The Man Who Went up a Mountain and Came Down (in) a Gondola
Still in Innsbruck. We are waiting for a train to Prague that leaves at 2:30 am. So we are killing time. We attempted to go to a movie but they are all in German without English subtitles. Yesterday was perhaps the hardest day of the trip physically. James and I decided to check out the glacier nearby Innsbruck and have some fun with the whole "snow in July" thing. It was about 90 degrees here so we thought how fun that would be. Well......
We arrived at the "hill" from a long bus ride and found out the gondola (not the water floating kind the up in the air kind) was expensive. We had wanted to hike so we looked at the signs and thought, why not do the three hour hike? It would be a nice hike, we will get to the middle station and take the gondola down for about 5 euros each. So we started to climb and climb and climb. I mean some serious uphill battles unlike any hike we have done in Georgia. There were few flat areas in this hike. There were cows and sheep and goats with their little bells on prancing all around and me DYING!!! It was hot, sunny and dusty. I got about 10 minutes into the hike and thought no way am I getting to the top. I cannot do this for three hours. No way. James said "You can always grab on to my backpack" I also thought "I am NOT going to be the new 'Crabby' who gets his butt hauled up the mountain either".
I have known you need to work through your muscle burn, your exhaustion and hit that plateau where you can go forever. I worked through the burn and was at the exhaustion for a looonnnng time. Lucky for me I was too stubborn to give up. I fought my way up that mountain. James went way ahead of me (darn men with their higher muscle mass) since he has been working out a lot more. I worked and worked and worked. We completed the hike (minus the hiking poles and boots everyone else had) in about 1.5 hours much better than the posted time. We sat looking at the glacier watched the snow melt and had panini sandwiches and wine while basking in the sun among the goat and sheep poop. We took the gondola down and dreamed of skiing here some winter day.
Alas when we got back in Innsbruck (after a sleepy busride) we found ourselves to be filthy dirty, horribly sweaty, and sunburnt. Both of our necks took the brunt of the burn along with face and upper arms. We felt good at "conquering the Alps" and I would put myself through that pain again!
An idea of how that hike feels: spin class on turbo
We arrived at the "hill" from a long bus ride and found out the gondola (not the water floating kind the up in the air kind) was expensive. We had wanted to hike so we looked at the signs and thought, why not do the three hour hike? It would be a nice hike, we will get to the middle station and take the gondola down for about 5 euros each. So we started to climb and climb and climb. I mean some serious uphill battles unlike any hike we have done in Georgia. There were few flat areas in this hike. There were cows and sheep and goats with their little bells on prancing all around and me DYING!!! It was hot, sunny and dusty. I got about 10 minutes into the hike and thought no way am I getting to the top. I cannot do this for three hours. No way. James said "You can always grab on to my backpack" I also thought "I am NOT going to be the new 'Crabby' who gets his butt hauled up the mountain either".
I have known you need to work through your muscle burn, your exhaustion and hit that plateau where you can go forever. I worked through the burn and was at the exhaustion for a looonnnng time. Lucky for me I was too stubborn to give up. I fought my way up that mountain. James went way ahead of me (darn men with their higher muscle mass) since he has been working out a lot more. I worked and worked and worked. We completed the hike (minus the hiking poles and boots everyone else had) in about 1.5 hours much better than the posted time. We sat looking at the glacier watched the snow melt and had panini sandwiches and wine while basking in the sun among the goat and sheep poop. We took the gondola down and dreamed of skiing here some winter day.
Alas when we got back in Innsbruck (after a sleepy busride) we found ourselves to be filthy dirty, horribly sweaty, and sunburnt. Both of our necks took the brunt of the burn along with face and upper arms. We felt good at "conquering the Alps" and I would put myself through that pain again!
An idea of how that hike feels: spin class on turbo
posted by Noellebellz at 1:05 PM
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