blattform excursion to villanderer alm

to make the chronological confusion on this blog perfect, here’s an entry about a trip last weekend.

erich from blattform, a group that consists mostly of biologists and/or biology students, organized a two-day excursion to south tirol’s biggest moor/bog-area: villanderer alm*.
* in south tirol, the word “alm” indicates a whole pasture or area, while in north tirol the term is limited to an alpine kind-of restaurant.

moorlands

although it’s fall, and most plants have prepared for winter already, we did find some rarities – like the bog-rosemary (andromeda polifolia, rosmarinheide) and the northern bog clubmoss (lycopodiella inundata; moorbärlapp).
unfortunately, drosera rotundifolia (the round leaf sundew, rundblättriger sonnentau) has already lost its leaves, but we did find some leaf buds…

the landscape was very pretty, too. it’s strange that it reminded me of the prairie, although i haven’t ever been there either. oh well, the movies. :???:

we enjoyed “törggelen”, an autumnal south tyrolean custom with lots of tasty foods, at stöffelhütte on saturday evening, and stayed there over night.
on sunday, we continued our tour to the schwarzsee lakes, up to totenkirchl/totensee, and then back across a plateau with a view of almost 360 degrees.

 
while up at totenkirchl (dead’s chapel), i overheard this little conversation – i thought it was so funny, because the father said it in a very dry and neutral way:

[quote of the day]
(little boy:) didn’t all of this (south tyrol) belong to austria once?
(mother:) yes, it did. but then they lost world war 2.
(boy:) why?
(father:) they started something they couldn’t finish.

[view photos: excursion to villanderer alm]

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