In September 2021 I finally went outside of the Netherlands for the first time in 18 months because of the pandemic. My own country is beautiful but I had missed real mountains. I was very lucky with dry sunny days for 3 weeks except a few foggy or rainy hours here and there. I hiked loads of kilometers and altitude gain meters. Since swapping to “barefoot / minimalistic” shoes in February 2021 I can now walk in the mountains pain-free! Who’d have thought that was still possible after so much knee pain before?
- I stayed a night in cute Unkel in Germany as a convenient journey breaker.
- I spent a few hours in beautiful historical Rothenburg ob der Tauber, on the way to equally pretty Dinkelsbühl where I spent a few days.
- One main goal of this trip was a wonderful hiking hotel in Neukirchen am Großvenediger in Austria, from where I also visited the Krimmler Wasserfälle (waterfalls).
- On a driving day I visited Blausee (lake) and Kitzlochklamm (gorge) which had just been fitted with scaffolding for visitors since 2019.
- The next town turned out to be the best place of my entire trip, so I stayed for 8 days instead of the planned 3 days: Bad Gastein in Austria.
- To make my way back to the Netherlands I stopped in Berwang for a few nights.
- Another few stops on the way back home were Neuschwanstein / Hohenschwangau castle, Baden-Baden and visiting a friend in Mook.
Cute little Unkel
Unkel is a pretty village conveniently close to the main highway south and near Bonn. The cute hotel in an ancient half-timbered building offered free parking and breakfast included for only €50.
Medieval Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Dinkelsbühl, Germany
I used the ‘Romantic Road’ to get closer to Austria and at the same time have a few stopovers worth spending time in. Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a picture perfect historical town full of medieval alleys, gates, half-timbered houses and lovely terraces. It’s very popular and touristy and it took me a while to find a nice terrace with some sun left. The beer in the picture is a non-alcoholic one because I was still driving. 🙂
In Dinkelsbühl I had a good time walking many kilometers in the cobblestone streets and around the city walls, and reading my book, listening to live sixties pop music from a terrace under the church, and running into two Dutch sisters and having quite an intense conversation with them by a fallen big tree.
Note the Pretzels in the church window, paid for by the local bakers at the time. I learned about this during a “walking” tour that was still only 200 meters from the starting point after 30 minutes (!) of historical tales, most of which pretty boring, so I sneaked away to do some actual walking.
Yay, the Alps! Neukirchen am Großvenediger, Austria
Yesss, actual mountains! With snow caps! How I had missed that during the pandemic and staying in the Netherlands to be on the safe side (in September 2020, Germany was making it hard for Dutch visitors so I was happy that I had booked Limburg in the Netherlands instead, as close to Germany as one can get).
The Wanderhotel Gassner was fantastic and luxurious with a big spa with sauna and pools all included, breakfast and dinner included but they also encouraged you to take lots of snacks with you for your lunch out in the mountains, and free non-alcoholic beverages all day until 8pm. And a free Sommerkarte which gave all kinds of discounts in the wide region, and free use of the cable cars and buses. The massage therapist was also very friendly and good. She was from Spain so we chatted in Spanish because my Spanish is better than my German.
The hotel offered free guided walks which was one of my main reasons for booking such a luxurious hotel for once, but as it turned out the guide only went at her own top speed (which was very fast since she hikes at least 6 times a week). After 2 rather disappointing hikes I decided to go independently after all, just using the cable lifts and maps and map apps, and it was so much better. They said that normally they have a different guide that minds the group more.
I also visited the Krimmler Wasserfälle which involved some steep hiking too.
Stopover sights Blausee and Kitzlochklamm
After my 5 days in Neukirchen am Großvenediger I drove to the east and stopped at 2 places: Blausee super bright lake, and a deep gorge called Kitzlochklamm where the Sommerkarte gave me a discount and where they have only very recently put up scaffolding for visitors, so I considered myself very lucky to see this gorge that was never easy to see without actual climbing.
Fantastic imperial / belle époque Bad Gastein, Austria
Online I stumbled upon the amazing pictures of this museum-like hotel Villa Excelsior and decided to just give it a go for only a few nights. Towns with “Bad” (Bath / Spa) in the name are often pleasant towns. Google Maps showed some cable lifts up the mountains as well so I figured it must be a good place for hiking too. From there on out I would decide what to do with the last 12 days or so of my trip.
My jaw dropped when I drove into the town. I knew the hotel would be beautiful but I had not realised that it was situated in such an extremely pretty village draped over steep hills, with a powerful waterfall right through the middle, and lots of old glorious buildings from around 1900.
The hotel was even more stunning than the pictures had shown, the host was extremely friendly, the dining hall played waltzes and Edith Piaff, all in all it felt like traveling back 100-120 years in time, but with wifi. 🙂 On that first night I already decided to add 4 more nights to my initial 3 night stay. The service was exceptional, my first room was already occupied for my additional nights but the host moved all my stuff to my new room for me.
It was also very affordable and had many more solo travelers. A free little sauna and outdoor swimming pool were included and you could pay extra for a massage or for a special rayon bath with healing powers which is what the town is known for. Bad Gastein attracts many people with arthritis and rheumatism who undergo multi-day therapy sessions. The massage therapist and I chatted about all kinds of topics.
More luck: an art exhibition was taking place across the town. And I visited the cool Kraftwerk café a few times: a former power plant based on the power of the waterfall, now turned into a restaurant / café.
I walked many steep kilometers in the town itself (just getting across the river to the other side took 30 minutes in steep streets) and hiked out in the beautiful mountains.
I also visited Hohenwerfen castle, somewhat in the direction of Salzburg. It was nice but very crowded. The torture techniques people can come up with…
Bad Gastein is in a dead-end valley but apparently it is also possible to put your car on a train through the mountain and take the train south into Carinthia or continue onwards to Italy. But for me that would make the drive back home too long.
Sleeping late in Berwang
The luxury of breakfast + 4 course dinners included for 11 nights in Neukirchen and in Bad Gastein had advantages but also some disadvantages: fixed times, getting up early, way too much food, and loads of pasta dishes because that is all they can come up with for vegetarians. (At one point in Neukirchen they even offered salmon as a “vegetarian” meal…) So it was time for some privacy and my own apartment. And also time for slowly making my way back to the Netherlands so as not to end up driving huge amounts of hours at the end.
I looked for a place near Neuschwanstein castle which I’d been wanting to visit for a while, and near Zugspitze mountain top which also sounded like fun, and a town with its own cable lifts. Berwang in Tirol ticked all the boxes. On the way over I stopped at “Zugspitzblick” (Zugspitz view), the picture with the bright lake. Zugspitze is in the cloud on the left 😉 The flowery hotel is not where I stayed but is so typically Austrian. I had my own creaky but cute apartment with fantastic balcony with morning sun, walking distance from the cable lift. The town also had a cute café/pension Sprenger frequented by old locals and serving a multitude of cakes, and good beers, with a smile and a chat.
So far I had been super lucky with the weather, just a few hours of rain during my 8 days in Bad Gastein. Rain was predicted here too so I went hiking at a time when it would still be dry. By the time it really started raining a lot I was already driving north to my next destination where I had great weather again. But going up to Zugspitze mountain top turned out to cost a lot of money with a big risk of seeing nothing as the top is often covered in a cloud. So instead I climbed up to a viewpoint in Berwang.
Disappointing Neuschwanstein + Hohenschwangau castles
Okay so even on a Monday you cannot just walk up to the ticket desk of Neuschwanstein castle and get in. There was a long line and some disappointed Dutchies happened to walk past me complaining and I asked them what was up. “Sold out” they said, only 3 tickets left for 5pm. I was there at 11am, it was just a quick stopover for me, and I wanted to be hundreds of kilometers more north in Germany by 4pm. Pfff little did I know that the castle was *that* popular, the website I had checked a few days earlier did not give any clear warnings at all. If I had known, I could have easily gotten a ticket a few days in advance.
Oh well, I had read that the hike up to the castle is still pretty so I did that. A nice 45 minute steep walk. As it turned out I found the other unknown castle much prettier: Hohenschwangau (the yellow one). Neuschwanstein looked way too crisp, clean, brand new and Disney-like, not like a real castle.
Enjoyed the hike and some nice views, had lunch in a nice café on the mountain slope, and drove on to Baden-Baden.
Posh and green Baden-Baden
Another town with “Bad” (Bath / Spa) in the name, and dating back to the Roman age. And in the Black Forest, which had also been on my wish list for a long time.
The apartment I had booked was the bottom floor of the owners’ house, they were very friendly and gave me lots of good tips for nice walks and about museums. Baden-Baden is a very posh city, I felt completely underdressed in my hiking pants amongst all those locals who walked and sat around looking like they were all heading to a fancy wedding. But it’s also a very beautiful town with loads of historical buildings, art, and huge parks and flower gardens and botanical gardens.
At half an hour’s walk from my apartment there was a hill with a funicular up to the top, from where paragliders start their flights, and with a viewtower and a nice terrace. I walked some kilometers making various circles around the hilltop.
End of the trip
After Baden-Baden I spent 1 last night in a bleak hotel close to the Dutch border just to cut one long drive in half. On my last morning I visited a friend in her new house in Mook and then made my way home, where I had drinks and snacks with the young lady who had lived in my house for 3 weeks minding my cats, and her parents (her mom is a friend of mine).
Lots of good memories to look back on, and I will definitely go back to that fantastic museum-like hotel in Bad Gastein.
More about barefoot shoes / minimalistic footwear
After years of knee pains and all kinds of foot issues (including hallux valgus / bunions, like more than 80% of women in westernized countries, so you will probably recognize the image), I decided to try barefoot shoes in February 2021. The idea is that you mimic walking barefoot as much as possible, give your toes enough room for their natural spread, and let the mechanics of the feet and body do what they are made for.
– “zero drop” > the heel is not higher than the rest of the foot
– foot shaped toe box (not squeezing the toes together like most shoes in the world do)
– very flexible and thin sole
– no arch support or other support (the shaft around the ankle should also be soft and flexible)
It has worked miracles for me so I’m never going back to ‘normal’ footwear (with squeezing toe boxes, toe spring, raised heels, stiff soles). Even ordinary sneakers nowadays tend to have raised heels and pointy toe boxes. 😦
It does require practice, a new gait with shorter steps, softer landing (no hard heel landing) and more arm swing, and time to build up underused lazy muscles in the entire feet and legs.
Miracles
No more knee pain when going down hills or stairs! Hurrah! A much better ground feel, so that I feel every uneven surface, stone, tree root and my brain immediately understands what I am walking on and how to balance myself on it. (And no, that does not hurt because your brain understands when not to put your full weight on a sharp stone. In fact once you get used to barefoot shoes, walking on uneven ground feels like a foot massage.) No more big sturdy hiking boots ‘hiding’ all the necessary info and surprising me with sudden splaying sideways and tripping.
My toes now also get to play their part in keeping me balanced and propelling me forward, instead of being squeezed together, losing their functionality, and forming bunions.
By simply walking on healthier footwear, all the little muscles around my knees also suddenly woke up and got stronger automatically, just from walking. So that plus the added balance and ground feel and no more heel rise all makes walking downhill pain-free, at last.
For anyone who wants to know more about the benefits of minimalistic and foot shaped footwear: https://anyasreviews.com/benefits-barefoot-minimalist-shoes/
And some more comparisons by a podiatrist:
Cecilia 
Pingback: My take on solo travel – Cecilia
This trip sounds great! I’m feeling inspired! Thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person