TRAVEL WRITING CHALLENGE

St. Jakob in Tyrol — Another Childhood Travel Destination

The A to Z of my favorite travel destinations

I’m stuck. My alphabet stops at the letter “I”. Just after publishing the post about one of my favorite countries, Italy, I don’t even come up with a single country, city, or river that starts with a “J” and has been visited by me.

Not one.

All I can think of is Japan and how badly I want to visit the country.

I’ve scrolled through Google maps but didn’t find anything in the countries I’ve visited. I typed in “countries with j” but that didn’t help either. I typed in “cities with j” and found the first time a familiar name.

Johannesburg.

The crime city of South Africa. That’s at least how I knew the place. I arrived there. With an overlander bus and somehow got dropped off in the city center instead of near the airport as planned. It was horrible. I was scared. And the city surely didn’t make it up to my favorite travel destinations list.

So, what now?

Look further. Look for cities in Germany. Or Austria?

And then there came up this name of a place in the mountains.

St. Jakob in Tyrol.

Yes, you have to write it with the add-on describing it to the tyrolean region because every Austrian district has a “St. Jakob”.

But I only have connections and memories of one specific St. Jakob. It’s where I possibly learned to walk, build a snowman, catch fish, not get bitten by a snake, climb a peak as high as 3,000 meters, bring cattle back from the meadows, and many other things.

Yes, I’ve spent many summer (and winter) vacations staying at a farmhouse in a tiny village in the alps. Together with my parents we didn’t just do a hiking holiday but lived there. We were friends with the farmer, helped him in the fields and the farmer’s wife always played with us children.

I wasn’t even a year old when we stayed the first time in the tiny village called “Erlsbach”, a village that is part of the town council of St. Jakob. Located 1500 m above sea level this place is surely high up in the mountain valleys of the Alps.

That first year I spent most of the hiking trips in the backpack my dad was carrying but now and then I was allowed to put my feet on the ground and play on the mountain slopes.

My parents quickly became friends with the farmer's family and my dad didn’t hesitate to help the farmer with the harvest.

We came back in the wintertime to play in the snow, build a snowman, and eventually learn how to ski. The moment I was able to walk more or less stable, my parents decided it was time to get a step further.

Looking through the pictures in the old photo books one can see I did enjoy myself in the snow.

Back then the winters were cold and loaded with heaps of snow.

My favorite part of the winter holiday was always skiing with my dad. I was just the one sitting in the backpack telling him to go faster. But look no further. We were a cool duo.

We both had those sunglasses for another 15 years (I might be slightly exaggerating but we did have them for long).

Back to the summer.

Erlsbach wasn’t just the name of the village we stayed in but also the name of the river flowing through the valley. Yes, the water was freezing cold but that doesn’t stop a child from having fun.

As I got older I helped the farmer as well. As much as I could at least. For example, raking the cut grass.

Another job I loved doing together with the father of the farmer was bringing the cattle back from the pasture. The old man and the young girl were making a great team. The cattle had no chance to escape.

So yes, St. Jakob in Tyrol is my favorite travel destination with the letter “J”. And after going through the photo books and after writing down this story I must admit I got curious and wouldn’t mind going back. Visiting this place after 20 years once more.

Why not?

This is a response to a writing prompt started by Sam Millichap and continued by Adrienne Beaumont. Read their stories with “J”.

“Jaipur, Jaisalmer or Jodhpur?” and

“Japan”

We welcome Jerry Dwyer and Michael Rhodes who also started to join the fun. Here are their stories with “B”.

“Beautiful Barcelona” and

“Belize”

Robert G. Longpré I missed when he started the challenge. Here is his submission with “Austria”.

And our latest participant is Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages with “I Can’t Even Choose One ‘A’”

You can find the full series of the “A to Z of my favorite travel destinations” in the reading list here.

A — “From Akwidaa to Axim”

C — “My Southernmost Destination in the World — The Cape”

G — “Ghana — Because of the People”

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