Sunday 5 July 1998

Slideshow Pictures

Arrived at the border at 10:05 a.m.. We received the first stamp in our passports at the Austrian border, and noticed a family with two young children having their car and luggage ripped apart by the border guards. Everything in the car was removed including the spare tire.

The scenery was magnificent, alpine houses with their colourful flower boxes, and villages scattered over the mountainsides.

Some of the mountain tops, which looked absolutely inaccessible, had old castles built on them.

The steep green fields covering these mountainsides were being used for hay. Noticed a farmer, haying his field, with a machine that looked somewhat like a large reel type lawnmower. His field was so steep, that his lower leg was about a foot lower than the leg on the high side. I thought to myself, no wonder these people yodel. I would too after a day of haying with all that strain on my pelvic area.

There was tunnel after tunnel, at least fifteen of them. The longest one was 14 km long. It took 12 minutes to drive through it and 130 Austrian shillings about $14 CAN. Took pictures of every castle and all the beautiful scenery we saw in the beginning, but finally realized it was endless.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

Our plans were to take a detour to see the Hohenschwangau built by Crazy King Ludwig of Bavaria. We crossed the border from Austria to Bavaria at 12:05 p.m. and ended up in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Here we decided to have lunch at a restaurant/delicatessen.

I had Debreceni (A Hungarian wienerlike sausage.). The waitress brought two wrinkled up wieners and some bread.

It was lousy. Rachel had pasta and a piece of scrumptious looking cake, with raspberries, which she ate in the car. After a bit of arm twisting Rita and I received a share of the cake also.

The buildings in town, as can be seen in picture above, had colourful murals. Some of the people were wearing traditional costumes, with the men wearing the familiar Lederhosen. Rita was debating whether or not to ask them to pose, but decided to take picture of an interesting telephone booth instead. (We don’t know where the picture of the telephone booth went.) We drove around Garmisch-Partenkirchen hoping to find a sign to the Hohenschwangau but without success. It was 2:15 p.m. and we decided to head for Innsbruck.

Innsbruck, Austria

Arrived in Innsbruck at 2:45 p.m. Stopped at tourist information centre just outside of the city and received a map with directions to the Goldener Adler our hotel. Didn’t have much trouble finding it, we missed the small street the hotel was on, and had to drive around a few blocks to get back to it. Checked in at 3:30 p.m. The parking was underground across the main street. The Hotel Goldener Adler is located in the centre of the old city and two buildings from The Golden Roof, which is the major attraction in Innsbruck.

Weather was drizzling. We freshened up and went for a walk. There was a medieval festival for children going on in the old town and surrounding streets. Entertainment everywhere.

The old town had a Swarovski Crystal shop which, according to Rita, had the most beautiful crystals. The ladies were distracted. After tiring ourselves walking around we went back to the hotel’s outdoor cafe and had drinks. We were joined by two English comedians who were performing at the festival.

 One was carrying A briefcase with a hand sticking out of it holding a smouldering cigarette. He explained it was his brother-in-law Justin, Just-in-Case. We bought them a beer and watched their performance as young people would stop at our table and they would go through their routine.

After the entertainers left we went inside to the restaurant and had dinner. The waiter brought bread, and a container with three different spreads for the bread. One was butter, another garlic butter, and the third (I'm still drooling thinking about it) had pork drippings in it. Well, the container of dripping was emptied on my first slice of bread. The waiter had to make another trip to the kitchen to refill the container, which was also devoured immediately. Loved the drippings so much, I forgot to write down the main courses we ate. Great dinner especially the lard!

On our way back to our hotel room, we were advised by the desk, that we had received a phone call. Phoned Dean and then Rick phoned.

Rita had a shower, Rachel & I went out for ice cream and stopped at a bar at Rachel’s insistence. I had a beer, Rachel a coke.

Monday 6 July 1998

While the ladies were making-up I scouted the areas which we had missed the day before. Had an early buffet breakfast at the hotel, and then, at the ladies insistence, were off to the Swarovski shop. Rachel bought earrings for her mother, Rita a chain for her eyeglasses and earrings. I was seen standing outside the shop, muttering to myself "Where has all the money gone?" and throwing lint, which I had found in my empty pockets, on the ground. After Swarovski we toured the church which contains Maximilian’s tomb.

On the way back we stopped at a tourist trap store where they had traditional-local clothing. I was looking for a pair of Lederhosen but all they had was leather Knickerbockers. Fell in love with the hat in the picture but my pockets were empty. So, I had to leave the magnificent hat behind.

We left the hotel at 10:30 a.m. Finding our way out of Innsbruck was difficult because of all the one way streets. There were millions of bicycles, no helmets; smoking everywhere; platforms with jeans; black, green and dark burgundy hair. On the autobahn at 10:45 a.m. At a toll booth 11:00 a.m., toll $14 CAN. Saw haying on mountain side - as in the oldendays, bales were being lifted by pitchforks.