Hotel Bichlerhof Mittenwald

... it is covered with a chocolate ganache- it was delicious, much better than the day before.

The afternoon was Greg’s choice and we went to the Bergisel Stadium which is the new ski jump facility which was opened in 2001. This was on the site of the original ski jump facility which was used for the Winter Olympics in 1964 and 1976. You went in a cable car, then a lift to the top ...

... you couldn’t be convicted unless you had confessed to the crime, so consequently torture was frequently used. There was a slide show with a description of Maximilian’s life and achievements. As was the custom of those times, his first marriage was one of political convenience but they also loved each other very much. He was devastated when she died, but again married for convenience, this time to a woman who had a large dowry ...

Walked to the train station and did an expedition to the supermarket to spend our last Swiss Francs as we are back to Euros in Austria. Had a stopover in Zurich for a while and then caught the train to Innsbruck. Again this was a scenic trip over the mountains and it started snowing and was very deep as we got higher- just beautiful scenery. Innsbruck is surrounded by mountains, all of which had snow on them.

We checked into our hotel where we ...

... packed in tightly on either side of the narrow pedestrian street. My mom was sucked right in. I don't know how long it took for us to walk the length of this short street, but it was several minutes too long.

We never did visit the cathedral. Our stomachs took over and we went for food instead. We found a nice pizza place with good prices so we went in. Everything seemed OK until my boyfriend asked for a new set of cutlery because when we first sat on our table it had ...

... purchases.

The museum was pretty cool and certainly a unique experience. The weather was really nice today too so once we completed the museum and the shopping, we went to the park behind the giant's head. Here they have a hedge maze shaped like the giant's hand which looked pretty cool but we didn't venture in. Instead we soaked up a little sun before moving on to the next destination.

This was a lovely little place we stopped at on the bus tour to the castles. Unfortunately, being Sunday, most everything was shut (except for the souvenir shops that is). They have a woodcarving school there that I plan to stop at for a weeklong course on the next trip. But of course it was shut that ...

... but we relied upon it for information on the places we planned to visit. I left Margaret to trail in my wake as I retraced our steps from the beer garden to the park via the violin museum. At the beer garden a helpful frau looked through a few drawers and questioned some of the serving wenches. No luck. She asked me where I was from and, upon learning my nationality, announced that her son and daughter-in-law had recently spent ten weeks in Australia. I should ...

... 000 foot summit. Once on top you can actually be in Austria and Germany within just a few steps. We enjoyed the views, watched the skiers and snowboarders and had traditional Bavarian white sausages for lunch on top of the mountain. We even met a German woman who lives in Kentucky and said 'ya,ll' so that made Angie feel at home. We left the mountian via a Cog train that was quite steep, it cut through the mountain and we ended our night back in Fussen.

Another work conference for my parents brought us to Oberammergau for a week. We stayed in the cutest little wooden cottage - like the whole thing ceiling to floor and including flowering window boxes was made out of wood! Totally picturesque like you've read about in Brothers Grimm fairy tales. Aromatic town bakery. Absolutely enchanting.

Sadly, I dont remember much about Austria. Too bad because I have read so much about it lately as the music and art centre of Europe in the 1700s, I'd love to check that out.
I asked my dad recently if we had been there before. He said, 'oh yes, many times, we loved it'. Hmm, what a pity. I suppose it still counts because the images of scenery must be in my mind somewhere... curse this short memory of mine!