If you love mountains and hiking it, then we can understand each other beautifully.Mountains, alpine lakes, and beautiful hikes is just my addictive hobby and being able to do it up until now is such a huge blessing.To tell you honestly, the sight from above is just amazing, but it has a price. Although everyone loves looking at the view from above, honestly,not everyone really wanna climb and do that exhausting trekking sans the modern cable cars.

Last week, I managed to reached Olpererhütte in Zillertal Alps in Austria and that was another mind blowing- experience.But another thing that was left in my memory was cow-sightings, yes, once again!The sight of cows, goats, Steinbocks, mountain butterflies and beautiful alpine flowers makes each hike very scenic and unforgettable!

A dear Blogger that I follow shared her sweet encounter with Donkeys during her walks, but for me, my encounter with cows whenever we hike is always a dear entertainment.I will tell you why.

In the areas of Tyrol, Süd Tirol, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, also very typical here in Bavaria, the sight of cows lazing around on green pasteurs is quite normal.I would be sad if I didn´t see any cows at all!I have seen them million times and they are really fascinating because each of the cows are wearing this cute, over the top, if not large, very huge Bells! Cow bells that really rings!

The bell-clinging sound is simply magical. Sometimes a bit alarming especially when the whole herd comes towards us!It brings back memories when my daughter was still so engrossed with “Bauernhof” or Farm life.From seeing all the rabbits, goats,chickens and other livestocks, to cheese factories and milking the cows itself.Those are precious time.

I kind of wonder why do all of them wear it and realized that it actually serves for a reason. I was so engrossed with it that I find myself rummaging around in the souvenir shops in the valley looking for the kind of Tirolean cow bells.I thought it would be nice to hang it in the bathroom or just anywhere in the house.I finally found one, a red one,from Süd Tirol and I really love it.

In these modern times, these “Bells” serves as the primitive GPS or tracking device for farmers to track their flocks and herds of cows whenever they graze freely kilometers away from the farm .Some wears really cute ones and large ones I´ve seen on more touristy mountains like Dolomites.These bells even have a unique sound so the farmers knows exactly which cow or which group it belongs to or which cow is lagging up behind.

Here in Germany, the ones who wears the biggest bell has the deepest sound so its considered to be the leader of the herd.The use of bells also is very beneficial since when the herds makes a loud ringing sound, it can scare off predators like snakes or even humans or thieves at night.

In Italy and here in Germany, they have a tradition in Autumn called “Almabrieb” where herds of cows are brought down to the valley before winter and in late spring when snow has melted, they bring them up again. When we were in the Dolomites last year, we have seen many of these types, also the tourist trap cows grazing beside Lago di Braies.I am sure these cows were in social media as well since tourists are fond of taking selfies beside these cows.

Germany ,and here in region in Bavaria maybe the home of Audis, BMW and Volkswagen, but if you come to Germany and in the Alps, this wonderful tradition and the festival of cow parade will surely captivate your heart like it did to mine.I adore the Black & white Holstein-Friesian breed of cows in the Netherlands as well but seeing these muscular cows with their ringing bells in all of my mountain experience is really unforgettable.

Until then, Servus & Tschüß!