Author: Juris Rats

The first activity in the morning is getting rid of the ice on the windscreen of the car.

Following the detailed itinerary prepared by Janis we drive to the train station in Vandans and further take a train to Lindau island in the German side of Bodensee. No snow there – the weather is sunny but rather cold.

Lindau is a typical old German town with pedestrian streets full of shops, ancient houses, town hall with wall paintings, churches. We climb the lighthouse, drop in the bakery (open since 15th Century) for delicious pastry. We stroll the streets of the old town and by the East shore find the bridge to the mainland.

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The weather gradually gets warmer. We follow the shore of the Bodensee back to Bregenz in Austria. It takes some 12km to get there. While on the way we find a park with Nordic walking trails. Following trail N10 we reach the border crossing it by a bridge over a stream entering the Bodensee. Everything is decently aranged here – sign “Bavaria” on the German size, “Foralberg” – on the Austrian and “countries border” on the middle of the bridge.

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When in Austria we continue by the Bodensee to Bregenz. Shortly before Bregenz we get caught by dirigible that flies high over our heads to the mountains of Austria and Switzerland. Nora informs us later that the airship flies from the dirigible museum in Fridrihshafen.

We take a look at the lake theater in Bregenz where every summer they build and show opera performances. Audience has their seats on the shore while the stage is built on a concrete island about 50-100m from the shore. Nothing on the island for now but one can look at impressive photos of the past performances.
We take a train to Bludenz then another one to Vandans. Mansaura is reached at around 8pm in complete darkness. Janis is here and invites for pancakes cooked by Nora. Delicious pancakes with a jam and honey. Nothing left behind 🙂

White winter around. Walking uphill from Mansaura by the track suggested by Nora and Janis.

Following the car track left in the snow we reach the Mansaura chapel. It was named after the nearby meadow. The first owner of Mansaura guest house took the name at the time when the old Mansaura chapel has decayed while the new one was not built. The chapel is tiny – has room inside for two people.
The trees are full of snow. Here and there the road is blocked by fallen tree trunks. A jeep drives by but in a minute it returns driving backwards – the road ahead is blocked.

The snow is thicker higher on the hill slope. The car trace ends soon and we follow walking up to knees in snow. White beautiful winter around. After an hour walk we get where the track switches from road to the mountain path. The path has completely disappeared in the snow. So we have to retreat following our footprints.

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While on the way back we found the jeep we met earlier stuck in the snow on the steep road. The driver diligently digs the snow. Luckily we are here to help him. When back in Mansaura the dryer is exactly the service we need.

Thusis again. This time we walk another side of Hinterrhein river up to the Hohenrätien palace. The palace is visible already from the parking place – just have to look upwards because it is located nearby on the hilltop.

Our todays destination is near Thusis that is about 25km drive from Chur. We park our car at the South end of Thusis near the mouth of gorge created by the river Hinterrhein. Via Spluga 4 day track starts there over the mountains to Italy. We will take a small part of the track.

The idea was to go somewhere for Christmas. The Bergamo qualified for the simple reason – a cheap flight 🙂

We land in Bergamo on December 22nd at 1pm and drive to our hotel Bergamo & Dintorni. The hotel in fact is a couple of flats in a three store building. We have a large room with table, sofa and a kitchen inside. The bedroom is behind the wardrobe. And the bathroom. Jimmy Hendrix, Bertold Brecht, Steve Jobs, Oscar Wilde and Kurt Cobain on the wall in this order. The hostess is a young and dynamic girl. We settle down and go off for the lower part of the Bergamo (leaving the old city for tomorrow). The persimmon tree is full of fruits.

The streets are decorated for he Christmas, it is a little bit weird to see light strings on the birch trees full of yellow leaves. We stroll the lower part and then select to walk uphill to the old town (in favor of pica). When in the upper part it is dark already. We take a look on the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore and have a pica after that luckily. We stroll the streets of the old city while the fog comes after us and then descend back to the lower Bergamo. With some use of headlamps but without the fog that has stayed in the old part of the city we soon return to our hotel.

diary:

Monte Guglielmo

Monte Isola

Crespi and Bellagio

Monte Gioco