Alberschwende, Brüggelekopf & a Concert

The day after the cows came home (by the way, I don't know whether the method of cow farming on different pastures over the summer and moving them back home for the winter is the origin of the phrase "...until the cows come home"), on Sunday 6 September, the village of Bizau held its annual village fête, called Kilbe in this area. 

It was set up on the square where the cows had come through on the Friday (the square having been cleaned up meticulously by the local firemen) right next to our hotel. We were going to have a look round later but wanted to make use of the beautiful sunny and warm day (27C) first.

Kanisfluh, about 7:15 am that morning from our balcony

A bus took us to Bezau and from there another one to Alberschwende, a place we had not visited before. There, a tour suggested in our booklet lead up to a peak called Brüggelekopf, promising great views.

Alberschwende

The views were indeed great, but the way up there was steep and the path not easy; I found it VERY exhausting and had to stop for breath a few times. We met few other people on the way up, and only a few more on the way down on a different path.

View from Brüggelekopf

On the way down

Back in Bizau, the Kilbe was in full swing, and before we went to the hotel, still in our hiking clothes we had a shandy there on the square and a stroll around the stalls. The locals were offering all sorts of products from their own honey, bread and cheese to home-crafted decorative objects, baby clothes and cosmetics. There was also plenty of food and drink on offer, but we only wanted the refreshing shandy, since another 4-course dinner was waiting for us later at the hotel.

Also, we were in for a special event: 

The nearest big city of this area, Dornbirn, has a big music school. Of the talented children and young musicians between 12 and 20, about 60 make up the Youth Sinfonical Orchestra. Every year, they meet for a week at the end of the summer holidays in Bizau, where they occupy the elementary school, practising all day every day. 

Since our hotel was right next to the school, we could hear them practising every afternoon when we returned from our hikes and sat on our balcony. 

Their practice week ends with a concert, held at the school's sports hall. Having heard them all week, we wanted to hear the full concert, too.

Showered and dressed appropriately for such an event, we found seats in the hall and were ready for the concert by 5:00 pm.

It was really good, the program covering various styles and eras of music, and we truly enjoyed the experience, donating generously (there were no fixed ticket prices, it was all based on donations).

Dinner was next, followed by our customary evening walk around the village to end a beautiful Sunday.

A Day in Bizau

I have explained already a little about how cow farming works in the Alpine regions of Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland: 

Usually, cows only spend the harshest winter months in their stables on the farms in the villages. As soon as the snow is gone and pastures start to show fresh green grass again, the cows (and often goats along with them) are taken to a mid-level height on the nearby mountains. This mostly happens around April, and they stay there no later than June. Once summer arrives, the herds move further up the mountains where they usually spend at least July and August; depending on the weather and other conditions, they may arrive at their highest pastures (called Alpe or Alm, depending on the region) as early as mid-June and stay until the middle or even end of September.

In any case, the return of the herds to their villages for the winter is a pivotal day for the entire village, signalling the "official" end of summer.

Saturday, the 5th of September, was that day for Bizau.

Kanisfluh at 7:30 from our room

On Friday, hotel staff had already advised all guests to move their cars from the central square between church, school, hotel and shop to other places where they would be out of the way from the herds walking through the village to the large pasture near the sports fields where they would be sorted and handed back to their owners to take them to their farms for winter.

My husband had wisely moved the car to such a safe place on Friday evening; it would have been rather difficult to find a good spot on Saturday morning.

The first animals and their minders arrived shortly after 10:30, eagerly awaited by the crowd on the square and along the route. Some of them had been on their way since sunrise; several of their summer quarters are quite far up, and you can't rush a herd of cows along steep, narrow mountain paths. The herders marked the important occasion having adorned their hats with wild flowers and branches, as well as their cows wearing "crowns", some with crosses, and bearing the names of their Alpes.

The noise, sights, sounds (and a bit of smell) was quite something to behold! I want to show you a video that O.K. made, but I'm afraid it's too large for here; I'll ask him to send me the shortened version he also made.

In the meantime, here is a photo showing the back end (literally) of the procession of cows on their way to being sorted.

We followed the last of the groups to the sorting field and watched the sorting for a while. It's clearly not a job for the faint hearted! The young men and women handling the cows had to be very much "hands on", and most of them looked a little worse for wear after a while, but as far as we could see, nobody came to any harm; most of the cows were placid. Only two large ones - obviously the "bosses" of their respective herds - briefly got into a fight, but were quickly separated by their skilled herders.

Eventually, we had seen enough and went back to the hotel to change into hiking clothes. Since it was already early afternoon, we opted for the "Goßarweag" (goat herder's path) around the village, the same one we had done in 2023. (Click on the year to reach my post from back then, if you want to learn more and compare pictures.)

It had rained early in the morning and intermittently a few times, but not enough to make the paths dangerously slippery (some of them are quite steep).

After the walk, we still had time for a bit of a rest in our room before showering and changing for dinner. And of course, we went out again after the meal for a short evening walk and were rewarded with this fantastic sunset view across Bizau:

Schröcken to Warth

In the 14th century, immigrants from the province Wallis in Switzerland settled in the Bregenzerwald in Austria. Having developed agricultural methods that allowed them to live off much higher grounds than the native population, the rulers of the time welcomed them, offering tax-free living and no interference in administrative or religious matters. The Walsers (meaning "from Wallis") soon founded their own small settlements, and a string of "Walser villages" around Tannberg opens the possibility to follow the traces of this particular ethnic group.

Our booklet suggested a tour linking two such settlements, and so on Friday, the 4th of September, we took three different buses to arrive at the village of Schröcken to start the tour.

7:30 am from our balcony

Seat of the local administration in the village of Schröcken

Village church in Schröcken

I liked the zig-zag roof.

Steep paths start as soon as one leaves the village, first down...

...across a mountain stream...

...and then up with a view of the village far below.

This time, it wasn't a round tour but ended in Warth, another village where we took the first of three buses back to Bizau.

I don't know how many km we walked, but - with a few short breaks - we went up and down many a hill and some steep paths for about 4 hours. It was beautiful and varied, if rather exhausting. 

Many times we walked among cows with no fence between them and us, but similar to Schönenbach, the animals were relaxed in the presence of humans, and so was I mostly (but I do admit that I always felt better once we had put some distance between us and them, and preferably a closed gate). 

We even came across what was voted in 2017 the "most beautiful place in Austria" - the Körbersee, a small lake that can only be reached on foot. We found it pretty enough but with so many beautiful places and fabulous views all around, we would have been hard pressed to decide on just one as the most beautiful.

Not far after this one, another, larger lake came up, the Kalbelesee. Once again, there were many cows around, but there was also an Alpe where the family had not yet shut shop for the winter. It was a welcome chance to sit down and have a refreshing shandy before walking on.

Warth village, where our tour ended

By 6:00 pm, we were back at the hotel. We showered and changed and went downstairs for another delicious dinner, after which of course we went out for a short evening stroll before calling it a day.

If you want to find out more about this particular region, their official website (in English) is here.

Schönenbach Revisited

Oh no, not another "revisited" post, I hear you groan. But I'm afraid that's what it is - we revisited Schönenbach on Thursday, the 3rd of September, and there followed the same paths we did back in 2023.

Kanisfluh from our room at 7:38 that morning

The bus to Schönenbach leaves from the square between our hotel, the tiny supermarket, the church and the school. Distance-wise, it's not far - less than 8 km. But the bus journey still feels rather long, as the bus has to go slowly for most of the way on a narrow winding road through dense woods along a stream. Two vehicles passing each other is very difficult, overtaking as good as impossible. I remembered the bus ride well from three years ago and consider it part of the adventure.

About Schönenbach itself I have written before (click the link at the top of this post, if you like), and we found it unchanged - there were still many more cows than people, and because those cows are so used to walking and resting everywhere and having people around, they are completely relaxed, and I wasn't at all afraid of them.

They weren't interested in us anyway, and we set off on our hike, a round tour above Schönenbach, reaching the bus stop again after 3 hours and 10 minutes of walking, which we enjoyed greatly.

Just like in 2023, the alp houses where the cow farmers and cheese makers live during the summer (and often sell food and drink to hikers) were closed already until next May or so, such as this one:

I was happy to spot gentian along the way:

Coming back towards Schönenbach, the last part of the hike was on the same path where we had started:

We had about an hour to wait for the bus back to Bizau and reached the hotel mid-afternoon with enough time for a rest and a shower before getting changed for dinner.

Afterwards, of course we went on our customary sunset walk, and it was really quite spectacular that evening, as my husband's photos illustrate:

We also passed by the tiny private chapel on a hill on the outskirts of Bizau we had discovered three years ago: