12/08/17: Erlebnis Sennerei dairy, near Mayrhofen, Austria

Walked about a mile from the Mayrhofen hotel, (1) past a campsite, houses with firewood stacked high against their walls (2) and a beautiful old barn, (3) to the Erlebnis Sennerei dairy (opened in 2001). (4) 

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We took the tour of the cheese-making facilities. It was surprisingly fascinating stuff, from whey-making processes to "brine baths" and "cheese worms". There were signs stating things such as "Look into the cheese tank", and heavy machinery moving and rotating huge slabs of cheese. (5–6)

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It was very "Willy Wonka". We saw a lot of cheese. There were also sampling stations, where we could try the just-made yoghurts of various flavours (strawberry and coffee were the most delicious). (7) What was impressive was the meeting of cutting-edge technology and ancient tradition. Their cheese-bots work tirelessly to pasteurise and homogenise. One room full of endless pipes was entirely robotic, with no humans allowed. The pipes apparently store 15 years' worth of data about their activities.
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We then walked around an animal farm, with goats you could stroke (8) and a few cows and chickens, before heading back to the Obermair to pack and check out.  
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Thus ended the Austrian walks.

Other highlights from the week in and around Mayrhofen included:

• swimming twice a day in Hotel Obermair’s small pool, which started out warm and got colder as the week progressed.

• watching the hotel rabbits out of the window and feeding them dandelion leaves.

• watching the family of semi-wild cats – Mum, Dad and two kittens – living under the hotel wood shed. One of the adults could be seen out hunting all day every day in the adjoining field. On the far edge of the same field were some unidentified brown animals – too large to be rabbits, so possibly deer.

• eating the lavish hotel breakfasts of eggs, breads, cheeses, cereals, coffee, hot chocolate, fruit, granola, “multivitamin” fruit juice and more. I didn't try the "Hunter's meat paste", though.

• meeting the super-friendly people: everyone was so kind and generous.

• seeing two folk concerts at Hotel Berghof: Die Finkenberger consisted of two men (guitar and accordion) playing sweet traditional tunes. Rita & Andreas, meanwhile, are apparently Austrian celebrities. He played accordion and sang. She played guitar and sang harmonies. The elderly people in the bar, some wearing the traditional dirndl, stood up and danced when they played certain old songs. But the singing couple brought a modern twist, too. They had their own tour bus and their own merchandise, including CDs, sunglasses, badges, mugs, scarves, T-shirts and a miniature Rita & Andreas tour bus.

• observing the chalet-style wooden architecture.

• walking up and down the main street, looking at the exotic shops and admiring the complete lack of mess and litter.

• playing table football in the shed outside the hotel.

• playing table tennis next to the hotel annexe.

• trying the hotel sauna and finding it just too hot to cope with for more than a few seconds. Not understanding the “rules” re: clothing (my swimming trunks stayed on) and possibly offending a naked woman.

• enduring the crazy weather – mist, sun, rain, more mist, more sun, more rain.

• repeatedly visiting "Ciao" restaurant, which served the best "cream of tomato soup" I've ever had in my life.

• bumping into David and Sylvia regularly and getting to know them a bit.

• visiting an interesting exhibition about the painter Klimt in the Hotel Neue Post, displaying numerous postcards he had written to his sweetheart.

• talking to the big ginger cat living in the haberdashery shop and the stuffed marmots in the chemist.

• living among the endless trees and the endless mountains.

• not missing anything about Totteridge except for the piano and the cat.

11/08/17: Brandberg to Mayrhofen, Austria

At 13:30, we took the 1400 bus from Mayrhofen train station to Brandberg. (We had tried to catch an earlier bus, at 09:40, but it never arrived.) It only took about 15 minutes, first travelling through a long, straight tunnel under the mountains and then taking the hair-pin bends up the side. The driver dropped us at Brandberg (at 1,032 metres) and planned to walk our way back, assured by the Thomson rep and the man at the Brandberg hotel that it was a one-hour walk back. We were literally up in the clouds, with no visibility. Walking along the road was daunting. (1) There was no pavement and we would have been hard to see for the drivers. 

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Eventually, a tiny path broke off and led up above the road. We took it and followed it as it slowly descended the valley. It was wet and narrow underfoot. One wrong step to the left and we would have plummeted. We moved slowly and carefully, very conscious of the danger. As the mist gave way to rain, we became progressively wetter. There were huge, exotic fungi everywhere we looked. (2) I spotted what looked like a thin, black squirrel running up a tree.
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We passed many religious shrines – a reminder, as if it were needed, that life here is precarious and not to be taken for granted. (3) 
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Another interesting find was part of a beehive that had fallen from a tree. (4)
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It was a relief to make it to the small chapel that had been pointed out to us, high on the hillside, from the Mayrhofen town tour – a sign that we were at least on the right path. (5–6)
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From the chapel, the trail zig-zagged down through the forestry to the bottom, with views of Mayrhofen and its cable cars. (7) What a relief not to stand next to a precipice! The woods offered a new path back to the town and we trudged back into Mayrhofen, exhausted but happy to be alive.
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Note: none of these pictures show how dangerous the walk was, because at the truly lethal spots I was more concerned with staying alive than with taking photographs.

Miles walked: no idea
Cats spotted: none

07/08/17: Skulpturenweg, Zillertal Valley walk from Mayrhofen to Hippach, Austria

As recommended by the guide leaflet/map, we took the Mayrhofen-to-Hippach path (described as an easy walk for those new to the area) along the Ziller river, said to offer 20 “Kunstfluss – River Art” sculptures. The river was fast and almost disturbingly powerful and churning after a couple of days of heavy rain. (1) 
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Overhead were paragliders riding the thermal updrafts, moving silently in and out of the mists clinging to the steep valley sides. We didn't see any sculptures for a while and I asked a few friendly Austrians for advice. The third set of people we stopped – a kindly couple – were able to confirm that we were indeed going the right way, but that the sculptures were on the other side of the river. We crossed and there they were for the remainder of the 5.5-km walk to Hippach. (2, 3)  
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In Hippach we visited the beautiful white church with wrought iron grave markers, (4, 5, 6) then ate a lunch of local sliced cheese sandwiches on a shady bench. We wrote postcards in the fancy Kröll cafe over a hot chocolate, then walked back along the river with the sun now high in the sky.
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Paragliders were landing in the field right beside the path, (7) miraculously not injured by the swift descent.  
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Unfortunately, I stupidly missed the bridge back to Mayrhofen so we walked along an industrial track until an Austrian shouted at us to go back the other way adding 750 metres of hot pointlessness to the end of the walk before we crossed the river and railway back into the town. (8) 
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One tired walker had already binned a boot. (9) Aside from my one silly detour, it had been a highly enjoyable way to see the Zillertal valley.  
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Miles walked: 7.19 (11.58 km)
Cats spotted: 4 (semi-feral, living in the hotel wood shed: two adults, two kittens)