Back to work

So today we had work again; no big deal, starting softly, with a 10-hour-long hiking trip.

On the top !

Kids having fun

We planned that we would walk from Niederdorf to Toblach and continue up to Silvesteralm. From there we would again continue to Bonnerhütte, where we have been before and continue up to the top of mountain Toblacher, so we could see the cross that stands on the top. Because that didn't seem too bad a hike, we decided to still continue around the valley on the top of the mountains that surrounded it. We set off at 10 o'clock, having a chance to bicycle to some point, but leaving the bikes behind.

Resting a while

We stopped by at the park in Niederdorf for a very short time because we thought we had plenty of time to walk the trip. It's hard to believe there's such a cool place for kids in a little village like this. When we reached Toblach about an hour later Gleb was already tired. We don't yet know why, but he had a little pain in his legs and when we climbed the gentle but long hill up to Silvesteralm his legs felt numb. On the way he had something else to think though because there were plenty of cows in the field just before Silvesteralm that (according to Gleb) were all staring at him and planning an attack. Aino on the other hand made good friends with one bull on the way and lead the way through the field of cows to Silvesteralm.

Clearly planning an attack

 After having some traditional non-alcoholic drink at the alm we continued the way to bonnerhütte. When we saw a sign that said Bonnerhütte we thought we had to carry on and that the sign must be wrong; it was pointing up to a forest. Nevertheless we decided to check it out and turned out there was a little path up there to Bonnerhütte. The path led us directly the same way we have just come, towards Silvesteralm, but higher on the mountain.

The little path was very beautiful, the trees surrounded it sometimes, sometimes we walked on a meadow with a perfect view to the Dolomites, sometimes we walked on an steep edge of the mountain, with a huge drop just next to us and little waterfalls formed by the melting snow. However, it started to feel a bit long when we reached a meadow where we could see Bonnerhütte on the other side of the mountain. The walk felt frustrating and we started to feel tired, but soon we had good food and a little rest (Gleb almost fell asleep when Aino used the toilet...)

Filling the guestbook

We continued up to the cross, Aino felt tired and walked very slowly but Gleb on the other hand was feeling better and pushed her forward. We made it to the cross and to an amazing view with Dolomites and the Alps. Everywhere you looked you saw just mountains and sky. There was also a guestbook, which we signed of course.

After the cross the clock was already six, but we still decided to continue to the trip around the valley. We both felt a bit tired and everytime there was even a mild ascent, the pace slowed down a bit. We could see the Dolomites all the time and some glimpses of the Alps as well on the route. The sun had hidden itself, but showed some light from time to time, making the view even better.

Markus told us we would be back at seven...

When we started the way down the route didn't seem so nice anymore. We were both exhausted but our legs magically kept on going. The route down slowly hid itself in the woods, so the amazing view wasn't there anymore to cheer us up. We kept on going and going. When we saw a sign that said it would take one hour to Toblach, we called Markus to say that we could take the train there and he could go home as well, but he decided (thank God) to come and get us with the car of the hotel's owner.

Slurps

We checked later the real hiking map, with better details than the one we used on the morning and realized that the route looked much bigger on this one. We have no idea how much we walked, but we had more than 1500 meters ascent on the way, and our legs are now saying that it was too much.

BY THE WAY: We got back from Wien through Innsbruck, 24.6, sitting in the train more than seven hours on the same day.