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Grubhörndl auf 1747 Meter

My Top Spot in Salzburger Saalachtal

On a Sunday when my husband is out and about again with his saxophone and his bandmates and I have a shift at work, I like to at least spend the morning with him. And where can one enjoy the peaceful hours of the morning more than in our wonderful mountain world?

At 6 am, sometimes even earlier, it is time to get up. I don’t find that difficult because the pair of grey tits, which have built their nest on a wooden beam under our bedroom window, have already begun to twitter happily. Accompanied by these morning sounds, I simply must get out of bed and head off to the mountains.

Usually, I have laid out my hiking clothes the night before so that we can start Sunday stress free. I fill our Themos flask with hot, fragrant coffee while my husband quickly buys a couple of butter pretzels from the bakery.

I put 2 apples and some old bread in the rucksack and we head off in the car. After 15 minutes via the Loferer Alm mountain road we reach our starting point, the mountain hut of the „Anderlbauern“. On the alm, everything is still calm and peaceful. We see only a couple of calves; the cows are being milked in the stall.

We take the direct route to the Grubhörndl. I am pleased that I chose good hiking boots as the flowers and herbs along the edges of the path are wet with dew.

Every time I am amazed at how many different varieties of flowers there are to marvel at along the way. Here, simple alpine herbs grow alongside particularly special orchids. Many of these plants are protected species – this means they cannot be picked. Do the cows know this? They live off this fantastic variety of plants for the entire summer.

After 30 minutes of comfortable hiking we must make some effort and climb through a couple of larch fields but then we reach our destination. We stand underneath the summit cross of the Grubhörndl and look around, fascinated by the surrounding mountain world.

A glance down into the valley reveals that everything is still peaceful and quiet. We sit down on our favourite bench. My husband made this bench and we carried the wooden planks up to the summit together. That was sweaty work so now we are delighted every time we are able to rest on this bench.

So at last it is time for a well-deserved breakfast. We relish our pretzels accompanied by hot, fragrant coffee and enjoy the view. If the weather is clear we can see Chiemsee and the city of Salzburg.

It doesn’t take long before a few alpine choughs decide to join us. They are also hungry and delight in the old bread which I brought for them.

We continue to enjoy the silence on the mountain while the church bells ring in the valley to proclaim Sunday Mass.

As we both still have a long day ahead of us we must reluctantly head back down into the valley. On the way back we notice that the day is slowly beginning in the Almenwelt Lofer. The cows are on their pastures again and the waiters from the surrounding restaurants are already setting up the parasols and preparing everything for their guests.

Just before we hop into the car again we treat our feet to a cool bath in the Almsee.

After this wonderful breakfast 1747 metres above sea level we are completely relaxed and look forward to the rest of Sunday. Today it doesn’t matter any more that my husband is away all day with his bandmates and that I have to go to the office.

To the hike

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