Mostly Austria

TO ALL

Last Saturday was the beginning of a 4 day weekend for most of us in the Army. Mike and I had been debating for some time about what new corner of Europe to explore. In the end the deciding factor was that Mike had been asked to help with a retreat in Garmish the 3 days prior to the weekend. It made sense for me to meet him in Garmish and do some things in that area. As it turned out, the last event of the retreat was cancelled. So – at 10:00am on Friday – Mike and I found ourselves 5 hours from home with 5 days at our disposal instead of 4. Deanna was at Bootcamp at Precept Ministries in Chattanooga, Tennessee, so Mike and I were alone – just the 2 of us! We had taken the 2 back seats of our van and left them at home so we could sleep in the van – camping without having to pitch a tent is pretty cool.

Garmish – Partenkirchen is a little town in southern Germany (2 towns really – ski resorts in the winter). There is a small military base in Garmish with a brand new resort hotel on it called the Edelweiss Lodge. We had heard a lot about it so it was good to see it first hand. It is really nice but I’m not convinced it is worth the price. The town of Garmish, however, is well worth a visit. To quote Mike, it is “Estes Park Colorado except the mountains are closer.” It was tempting to hang out around Garmish for a day or two, but we decided to save that for another trip. Mike is doing another retreat there in late August and I am planning to go with him. Also we have relatives coming in September who are retired military and are interested in checking out Garmish.

Window boxes with flowers in them are a big deal all over Germany, but they really go all out in Bavaria (southern Germany). This time of year in particular they are really pretty. If I had ANY interest in gardening or even a pale green thumb I would want window boxes in every window of my house. Unfortunately I have neither of the above. We actually do have window boxes in 2 of our windows, courtesy of the “self-help” store on post and a stairwell neighbor that has too much energy for her own good. But . . . the screens cannot be removed from our windows so maintaining them is a big headache. Mike has learned to water them by “throwing” water through the screen, but to cut off the dead blossoms, you have to go outside and stand on a ladder. Yeah Army!!!!

Back to our trip - we headed south, through Innsbruck, Austria and over Brenner Pass into Italy. As Rick Steves says “Even those who know a Rocky Mountain high find something special about the Alps.” The weather on Friday was a little on the rainy, foggy side but the clouds moved around enough to give us some fairly good views of the Alps. The Alps are not as massive as the Rockies but they rise up more abruptly from the valley floors and are more rocky and pointy at the top – “cut glass peaks” as Rick Steves calls them. The lower levels are mostly farm land, so there is a mixing of man and nature that you don’t find in the Rockies. I’m not sure there is any such thing as “wilderness” in the Alps in the sense that someone from Colorado or Washington would define that word.

An observation about roads: Europeans – particularly Austrians – seem to have pretty high expectations about how level an autobahn ought to be. If a road needs to go down, they built a bridge, if it needs to go up they built a tunnel. Hence, in the Alps, the autobahns are about 1/3 tunnel, 1/3 bridge and 1/3 normal road (How would you like to be in charge of bridge maintenance for Austria, Uncle John?). If you want to actually SEE the Alps, you are probably better off taking a secondary road.

In Italy we checked out Reifenstein Castle. Unfortunately it was closed on Fridays – I should read the guide books more carefully, huh? – but the walk up to the entrance made a nice excuse to get out of the car and stretch our legs a bit and enjoy the countryside and the views.

Next we went back across Brenner Pass and checked out a little town outside of Innsbruck, Austria called Hinterhornalm (one of Rick Steves “Back Doors”). Hinterhornalm is at the end of a very narrow, winding, steep (but paved) road. The views of the Inns River valley get more and more incredible as you go up. At the end of the road is a restaurant and a parking lot from which you can walk 20 minutes to Walderalm, a working dairy farm. The walk there was lovely – a little bit rainy but not enough to spoil the fun. The wildflowers were gorgeous. Everything was “picture perfect” - and believe me I took lots of pictures – Mike is a very patient husband. When one is limited only by the size of one’s memory card and not by the cost of film it is tempting to go crazy taking pictures. Unfortunately, the sorting and deleting later on can be overwhelming.

We spent the night at a campground in Hall and the next morning we drove to Hallstatt – still in Austria. Hallstatt is situated right on a large lake, wedged between it and a really high mountain. The setting is really picturesque – I’m running out of superlatives. Every town in Europe regardless of size has as at least one church. I am finding the similarities and differences in construction - especially that of the steeples - to be very fascinating. (I am in danger of becoming one of those fanatics that insist that a church is not a church without a steeple – heaven help any building committee I might ever be on!) Anyway, Hallstatt has two churches – one Protestant and one Catholic. The Protestant church has a particularly unique and attractive steeple. The Catholic church also has an attractive steeple but it’s the little chapel on the grounds that wins the prize for uniqueness (yes, I know Prof Glessner and all you grammarians, unique is not a relative word --- but like I said, I’m running out of superlatives). The chapel is filled with human bones - no joke – sculls all stacked up on a shelf with names written on them and femurs neatly stacked on the floor beneath the shelf. Apparently the shortage of land in Hallstatt is such that they didn’t use to allow bodies to “rest in peace” for more than 12 years. After 12 years they were dug up to make room for more bodies. Now the Catholic church allows cremation, so their problem is solved.

Our second day in Hallstatt we decided that the weather was nice enough to warrant the price of a gondola ticket to the top of Krippenstein - a nearby Alp. The view at the top was incredible – also the wildflowers – different kinds than we have in Colorado or Washington. Something about the “shape” of the tundra was different than what I’m used to – probably something to do with the mountains being limestone instead of granite. There were a bunch of hang-gliders taking off from the top. More great opportunities for pictures! On the way down we got off at Schonbergalm and toured an ice cave – as Ana would say we went “kerplunking.” A German speaking guide lead us through about a half mile of underground tunnels and caverns and we saw lots of amazing ice formations – created by large quantities of water seeping through limestone into caverns where the temperature hovers right around freezing. The various caverns are named after scenes from Wagner operas. In one cavern there was a baby grand piano sitting on a mat on the ice. Apparently they do concerts IN the cave – give me a break!!!

That night we decided we didn’t want to pay 20 euros for a campsite just for a place to park and the use of a toilette so we parked at a “city” park along with a bunch of Czechs (i.e. people from the Czech Republic, which was only about 100km away). A sign said “no tents” but it didn’t say “no overnight parking.” No one pitched a tent and no one hassled us. Woe to anyone who tried that in the US!

The next day the weather was clear and sunny and we headed for Melk, a little town on the Donau river (otherwise known as the Danube) just upstream from Vienna. We are saving Vienna for September when we have relatives coming and have tickets to an opera in Vienna. At Melk we toured an Abbey overlooking the Donau. Lots of interesting history connected to it. Used as a headquarters by both Napoleon and Hitler. Along the order of Versaille in terms of size. We took a boat trip down the Donau from Melk to Krems and returned by train. Like the Rhein River, the banks of the Donau are covered with vineyards. Except – on the Donau the rows are horizontal instead of vertical. Hummm – Alan has informed me that, according to Wikipedia, grapevines grow best in rocky soil with good drainage, hence the vertical rows. So . . . . does that mean that the grapevines on the Donau are older than the ones on the Rhein and they didn’t know about Wikipedia?

On the boat I ordered a Cola Light and to my great surprise and pleasure it had ice in it!!!!!! When I finished it I asked the waitress if I could have a glass of just ice and she said “don’t worry.” Wow! Some of you already know this about me -- I really, really, really, really like ice in my drinks, be they water or soda. I love to camp and I don’t mind roughing it, but life simply cannot go on without an ice-cold drink at least every day or two. Not only is it nearly impossible to get ice in your drink in restaurants in Europe, but we discovered on this trip that they also do not sell bags of ice to put in your cooler. How do you keep things “refrigerated” on a camping trip? Pete and Charlotte – you’ve camped in Europe before - what is the solution to this problem? Buy only the groceries you need for that day?

On Tuesday morning we headed home. We stopped in Landshut (not Landstuhl) on the way home. Landshut is NE of Munich and Mike’s dad was stationed there years ago. Mike lived there from the age 3 months to 3 years. That was during the time that the Russians were threatening to come across the Czech border and we had troops there to make sure they didn’t. (Supposedly Mike learned to talk from his German nanny and when he got back to the States at age 3 he couldn’t speak a word of English. That didn’t go over too big with his grandparents!) Anyway, there is no military presence in Landshut now, but the lady at the Tourist Information center was able to tell us where the post used to be. The area she directed us to was fenced and locked up – it doesn’t appear to be in use. Unfortunately, Mike doesn’t know whether his parents actually lived in government housing or if they lived on the economy and there isn’t really any way to find out - his dad died about 7 years ago and his mother has alzheimers. In looking for the tourist information office, we discovered that Landshut has a really nice, really large “Altstadt” – old town. It was raining or we would have probably explored more there. Guess we’ll have to go back.

As I write this it is Friday and the Tour de France just crossed over into Germany, finishing one of the legs of the race in Karlsruhe which is about an hour from Heidelberg. We decided to drive down and see what we could see. We did a dry run last night to scope out the race route and choose a place to park and watch. Mike wasn’t able to get away from work as soon as he had hope and there was a major stau (traffic jam) between here and there, but amazingly enough we got to our spot about 10 minutes before the “pack” came through. I am totally clueless about this event. All I know is that the guy in the lead was wearing red and the number 2 guy was in green and I didn’t see anyone wearing a yellow vest. So I guess I didn’t see Lance Armstrong. Apparently he didn’t win this particular leg.

So that’s our latest adventure – not exactly “in a nutshell” – but oh well.

Not much new in the way of family news, so I guess its time to sign off.

Nancy