So, we changed our plans and decided to walk to the Landsberger Huette, with the option of either doing the rest of Jubilaeumssteig the following day if the weather improved, or alternatively taking a valley and two saddles route to the Prinz-Luitpold-Haus that we expected would be safe even if the weather was bad.
Since the Landsberger Hut was not far away (some 3h or so), there was no hurry and I went back to bed. After breakfast at 8 we played a round of Carcassonne, said goodbye to Richard and Lidia (who headed back via taxi and then car to Munich), played another game of Carcassonne, and then headed out around midday.
In the meantime we had seen at least a dozen heavy showers pass through, so we were not surprised when it started raining shortly after we got outside, and continued on and off (intermixed with hail) until we reached the Hut in the mid afternoon. Surprisingly our spirits were not dampened by the weather: I can't speak for the others, but in my case I was thinking that it might be raining, but at least we were outside and hiking, and that was more than could be said of, well, of anyone else, actually, since we didn't see a soul on the trails!
After a shower and yet another game of Carcassonne (have I mentioned that we really like the game?), we had just sat down to dinner when Kristof appeared. He had taken a series of trains and busses from Munich to the Vilsalpsee and then had done in 1h 15m what took us about 2h to do. He wasn't as heavily laden, that is true, but it is also true that he would probably have done much the same time even if had he been!
We had a nice evening and now, at 22:31 I am going to go to bed. We have a long hike ahead of us tomorrow -- around 8h if everything goes as planned -- and since it will be cold and rainy/snowy, we'll need every ounce of energy. July 4th in the Alps is rather like Christmas :-).
I probably won't be able to post this or the previous post for a couple of days until we get to Oberstdorf because there is no reception here.
One last thing: I didn't know Richard very well before the H2H, but I had an intuition that he was a good person and that he would fit in on such a hike. My intuition was richly rewarded: he was always cheery (sometimes almost too much so when at the end of a hard day he ran up the stairs in front of me :-), always willing to help, a perfect gentleman and a quick Carcassonne learner, and in every way an excellent H2H guest hiker. Richard: it was a pleasure getting to know you better and we look forward to seeing you at the Neverest Fest!
