120 miles on trains and buses from the Jamtalhütte to the Hotel Gasthaus Schwarzenstein in Ginzling.
We heard an unusual language spoken in the dining room at breakfast: American-accented English. Four friends were spending a few days at the Jamtalhütte for an annual get-together, day-hiking in the surrounding peaks on the Swiss border. One was from Big Bear in Southern California.
Our original plan was to walk 6 miles down to Galtür. At breakfast, however, we learned there is a taxi service. Walking down the road wouldn’t be that exciting, so we decided to take the taxi and have more time in Ginzling, our destination for today.
We waited a while for the taxi, but the scheduled time came and went so we decided to start walking and enjoy a little more of the scenery.
As we were walking down the valley we saw the taxi driving up. We flagged him down and he agreed to pick us up on his way back down from the Jamtalhütte. About a mile down the road from the hut we came to a bridge over the Jambach (creek) and stopped to take in the beauty of this place.
The taxi picked us up here and took us down to the dorfplatz (village center) in Galtür. We strolled around town, then stopped in a restaurant for coffee and Kaiserschmarrn.
From across the street from the restaurant, we boarded a bus that took us down the Paznauntal valley (on the Paznauntalstraße) to Landeck where we boarded an ÖBB (Österreichische Bundesbahnen, Austrian Federal Railways) train to our next destination. The train passed through Innsbruck before arriving in Jennbach a couple stops later. At the Jennbach bahnhof, we changed trains to the Zillertalbahn, which took us through the Zillertal valley to Mayrhofen.
At the end of the Zillertal line in Mayrhofen, we boarded a bus at the Bahnhof for the final leg up to our hotel in Ginzling, the last town on the road into the Zillertal Alps.
The bus stopped right at the front door of the charming Hotel Gasthaus Schwarzenstein. My room had an extra bed, so we decided to cancel Allan’s room and bunk together in one room.
After unpacking a bit, we strolled around the lovely hamlet of Ginzling, stopping at the Cafe Alpenland for beer and strudel.
the church in Ginzling.
Back at the hotel, we cleaned up, did some laundry, and then went down to the hotel restaurant for dinner (pork medallions).
