Over the River and Through The Woods...

Over the river and through the woods....well, not so much. It was really like over the river (the Rhine) and through a bunch of little towns along the freeway and through a lot of tunnels and one that was incredibly lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng and then it was through a little bit of Austria. Wished they would have told us before the border going into Germany that we needed to have a sticker to use their freeways (guess they're really tollways). I mean there was not a warning, no signs that we saw, and then there it was---A fine of 120 Euros! Almost makes me not want to visit there again, but Salzburg and Vienna are still calling my name.




DJ took a couple of days off, and we're in Garmisch, Germany tonight. We're hoping to see the Passion Play on Saturday after we stand in line to get two of the few tickets that are left ala BYU days. Plans for tomorrow include Neuschwanstein(you know the ----THE CASTLE of CASTLES). Downside is that we are sitting in these incredibly beautiful mountains, and it's stormy; therefore, low hanging clouds, bad visibility, crumby picture taking if you can see anything. We just may have to come back again!




Anyway, we saw beautiful sights along the way, but my camera was dead and the visibility wasn't good. It was so gloomy so I just resigned myself to the fact that I couldn't document this part of the trip until we could find some place that sold batteries (that's harder than you think). Lucky for me, DJ had to stop for a potty break, and it was time for lunch, and we happened across this Quaint (with a capital Q) little guest house (restaurant). I pulled out our "little" camera and took a few shots.

Look right above the first floor windows and door and notice the hand painted mural running under the shingles!

Here's a close-up, and look below at the cute lace trim in the windows and the painted shutters. Isn't it every thing Germany is supposed to be?????

Then we walked inside and saw woodwork and painting like this corner cabinet:

Look at the detail on this door handle:

Another hand-painted treausre:

There were posts like this throughout the room:

And the ceiling was wood paneled and had a little something painted in each section:

This makes up for the McDonald's pictures, right???

The doors, the doors were total works of art:

This mural was my favorite because right behind the light (which I didn't realize was in the way) is a painted church, and you already know my thing about churches in the villages.

Another door:

And the food was just as authentic as the place---and I loved it, saurkraut and ham stuffed inside some kind of fried noodle and oniony potatoes and beets and carrots and cabbage and another noodle thing stuffed with cheese. Who knew? I have some new favorites. Thought they were going to have to roll me out of the place. So I decided the "little" camera would do just fine, and it didn't matter that we were driving down the road at high speeds nor that the clouds don't look as good as gorgeous blue sky, I took some shots anyway. Look at this green----c'mon it's October tomorrow. Isn't it beautiful?

Okay, ignore the guardrail and just suck in the beauty of this stuff:

Just took this one, because the peak of the mountain is so jagged.

In the town of Fussen, Germany:

Fussen, as well:

Back in Austria, headed towards Innsbruck. If you look at the top of this mountain, you will see the ruins of a castle:

You know me, it's a picture of a church in an Austrian village:

I love this shot because of the snow, the mountains, and the clouds hanging so low. DJ didn't like the looks of any of it---we weren't sure which way we were headed.

Another group of mountains:

Same shot, just a little closer:

One last shot of a beautiful, little village tucked underneath another gorgeous peak, hiding in the clouds:

Funny thing is, we wouldn't have seen a lot of this had we followed the mapquest maps DJ had printed, but we decided to use the GPS instead. Thing is, you have to program it in German. We think DJ accidentally pressed the "scenic route" button instead of the "quickest route" button because we were on more narrow, winding roads than we planned. We even crossed a stream on a covered wooden bridge at one point. The trip took hours longer than it was supposed to... It was a remarkable day, and I go to bed tonight more grateful than ever for such a beautiful earth on which to live----Heavenly Father really must love us!