The Lechtal is not among my favourites.
Buit as you will be there anyway, I would suggest to drive from Elmen via Hahntennjoch - Imst - Oetztal - Timmelsjoch to St. Leonhard in Passeier (all excellent hiking areas) and then either via Jaufenpass - Sterzing - Brixen- Pustertal to Alta Badia or via Meran - Gampenjoch - Male to Madonna di Campiglio in the Brenta Dolomites

PJ - greetings from Italy where the cranky knees are getting a workout. Appreciate the mention; now you've really piqued my interest...

@Melnq8, I've discovered that there's no better way for me to procrastinate than catching up on your prior trip reports. I'm only a few days in and just want to make a few comments before I forget.

That garlic soup in Munich, it looks kind of strange? What are the many little blobs?

Those stairs to Stuibenfalls, oh my!!! My knees hurt from just looking at the photos.

I am truly amazed by you and Bill, and admire your travel style. I can only imagine how much time you put into planning the trip, esp researching the bus schedules. I can see why you prefer going in the shoulder season, but OTOH you really have to just embrace the uncertainty of unreliable transit schedules, and you seem to do that with such grace!

Also, I love the google map you post at the start of your TR, that is so immensely helpful for me to follow along

Hi yk, good to see you here.

The garlic soup was in Sölden, and the blobs were round croutons. Yeah, those stairs put us through our paces.

We do a fair bit of research, but often just wing it once we arrive. For instance, we didn't even know about the falls until after we'd arrived and looked at a local map. Bill does most of the transport research, but as you can see, it doesn't always go to plan:)

Flight Momitoring
 

How do you monitor flights-an App or just spend the time to search daily ?

Flight Monitoring
 

How do you monitor flights-an App or just spend the time to search daily ?

How do you monitor flights-an App or just spend the time to search daily?

Google Flight alerts and periodic searching. Currently doing the same for a trip in September.

Melnq8 Now caught up to end of Vipiteno. It looks really beautiful there (quite possibly helped by the blue skies), the mountain views are gorgeous. It seems like most places are fairly deserted, and then others are packed (like the cable car and train up Bolzano)? Why do you think that is? I'm looking at the map and Bolzano is a much bigger city, is that why? Are all of those people retired Italians or Austrians? I'm also surprised about the St Joann church where you saw the Asian instagrammer, normally I see these folks at the super popular tourist places. Finally, a question about the wedding party and also those car groups, where were they staying? From your description many hotels and services are closed so I'm suprised these groups found places to stay. Sorry about all these Qs which you probably don't have an answer for, but they just struck me as I am reading along.

Also, I'm amazed Bill did all that hiking while having bronchitis! Do you two normally stay super active in Colorado? I'm jealous of your type of travel, having time to explore each place at a leisurely pace. Our is always too little time to see everything as we are bound by work and school obligations.

P.S. where are you heading in September?

yk - I'll try to answer what I can.

Bolzano is the capital and largest city of South Tyrol, hence the numbers of people. I suspect the Ritten cable car/train is a big draw as well, and it's free with tourist card, so lots of tourists.

No idea if the Asian woman was an instagrammer; she was with a group of four, and the others evidently didn't want to pay the entrance fee, so she might have been filming for their benefit. Other than her, it was just the two of us at the church, possibly due to time of year. It just struck me as odd, and I don't honestly know if the church is all that popular with the insta crowd or not.

I think the wedding group was staying in one of the two open hotels in Colfosco; we saw them when we stopped in for drinks one evening.

No idea where the car groups were staying, they might have just been passing through - I think they were Brits.

We walk routinely at home, and most of our trips involve a fair bit of hiking, although we're slowing down as we age.

We're planning six weeks in Switzerland and Northern Italy in Sept/Oct.

Mel, thanks for your reply! Wow 6 weeks in the Fall, that is really lovely.

I finished your report and am sad that it's over, but I realize you have many more TRs which I haven't read in the past :) Your TRs are so enjoyable, and I find myself chukling along too, esp with your description of each apartment having a coffee machine that takes a different size of pod. We certainly made that mistake on our last trip when shopping at the supermarket :O

Did Bill get his reisling glasses from Riedel factory?

The Tre Cime truly looks amazing. I thought Lago di Briaes looks really pretty too in your photos despite an overcast day. What type of rain gear do you wear? Do they really keep you dry even when hiking in the rain for 2 hours? Esp your feet? I admire your hiking spirit!

BTW, I have type A personality and that's why I enjoy visiting Switzerland so much when everything runs on time and works perfectly. It's also a reason why I've been avoiding returning to Italy. So I can empathize when you travel to Italy and Austria with the delays and unpredictability (is the bus coming? did we miss it? etc etc). thanks again for the TR, you have such a gift of writing them :)

I appreciate your kind words yk. Yes, Bill bought a set of Riesling glasses from the Riedel factory and they miraculously survived the trip home.

We both have rain pants with jackets in addition to Gortex jackets. We also have waterproof Keen hiking boots, which is what we wore on our visit to Lake Braies. Bill's jacket wasn't up to the task that day and he got pretty wet, I fared a bit better in my Gortex jacket. Our rubber rain pants worked great, as did our waterproof boots.