Happy Saturday, everyone!
After dragging all my stuff back up north last weekend, I’m currently facing serious mountain deprivation. Everything is so flat and boring here! I can no longer wake up to beautiful mountain sunrises framed by my bedroom window! All of my favorite hiking spots are hundreds of kilometers away! 😭😭😭
However, the one advantage of no longer living in the Alps is that I can now tell you everything about my favorite places without worrying that a serial killer is going to use that information to find out where I live. Merely the view from my bedroom window would have been enough to enable an Alp-knowledgeable person to pinpoint the exact location of my old apartment, which is why this post is the first time I’m allowing you to see it:
But that’s not all I’m gonna show you! Confronting one’s pain is therapy, right? Anyone ever hoping to visit the Bavarian Alps, take notes, because this “honorary local” – my colleagues’ words, not mine – is about to reveal her top ten favorite hiking spots! And for everyone else: Yes, I’m going to give you more pretty pictures, and of course, you’re also getting book recommendations to go along with them. Fantasy recommendations, to be precise, since fantastic landscapes that seem almost magically unreal obviously fit perfectly with my favorite genre!
NOTE: These hikes are ordered by ascending difficulty. Anyone hoping to try any of them other than the first two needs proper footwear and should look up more details beforehand. You have been warned!
#1
Originally carved into the foot of the Bavarian Alps by a now non-existent glacier, Frillensee is Germany’s coldest lake. And although there are several difficult hiking trails leading away from it, the route to the lake itself can easily serve as a relaxing evening stroll. Unless you go during midwinter, when trying to slide up the ice paths can be a bit of a challenge… Normally, though, this is a fun hike that is also easily accessible to kids and even caters directly to them – as well as 27-year-olds who clearly haven’t figured out how to be an adult yet 😇 – by having lots of cool activities like a race-your-homemade-bark-boat-down-the-stream course or a huge wooden xylophone along the path!
So, for this location, I figured I’d go back in time to one of my childhood obsessions and recommend a fantasy series that is easily accessible and appealing to both kids and adults: Children of the Red King by Jenny Nimmo! Set in Wales, this series follows a boy named Charlie Bone, who, after discovering that he can hear voices in photographs, is sent to a sinister boarding school. Once there, Charlie learns that his magical talent is by far the least peculiar one out there, and that there are many secrets hidden within the walls of Bloor’s Academy.
#2
One of Germany’s most beautiful gorges, the Almbachklamm (literally: alm-stream-gorge) is over three kilometers long and home to a winding stream, roaring waterfalls, and thousands of species of plants and animals. Thanks to metal footbridges and stairs that have been built into the gorge, it is easily accessible even to people who do not have a lot of Alpine experience, although you can continue on more difficult mountain tours from the gorge if you would like to.
Anyway, for those of you looking for a series that could help you get into fantasy but that nevertheless has winding subplots, complex characters, and beautiful writing, I recommend The Winner’s Curse trilogy by Marie Rutkoski! Set in a Roman-inspired world, it follows the daughter of a general and a slave of her father’s, who, against all odds, fall in love. However, this story is way more political and character-driven than it is romance-focused, and one of my all-time favorites to this day!
#3
We’re finally getting to the mountain hikes!! With a height of only 1,425 meters above sea level, Unternberg is a great place to start if you’ve never climbed a mountain before or if you’re looking for a quick tour that you can squeeze in before an afternoon of correcting exams. There’s nothing particularly technically difficult about it, and although you can’t see as far as from the higher peaks, you still get a stunning view of the surrounding mountains, from the Chiemgau region of Germany all the way to the Austrian Alps. Unternberg also happens to have one of the most macabre summit crosses I have ever come across, with each of its four sides detailing how residents in the area were mauled to death by different animals several hundreds of years ago…
So yeah, what better book to go with than Margaret Rogerson’s Sorcery of Thorns? As a fantasy standalone, this is a great read to reach for if you’re looking for something shorter that doesn’t require a lot of commitment, but the story, which follows a librarian forced to work together with a sorcerer and his demonic servant, will hopefully leave you so hooked on the genre that you’ll be wanting more anyway! There might not be any straight-up animal-mauling in this, but we do have a very interesting cat with deadly satanic deals. Go read it!
#4
Due to it being my town’s Hausberg (literally: home-mountain), I have probably summitted Hochfelln at least seven times. I’ve taken all the different routes to the top, seen it during all the seasons, and let’s just say – this mountain is gorgeous wherever you’re coming from and whenever you decide to climb it. There are brooks, waterfalls, forests, and meadows along the way, and once you reach the summit, you have a stunning view of the Chiemsee, Germany’s third-largest lake, to the north and the rest of the Alps to the east, south, and west. Getting to the top can be exhausting, but it’s so worth it!
Just like “da Feyn”, as Hochfelln is lovingly called in Bavarian, was my comfort mountain that I found myself returning to time and time again, my number one comfort series after Harry Potter is probably Kristin Cashore’s Graceling Realm, which takes place in a world where some people are graced with magical abilities. Bitterblue in particular is very close to my heart – that one follows a young queen struggling to come to terms with the aftermath of her father’s rule – and I don’t think I’ve ever gone a year without rereading it!
#5
Although it’s not as high as Hochfelln, Hochplatte is slightly more difficult to climb. There are several steep trails that you have to persevere on for an extended period of time, and if you, like me, decide to summit this in January, you’re going to be in for a snowy adventure! The final 500 meters of this hike take you up a particularly precipitous rock face that can be a bit scary if it’s covered in ice… Crampons or spikes are recommended!
Going with our wintry theme here, a fantasy series that you do not want to miss out on is Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy! Taking place in medieval Russia, it follows a young woman who learns that the fairytales she was told as a child might have more truth to them than most people realize. It’s lyrical, it’s whimsical, it’s full of adventure, and just as the middle section of Hochplatte is the most stunning, The Girl in the Tower is probably my favorite book in the trilogy. Although the finale also has a pretty epic and heart-wrenching ending!
#6
If you’re looking for a truly local tip, it’s this one. Hidden away in the Chiemgauer Alps, Hörndlwand and Gurnwandkopf are two neighboring mountains which you’re bound to have almost to yourself, thanks to their lack of fame as well as the non-existence of any cable cars or lifts running to the top. The path up to the four summits – Hörndlwand has three, Gurnwandkopf one – starts at a beautifully pristine Alpine lake and then snakes steeply upwards through the woods, past a small alm, through more woods, and up a rocky cliff face covered in caves and gnarly mountain pines. You’re going to have to climb a bit to reach the summits – the third Hörndlwand summit in particular is quite tricky – but the view and the sense of accomplishment you feel when you reach the top makes that totally worth it!
The niche book recommendation to go along with this? Kathryn Lasky’s Guardians of Ga’Hoole! This is a middle-grade fantasy series all about owls, and I guarantee you: It still holds up even when you read it as an adult. There is so much unique folklore, magic, worldbuilding, and politics woven into this that you can’t help but be hooked!
(Also, just so you fully appreciate how great my hike-book pairings are here, I would like to add that Hörndl is the Bavarian word for “small horn” and Kopf the German word for “head”. So yes, I paired Hörndlwand and Gurnwandkopf with a series whose first book has the head of a great horned owl on it. I’m a true genius, I know! 😇)
#7
A mountain so famous that there’s even a publishing company named after it, Kampenwand offers some truly spectacular hiking trails. While the beginning of the most commonly taken route goes along a small forest road and doesn’t seem that special, the path soon leads past rivers, flowery meadows full of cows, boulders, snow fields, and other mountains to a rocky peak that is almost as impressive as the views it offers. You’re going to have to do quite a bit of climbing to make it up the final stretch, and if you get dizzy easily, be aware that this is not the mountain for you – there are one or two places where you have to edge your way across narrow ledges over yawning drops with nothing but a steel rope to cling to. An adrenaline rush is guaranteed, but trust me, this mountain is popular for a reason!
Just as Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy is popular for a reason. Although it might initially seem like this is just another paranormal angel romance novel set in Prague, it soon revealed that there is much, much more to it than that. With breathtakingly poetic writing, Laini Taylor lures the reader into a complex world of politics and betrayal, where death could be lurking around every corner.
#8
Hochgern is a mountain I’ve almost summitted several times, but very frustratingly, I never actually made it to the top and thus fell exactly one peak short of my grand goal of summiting every major mountain I could see from my bedroom window… 😭 (That’s why the picture of Hochgern included above was taken from the neighboring Hochfelln.) Why did I not reach the summit, you may ask? Well, theoretically, this might be an eight-hour hike, but since this is me we’re talking about, I knew for a fact that I’d need at least one extra hour at the summit to stare at everything and another extra hour after I was unable to resist the delicious smell of freshly cooked food wafting at me and inevitably ended up at some alm. I needed ten hours of free time for this, and during the school year, that was an extremely rare occurrence!! The one time I tried, I realized halfway up I’d forgotten my phone at home and got so terrified that I might not be able to dial 112 in an emergency that I turned around. I figured I could just try again during summer break – and try again I did, but since I was still recovering from my horrible sickness, I realized halfway up that I wasn’t sure whether I’d have the stamina to make it back down again. So I turned around, thinking I could just try again sometime in the following two weeks. AND THEN THE WEATHER TURNED HORRID!! There wasn’t a single day that had ten hours of uninterrupted sunshine, and even I am not dumb enough to risk going up a mountain in the presence of heavy rainstorms and windspeeds higher than 60 kilometers per hour. So, alas, alas, summiting Hochgern is something that is still on my bucket list.
Just as finishing all of Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere books is a goal I have yet to accomplish. So far, I’ve read Elantris, Warbreaker, all books from both Mistborn eras, Secret History, and The Stormlight Archive, but no matter how close I get to catching up, Brandon Sanderson just keeps those stories coming! 😅 I absolutely love learning about these worlds, though, and even if there are also some duds, the greatness of the original Mistborn trilogy – which has a magic system based on metals and a group of misfits trying to overthrow an evil ruler – and The Stormlight Archive – which is about war on a planet ravaged by storms – will have me trying every Cosmere book the man ever publishes!
#9
Untersberg, you guys, is simply epic! Directly on the German-Austrian border, it has stunning panoramic views towards Salzburg in the north and mountains in the south, multiple summits, streams, waterfalls, and really cool caves, including the Schellenberger Eishöhle, an ice cave dating back thousands of years that you can visit during the summer months. Hiking Untersberg is truly a commitment, though – this thing is HUGE, steep, and has several trails where falling off is a real possibility. Plus, you’re going to have to drag just about half your wardrobe up there because you’re going to need a t-shirt and shorts to minimize the sweating while you’re hiking, a winter jacket and jeans to visit the ice cave, and a helmet to protect yourself from falling rocks on some of the trails. Climbing this mountain in just one day really isn’t advisable – The last five kilometers down were absolute torture, and I was basically a hobbling granny for a week afterwards because I was so freaking sore! 😫 – so I recommend you either spend the night on the mountain or take a cable car to the summit or back.
But anyway, an equally epic fantasy series that also requires a lot of commitment because it is just so freaking LONG is The Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb. Split into five separate series, this story starts with the bastard son of a king being brought to the royal court to be trained as an assassin, but takes on a much bigger scope from there. The Realm of the Elderlings has complex characters, heartbreaking friendships, politics, intrigue, betrayal, magic, dragons, and a whole bunch of other stuff that is going to make you addicted! And since part of it takes places in the mountains, it’s the prefect recommendation here!
#10
According to legend, there once lived a cruel and brutal king named Watzmann, and his wife and seven children were equally cruel and brutal. Which is why one day, no longer able to bear the brutality these rulers brought upon his people, God intervened. He strangled the entire royal family, so that their blood flowed into the valley below and created two vast lakes – which we now know as Königssee (literally: king’s lake) and Obersee (literally: upper lake) – and then turned the family to stone so that they were doomed to watch their homeland forever, but never interfere. Which is why, today, we have Mount Watzmann with its characteristic seven peaks – King Watzmann, his queen, and five of their seven children. (Don’t ask me why two of the children didn’t get their own mountain; I’m not the one who came up with this!!)
Anyway, with King Watzmann clocking in at 2,713 meters above sea level, Watzmann is Germany’s third-highest mountain and simultaneously the one with the highest death toll. Which obviously means there’s no way in hell I’m going all the way up there!! With my lack of athleticism, I’m sure I’d be excellent at raising that death-counter to a nicely palindromic 111… 😅 So yeah, I’ve only been partially up this particular mountain, sticking nicely to the easier trails, which means putting it last on this list might be cheating a little bit. But the surrounding area is just so beautiful that I needed to find a way to squeeze it into one of my top ten slots!
To the east of the mountain, you can ride a boat across fjord-like Königssee, which will take you to numerous gorgeous hiking trails, such as ones leading to stunningly clear Obersee and Germany’s highest waterfall, the Röthbachfall, or to the glacier on the dangerous eastern face of Watzmann, where you can see the famous Eiskapelle (literally: ice chapel), a glacial cave that is carved into the ice by the brook running down the mountainside during the summer months.
To the west of the mountain, you can enter my hitherto favorite gorge of all time, the Wimbachklamm, which has the clearest blue water you will probably ever see, and either continue hiking up the valley or up the mountain. Even if you only ascend Watzmann halfway, you’re already rewarded with spectacular views! Reaching the peak, though? That’s probably never going to happen. Watching YouTube videos of people doing that is already enough to nearly make me wet myself!
Similarly, I’m not entirely sure if we’re ever going to get an ending to Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicle. The guy has been writing that final book for what, twelve years now? However, Felurian-parts excluded – if you know, you know 😬 – I adore the first two novels in this series, in which an inn-owner tells his life story. There’s a magical university, music, mystery, and danger, and the writing is absolutely phenomenal! Plus, there’s got to be some king killing in this series eventually, right?? Don’t you dare tell me this isn’t the perfect pairing for murdered King Watzmann!
And with that brutal story, we’ve reached the end of this post! I hope you had fun reading, and do tell: Have you ever been to any of these places or visited the Alps? Have I made you want to try any of these hikes? Do you have a favorite hiking spot? Got any opinions on my book recommendations? I would love to know!
A Book Owl's Corner 
This was so cool, loved all the photos and information about the places and the books seemed to go nicely with them 😊
Although I’m a bit nervous about the lack of cable cars in case of emergencies 😅
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Thanks, Meena! 😊 Haha, I mean, in a true emergency, they’d probably be able to send a helicopter after you in most of these places, even if there is no cable car… But still, maybe try one with a cable car first, just in case? 😂 Sometimes, exhaustion hits quicker than expected!
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Okay, that’s better then😆
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This trip looks SO COOL!!! I go hiking with my family sometimes but it is all incredibly tame compared to this haha. But I’m going to be honest, I read most of this post without looking at the books you recommended, and only reading about the mountains and looking at the pictures because they are so amazing. Untersberg especially caught my eye – I love me a good ladder hike! Also, what’s this about having cable cars bringing you up and down the mountain??? I’ve literally never heard of something like that. Does it still feel like a wilderness hike if you have them going up and down next to you (or are they someplace else on the mountain so you don’t have to hear them?).
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Lol, I definitely feel you there! Forget not looking at book recommendations; I got so distracted by all these hikes that my reading dipped significantly this past year! 🤣
As for the cable cars, you barely notice them! For one thing, they’re very quiet, and for another, they usually go from the bottom of the mountain to the summit in a very steep, straight line, while the paths up the mountain snake up in serpentines. Which means you’re hardly ever directly underneath the cable cars and mostly don’t notice that they’re there. In some cases (like Untersberg) the cable cars are even on completely unscalable sides of the mountains, so you don’t really see them at all. There’s definitely plenty of wilderness! The only downside to the cable cars being there is that the summits are sometimes crowded with tourists with no hiking experience, which is why I would often avoid them, but on the other hand, it’s also nice to know you don’t necessarily have to hike back down yourself when you’re climbing a really high mountain! 😁
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That’s so crazy! I just have never done a hike with a cable car, so it’s not something I’m used to – we just don’t have those here! But yeah, I definitely get the annoyance about tourists. A few years back I did a hike, and most of it was amazing, but then we got to the top of the tallest mountain in that mountain range (it was in the northeast US – the mountains are tiny there) and it was a total tourist destination. There was a parking lot, a gift shop, and a food court. There was also a train you could take up. It felt really shocking after spending a day hiking in the woods!
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That’s really interesting! I actually did quite a bit of hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains when I studied abroad in Virginia, but now that you mention it, I don’t remember ever seeing cable cars either. Maybe it really does have something to do with height? Because our smaller mountain ranges don’t have them either… I guess it’d be interesting to know if there are any in the Rockies, although I also don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone mention them 🤔
I’ve never seen a parking lot at the top of a mountain, though! I can definitely see how that would be kind of bizarre! 😂
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Yeah, it’s probably either an altitude or different culture thing. I can’t think of cable cars in the rockies, although I am less familiar with those mountains. But I’ve seen several mountains with roads up them, and parking lots at the top – we even drove up a 12,000 foot mountain in the rockies many years ago (I hate the idea of driving up a mountain because it seems like cheating…but I was ten years old, and no way was I going to hike up a 12,000 foot mountain). Is there like a national parks service or anything that maintains the trails and does search and rescues and stuff? Because here, the national parks services are pretty prominent so maybe the roads help them get place to place easier, and we don’t have cable cars because of the more prominent parks service that can provide assistence? I don’t know, that’s a weird theory.
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That parking lot thing still just sounds so bizarre to me! I guess I know how you feel about the cable cars now 🤣 You make a good point about national parks and search and rescue, though! It’s a little different here, probably because Germany is so much smaller and too densely populated to have the kinds of vast national parks that the US does. In fact, I think we actually only have one Alpine national park – Nationalpark Berchtesgaden, which includes Watzmann and a lot of the surrounding area. But even that one doesn’t have roads up the mountain – that would be impossible because it’s just so steep and craggy! And putting roads in the parks kind of also goes against the principle of leaving everything in a mostly natural state, I guess. So even though we have plenty of search and rescue teams – they’re called the “Bergwacht” here and each town basically has its own branch – they are usually flown as close as possible to the scene of an accident with a helicopter and then go on on foot to reach whoever is in trouble. However, most mountains will have alms about halfway up, where the tree growth ends and the big mountain pastures start. These alms watch over the cow herds that are on the mountains in summer and provide food for hikers, and often, there’ll be gravelly paths leading up to these that you could also squeeze a car up. I wouldn’t call them roads, exactly – they’re really bumpy and I’d be terrified of driving on something with that kind of incline – but the alm owners sometimes do use them to transport supplies and milk. And these bigger paths are also really important for the “Almabtrieb”, which is this huge festival in fall when a mountain’s cows are brought down for the winter. Everyone (including the cows 😁) dresses up in traditional clothing and then the cows walk all the way down those paths to their home villages and their winter pastures. (I found this video on YouTube that you don’t need to understand German for, if you’re curious: https://youtu.be/8el41FgKYjM?si=7TgYCI0Qu28MaEH8 🐄 They unfortunately don’t show the part where they get the cows from the higher pastures, though.) But once you get past the last alm, I’ve never seen anything on a mountain that could be considered a road!
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Hmm, okay, so it could be a mountain-type sort of thing – the mountains over there are too steep and craggy to put a road up them, so they have to use cable cars. But alms and mountain pastures sound so cool!!! Like you just have cows grazing on the mountains??? That’s amazing, I love that. Also, just for the record, most mountains here DONT have roads and parking lots – it’s usually just the more famous or popular ones that a lot of people want to get up. Mt. Washington, the tallest mountain in the northeast (the one I told you I hiked a few years ago) is incredibly popular to drive up. There are these stickers that people put on cars that say “this car climbed mt washington” which you see all over. I think it’s kind of stupid, like…congrats, you can drive a car? But I have a sticker that says ‘who needs a car to climb mt washington’😁
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Yeah, it’s probably a mixture of a mountain-type thing and a mindset thing, I guess. Like, generally, taking public transport or walking to places is more of a thing in Europe, so anyone suggesting people should take their cars along for mountain hikes would probably get really weird looks here…
But don’t worry, I definitely didn’t expect parking lots to be your norm! It’s also only the more popular mountains that have cable cars here – you’ve still got to walk to get up the majority of them!
I wholeheartedly approve of your car sticker, though! 😂😂😂 That’s epic!
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Wait are there mountains there that you can take public transportation to? Like just hop on a train in a nearby town and show up at a mountain? Because that sounds literally awesome.
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Yeah, you can get pretty much anywhere by train or bus if you want to! I actually went to quite a few of these places using public transportation, although I did take my car for longer hikes, so that I didn’t have to get up absurdly early in order to be there on time 😅 But even then, public transportation came in really handy – for example, I actually traversed Untersberg from the Austrian to the German side so I could take a different way up and down, and the bus saved my exhausted legs several extra kilometers of having to walk around the mountain to get back to my car 🥰 I guess I’ve always kind of taken the public transport for granted and never appreciated it enough!
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That’s crazy! I live in a city, so I definitely have a lot of public transportation around me, and I use it very often, but when I am in places where I’m hiking, there’s basically no public transportation, or if there is, it only comes once every hour or at very specific time.
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To be fair, the specific times and the once-every-hour thing are pretty common here, too – especially when you’re planning to go to a smaller village. I’ve gotten pretty good at adjusting my schedule to bus and train timetables, though! 😂
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I love this post and the photos. I’ve only ever been to the Alps once and that was 40 years ago now on a two week holiday to the Austrian Tyrol. It was beautiful and somewhere that I’ve always meant to go back to.
I hope that you’re enjoying your holidays and not suffering too much from mountain withdrawal. You are really going to miss that stunning view out of your bedroom though.
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Thank you! I agree: Tyrol is beautiful, too 🥰 It’s been a while since I visited – I was still in school myself, I think? – but I definitely wouldn’t mind going back, either! Just give me mountains and I’ll be awed and happy, I guess 😂
As for my holidays, I’m mostly being incredibly lazy and have been doing nothing other than spending time with my family. So yes, I’d say I’m enjoying them, although I do also have to get a move on – I still need to file my taxes and get at least some stuff prepared for next year 🙃
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Being lazy is what holidays are for😀
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I’m back! 😁
“I’m currently facing serious mountain deprivation. Everything is so flat and boring here!” MY CURRENT MOOD EXACTLY!! 😭 Denmark is not doing it for me anymore after all the mountains I’ve seen and been on! Which is why this post is literally the most perfect thing you could have written right now 😂
Loved the descriptions of each mountain with the questions you answered. The “Can you fall to your death?” question would be the deciding one for me if I ever have the opportunity to go up any of these beautiful mountains 😅 Still, I have no mountain climbing experience so I might only be able to do the first three anyway.
I also thought your recommendations were very creative! Pairing Hochgern with the Cosmere is genius because we’ve been close to catching up with Sanderson a few times and then he just publishes three books in a month and we’re behind again. Like, the goal is right there but we can’t get there 😅
I’ve been eyeing The Winner’s Curse more than once and from what you say about it, I should actually give it a go 😄
Anyway, thank you for making my mountain deprivation hurt a little less! I actually have a similar post planned with my vacation photos so I might return the favor 😉
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I’m glad I was able to deliver 😁 And you have no idea how excited I am to see you return the favor because your vacation still sounds like the most amazing thing ever to me!!
Lololol, the “Can you fall to your death?” (or rather: “How easily can you fall to your death?”) question was also the deciding one for me; there’s a reason why I never even considered attempting Watzmann 😂 However, since writing this, I’ve discovered that my deadliness estimates maybe shouldn’t be trusted… Literally on the day of me posting this, a 57-year-old woman made national headlines by slipping on a trail, sliding through underneath the banister, and falling to her death into the Almbachklamm, something I would’ve thought was pretty much impossible! 😰 I’m still not completely over the shock, particularly since I can’t stop thinking about the fact that her husband was right next to her and had to watch everything.
Compared to that, our Cosmere struggles look quite tame, I guess! Although I think we’re just going to have to face the fact that we’re never going to catch up. Especially if those other books are anything like The Lost Metal 🙈 I just can’t do three of those a month!
And I can actually see you liking the Winner’s Curse a lot, especially the first two books! Kestrel is such a great protagonist 🥰 All those people trying to write strong female characters are welcome to take a page out of Marie Rutkoski’s book!
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Oh that sounds horrifying! 😢 I’m glad I didn’t know something like that could happen before going on my trip 😨
Also just want to let you know that even though I think I promised to be back with my wrap-up, it’s not coming. I literally only read The Lost Metal this month so a wrap-up seems pointless 😅 And since I can’t get anything else ready for Monday, I have to extend my hiatus for a week.
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Welcome to my thought process when going on spontaneous hiatuses 🤣 I’m so sorry your only August read happened to be The Lost Metal, though!!
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I loved this post so much! Honestly, I was mainly focused on the mountains, not the books. 😂 The descriptions you made were both informative and hilarious! I was definitely crying out loud at the “With a height of only 1,425 meters above sea level” comment of yours because the highest mountain in Hungary is 1,015 meters. 😂 I am in awe of your mountain hiking skills, seriously, you are so cool! With the beautiful scenes you have seen, I would love to live someplace like the Bavarian Alps, or Tyrol. I am definitely not as confident in my hiking skills, as I have a fear of heights, but the rush I had when I managed to hike the mountain in Seefeld in Tirol was worth all the fear and exhaustion. Also, I recently read Heidi by Johanna Spyri, and that made me miss the mountains as it’s set in Switzerland. Have you read it?
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Hahaha, I’m a little guilty of focusing on the mountains and only adding the books as an afterthought while writing this, too, so I definitely don’t blame you! 😂
I didn’t realize Hungary was that flat, though! 1,015 meters is definitely a small mountain in my mind 😄 But I guess I can see where you’re coming from because our evil Austrian neighbors are constantly rubbing in our faces that we just barely don’t have a mountain that is over 3,000 meters tall. Germany’s highest mountain, the Zugspitze “only” clocks in at 2,962 meters. So I guess it’s all a matter of perspective! 🤣
Oh, and trust me, I am TERRIFIED of heights! I always have this weird feeling that I could suddenly turn suicidal and jump off a ledge. Rationally, I know that fear is utterly absurd, but irrationally, I’m still always giddy with relief when I’ve forced myself past a particularly terrifying drop. But yes, the feeling of having summitted an mountain and the views made everything worth it! (Although I’m still avoiding ones with serious death danger like Watzmann. One video on YouTube was enough to squash any dreams I ever had of summitting!)
Also, yes, I’ve read Heidi!! Or rather, my parents read it to me, and the TV series and movie (there are two different ones, an incredibly popular cartoon and a live-action adaptation) were a huge part of my childhood! My siblings and I were constantly watching them! 🥰
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Yes, exactly, it’s all just perspective! We’re quite high compared to countries like The Netherlands. 😂 Austria is so lucky, honestly. I am always jealous of people living there. If I was born there, I’d never want to leave. 😂
Oh, wow, then it’s extra admirable that you climb these mountains!!
I’ve yet to watch an adaptation of Heidi, but I’m looking forward to it! It’s so cute that your parents read that to you. 🥰
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f all, I am sad on your behalf for having to leave these gorgeous mountains and that window view 😍. I’m gonna miss reading about your hiking adventures at the beginning of every post.
If I lived near these first two routes I’d spend every single evening there, they sound perfect for fitness legends like me who get winded walking up two sets of stairs! (“27-year-olds who clearly haven’t figured out how to be an adult yet” 🙈🙈) And they look so gorgeous😍. I haven’t read the books you recommend but I trust your vision here.
Unternberg also sounds like a great option for me (Yes, I’m making mental notes to visit in case I ever come to Germany), though I feel that even the mere knowledge of the existence of the macabre summit crossings is going to give me nightmares. A Sorcery of Thorns seems like a good pick despite the lack of animal-mauling 😅.
All these pictures of mountains you’ve posted here are so, so gorgeous! I want to climb them all despite my complete lack of climbing skills and my close pal, acrophobia. At this point, I’m confident that I could manage the next two routes, too, since they don’t involve rock climbing. Still, me reading the books you recommend for them (which I’ve had my eye on for the longest time) seems more possible in this life.
I don’t know why but “Can you fall to your death? Yeah, I guess” has me rolling with laughter 😂 It reminds me of the “guess I’ll die” meme.
The Watzmann legend is so fascinating, I just know I’m gonna go down a Wikipedia rabbit hole reading about it later.
Anyway, I’d love to sit here and gush more about the beautiful places you show us but I have to get up and go to work. Just know that I loved this post and I’ll be coming back to look at those pictures!
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Thank God I decided to check my spam folder because evil WordPress decided to put your comment there – how dare it not have figured out that your ginormous replies are more than welcome here? 😨😤
But anyway – maybe it will cheer you up to know that my hiking adventure recaps are probably going to stay, even if they’re going to be a bit tamer from now on! The falling-to-my-death opportunities may have become much scarcer, but that hasn’t stopped me from procrastinating work by spending my Sundays in some wilderness 😂
And I’ve got a ton of faith in your hiking skills! I feel like being able to survive Greek summer temperatures is already a true testament of stamina, so I’m sure you’d be able to make it to that macabre summit cross with no problems whatsoever. Especially since I’m terrified of heights and somehow managed not to die, too 😁
I’m glad you appreciated the pictures though, and hope you’ve been finding lots of interesting Watzmann backstory for post-work relaxation! 💙
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WordPress must have truly hated my reply becaused it refused to post it three times before it ended up in your spam folder.
I’m glad to hear that your hiking adventures are not over! Sundays are for exploring nature and practicing your hobbies, work can wait (I say that as I’m drowning in essays that need correcting 😅).
The ongoing joke in the country these past couple of years is that we could survive anything at this point so you are probably not wrong there.
Watzmann backstory has been so fascinating to discover, I’m gonna tell my friends about it, too.
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Oh wow – WordPress’s wrath is apparently really raining down on you! I did find a second copy of your reply in spam, but no idea where that third attempt ended up… This platform has mysterious ways, I guess 🤷🏼♀️🙈
Unfortunately, I relate a lot to the essay correcting, though. I hope you’re hanging in there and have gotten through the worst of it!
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