBOFW, we didn't stay long. We wanted both to hike and to revisit Klerant, so we took the Seilbahn back down to St. Andrea and headed on foot toward Klerant.

On the way, we passed through the hamlet Mellaun / Meluno, famous for yet another small church painted (in 1464) by the school of Meister Leonhard. No elephants here.

And then Klerant. Hello, old friend.

We were also happy to see the whale again.

From Klerant, we headed down, down, down to Brixen.

After dinner, Brixen treated us to a lightning storm.