E5 Days 96-100

Monday, June 10

Across the Alps via the Brenner Pass

• From Innsbruck, we travel by bus and train via Brenner, Bolzano and Merano to Moos, which lies at the very end of the Passeier Valley.

• Andi even knows the Passeier Valley from gliding. 🙂
• The ÖBB app stubbornly suggests that we take the bus over the Timmelsjoch Pass, so we check again: the Timmelsjoch website states in black and white that it will definitely not be open to traffic before 12/13 June.
• The journey is uneventful, except that from the train at Brenner we can comfortably observe a really long lorry traffic jam on the motorway.

• It is super rainy today, which makes us glad to be sitting on the train.
• It’s surprising how full the bus to Passeiertal is – completely overcrowded, so much so that some people even have to stand (even though it’s a coach).
• By the time we reach Moos, however, it has emptied out considerably.
• The hotel for tonight is right next to the bus station – but that means I won’t reach my goal (of 17,000 steps a day by now)!

• We treat ourselves to dinner at the hotel – our first meal in Italy, and what do I eat? Schnitzel!
• But that’s okay, says Matthäus, we’re in South Tyrol, and on the way here we passed more than one house decked out with Austrian flags, advocating that ‘South Tyrol belongs to Tyrol’.
• You can think what you like about that, but in any case: good night!

Tuesday, June 11 

Passeier Gorge

• Yay, no quotation marks again!
• We enjoy the hotel breakfast while we see the first hikers with large rucksacks, who – we think – might also be walking the E5, which would be cool – we haven’t met many other hikers on the way yet.

• First of all, we descend to the Passeier Gorge, through which a beautifully designed hiking trail leads.

• There are also a considerable number of hikers here, which is no surprise, as the path is really well designed with several bridges and paths where you can look down at the water.

• Soon we reach St. Leonhard in the Passeier Valley, where we first stop at a café and treat ourselves to a coffee and a Coke – nice. 🙂

• Shopping at DeSpar and then on to the ascent to the Pfandler Alm, which is super short but also super steep.

• We take a break in a beautiful alpine meadow, where we treat ourselves to a cucumber and the leftover chips from yesterday – yum!

• Taking a shortcut on the last few bends, we reach the Pfandler Alm, which is really cosy and where we are immediately given a warm welcome.

• We treat ourselves to a welcome beer, plan tomorrow’s stage, check into our rooms, shower, chill out in the dining room and are glad to be indoors, because it has started to rain outside.

• Once again, we hear the words: ‘You are the first E5 hikers this year.’

Wednesday, June 12 

At the foot of the Hirzer…

• Funnily enough, Sophie and Krus arrived yesterday evening, the two hikers we met exhausted after the climb up the Jägersteig to the Braunschweiger Hut!
• The two tell us that they climbed up to the Braunschweiger Hut and then even descended to Zwieselstein on the other side, crossing lots of snow and passing through the ski area – quite an undertaking.
• They said that they had previously stayed in the winter room of the Kemptner Hut after having to cross several snowfields and battle through deep snow – on the very first day of their E5 adventure.
• Their destination is Merano, and now they have bypassed the avalanche-prone Timmelsjoch to continue here – nice!
• After a leisurely breakfast and a lively exchange, we set off, passing right by the Haller family’s deer enclosure and onto the steep ascent up to the Hirzer.

• Time and again, we enjoy fantastic views of the Passeier Valley, especially when we walk along a high-altitude trail at an altitude of around 1,900 metres.

• While listening to Harry Potter 6, we reach the Hinteggeralm, where we stop for a delicious lunch.

• Off we go to the Hirzerhütte, which we reach in the early afternoon.

• Power nap, then a delicious dinner in the dining room, failing at very difficult puzzles, and then we can watch live as the hiking trail gets snowed in.

• So we discuss our plans for tomorrow: our original route would have taken us over the Hirzer, which is not to be underestimated and is obviously currently snowed in. The hut owner therefore recommends that we go around it. The Oswaldscharte is also snowed in, so she thinks we should take the lower bypass, which is definitely passable – fine, let’s do that!
• Fascinatingly, we can see the snow line right before our eyes: it’s still raining where we are, but further up on the Hirzer we can see thick snowflakes falling!

• A bit of writing, chatting and finally dinner – good night. 🙂

Thursday, June 13 

Hiking through the Meran2000 ski area

• Another leisurely breakfast with Sophie and Krus, and off we go.

• Along the Taser Höhenweg trail, our path leads us across cow pastures, past grazing and staring cows.
• We are accompanied by wonderful views stretching out to our right.

• There are a few 3,000-metre peaks here that look absolutely stunning with the fresh snow that fell overnight – very beautiful!

• Soon we reach Videgg, where we stop at the first opportunity: the Hiaslbauern, where we drink delicious ginger and lemon lemonade – yum.

• Shortly afterwards, we arrive at the next place to stop for refreshments, where we are shocked to discover that we have run out of cash – but, as luck would have it, we can pay by card here of all places – nice – we’ll worry about how to pay for the Meraner Hütte later!

• Here you can get delicious nettle, dandelion and herb dumplings with a salad made from mountain herbs that I saw growing by the side of the path – wow!

• We continue through the forest, passing a few people, and soon discover where they are coming from: there is a cable car going up here.

• On the way, we happen to find a pack of tissues – perfect, we’ve just run out and carrying around a pack of 100 isn’t very practical either 🙂

• We are now in the Meran2000 ski area, where we climb on sometimes very steep paths to almost 2000 metres.
• At the top, the terrain is flat, and we reach the Meraner Hut via gravel roads.

• It takes a while for Norbert, the landlord, to hear us – he was having an afternoon nap, after all.

• Chatting with other hikers who are doing the Horseshoe Tour, which sounds like another great long-distance hiking trail.
• Sophie and Krus arrive later, and we enjoy dinner together and spend a cosy evening in the dining room.

Friday, June 14 

“Stoanerne Manderln”, Jacuzzi and Pizza

• We start slowly as we were waiting for Vivian, who will join us today. 😀
• We are planning to spend the weekend with Vivian and Farzam, so Vivian is going to hike today’s stage with us.
• The two of them have looked up the best way to get to the Meraner Hut and have actually decided that the best way is by car! (to the Meraner Hut, located at an altitude of 2000 metres!)
• After a while and a short phone call, common sense prevails and Vivian decides: ‘Cable car it is’ and arrives to join us after a while.

• We are very happy – it’s great that Vivian is joining us on this 100th anniversary stage.
• First of all, we take a starter selfie.
• Although today’s route is mostly downhill, it first leads uphill to the summit of a mountain that is just over 2000 metres high, where the people we met at Norbert’s decide to turn back due to the fog.

• We brave the bad weather and make our way to the “stoanernen Manderln” (stone men), which, as Norbert tells us, were originally built by shepherds who collected the stones from the pasture to clear them out of the way.

• It is beautiful with the fog, as the stone men gradually emerge from the mist.
• We don’t find the fog so beautiful anymore when cows gradually appear right in front of us!
• We stop at the Möltner Kaser along the way and enjoy homemade Latella (some sort of milk drink).

• We continue on our way and soon reach Lochbauer via gravel paths, a truly beautiful accommodation where Vivian and Farzam treated us to a weekend together for our wedding.

• Farzam is waiting for us – but he looks very groggy and says he is feeling a bit ill.
• We are also greeted by some lovely cats in the flat, which immediately cuddle with Matthäus.

• Off to the sauna 🙂 and the jacuzzi – really nice, and then we all have pizza together, even though Farzam is completely exhausted after the sauna and goes to bed looking a bit unwell.
• Vivian drives us down to the small nearby village in the Fiat Panda, an adventurous route on very small, steep roads.
• We enjoy delicious Italian pizza and then off to bed – a very nice evening!