The previous year, husband and I had gone on our own and the second day had set out towards Hildersheimer Hutte. We kept meeting people who seemed concerned, so we asked "Ist Hildersheimer Hutte da" to which they replied "Ja, aber incomprehensible, incomprehensible." OK, it was there, we would just go there. Which we did, to find out it was indeed there, but it had been knocked down by avalanches and the family that ran it were servinglunch-time soup in the ruins, so we had to climb over another ridge to get somewhere to sleep, another day's walk. I don't know how our lack of linguistic skills didn't lead to worse trouble. Another day husband was playing chess with a German student, who CASTLED while in check. They both appealed to me for a ruling, and knowing nothing, I said it was OK as I thought it more polite to let the host country win. Better language skills might have sorted that out as well.
