South Tyrol Reunion

Published on 2024-04-28 by Michael Stanton

Florian, Uli and I drove south to escape a weekend of snowstorms in the northern part of the Alps. We took my car because I still had winter tires -- and they were absolutely needed going by the Walchensee!

We hiked up the Königsanger, one of my favorite peaks down there as regular readers know. We took some schnapps up there and sat by some rocks out of the wind on the summit to drink. Good times! On the way down, we visited the lake on the east side of the summit, nearly freezing in the strong, cold wind making our way down to the lake and hut. Like old times for us!

We ate some more at the closed hut, then made the hike back to the car. We stayed at a place in Brixen for the night, which made pretty good pizza.

The next day, weather was essentially unchanged, maybe a little worse. We decided to get further below the snowline and take it easy. We made the hike up from Bozen to Oberbozen, enjoying the warm sun.

Along the way we had many philosophical talks. Things that concerned us were at first, political topics like how much should a government actually do about climate change? Then, ideas about manhood and womanhood -- how real are these categories? Are there differences, and if so, are they good and useful, or are those differences to be minimized or ignored?

We had a wonderful, long picnic on the way down from Oberbozen that meant I didn't even need dinner later that night.

Getting home was even more difficult due to vehicles that couldn't travel the road down from the Walchensee.

Thanks to Uli and Florian for a great trip!

Uli, Flo and Michael on the Königsanger.

Uli approaches the summit

My partners walk the final meters to the car