Innsbruck to Salzburg, July 24
I’m so dizzy!!! Our train is going backwards and my stomach is not particularly happy about this. Anyway, we’re just leaving Innsbruck on our way to Salzburg, Mozart’s birthplace. Our Alps trip was incredibly cool! Each night we would hike to a different hut up in the mountains. The word “hut,” though, as we use it in English, does not begin to cover how nice these places were. I would call them cabins or lodges, even though “hut” is an easier transition from the German “hütte.” All of them had full kitchens, heated common rooms, flush toilets and showers, and nice beds. For a family of backpackers, it was pretty hard to believe we could call this backpacking! It was a bit unexpected the first day to get in from our hike and be able to have hot soup, hot chocolate with whipped cream, or a cold beer right off the trail.
The hiking itself was also quite beautiful! Constantly surrounded by snowy peaks and lush green valleys, we couldn’t stop ourselves from taking hundreds of pictures. Actually, this ended up slowing us down quite a bit! We had to re-evaluate all the marked trail times, accounting for our slower, picture-taking pace. Much of our experiences out on the trail, however, reminded us that we were indeed on a backpacking trip. Probably our most rugged moment was a day when we had to hike over an 8500-foot pass to get to our next hut and it was snowing quite hard!! The steep trail was a bit intimidating in the icy wind and gusting snow but we made it to the top and got some killer views of the valleys on both sides and the peaks in the distance. Some German hikers we met at the hut that night even said they saw us while we were at the very top! It was actually lucky they were on the trail with us because later on, they caught up with us (like I said, pictures slowed us down quite significantly) in a meadow full of cows. These adorable but massive creatures were blocking the trail so the three of us were attempting to avoid the group when these hikers just headed right down the middle of the herd and they got up and scattered! We were so surprised but of course we followed their lead.
All of the people we met in the huts, hikers and staff alike, were friendly, outgoing, helpful, and patient with our attempts to communicate. My parents actually spent a lot of time learning German before leaving for the trip, so they’ve been getting us around. Personally, I lack pretty much any knowledge of German besides a few food-related words, basic numbers, a few pleasantries, and a lot of World War II terminology that will never be useful in daily conversation.
Most of the people at these huts were locals, from Austria or Germany. Checking through the guest logbooks, we found that, at one of the huts, we were the only Americans to pass through in at least a two-year period, perhaps ever. A few of the other huts had seen American groups but it was quite uncommon.
The food at these places was simply insane!! We’re used to backpacking dinners on the stove, trail mix, and oatmeal on our trips but these huts had excellent soups, noodle dishes, SALAD, desserts … it was pretty amazing to me the first day at lunch when I got fresh green beans and fried eggs. This was incredibly luxurious. They were even very accommodating with vegetarian dishes. One hut had a vegetable and cheese risotto that was pretty much the tastiest thing I have ever encountered. Actually, the same hut had something called “schmarrn” that all of us became obsessed with after trying it. Schmarrn is a sort of eggy pancake that, depending on other ingredients in the dish, can be either sweet or savory. Dad had one with pear, caramel, cinnamon, and walnuts that was a dessert while I had one with tomato, onion, and herbs. If you’re ever in Austria, you MUST try this dish. The moral of the story is, we ate quite well on the trip but were even additionally grateful as we’re usually eating backpacking food.
As if the food and the views weren’t enough, our packs, which usually weigh in at between forty and fifty pounds with food and gear, were probably only between twelve and fifteen for this trip, as we only had to carry clothing, toiletries, and a sheet liner for the beds.
So overall, between the gorgeous hikes, the friendly people, the cozy cabins, and the awesome food, it was just a great trip. Also, even though we had a lot of company at the cabins, we rarely encountered other hikers out on the trail so we could be as crazy as we are with no worries about freaking other people out ☺.
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