Aug 6. Tuesday. [6 August 1895] Went to the swimming baths after
breakfast - very amusing, the Schwimm Meister was in great form and
taught us some new ways of diving. There was the most awful little
woman, tiny, fat and bright yellow whose bathing costume showed all
her person under her arms - I discovered the Schwimm Meister
affectionately fastening the collar of her gown as I was going away!
We went on into Innsbr¸ck and came back just in time to dress before
lunch. After lunch Papa, Elsa and I set out to the Senn H¸tte but we
went an awful long way round and climbed straight up the hill by a
shocking road, first a stony watercourse and then through Austrian
pines, miles and miles and miles and incredibly steep! At last we
came out on the path, far above the Senn H¸tte and decided that it
was too late to go on to the Frau H¸tt as we had meant, so we
proceeded to run down to the Senn H¸tt. It was just as well as it turned
out for the clouds came sweeping over the mountain top and when we
stopped at the watercourse to eat chocolate, it began to pour. When
we got to the Senn H¸tt we found to our surprise that it was inhabited
by an old Sch‰fer who, when we asked if we could geniess anything
replied that we could have bread, cheese, wine and milk. The only
difficulty was that he could not see his way to giving us less that 2 litres
of milk and a 1/4 of an enormous cheese! However we finally got
reasonable quantities though we still had more than enough cheese
for it tasted like an old sponge! There were a man and 2 children in
the H¸tte who had walked up from Innsbr¸ck - we all sat round an
open wood fire, the smoke of which blackened the rafters and choked
us, and the Sch‰fer invited us to spend the night there on the hay - but
we thought on the whole we would not. Going down in the rain we
followed a delusive path along the hillside which we believe goes
straight on to Munich [M¸nchen] without swerving to right or left - we
however when we had gone along it for some miles, took down what
looked like a watercourse which landed us in the village of M¸hlau.
We got in at 7.30 - delicious hot bath and most acceptable supper.
The Alpen rose was growing in masses above the Senn H¸tte - as we
came down we were like people in a fairy story pursued by mist
giants from over the mountains.