Gmünd Freud

 Day 9: Huhnersberg to Gmünd (to Seeboden)

Hours walked: 7:45 - 1:00, 5:30-6:00

Kilometres walked: 19.5

Quote of the day: “I pray that I will never die” - Zadie

Jesuses seen: 9

Our plan for today was to walk to Seeboden. We had a planned rest day there tomorrow, with the aim of visiting Gmünd by bus. (Here the Alpe Adria Trail goes up to Gmünd and back down) But a couple of days ago we realised our rest day was on a Sunday, meaning the buses wouldn’t be running. So instead, today we walked from Hühnerberg to Gmund on the AAT, then bused back down the valley to Seeboden. 

In order to have enough time in Gmünd we set out early (for our family) and were blazing uphill at 7:45. Yesterday’s hot weather was a distant memory and the sun hid behind clouds and the temperature barely crept about 12 degrees. We stopped for a rest at the three-valley view, which didn’t live up to its name.  Although our first few km were uphill, the rest of our walk was on roads and easy going. 

We made it to Gmünd just past noon, ducking through the medieval gate in search of cake. Gmünd turned out to be a super charming town: full of artisans producing handmade pottery, paintings, rusted metal installations - enough artwork for this whole region of Austria. After refreshing ourselves with some marzipan and alcoholic-chocolate torte, where we ran into our hiker friends one last time, we checked out the local sights. A sculpture garden with a hand-powered jet pump. The Porsche Museum, with a lot of Carreras, 911s and trophies. A church, a cemetery, a lovely high street. It felt funny being tourists. 

And then the Pankration, a uniquely weird and fantastic hands-on museum / musical+visual art technology orgasm. We blew giant bubbles, vibrated water in brass bowls, resonated ourselves in a giant violin, bent light and shaped patterns into coffee grounds by singing into drum heads. A gnomish man gave us all instruments and we jammed in a converted sauna for convalescents. 

The bus to Seeboden turned out to only go to Seebach (not the same thing), so we got a bonus half-hour of walking at the end of our day. Tomorrow is a rest day, with cold rain expected, so we’re all happy to cosy up, and rest our feet and psyches.