* Pictures noted are from bottom to top - After driving from the Italian Dolomites we effortless passed from Italy to Austria without knowing exactly when we crossed the border. As we approached our friend Meg's (sister of California friends Rob and Mike Hampton) house in Oberhofen we passed through endless tunnels leading to more mountain scenery and bright green valleys.
We finally arrived at Meg's about 5 pm, where we were warmly greeted by Meg and Mike (visiting from CA). After a walk around her beautiful gardens, peaceful waterfalls and ponds (picture 1), we enjoyed a quick glass of white chilled wine (picture 2) and a talk with Claudia (Rob's wife, Meg and Mike's sister-in-law) in CA via skype before leaving to drop off luggagae in our room at Martha and Hermann's lovely guest house up the road.
Once back at Meg's we enjoyed lots of laughs, wine, and a wonderful dinner of grilled pork loin, delicious fresh chantelle mushroom goulash (hand picked by Meg and Mike the day before), terrific Austrian dumplings, and salad. Such a terrific night.
Next day was beautifully clear and sunny. Meg couldn't wait to take us to our 'surprise' location and share one of her favorite places to visit. After only a 45 minute highway ride we stopped at a lovely waterfall on the way to our final destination in the picturesque hamlet of Niederthai (picture 3). What a beautiful, unreal, 'picture-book' kind of place - majestic mountains, green valleys, wildflowers, a large rolling creek, waterfalls, and endless walking trails. Sprinkled among this beauty was the 'town'(picture 4) - quaint guest/residential homes (picture 5)!, small local apartment hotels, and farms to manage the grazing cows (sound of their bell collars are heard constantly over the mountain passes) and the thousands of steep hillside acres of grass gathered and dried in preparation for winter.
As Meg predicted we just loved Niederthai. After enjoying a delicious lunch at one of her favorite restaurants, we decided to go next door (Meg's regular place was booked) to secure a 3 night reservation at Gaby and Peter's charming apartment/hotel, Trofana (picture 6). We then took a hike (picture 7) along the creek where we enjoyed the incredible beauty around us (pictures 8 and 9) and then stopped for a short while to observe the workers on the steep hillside slopes as they raked down cut grass to the flat lands (picture 10) where tons of dried grass were then loaded onto waiting tractors. After an hour into our hike we stopped at an 'ale house' conveniently located along the trail. We refreshed with a few beers and shared a very caloric Austrian dessert of dough, butter and poppy seeds (picture 11) before continuing our walk along the upper trail back to town.
After the hike we returned to Meg's car about 4.30 pm only to find it wouldn't start - the battery was dead. Not sure what our next step would be, we went to the nearby restaurant for a glass of wine to discuss options and for a little 'energy' boost. We decided the fastest and easiest solution would be to push the car out of it's parking spot maneuvering it down the hill so 'driver Mike' could start it. To our amazement and relief, our plan worked - her diesel car finally started!
Once back we went out to dinner at one of Meg's favorite places in town. In addition to a delicious meal, we enjoyed meeting Meg's friends who ran this popular family farm house restaurant.
As we decided to stay an extra night and the guest house was booked, we gratefully accepted Meg's kind offer to stay in her son's room (he recently moved out) or into what she affectionately referred to as 'the kahsba' (room decorated from his trip to Turkey/Morraco). After relocating to Meg's, we joined Mike and her on a trip around town to pick up items for lunch and dinner. A few hours later we returned to Meg's, ate lunch and with Mike's help planned our travel route for the next week. For the remainder of the day as work on our trip concluded we sat in a covered outside area to watch a big thunderstorm come in over the mountain pass. While the rain was a delightful interlude, it stopped just in time for us to enjoy an amazing dinner including Mike's famous grilled lamb, Meg's stuff mushrooms, wine, and good fun with great friends.
After a number of pressing time-sensitive computer tasks in the morning (we weren't sure internet would be available in the mountains), we were finally ready to say our good byes to Mike and Meg as we drove on to our short stay in beautiful Niederthai.
When we arrived, Peter (owner, innkeeper, chef) warmly greeted and personally escorted us to our third floor, 3 room (including kitchen) apartment with terrace and fantastic views of the mountains and green valley. Not only was the apartment reasonably priced, but it also included a fresh breakfast buffet (with Procesco) and Peter's fantastic gourmet dinners.
Over the next three days we were in heaven. The 'picture-gobbling' vistas Were incredible, as were the sounds of the cow bells, breezes through the trees along the trails, the babbling creek - all heard from our room as well as during our daily walks (picture 12)/hikes on the wonderful trails or through the woods (picture 13). Even the rain which only lasted a day was a joy and presented a good time to catch up on some good books.
In addition to the pleasure of the idyllic surroundings, Peter's dinner menus of locally produced vegtables and meats were hard to beat. We enjoyed it all - his home-made soups (mushroom, broccoli, rich french onion), his dishes of braised rabbit, veal with light tomato sauce, braised duck, stroganoff, grilled fish with delicious wild rice, and of course his desserts including his grandmother's 'pancake' with fresh fruit compote, fresh ice cream and fruit parfaits, etc.
The time went very quickly and after the third day, we reluctantly pulled ourselves away from the beauty and tranquility of Niederthai to continue our travels to Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
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