Day 27 – Can You Say Dessert Buffet?

Feb 9, 2024

Today’s Adventure

For those keeping track, last Friday (a.k.a. Day 27) was our final day out on the trails for this extended alpine adventure. When Cindy and I returned to our hotel in the afternoon it would sadly be time for us to start packing our bags for the long voyage home to Virginia. That said there will be one more post after this one so that we can officially wrap up our month in the mountains.

Knowing the packing chore ahead of us (and the less than stellar weather) we kept the day rather simple, starting with a short 25 minute bus ride from the Bahnhof in Seefeld to our trailhead at the Moos Rödlach Parkplatz. This parking area serviced both hikers and cross country skiers so we found it to be a reasonably popular place (and not just because of the modern WC’s).

Our hike took us from Moos southward into the forest on a trail that had definitely seen better days in terms of snow cover. We soon entered a quiet meadow and walked past the Muggenmoos Alm, a small family run restaurant. It was too early to stop and take a break given our lunch plans so we kept on going (shocking, I know!).

The trail then headed back into the woods where we soon passed one of the access roads for the massive five star Interalpen-Hotel Tyrol. We briefly debated a detour to check out the lobby and the grounds but decided against it – with room rates starting around 900 euros *per night* we figured that they probably wouldn’t appreciate us stomping around in muddy hiking boots! Think ‘The Greenbrier with lederhosen’ and you wouldn’t be too far off of the vibe.

https://www.interalpen.com/en/

Once the temptation to crash the Interalpen had passed we soon found ourselves walking along the cart paths and across the fairways of the Golf Club Seefeld-Wildmoos. The course was obviously closed for the winter but even so it was obvious that it would be a spectacular place to play a round of golf. They certainly had enough warning signs about the danger of flying golf balls!

After passing through the golf course and re-entering the woods the trail led us to the Lottenseehütte, a traditional mountain restaurant located on the shore of a frozen lake. We found a nice table in the sun with our backs to the building so that we could enjoy the view and be sheltered from the cool breeze. For lunch we shared a charcuterie board with a bowl of their excellent white slaw. Of note this was one the few places that we found on this trip that wasn’t set up for Apple Pay. Ah well, we needed to spend down our stash of euros 💶 anyway.

Rather than reversing our course to Moos and catching a bus we opted to extend our hike by walking the return leg to Seefeld. The distances were about equal so it was a nice option. This took us along some of the same trails that we had hiked on Wednesday and enabled a quick stop at the rather amusing Wildmoosalm.

When we arrived back in Seefeld we made a long overdue visit to the Pfarrkirche St. Oswald, the local parish church. The main body of the church, built in the late Gothic style, dates to around 1474. It is a popular pilgrimage destination because of a miracle reported to have taken place on the site in 1384. In an interesting twist the monastery that was linked to the church is now a large four star hotel with their own microbrewery.

We intentionally kept our lunch light today because the half-board plan at our hotel includes not only a nightly four course dinner but also a rather impressive dessert buffet every Friday evening. This buffet included all kinds of fresh fruits, cheeses, pastries, chocolates, mousses, crème brûlées, and even a Baked Alaska centerpiece. The pictures tell the caloric tale …

With that dessert buffet in mind we probably should have walked even more than 7.3 miles with 1,663 feet of vertical in a bit less than three hours!

For Innichen’s main page click here.

For Seefeld’s main page click here.

For the entire trip’s main page click here.