Everywhere I look I see mountains and today is a most beautiful day. No clouds just blue skies and sunshine.
This is Seefeld in Austria and a part of the world I have only travelled through many years ago on a trip to Greece. We went by road in a tiny car and stopped in Salzburg.
This time we came to see and walk in Austria.
Wild clematis.
Meadows full of wild flowers.
Gentians.
First of all, I admit that our daily stop for coffee and cake is vital.
Every day there is a new place to walk and everything is very organised…buses, trains and the trails through forests and up mountains.
This morning we went part way up to Rosshutter by train and then walked the next stage up with gondolas swinging up above. Many stops along the way…to catch some passing oxygen and simply gaze out at the scenes spreading out before us, before reaching our goal. Snow lay alongside the path and our final destination was 5,0000ft above sea level, which leaves me breathless just typing it out!
This has been the perfect week for us. I feel rested. I have walked daily and enjoyed swimming, which helps take the aches away. Yoga this week has restored me and being away from home I find it wonderful to simply move and know that nothing more is expected of me.
As our week comes gently to its end I realise the importance of being in a new place where I don’t know the system or language. I am used to being surrounded by the familiar and so occasionally it’s great to be somewhat out of my depth and also acknowledge how great it is to have a husband who knows and loves to speak the local language….he is great at giving it a go! There is a tricky side to this in that he must sound pretty fluent because then the other person goes off into an involved and animated conversation to which he has no reply! I on the other hand, have never been good at languages and so spend much of my time simply listening and trying to discern a word here and there!
It is now a couple of days later and we are back home. There are no snow-capped mountains near and the only building built of wood is our garden shed! It is safe to say we are most assuredly back in Manchester but the week was wonderful and took us away from our everyday life. No time for habitual behaviours but lots of time to look, breathe and savour a lovely country and its people.
You run and jump and then the breeze takes you!
Looking towards Germany.
Seefeld, Austria.
Mountains all around…