Ziller valley, Austria (Zillertal)

With Austria just around the corner. we once again changed location and found a nice campground in the valley of the river Ziller, close to the Italian border. Weather was a bit of a mixed bag with sudden heavy thunderstorms and rain but in June, that's fairly normal for the region.

Silent night, holy night... From Ziller valley into the world: This is the former home of the traveling sales family Strasser who made this Christmas song 1831 popular by singing it while selling their products on markets.

When the sun came out again the air became muggy. It didn't help much that we were climbing up the mountain in order to visit the Talbachfall, a local waterfall, but the trail was, albeit a bit slippery, quite spectacular.

Now that the sun is back we can get it all dried up.

It's a fake! This is not Canada.

No, we didn't tell Scotty to beam us into the Rocky Mountains. Instead we went on a little road trip along the nature reserve of the upper Isar river.

Between the villages Vorderriss and Wallgau lies the so-called Isarwinkel (Isar corner, a floodplain). The turquoise river has plenty of space, and flows uncontrolled by dams or flood protection. It all reminds us very much of a Canadian mountain scenery, well, until the typical Bavarian style houses of next town pop up to remind us where we actually are. 

Sylvenstein Lake

View on Wallgau

Home is where the lake is.

The next two nights where spent at a campground near Bad Tölz, a town we didn't care to visit because it was just too hot to pursue anything involving moving around too much. We had booked a lake view spot on the county-side and were just happy to hang around, read a book, listen to some music or swim and relax.

After some contemplation (including some effort in persuasion) we tried out some higher grounds in order to cool off a little. Wallberg at 1722m is a mountain overlooking Tegernsee, a spa town for (sick) rich people with an economy mainly based on tourism and therapy of orthopaedic or inner health issues.

We took the gondola up to the mountain station and did some easy hiking. The views were a bit hazy but we were happy with the lower temperatures and stayed up until the final ride downhill had been announced.

View on Tegernsee

Wallberg mountain station with Wallberg in the background

Inzell or... Bavaria is always an option!

We had a few days to our disposal and decided to hop into our VW camper van Siggi, and ride south. A lovely camping spot in Inzell was found, and for some lucky reason we got the best spot. Maybe because our hosts had a big heart for our little "Bulli" (nickname for this specific VW make). And our tiny van stuck out in between all those huge white vehicles.

We got some well deserved rest, and did some light hiking (no more than 10 to 15 km, and always with food in reward). Also the region was very e-bike compatible. Also, we very much appreciated that it was a quiet environment, Inzell is definitely no party town, and just what we were looking for.

Hike around Falkenstein (local mountain)

Hike around Frillensee

There was also some relaxation involved...

... while others were busy with making hay, John Deere at work:

And yes, we got a good taste of some of the regional produce.

Schnitzel and Sauerbraten

Kaiserschmarren (yes, we are close to Austria)

A Bavarian breakfast

Spätzle Goulash and spinach dumplings

Sausage lunch and spaghetti

More Italian food