Thurs 6 September - Gasthof Messnerhof, Bad Dreikirchen

It is with a heavy heart that we leave the excellent Gasthof Kohlern, taking with us the biggest picnic I think I have ever been given on an Inntravel holiday. Despite Alistair's faffing about, we still make the 9:30 cable car down to Bolzano. We decide against a taxi and walk to the Rittner cable car, using the hotel's excellent map as a navigational aid. We arrive and buy tickets both for the cable car and for the little train that runs from Oberbozen to Klobenstein.

The view from the cable car is spectacular, although following last night's rain it's still not possible to see the mountains in all their glory; however today they are sketched in like a watercolour in various shades of blue. When we arrive at the upper station,  we realise we have been to Oberbozen before and recall both the cable car and the train. The train is nice, but it's packed full with tourists all sporting name badges and chattering nineteen to the dozen. We have a seat, but for many it is standing room only. There is a German couple with a beautiful and well behaved dog. They tell me it ought to have its own seat as they have had to pay full price for it. I agree with them.

We arrive at Klobenstein and let everyone pile off the train and get counted onto their tour buses, whilst we wander off following a 1 route way-mark. As we arrive at an unmarked fork in the road, an old gentleman sees us looking lost & comes to our assistance. He is speaking Italian & I catch only about 10% of what he says, but one phrase I understand is that the route 1 to Tann is forever up!

As we climb out of the village we find that he is certainly telling the truth, but the views over to the mountains on the outskirts of Klobenstein are stupendous. In the woods, someone has made an incredibly arty installation from a tree & some stones. We follow route 1 all the way to the very posh Hotel at Tann, where we have a drink and look at the mountains again. As it's a nice day we decide to go up the Rittner Horn, so follow the road up to Pemmern at 1538 metres and get the gondola lift up to Schwarzseespitz at 2070 metres. We then walk up to the very top of the Rittner Horn at 2259 metres. Words cannot describe the views here. Alistair and I are grinning from ear to ear. My eyes start to fill with tears as it is so beautiful. We can totally understand why it seems the thing to do is park your car, get the gondola up and walk to the top; however very few people walk down the mountain on the other side, so we leave the small crowd at the top, walk round the back and start our descent totally alone. We march along alpine meadows containing isolated chalets, cows, sheep & a donkey. There are great views of the mountains all the way & we see only six other people until we reach Briol.

The walk down route 4 through the woods is very slippery & strenuous at the end of a long day. It seems to go on and on. We start singing a little song about the day - "your euros keep lifting me higher than I've ever been lifted before" (to the tune of the Jackie Wilson song)  in celebration of our cable car, train & gondola rides! Finally we reach Briol and then there is a further endless section following a gravel track steeply down into Bad Dreikirchen. We arrive at the Gasthof Bad Dreikirchen to check in and end up being taken up two flights of stairs to the other side of the hotel and told to go up to the Gasthof Messnerhof. It's a short distance, but we are both exhausted!

Our room at the Gasthof Messnerhof is clean and spacious, almost a suite, but we are at the back of the hotel, essentially on the ground floor. From our window we have a view of the garage and the principle point of our balcony seems to be to provide somewhere to smoke, as it overlooks a storage area for garden furniture. It seems such a shame when there are such beautiful views available outside. After freshening up we go over to the Gashof Bad Dreikirchen for dinner and are seated at the very back of the room, furthest from the window! There are innumerable children running about, making a lot of noise. I'm suddenly thankful we're staying over the road, as this hotel seems anything but relaxing!