Today we leave Bad Dreikirchen and walk to Kastelruth,
where we'll spend he next three nights. We can see, without looking at our
walking notes that today will involve a lot of down (700 metres) followed by a
lot of up (550 meters) as we are crossing the valley.
The first part of our walk takes us straight down the
hill to the village of Barbian. The walking notes say that we use route 8a, but
we only see one sign for this, the 8a seems to have been renumbered 11a.
Barbian is a charming place, where even the windows of the barns are decorated
with beautiful flowers. In the centre of the village is a quaint church with a
leaning tower. It seems a miracle the tower hasn't fallen down.
We leave the village and start to descend through and by
the side of fields; managing to escape the irrigation hoses as we go. All the
while getting closer to the bottom of the valley and a busy motorway and large
river. On the other side of the hill we can see Trotsburg castle, which we'll
be passing by later. After a while we reach the village of Kollman, which has
the most decorative pizzeria I think I've ever seen, set amongst the chequered
walls of a mock castle. Finally we reach Waidbruck, where we stop for a quick
coca cola. The walking notes say there are two options up to Trotsburg castle,
one is on a medieval trail, the other is less picturesque, but also less steep.
We decide on the medieval trail. Oh my word! The path is incredibly steep on
ancient cobblestones. At the start of the holiday I was going to sub-title this
blog "slippery when wet" as everything was, but now the paths seem
equally slippery when dry. We eventually reach the top and immediately need to
rest on one of the thoughtfully placed benches.
The route here has also been renumbered, instead of being
route 2 it seems to have become route 1. The route 1 track has been taped off,
so we follow a cobbled lane round, which seems to be going in the same
direction. We pass by a man at a table selling tickets, then pass by a field
where there are benches, beer tents and a wandering troubadour playing a guitar
and mouth organ. Something is obviously going on, but we pass by and continue
our climb up the hill. It's a long old climb up to the top and another
thoughtfully placed bench. We sit and eat our lunch and the first thing I do is
squirt cheese and tomato all over my "clean on today" walking
trousers, so much for doing laundry yesterday!
After lunch we reach the village of Tagusens, another
very pretty place with an old church and beautiful views of the mountains. We
carry on through the village and up into a forest. Walking in the forest is a
treat as it's a very hot day, but cool under the trees. We reach an isolated
Gasthof and are a bit dismayed when the path starts to go downhill, as this can
only mean one thing... True to form, when we join a little Tarmac road next to
the Brembach stream, the road goes steeply uphill. Even the sight of an eagle
overhead, with the sunlight lighting up his wings, struggles to make this toil
up the hill any more enjoyable. I'm very pleased when it starts to level out.
Even more pleased when we see our first views of Kastelruth.
We easily find our hotel, as it's right by the bell tower
in the square. The hotel gives us a whole heap of literature on the area, which
is very thoughtful. I smile when they ask me if I have a car with me. I'd hope
not to be so hot and sweaty if I had! After checking in, we shower and have a
walk about. We find ice cream for the first time in a week and can confirm
Italian ice-cream is still very good!
Nearly all the places where we're staying have two names, the Italian name for Kastelruth is Castelrotto, so we nickname the place Castle-rude-not-to!
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