Art-Walk-Eat Travels

It is hard to keep track of what day it is. We started the morning with a good breakfast at 7:30 am.

Here are a few pictures of my room.

I had to really pay attention to the shower door. I could imagine running into it, since it is nearly invisible.

This is about the festival that happened last night.

Things that were available at the honesty bar. Jeanne, note that they do have Bailey's.

We gathered at the bus at 8:30 am to head out. Some of the early part of the route was a repeat. Then, around Innsbrook, we headed off in a different direction. Again, we went through 3 countries: Italy, Austria, and Germany. I need to look at a map to see how this is possible.

The drive was uneventful. We stopped around 10:30 am for a WC stop. The European rest stops are so much better than ours. We only stayed about 20 minutes.

Cottonwood "snow", I guess it is the season.

Nathan saw this as an ad to bring people to the store.

Laurel handed out treats after the break.

The next stop was at the bottom of the gondola up to Zugspitze

This is an interesting photo taken from inside the bus. I have no idea what happened, but it is my "arty" photo.

Zugspitze is the tallest mountain in Germany, and the restaurant at the top is the highest beer garden in the world at 9,700 feet

Not everyone in the group went up to the top. Some people stayed at the hotel down below. We got a group discount to use the cable car, but we had to pay in cash to Laurel.

Laurel in the gondola

Note the paraglider

Once we were at the top, we had a couple of hours to have lunch and to walk around. We went to have lunch right away so that we would know how much time we had left to explore.

I had the goulash and Nathan had the potato soup.

I had the lemonade/beer drink - the Radler. It was quite delicious. I didn't have time to finish it. I guess it is available in Oregon, so I will have to check it out.

Gorgeous scenery all the way around.

There was a photo op point that a lot of people seemed to want to get to. I don't get it. We have one rock climber in our group, and even he said it was a little scary.

There is no way that I would have done that.

One small snow bank. Nathan climbed in in bare feet. I was supposed to take a picture of him when he got to the top, but I messed up. Even my video was messed up.

Standing up snow angels.

We thought that it might be chilly up on top. I had my sweater, but with the sun it was plenty warm enough to not need it.

Wall of locks

Very clear, brilliant blue lake

At 2:40 we headed down. We had to make sure that we got the gondola going down on the Austrian side instead of the German side.

We got on the bus and headed on to Füssen. It was very hot, 86 degrees. Luckily, the bus has AC. It was supposed to be a 1-hour drive but it took almost 2 hours. We found out that there had been an accident.

Slow traffic.

Now we saw why.

After we passed that, it was pretty quick. But because we were late, it messed up some of the Füssen plans. Part of the group were renting bikes and they had to get to the bike rental by a certain time. But it all worked out.

My room was 211. Nathan was in room 213. The "2" indicated which building.

We each have a balcony. I needed instructions on how to open the door to the balcony. Very interesting setup. Turn the handle one way and it is a window that opens from the top, but if you turn the handle another way and it opens like a regular door.

This hotel is one Rick Steves went to with his Dad 50-odd years ago. He will always come here. It is a quaint place. Some upgrades. I asked for an electric tea kettle. That was definitely a mistake I made with packing. I should have brought my travel tea kettle. I also should have brought fewer winter layers. Maybe another T-shirt. I am washing a lot of clothes in the sink. It has been so hot.

We met downstairs at 6 pm to do an orientation walk.

Füssen is a cute little town. We found out where to go to get the local bus for our castle excursion tomorrow. We have a free bus pass.

After our tour, we wandered around a bit. We went to a market. Some very cool stuff, but I have no room in my suitcase. A lot of it looks just like what we have at home at our Saturday Market.

We had a group dinner at the hotel at 7 pm. We had placed our orders earlier. I had a cheesy spaetzle with crispy onions, and Nathan had a vegetarian stew with gnocchi. For dessert, we had the apple strudel. Very yummy. I had a nice dry Riesling with dinner.