on top of the world

Whilst half of the blog world spent their weekend at the Healthy Living Summit in Boston {my jealousy grew by the minute as I followed everyone’s tweets} I spent a long weekend at home. It must have been one of the hottest weekends we’ve had all weekend so my decision to come home was a wise one. The heat-wave is not yet over though; apparently some parts of Austria and Germany are meant to to be as hot as 38°C {100°F} so I am a little irritated that I have to spend the day sweating in an office while the rest of the nation is relaxing by pools, lakes and rivers. But at least I had a fantastic weekend.

I already mentioned our plans to go hiking in an earlier post and since I had the best time I wanted to share some pics with you.

I had planned for the whole family to go hiking, or at least the part that’s here, but my brother was too tired and my mom hurt her hand so they couldn’t join us. Luckily we only live 15 minutes away from where the trail begins so it wasn’t too stressful in the morning and I could sleep until 7am.

The final destination, the Hochlecken! If you look closely you can see a house on top of the mountain in the left picture. That’s the hut where we had lunch.

The estimated time up the mountain is 2 hours and 3o minutes but being very competitive by nature my dad and I finished in 1 hour and 40 minutes.

I’m sure if I had gone alone it would have taken me a lot longer but my dad practically ran up the mountain and I was huffing and puffing trying to keep up. Since I was carrying my camera bag my dad offered to carry our pack bag with both our water bottles. The blogger that I am I was quite busy taking pics along the way that I lost track of my dad after about 40 minutes…it was extremely hot, I was sweaty and thirsty and with no water bottle in sight this was the only water source I could find, the Antoniusbründl.

The trail itself was very diverse. Although walking down the mountain is the tough part {or at least for me it is} the hike up was no joke either. Some parts, especially the beginning were a normal gravel road or a hop and skip along rocks but it got more challenging the farther up we got.

For some parts of the trail we basically had to walk in between two small streams…

All in all it was great hike though. The weather could not have been any more perfect without a single cloud on the sky and we were smart enough to hike in the morning so it was still fairly cool. The best part with any hike though is the incredible view you have from the top of the mountain.

The only problem I encountered was on the way down. As you can see from the pic I was wearing regular Nike running shoes. Most Austrians, especially those who hike on a regular basis have proper hiking shoes that support and stabilize your feet especially on the hike down the mountain. While I prefer light shoes I did think to myself that shoes offering a bit more stability around the ankle would have been nice since I twisted my ankle a couple of times just because the rocks are lose and roll away. Thankfully nothing happened but a little bit more stability would have been greatly appreciated.

A must on every hike is a proper Brettljause: cheese, meats and bread. We also ordered a soup because it was quite chilly at the very top. And of course I brought my bobble.

I could have stayed on top of the mountain forever but I knew a delicious lunch was waiting for me at home. I brought home a big bag of chanterelles from the Viktualienmarkt and my mom transformed them into one of my favorite dishes.

The hot afternoon was {once again} spent down by the lake, swimming, frolicking and taking lots and lots of pictures.

I’m at work now but I’m more than happy to say: I’ll be back! I’m already planning the next hiking trip.

How was your weekend? Did you attend the HLS? What were you up to?