More Stories From Germany

Right now we’re driving again. The Alps are behind us but still visible. It’s Friday around 6:00pm. I’m going to try and remember everything we did in the last two days since I typed out the last post. That was Wednesday and we were still on our way to the Alps. After we arrived at our hotel in Austria, we unpacked and then went for a walk thru the little mountain town. It was a very quaint, cute town surrounded by huge mountains with snow covered peaks. It was a little overcast so we couldn’t see the tops of the mountains. After our walk we at dinner at our hotel and called it a night. Here's a picture of the town and our hotel is on the right with lighted railings:



Here is a picture of the view from our hotel:


Yesterday (Thursday) we woke up and realized it had rained during the night and was still drizzling and very foggy. We had planned to go up to the top of the tallest mountain in the German Alps – which was right by our hotel - but because of the weather we decided to drive about an hour to the city of Innsbruck instead. The Olympics were held in Innsbruck a few years ago. On our way to Innsbruck Jon and I were once again in the car with Oma, Benjamin & Daniel. Oma makes me laugh because she talks almost constantly to herself in the back seat. At one point we noticed she was counting; then we discovered she was counting cars that passed us… when she finally stopped she had counted 500 cars! :) She was just doing that again recently. Her favorite word is “schoen” which means “nice” and she is always pointing to things and telling us they’re schoen. That makes me laugh too.

In Innsbruck we walked around exploring the town, had lunch and visited a big, elaborate, Catholic Church. The whole time we were also looking for wireless internet so I could upload my blog entry. We couldn’t find it anywhere! It’s not like around home. We found one internet café but they didn’t have wireless internet. Later we found out why… they are charged per-minute for internet, there’s no flat rate in Austria. So when we got back to our hotel we were able to use a computer in the office and transfer my blog entry using a USB port and our camera. It took a few steps but we did it. Here is us in Innsbruck:


When we got back from Innsbruck it was too late to go up on the mountain so we had some free time to explore the town some more. Jon and I went into a grocery store to see how different it was. They had some of the same things but almost everything was different. And their milk comes in little cardboard cartons that are less than ½ a gallon. For dinner we had pizza again. Yum! I love the pizza over here! Oh, and it was also Benjamin’s 23rd birthday yesterday. The hotel decorated our table for breakfast and brought out a chocolate cake with candles.

Today was the really busy day! This morning we packed up all our stuff and loaded the cars, then we went up to the top of the mountain called “Die (The) Zugspitze”. It was awesome! To get to the top you went in something like an enclosed ski lift – I’ll show a picture of it because I can’t describe it. It was kinda scary, especially on the way back down. When we got to the top of the mountain we were above the clouds. The view was incredibly breathtaking and unlike anything we had ever seen. I’ll post a few pictures.

This is a picture of the cart we rode up the mountian:


This is up at the top of the mountain. In order it is: Daniel, Connie, Robert, Jon's Mom, Jon and I:

After going up the mountain we drove to see an old castle built back in the 1800’s. That too was amazing! It was huge and very elaborate – built on the top of a mountain with taller mountains around it. To get to the castle we had to take a bus up a tight road with sharp turns and a steep drop-off on one side. The bus driver seemed un-aware of the steep drop-off because he drove that bus way faster than I even would have with my car! Here's a picture of the Castle:

We left the castle about an hour or so ago. Now we’re on our way back to Friedberg where Jon’s cousins live. We still have a few hours of driving till we get there! There’s nothing big planned for our last few days (that I know of). My stomach problems are pretty much gone. I haven’t been having much trouble other than being hungry often. Jon’s sore throat is a little better too, and he’s feeling pretty good.

I’m sure we’ll tell all these stories in much more detail with pictures when we get home. We’ve already taken almost 600 pictures (there are many doubles though)!