Alpe Adria at last!

 Day 1: Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Hohe to Heiligenblut

Sights spotted: 6 or 7 Jesuses, 12 marmots, and one unfamiliar animal

Hours walked: 10:00-3:30

Kilometres: 12

Quote of the day: “Keep away from the edge!” -Tamar, about a thousand times 

We started our day up at the Grossglockner viewpoint. We dressed for mountain weather but we got sunshine and scorching heat all day. Lucky us! We got to see firsthand global warming in action with our friend the Pasterze Glacier. We walked through a very long tunnel with sound effects, stories, artwork, stalactites and the occasional window where we could glimpse the outside world. 

Because of snow, we had to take an alternate route for the first part of the trial involving a very steep downhill and a lot of marmots. Marmots are very cute and we named them all. We crossed two large dams where we got to ooh and aah at the glacier-green waters. We rejoined the Alpe Adria trail and walked downhill through forests. Springtime means there was no lack of waterfalls to see. After I read the story of Braccius, the girls were very excited to get to the spot where he was killed by an avalanche. He was carrying the blood of Jesus Christ but he got caught in an avalanche, so he stuck the blood into a wound in his leg. Three ears of corn grew in the wound; so when villagers recovered his body, they discovered the vial of holy blood and put it in the town church - hence the name Heiligenblut. 

Spirits were low the second half of the day because somebody accidentally brought bubbly water. But we made it down the valley to Heiligenblut where we were met by an attractive man and his daughter for hot cocoa and poppy-raspberry cheesecake. 

Meanwhile, Zadie and Jakob spent the morning walking out to Natura Mystica, a trail farther down the valley. Zadie was dungeon master for about seven km: “It was so good. We did Dungeons - you see, I was dressing up as a rabbi but I wasn’t a rabbi. And I don’t know my own name. And you found a baby but you don’t know his name either. And everybody in the world’s parents has died. You had a magic power where poop comes all over you.” As for the walk itself, we enjoyed seeing a lovely waterfall, a neat watercourse carved into a log aqueduct, and boutique henhouses made out of wine barrels. 

We’re staying at Berghaus Glockner, which Sophia thinks sounds “gloopy”. It’s extremely quiet and eerily cold, but our room is cozy and has great views. Jakob made a nice minestrone soup out of wilted turnips and rutabaga shards, we had Ritter Sport for dessert (oh how we missed you!) and even made our first- (and second-) ever YouTube videos! Check them out by searching for “moving mysteries alpe adria”. Tomorrow we walk to Dobriach, hopefully the weather stays perfect.