We were saving our last night in our hotel-restaurant called Milano to have dinner there, but alas it was closed for the first time the owner said, in 40 years. Why?  The chef left with no note!  As she said this she raised her left arm in an l-shaped pose while slapping her biceps very strongly with her right hand then shouted a naughty word. Maybe he couldn’t stand the owner smoking over a pot of soup or was upset at us not coming to dinner. Either way, it’s open again, because the owner is cooking tonight. Not a very good alternative, for your order may be tarnished by an extra ingredient. 

Much better news though. Our German friends asked us if we would like to stay with them for two days in their home near Frankfurt, and that’s where we’re flying out from. We’re very excited about that. We love their company, and only hope they don’t get tired of all my questions.

So today we are in paradise. It’s at the end of the bus line and it’s called Jachenau. To get there we got the train to the town around the mountain that’s as far as the train goes, and then the bus. The bus was packed with school kids, and I must have looked very fit because no-one stood up for me. I don’t mind that, but usually they do. Then one must have seen my PD look, or my sore back stance, or my backpack which was huge because we had to take some food supplies with us. He offered  me a seat, but I couldn’t accept because it was so crowded I couldn’t remove my pack. I’d already  turned around and thumped an old man, who ducked nervously and hurriedly accepted my refused seat.

We entered this lush narrow valley with hills and mountains, nature’s valley walls, following us the ten kilometres in through villages graced by that lovely art work so prominent on many German houses. Here in Jachenau much of the theme is timber cutting so you’ll see hardened timber men and women on their walls. In most towns, it’s been religious themes that take pride of place.

The landform of the valley is undulating, creeping up into the ever changing deciduous trees with their delicious colours and green pine backdrop. It was fascinating for me today to see a quick strong wind blow a thousand leaves off their tree homes. I waited to see it repeated, the wind soon came again just as strong, and hardly a leaf was blown, so my theory is that once those leaves go in one gush, more have to weaken, maybe the next day, for it to happen again.

We settled in and were soon walking further up the valley on a rundaweg (that is where we start at one place, go in a sort of circle then back to roughly the same place). We began on a “6 cars an hour” one lane road, that took us into a forest alongside a small rocky creek, across a small unassuming bridge, on to pasture, then a two way car road with “3 cars an hour”, then home.

Because there are no shops here we have to eat in restaurants, so we will be trying more German food and Ukrainian food because the chef is from Ukraine. The German owner of the Gasthaus contacted this man and his wife online and it has been a blessing for both of them. They are learning from each other which they are both enjoying. The downside is, their two children are still in Ukraine but their restaurant is still standing. Let’s hope they can return to a peaceful Ukraine again one day.

We have been given a free bus pass for our stay of five days allowing us to go to villages with shops. We will try not to use them because we are enjoying the isolation, even if I can’t climb over 1000 metres, I, like Corrie, just love living amongst the mountains. Tomorrow we will explore a little more and maybe pick a shorter, flatter track because rain is predicted, but just as it was also predicted to rain all day today, it didn’t shed a tear, and because the day was so perfect, neither did we.