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In March 2013 we visited La Palma for the first time. La Palma - also called La Isla Bonita - is one of the smaller Canary Islands. Before we have only been on Gran Canaria and we were surprised to see how different these two islands are even if they are quite close to each other.

The initial idea to visit La Palma came because we read on the Internet about the telescopes on La Palma and that it is said to be one of the places with the clearest sky. Having our own telescope at home and doing astrophotography with it (here are some pictures) we also wanted to a have a telescope while being on the island.

We stayed at a nice bungalow in Los Llanos de Aridana. The bungalow was on top of a hill and only a few meters away from the entrance to the Caldera de Taburiente national park.

While this was our first time on this island we tried different activities - hiking, cycling, beach, stargazing, driving around by car, ...

La Palma is said to be the steepest island on earth and when you have been there you will know what that means! Driving around by car means driving one turn after another - the only part that goes straight is a tunnel. Not so good for people who suffer from travel sickness. And La Palma is also the island of the bananas! We have never seen so many banana trees before.

The photos below should give some impressions of what we did on the island. The highlights were:

  • Puerto de Tazacorte: if you know only yellow sandy beaches then this one is different! the beach is made of lava sand and next to the beach a path leads up 600m to the Mirador El Time a nice viewpoint. Puerto de Tazacorte also has nice coloured houses and many restaurant at the beach. And besides that Puerto de Tazacorte is said to be the place with the most hours of sunshine in Europe - that's a good reason to spend some time there!
  • Hiking the Ruta de Los Volcanes: You start in El Pilar and then walk down to the South of the island. During this walk you pass one volcano after the other - the view is just amazing! You can see Tenerife, El Hierro and La Gomera and the ocean! Don't forget to wear hiking boots and take warm clothes as it can be a bit windy up there!
  • Cycling from Los Llanos to the South: We started in Los Llanos and took the road up to Jedey. From there we take a hiking path up until we are right below the volcanos. We follow a nice trail up to Los Canarios in the South! The trail consists of volcano sand so cycling is not so easy. Nevertheless it is really worth it! You see so many different aspects of the landscape - huge fields of lava rocks, trees, ocean, islands, volcanos, ... When you reach Los Canarios in the South you can also visit volcano San Antonio and Teneguia - which had the latest eruption in 1971! You can also drive further down up to the light house. We cycled back the road where it takes only about 1.5 hours to go back to Los Llanos.
  • Visiting the ORM (Observatory Roque Muchachos): You have to apply for a visit on the website of the ORM - we were lucky and were invited to visit during our time on La Palma. We had a guide which showed us around the GTC (Gran Telescopio Canarias). It was amazing to see such a huge telescope! The diameter of the mirror is 10.4 meters! Our telescope at home has only 8" diameter! If the weather is good you should have a good view from top of the island. Unfortunately there was a storm and clouds when we were on top so we could not enjoy this view.
  • Hiking the Caldera de Taburiente: The caldera was once the crater of a huge volcano, now it is a great place for hiking. It reaches its highest point at more than 2400 meters. The crater has a diameter of 8 kilometres and can be surrounded completely via hiking paths.
  • Be above the clouds and watch the milky way: La Palma has one of the clearest skies in the world. Until you have not seen it in reality you will not believe how many stars can appear on the sky at night! There are special viewpoints on the whole island with explanation about the starts (http://starsislandlapalma.com/page/senderos).

There are still so many places and hiking paths to explore on the island and six days were definitely not enough! We are flying over again at the beginning of May and let's see what else we will discover 🙂

 
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From Stuttgart there is one train connection a day that goes to Imst without changing trains. So Imst was our destination for this long weekend. After about 6 or 7 hours we finally arrive at the train station Imst-Pitztal. When you arrive at the train station there seems to be no town close to it. We booked a hotel in Arzl, because on the map it looked quite close to the station. But what we could not see on this map was that we have to go up a hill to reach the village. So it takes us about one hour from the train station to go to the hotel. The hotel (the only one that was still available) is very nice. On the reception we are told that dinner will be "entrecote" today. We had no idea what it is, but we said that it would be ok for us.

The dinner at the hotel was fantastic! It stared with a salad buffet, then soup, then leek and potato pastry. Then the main course entrecote (a medium beef steak) with potato with garlic dip and roasted vegetables. And afterwards a piece of cake. Great! After that we fall into bed immediately.

The next morning we enjoy a great breakfast. After breakfast the bus to Trenkwald is leaving in front of our hotel. I think we are the youngest people on this bus. All the others must be older than 60 or so.. After about one hour the bus arrives in Trenkwald. From there we plan to go up to the Verpeiljoch and then down to the Verpeil Hut. The path is very nice and we enjoy the great view around. We follow a small river for a long time. The way down from Verpeiljoch is very slippery because of many pebbles lying around. After 6 or 7 hours we arrive at the hut which is beautifully situated. Two rivers and high mountains surround the hut. We spent a lot of time lying in the sunshine and then we enjoy dinner. We sleep very well, no one snores.
The next morning after breakfast we want to go to the Kaunergrathütte. It is a beautiful view when the sun comes over the mountain and from one second to another everything is enlighten. The path is really nice, you always look at the Madatschtürme. We even see some people going up there. Then we go along a glacier up to the aperes Madatschjoch. From there there is a short fixed rope route down in the direction of the Kaunergrathütte. We decide to go up the Plangeroßkopf which is something like a little summit at 3053m high. We spent some time in the sunshine on the top and just enjoy being there. After some time we go back down and to the Kaunergrathütte. Actually we wanted to sleep there, but they were full! Therefore they asked us to go to the Riffelseehütte. This is another 3 to 4 hours walk. But before we leave the Kaunergrathütte we have a Apfelstrudel. Yummy!! The so called Cottbuser Höhenweg which connects the Kaunergrathütte with the Riffelseehütte is very beautiful. You always have a great view of the surrounding mountains. One passage contains a few ropes, but it is doable without via ferrata gear. After more than 10 hours we finally arrive at the Riffelseehütte. We have a very nice room with two other people. Dinner is Gulaschsuppe and for me Knödelteller and for Carsten Leberkäse with egg and potatoes. Really good! And I am so full afterwards! After dinner we play cards and then we fall into bed - until 4am in the morning. Then the fire bell is ringing and (almost) everybody gets up - but luckily it was only a false alarm.
After breakfast we decided to go the Offenbacher Höhenweg to the Taschachhaus. This way is very beautiful! In the beginning you walk along a small river, then you cross a place with many big stones lying around until you reach a small glacier. For the glacier we used our crampons and then we went up. That was cool. Then there are two paths up to the summit of the Wurmtaler Kopf - you can either continue to go up the glacier or walk on the ridge. We decided to take the path on the ridge - but that was not so good. Many loose pebbles made the way up very slippery. But on top of the Wurmtaler Kopf - 3228m high - you have a great panorama. Then we start to descend to the Taschachhaus - it is still far away. We pass a lake that looked like the water is green. We took many breaks on the way to the Taschachhaus and enjoyed the beautiful landscape. Now we could also see the glacier around the Wildspitze. The Taschachhaus had a nice room for us and great food. Soup, salad, Wiener Schnitzel with Pommes and Apfelstrudel! What a great evening.
In the morning after breakfast we went back down to the village Mittelberg. From there a bus took us to Imst and from there we took the train back to Stuttgart. This was another great long weekend in a beautiful landscape!

After three days of rain the weather forecast is now looking promising. Sunshine the whole day! And it should continue for the whole rest of the week.

Therefore we decide to hike to the Schreckhorn Hut, sleep there and go back down to Grindelwald the next morning.

After breakfast at the DownTown Lodge we get ready and leave Grindelwald in the direction of the Pfingstegg cablecar. If you use this cablecar you will save a one hour walk. Nevertheless we decide to go up without the cablecar. The path goes through a forest and finally you leave the forest and you have a great view of the glacier in front of you.

After about 90 minutes we arrive at the Gasthof Bäregg. It is a really nice looking small hut with a great panorama. We decide to continue our way to the Schreckhorn Hut without a break here. After the Berghaus Bäregg the sign which leads to the Schreckhorn Hut is blue-white-blue which means that this way is more difficult and dangerous than a normal hiking path. Especially falling stones are
often coming down on this way. We continue up to a nice picknick place in front of the glacier. Here we have a long break. Then we continue to go up. After a few minutes ropes and ladders lead the way. Often you have to go over a small waterfall. The view around is really beautiful, glaciers and these tall snowy mountains all around us! We can even the Mönch from here!

After about five hours we arrive at the Schreckhorn Hut. We decide to have something to drink first and want to ask for a place to sleep.
Inside the hut we meet the hut owner and his wife. He is a bit rude and says that if we have not called and said that we are coming we cannot stay here, because he does not have enough food. A few minutes later his wife says that we can stay, but maybe without food. Everything a bit strange and unfriendly. Therefore we sit outside and think what to do next. It was three o'clock. Then we decide that we will go down to Berghaus Bäregg and ask if we can stay there over night. This means about three hours going back down. We have to be really concentrated when going down the exposed path. But after a few hours we arrive at Bäregg. The people there are very friendly and we get the last room. The room is
really nice, for six people, but we are the only ones today in this room. There is also a hot shower - really great after this long walk. We enjoy the shower and then we wait for dinner. Dinner is also really great. A soup and beef with rice - as much as we like - and some chocolate pudding and chocolate cake afterwards. Happy and satisfied we fall into bed after this beautiful day 🙂

The next morning we enjoy the breakfast and then continue to go down to Grindelwald. This takes only about 90 minutes. The rest of the day we spent relaxing in the sunshine and eating ice cream 🙂

We are having breakfast at 5 o'clock in the morning. For me, the night was not that good but Lisa slept well... as always 😉 5 o'clock is not my time... so I am not very hungry. In fact it is hard to eat something... looking back I think the cup of coffee rescued me 😉 Thirty minutes later we are sitting in the shoe room putting on our equipment. In here it is already cold - it gives us a first impression of the temperature outside.

Outside it is still dark. The only light comes from our headlights. Directly behind the Finsteraarhorn Hut the way to the summit begins quite steep. It is a small path leading upwards through boulder and rock. After maybe an hour we arrive at a glacier. There we take a short break. The daylight is already sufficient so that we do not need our headlights any more. From that point we go on the rope, again. We cross the glacier all time upwards until we arrive at the "Frühstücksplatz" (place for breakfast). The Frühstücksplatz is located a couple of meters above the glacier we are comming from.

The path turned back to boulder and rock. We take a break here. The look back opens a beautiful panorama. A strong and cold wind is blowing - but we find a quite nice place. This is the first time I am getting hungry. We take some photos and enjoy the great landscape. Below we can see the Fieschergletscher and the Grünhornlücke where we came from yesterday. The break didn't last long. Due to the cold wind we continue going upwards. Lisa and I we have cold feet what is quite uncomfortable. In turn Martin didn't have any problems... Again, the path leads us to another quite steep glacier. This is the longest of all the ascents. Still on the rope it is going upwards... and upwards and the air is getting thinner and thinner. Finally - I can hardly say how long it has taken - we arrive at the Hugi Sattel (hugi saddle) 4088m above ground. Up here the cold wind is still blowing - even more than before. The water in our camel bag tube is frozen.

From up here we can look down to the other side - and we see the beginning of the ridge which leads all way up to the summit of Finsteraarhorn. Looking up there is a little frightening. It is a steep mixture of ice and rock. Most of the time the way goes a few meters below the ridge - to the right. But still to the right it is going quite steep downwards - I can't say how far. And so we start climbing the ridge. Martin at first, then Lisa and then myself - still on the rope. I can't stop looking down into the abyss. I am feeling very stressed right now - it is a mixture of fear and excitement. After maybe 15 minutes we meet another rope team coming from the summit. Hoping that we are almost at the summit I am asking: "We are almost there, aren't we?". "No, it is still a piece of way to go - maybe 25 minutes." they say. That is not what I wanted to hear. At least the climbing makes my feet come back to life, again. And so we continue further upwards to the summit. Then, suddenly Martin tells me to take the lead of the rope team. It is going downwards for some meters - and then upwards again - and then - after a few more minutes we are there ... on top of the Finsteraarhorn on 4274m above ground. We shake hands and hug each other. The panorama in all directions is awesome. For a few minutes we are forgetting the cold wind and the fact that we have to go all the way down again. We take some photos and enjoy being alive - maybe more than ever before. The sky shines in a deep blue. At the horizon we can see Monte Rosa, the Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc Massiv. Lisa is licking a cereal bar - because it is also frozen...

After some really unforgettable minutes (now sitting here writing it down it feels like a dream) we start descending again. This time I go first, then Lisa and then Martin in the back. Looking down the way we came from I still feel a little nervous. But after some steps all my fear and doubt suddenly goes away. I am feeling quite safe. It is hard to describe that in words - but even standing there right on the ridge looking down hundreds of meters in both directions does not really scare me anymore - I am feeling free for the first time. It seems my brain finally realized that fear does not help in this situation. And so it is almost fun going down the ridge back to the Hugi Sattel. Compared to where we come from the way back down to the Finsteraarhorn Hut is quite simple and relaxing - just the last hour needs caution again. Finally, back at the Finsteraarhorn Hut we are sitting outside in the sun. Below our feet we see the Fieschergletscher. Again we congratulate each other - we made it!

To shorten the time to dinner we decide to solve some crossword puzzles. Now, instead of cold wind the sun burns down on our heads. So we decide to go to our bed after a few minutes. There we try to continue a simple crossword puzzle for one minutes maybe... and then we fall asleep 🙂 We wake up just in time for dinner. This evening we are having soup, salad, indian curry with rice and chicken... and something called Meringue. The weather forecast on TV looks ok for the next morning - but in the afternoon they say there can be some thunderstorms. We go to bed again and fall asleep immediately.