Day 36 – Ruhpolding to Marquartstein

Daily Distance – 22km (although my GPS had it as 28km)
Daily Ascent – 1700m
Daily Descent – 1800m
Total Distance – 581km
Distance Remaining – 436km

Today was a very long, but also unusually sociable day. Featuring two summits, separated by a lengthy downhill, a small chapel atop the first peak was hosting a celebration for their patron saint. Unfortunately, as I passed they were only ringing the bell to gather the congregation and hadn’t gotten into the Bavarian music and beer portion of the day. Poor timing as I had already spoken with two people who were hiking up for the service and it seems to be a genuine highlight of the local calendar. Indeed, many of the men had used it as an excuse to dig out their Lederhosen (leather shorts) and traditional white shirts for the occasion, which presented quite a contrast with my faded running shorts and merino wool top. They seemed like a fun crowd, so I hope they had a good day and had the good sense to catch the cable car back down to the valley after all the beer. I won’t hold my breath on that one though given by how nimbly most of them were tackling the uphill. Sometimes I forget following this generally quiet trail that there is such an ingrained hiking culture in Germany and Austria.

Weather-wise, today has been rather cold, windy and periodically drizzly. Other than the saints day revellers, a day when very few people were out hiking. So it was when arriving at a potential lunch hut whose sign said they were open, I had to knock on the door to rustle up signs of life and hope that I wasn’t disturbing their day. Some of these smaller huts seem to only have outdoor seating, but on account of the weather the farmer was kind enough to invite me into the cramped kitchen/living area with himself, his son and their huge, and hugely affectionate, Bernese mountain dog. Sized more like a Shetland pony I have yet to discover a finer foot warmer. What I had planned as a brief coffee stop turned into a pleasantly meandering conversation supplemented by many dog cuddles. Honestly, I think they were quite glad for the strange foreigner appearing to lend interest to their day.

I have rather a strong impression that the owner of the guest house tonight is just a mite eccentric. Met in front of the house, I was immediately taken on a tour of the garden and to view the new chickens contentedly scratching around in their coop. I was hospitably made a fresh coffee and, for the sake of politeness, acquiesced and provided a taste test and critique of a homemade, picked salad. Having missed what type of salad it was, and not being particularly in the mood for pickled salad, coming up with insightful and suitably complimentary comments was quite a burden on my mental faculties after a long day of walking. Fortunately, being a non-native speaker has its benefits when one needs to stall for time. Stalling and trying to remember a word look remarkably similar after a little practice. It is also much the same expression as when pretending to think deeply about a particular passage of code, when really trying desperately to remember what any of it even means and why the idiot programmer chose to do it this way. Typically despite having been written by me only days or weeks previously.

An unexpected benefit of a naturally vacant expression.