Woke up early (!!!) and drove to B's dad's house. We jumped into his car and drove about 90 minutes outside of Vienna to the Alps, a place where the mountains are big, but not gigantic and the altitude is still relatively low, a little under 6,000ft at the most.
Heinrich is an interesting guy. A lifelong wanderer. And why not? With so many outdoor things to do in Vienna and just outside Vienna, people here just kind of...take to the mountains. But Heinrich has a problem: he's 84 and those of his friends still alive aren't too eager to get up out of the recliner, much less schlepp themselves all over the mountains on a long hike. So he's been losing his conditioning. Working in the garden ain't like running through the mountains.
We went to the Ötscher area SW of Vienna. There's a river running through a canyon and the path follows this river. At places the path is very narrow and the river is 20 - 60 feet below. It'd be a hell of a fall onto the rocks.
In other places there are little bridges, mostly of wood, usually with no handrails. You just walk along and try not to think about it. Those bridges that cross the river do have rails, and over the long stretches they're made of steel.
So. A rushing river on one side, and on the other side a mountain---sometimes forested, sometimes just bare rock. Lots of beautiful little mountain flowers, lots of butterflies and bees.
Enlarge this view to get a sense of scale. Note metal footbridge in lower center of pic.
This gives you an idea of the paths and bridges. Note wooden bridge in lower left
where the woman has just come from. These span breaks in the trail.
No handrails. Watch your step or get wet.
Enlarge this and you'll see a high metal electrical tower almost invisible in front of the trees on the right. Walk far enough and you come to an old hydroelectric plant these power lines originate from. It was built to power an electric narrow gauge railroad that runs through these mountains. Again, scale---the tower is probably 50 feet high, or more.
Mountain flowers.
Our destination was a little lodge at the end of the trail where we could sit, have a drink, and rest up for the walk back. But Heinrich got kind of tired about two hours into the walk, and with another hour or more to go, the rest, and the three hours back, we decided just to walk ahead ourselves, B and I, leaving Heinrich to rest on a bench. We walked about thirty minutes ahead then turned around and walked back to where we'd left the old man.
Sat there and had a snack and some water, then walked back to the car. In spots it was steep and slippery with loose rock and sand, so I helped steady Heinrich when necessary, which wasn't often. The guy is tough. When he was my age he could've run through these mountains like a bighorn ram.
I started feeling tired myself by the time we were back to the car. We drove through the winding roads to a little Gasthof, where we had a delicious meal. Delicious and filling, because on the way home I fell asleep in the car, completely wasted. My muscles weren't sore but I was exhausted, as if someone had slipped three or four sleeping pills into my lunch.
B and I finally got home about 6:30. We were supposed to meet friends but I was too wasted. She went on alone. I laid on the couch watching TV---watched Errol Morris' excellent THE FOG OF WAR again, and some other stuff. I couldn't move.
B came home about 11:30 and laughed at me, sprawled out on the couch. "Did the Austrian Alps exhaust you?" she asked.
"I think it was an Austrian woman, actually."
Here's a video an Austrian couple made of their hike through the park;
it more or less duplicates our hike.
