Afternoon walk, Solsteinhaus

Despite the steep climbing, this morning's walk wasn't so long, so we got to the hut in good time, and after our late lunch there was still time for a short afternoon walk. We decided to just walk until the path went steeply up or down, which meant that we only got 300 metres, but that was fine as the view was so spectacular that we could just sit and watch it for a while. In the background were the Solstein mountains (Grosser and Kleiner Solstein – Kleiner being higher than Grosser) and in the foreground, a wonderful carpet of alpine flora. There were yellow buttercups, looking rather like the ones at home, except that their fleshy leaves gave them away as Ranunculus montanus. Then there were huge numbers of the white Ranunculus alpestris, growing like daisies in a lawn, interspersed with Dryas octopetala. Most spectacular of all, great clumps of Gentiana verna, a similar blue to the sky above, but an even deeper blue.
When we got back to the hut, I battled with the apparatus for charging the phone. In yesterday's hut there was a "handy box", where you just plugged your phone charger in, and they locked it for safety, but we didn't find out about it until breakfast, and then it was too late. We knew we had a long walk tomorrow, so the phones and watches needed charging (and indeed halfway along, my watch went into ultra-power-saving mode, recording the track but no heart rate and no navigation), but they had a commercial charger, which charged at a very slow rate for a very high price and was also a bit broken. All a bit irritating, but we survived. In fact, navigation was not much of an issue, as the paths were very clearly signed and we had perfect weather.
The hut was quite large, and it was full. There were three dining rooms and each group had their names written on a small porcelain board so everyone would know where to sit. The food was good and plentiful, and they even found me an alternative for the chocolate cake served for pudding.
In the evening I read more of Twan Huys' book Droompad. It could not be more apt, all about a father and his child walking a long-distance footpath through the Alps close to where we were. They also came across steep ledges with steel cables to hang on to, experienced crowded huts and enjoyed the beautiful flora and landscape. He also wrote about how on a walk like that it is companionable to just walk together in silence but, at the same time, easy to talk about all sorts.
We had a room with five beds and two other people. There was a big skylight with no curtain, so we (or rather, the other two) rigged up a blanket to keep most of the light out. It was a cold and very windy night, so despite the stuffiness, we had to close the window.Read more