Sun 18. [18 August 1895] Up early - Mother called me onto the
balcony to see the mist lying low in the valley hiding all Innsbr¸ck
except the very tops of the church towers. Hugo Elsa Papa L'Amor
and I started off at 7.15 up the Arzler Scharte to Mittenwald. At the top
of the M¸hlauer Klamm we met an old man who said we had 10 hours
to go and we laughed at him but he was more right than we knew for
we took 9 hours. We then went up the steepest hill I have ever been
up, by a zigzag path across and across the stones and full in the sun.
Towards the top I met 3 shepherds driving down flocks of reluctant
sheep. I reached the top of the Joch at 10.15. It looked over into a
great amphitheatre of hills - stony peaks with little lines of snow on
them and grass at the bottom. When the others came up we went on
and presently met a Tiroler who told us we should get water at a
disused Sch‰fer H¸tt further on. But when we got there behold no
water to be found. Papa hunted round and presently discovered it
bubbling out from under a rock, so we sat down and had a delicious
lunch. The water was the best and coldest I have ever tasted. At 12
we were off again. We turned to the left and walked all down the long
narrow and hot valley of the Glieertsch passing at the foot of all our
mountains till we got to Amtsegge which on this occasion we
succeeded in finding and where we had excellent milk. I talked for a
long time with the Fˆrster who told me the hunting belonged to a baron
from Prague [Praha] who comes here 4 times a year. We then had 2
hours walk on to Scharnitz through pine woods, rather dull. We
reached Scharnitz about 4 and crossed the frontier into Bavaria.
Another hour's walk along the road brought us to Mittenwald. Elsa
and I walked on first, Papa and Hugo drove from Scharnitz as the
latter was footsore. Mittenwald is a perfectly charming village with a
long straggling street and detached cottages scattered round about,
the houses solid and big with wide eaves and painted fronts. In our
inn Goethe slept on his way to Italy in 1786, 2 nights before he slept at
Brenner. Elsa and I, after having partaken of a delicious Apfelkuchen,
hunted out a Schwimmbad - it was extremely primitive, my costume
consisted of a chemise and a man's bathing drawers and Elsa's
cabin was invaded by a small boy while she was dressing - he put his
head through a pipe at the top and nearly fell in he was so surprised
to see her. When we returned we found Mother and Molly who had
driven over. We dined on a balcony, the evening was clear and
delicious, and so to bed. L'Amor slept on the children's balcony.