Hotel Mozart Innsbruck

... 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 ...

... hands.

We went to have lunch at what turned out to be a very smoky cafe with salty soups and a so called “Sacher Torte” which wasn’t very nice.

We spent the afternoon wandering through the shops, finding a nice chocolate shop and an amazing Christmas shop which had thousands of real egg shells that had been delicately handpainted as Christmas decorations as well as Easter and Halloween. They were so beautiful ...

... br>Oktoberfest.

All in all I was very impressed with
Innsbruck and the Austrians. Everyone I met was very nice and wiling to help me
if they were able to understand English.
Not only do the women love the outdoors and adventures as much as the
men, the majority of them are very attractive. At one point I saw a woman
downhill mountain biking and get about 10 feet of air off a jump. I must say a
pretty impressive feat!

... cleaned so they had to be locked up for a couple minutes and they were really ****** off. I also saw some moose, bears, and lots of goats. You have to check out this video of a Alpine Ibex. This exhibit was cool as there were no real fences up. The goats choose to stay up on the rocks while the humans are told to stick to the concrete so they actually get very very close to you. The one in the video seemed to be one of the oldest. He just kind of sat around ...

... too.
The rest of the tour took us to Linderhof castle and Neuschwanstein castle. What magical looking places they were. Neuschwanstein is the castle Walt Disney uses the sillohette of at the start of his movies. Anyway, after the trip it was back to Munich for a day or so and then on the plane home.

... Soviet prisoners were sent there to be mown down in mass executions. Apparently the Nazi's used them as target practice. It was an odd experience, walking through those ominous gates and into the massive, sparse site. We passed through the buildings where ...

... or anything, it was more like all you could eat lobster, veal and sea scallops. Needless to say, Colin took this as a challenge to make our money's worth, so he had two veal steaks, four lobsters and two many shrimp to count. )Not including the other things he ate while his veal was cooking.) It was kind of sick. At one point he was trying to cut his lobster and it went flying (just like Julia Roberts in Pretty ...

I love this city! Though I haven't seen much of it I must admit. I've been spending most of my time in a little village called Hungerburg, just above the main city. The lady who runs the hostel showed me on a map the day I arrived, where the main town center was (just across the river that runs through the center of the city), and where behind the Alpine Zoo near the hostel, you can take a cable car up into the mountains. I must add that this place is surrounded by ...

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!