Short trip to Alto Adige “South Tyrol”

So I went off to Tirolo in Italy that is very close to Merano last week for a short trip and to see some friends who spent their holiday there.

Couldn´t get a room in their hotel so I tried to find something nearby. And I think I have made a great choice. I stayed at “Hotel Pension Paler”. It´s a B&B but the rooms are just excellent and up to a 4 to 5 star level. The views are also wonderful.

Did my first hiking tour on the day that I arrived and went up the Hochmuth which is a very nice hiking trail. 

In the evening I had dinner with my friends at their hotel. We had dinner on the terrace with a great view down to Merano and the region of Alto Adige.

Busy bumble bees at the flower pots of the terrace....

.....and a nice dessert after dinner ....:)

Next day I planned a longer trip up the Hochmuth. I took the aerial railway up there and went off to the Lakes of Sopranes. I can absolutely recommend this. It is worth going up there.

Waterfalls

Great views

Unfortunately I have underestimated the ”walking down”. My first stop after the lakes was at “Bockerhütte” which is really nice. 

This beautiful rooster greeted me at the entrance!
From there it would have been a better choice to go up again another trail to the mountain station “Hochmuth” but I decided to go down the rest of the mountain. At the moment  they are  doing some  construction on the hiking trails and just when I thought it was going a bit easier there was an alternative route I had to take. This took me 2 hours more than planned and when I got back to the hotel I was totally exhausted. The whole trip took me about seven hours and that’s a bit too much for the first day.

Next day – also due to the weather – my friends and I went to visit another valley to the “Lago di Vernago” which was nice.

After that we did a little shopping in Merano.

On Sunday my friend Andrea and I did a little hiking close to the village and visited the CastleTyrol and the Castle Auer. 

 Tyrol Castle
Later we had a nice dinner in the garden of a restaurant called Furggerhof.

On my  last day I visited Castle Brunnenburg  and after that I went to the gardens of CastleTrautmannsdorff  which I think is a must. I drove by so many times and never made it to visit that place but now that I have been there I am sure that I will go there again.

 Brunnenburg  Castle

 Brunnenburg Castle

 Entrance to Brunnenburg Castle

 Vineyards

Old tools of the mountain farmers

Art!

View to another castle

Earth pyramids

 

Ancient tools of the farmers in South Tyrol

 Wonderful views

Old goat breeds

Marmot

Curious goose

Sexy duck

View to Tirolo from Brunnenburg Castle

Entrance to Trautmannsdorff Castle

Entrance

Suitcases

Empress Elisabeth of Austria 

Beach aerea

 Castle  Trautmannsdorff

Hello...Willy the cactus....:)

Meteorological station
Stone dry = sun
Stone wet = rain
Stone white = snow
Stone bouncing = storm
Stone trembling = earthquake
Stone gone = thievery

Had nice evening in my hotel with some people I have met there and the next morning I went off back to Munich.

Burg Frankenstein / Frankenstein Castle

 So I just got back from my native town Darmstadt and all my “enterprises” seem to turn out right now.

 I am keeping my fingers crossed.

 The guys that are building up the scaffolds are just great and some of them look as they could appear in the Chippendales show :)

 One evening I was invited at my friends home in Eberstadt - one the feet of Frankenstein Castle - for a BBQ. Her cat catched o mouse  and was playing with it until .... what ever :(  Well - that´s nature :/

 Cat still playing with the half murdered mouse - awfull - but thats the way it is - and quite helpfull if you live at the country site

 

In between appointments I had the chance to slip out for an hour or two, so I went to one of my favorite places near my hometown – and it is “Frankenstein Castle” in Eberstadt, which is a suburb of Darmstadt.

 Had lunch there with one of my dearest and oldest friends and her georgious daughter Annika.

 That is Annika - sneaking out between the ruins of Frankenstein Castle.

 

People all around the world are visiting this place – making researches about ghosts or whatever (you can find some videos on youtube about ghost busters). I recommend visiting this place. It has a certain atmosphere and if you are lucky – the view can be marvelous – all the way to Frankfurt and the Taunus area and the restaurant is also quite o.k. with a good menu card, reasonable prices and good quality. Frankenstein Castle also became famous with a festival during Halloween

 This day we had a great view to the city of Frankfurt and the Taunus.

When I was a child my beloved grandfather used to take me there sometimes on our regular Sunday walk before lunch. For me it was not connected with the horror story of Mary Shelley. In fact I was surprised to find out about the films and the story. But still this has no impact on me or on my approach to this place.