Day 4: Badener Hütte to Bonn Matreier Hütte

The next day the weather was beautiful. There was a clear snowline on the mountains, and the sky was as blue as it gets. (Note the Murmeltier in the picture above.)



We first went down about 500 m, before we had to go up to 2878 m.







Unsurprisingly there was still quite a bit of snow at this altitude.



In the previous hut we met an American family, who had done this hike in reverse the previous day. They were still smiling somehow, which was rather impressive!



And then we went down to the next hut.







In numbers: 4.48 h, 20.08 km, 896 m ascent, 868 m descent.

Attack of the Killer Cows

Do you think this cow looks cute?



Do you get all mushy and tingly when you look at these calves?

Well, you could not be more wrong.



These are Killer Cows, looking for their next victim, who turned out to be me. On our way to the Hochstubaihütte we saw these cute calves frolicking in the grass. As soon as they saw us, they start heading for us --- which seemed really cute at that moment. Then the whole herd turned towards us and started running! This was slightly less cute, and rather intimidating. After stupidly encouraging them by running away, and paying the price for it by falling down (and being sore for almost three weeks), we finally gained the upper hand again by shouting at these monsters.



The rest of today's trip was luckily less eventful. After going down 1000 meters, we had to climb 1200 meters, which is not too hard after 2 1/2 weeks of hiking.





And everything is forgotten and rosy again.

Weekend Excursions, Part Trois

Two days, two trips. First of all la Grotte de Choranche.

With blind reptiles, who could not enjoy the colorful lighting.







And on Sunday: the Chartreuse Monastery.



One is not allowed to visit, so this is as far as we got.

Roughing It

Because A really has a total lack of compassion, we took a 3 hour bus journey (poor sick F) to Bacalar. Since we did not have any hotel reserved, we took a cab with a fellow traveler from the bus stop to the camp site/youth hostel that she had booked. Apparently, we still had not learned that we are not in our twenties...

Anyway, we got a tent with clean sheets and a slightly leaky air mattress. It felt like heaven since there were no fleas, and the owner was wonderfully professional.

Across the road, there was a very nice Cocina Economica, where the daily lunch special cost 2 bucks. They even gave us extra aqua fresca, which was especially good for F because he really needed to rehydrate!

Bacalar turned out to be a wonderful little town on a beautiful lagoon, with a nice town square, as well as nice Christmas decorations.

We spent the next day swimming at a sinkhole, and getting a couple of bug bites that made A's feet swell to humongous proportions.





Still, we had a lot of fun swimming and looking at the tree roots and fishes in the beautiful clear water.






On our way back to town, we stopped at a beautiful restaurant on the lagoon for some drinks and snacks.





In addition to a beautiful setting (we're hoping to add one of these pyramid things to our backyard -- it looks like a great way to hang your mosquito net!), the restaurant really made the experience complete with this amazingly off-key rendition of "Under the Boardwalk".






As much fun as pretending you're not forty-ish had been, we realized it was time to act our age. (Or, more precisely, we realized that traveling by bus took so long that we would not be able to go anywhere interesting in the remaining 7 days if we kept roughing it).



So, the next morning we took a bus all the way back again to Cancun's airport, where we picked up a rental car. Lesson learnt for next time: don't forget to pick up rental car at the start of trip!

Sometimes, my job isn't so bad

I got to spend the past week in Banff in the Canadian Rockies for a workshop.



Our talks took place in the building behind the huge elk, and during the afternoon, we were free for a couple of hours to go hiking or enjoy the swimming pool.

And finally, the evenings were free for a game or foosball or pool.





It turns out Johan Hastad is good at more than just complexity...

Visiting Holland

We have been visiting the Netherlands, enjoying all kinds of wonderful food. Not a good thing as we are going hiking in the Alps, and we have to carry all those extra pounds now.

Posing

F no longer does photography just for fun, and regularly sells photos through Getty. The Mairspitze offered an excellent opportunity for shooting some potential best sellers...

I am not sure how well this photo is going to sell, and what kind of message it will be thought to convey. "Even the blind/thoroughly confused can enjoy hiking in the mountains"?

Also: Check out the embarrassing photo poppamomma sent of A's 13th birthday!