The second day of our Bavarian honeymoon took us to the Nueschwanstien Castle where we planned to meet up with my family friends, the Staubs. (The Pleva's had taken a 3 week European vacation with them 16 years ago and both the Staub girls have come and lived with the Pleva's for a few months during past summers.) Needless to say it was wonderful to see them all again and we had a great time. We toured the two castles, had a lovely lunch then after we headed back we had traditional German desserts and coffee.
I should back up here a bit because as great as the day turned out...it almost didn't happen.
Following our Google map directions in Europe had so far been pretty good....Sunday was our first, but not last, exception. We accidentally went to Austria twice on our way to the castles....we weren't supposed to even go into Austria. Panic stricken we'd pulled off the highway twice trying to find our way and in fear of being stopped by Austrian police with big AK47's because we did not have the right pass to enter their country! Also our cell phones weren't working and we couldn't figure out how to dial our friend; country code, not code, add a zero, take off a zero.....ug! Finally i looked at another map that i had and realized that we could get off at the 1st exit in Austria and take a small road back into Germany...so that's what we did. I think we both held our breath as we crossed the border and when we did see the sign letting us know we were entering Duetschland we breathed a sigh of relief. At this point we were actually on a road that we thought would lead us to the castle (and for sure there would be signs!) So we drove through this little town and I looked out my window at the mountains to the south....and just like one of those 3D pictures all of a sudden i saw it! The Neushwanstien castle was right there beyond the field perched high up in the mountain. Stop! I say, It's right there! Adam not being able to see out my window did not see it. Finally he pulls over, we turn around and somehow found the entrance...which did have a sign...for the OTHER Smaller Castle. uh. It was good to know that our friends, who are German, got lost too :)
Monday was our first day of skiing. We went to the town of Oberstdorf and somehow found the resort of Felhorn-Kanzelwandbahn. After a long drive winding up the mountain we parked, where we hoped was a non-pay spot, and set off to the ticket booth hoping they took Visa. They did and with two passes in hand we geared up and headed to the gondola. It was a nice day and the skiing was good-not too challenging, but icy. I think the hardest part was coming down to the bottom of the hill; narrow short steep portions did a number on my thighs. Adam proved to be a much more confident and apt skier than I, but i kind of expected that.
Dinner that night took us to our towns local brewery. Luckily they had a menu in english so that helped us make some educated selections. We had great food and beer!
Tuesday was another ski day in Oberstdorf but at a different resort-Nebelhornbahn. This one was in town and the gondola right in the heart of it. I looked at the cables and the mountain and thought...where do you ski??? We suited up, loaded the large gondola and started heading up and up and up. From below you couldn't see where you were skiing-it was that far in the mountain.
We got off at the first stop and realized a chair lift would take you higher-so off we went. Oh my-this was the most spectacular view I have EVER seen. I had to just stop and stare-multiple times. We couldn't have asked for a better day, sun was shining, the snow was good and the slopes were at my level.
It was a great day...until I almost slid off the side of the hill. We had decided to try out the "red" run that went down to a lower area...but at one point the run turned into a "black" so I opted for the Red off to the side-little did i know that it was a bunch of hairpin turns no wider than 10' and 40' long!!! After I almost slid off the side i decided "snowplow" was my best bet. We decided to head back up (at the lift near where i fell) and as I looked at the "black" run portion, it didn't look all that bad-so we were going to try to get to the bottom that way. Big mistake. The snow that had been such nice powder earlier had begun to get icey and as I was slowly going back and forth down the black portion (which was steeper than it looked!) my edges slipped out from under me and away I went. Slidding on my hip both skiis parallel to the hill and gaining speed. I didn't know what to do, i knew that if my skis turned i was a goner. I started trying to dig in my pole, but it was all hard. Finally after what felt like a good minute I somehow caught my pole and stopped. Icey cold snow up my back, scared and a bent pole I informed Adam that i was not going down the hill this way. (it was 1/10th of the way to the bottom). I rode up to the gondola and he headed back down the hill.
So I'm standing in the gondola looking at the trail below I see a man off the path climbing up the side of the hill with his skis over his shoulder....Adam!!! What is he doing?!?! I find out later that he had wanted to show me that it wasn't all that bad and video tapped his decent...only to find out that he was on the wrong path and it ended up going off the trail and whipping out-all of it caught on tape. This made me feel slightly better. So did the Becks beer that i had in the parking lot while waiting for him :)
Cooking in one night-We love Spaetzle!!
Wednesday we opted for a tourist day and went to Oberstaufen, shopped, lunched then headed back attempting to take some country road only to find them un-plowed and not passable. We did find a great cheese factory/store and bough some Allgue cheese to go with our beer and schnapps which made for a fine dinner.
Adam & I played a lot of cards on our honeymoon. Seems the area we stayed in did not have much of a night life and since it gets dark at 5 our evenings started pretty early. We quickly got sick of rummy and crazy 8's so we invented two new games; Plung and Youva. We were getting a little stir crazy-no tv (in english) no people to talk to besides each other...no place to go....So by thursday we were ready to head to switzerland and find our friends. (oh and I should mention we awoke thursday to a snow storm-"great let's drive to Switzerland!")
Jonathan-Adam's friend from NC- had just returned from the US that morning. We had trouble getting a hold of him-non of the numbers he gave us worked, so we spent the day walking around St. Gallen. We stopped and had lunch at a nice cafe and asked the waitress if she new where his address was. "Oh it's the next street over" she replied. We headed out and after about 20 min of looking for his apt. knocked on his door and gave him a big surprise! All three of us hung out and he showed us more of his city then we loaded up in the Focus to head to Winterhauf to see our mutual friends Eric and Maelyn.
Eric made us a fabulous Swiss Fondue dinner and after we headed out to some bars. It was a late night-but a much needed break from cards. Friday our last day all 5 of us headed out to see some mountain views. We drove up and up and finally reached an area that we could ride up the gondola and get a view of Eastern Switzerland above the clouds! It was so lovely. And while were were up there we saw many parachuters run off the side of the mountain and down to the bottom.
After we said our goodbyes we loaded back up and made the drive back through Austria to get to our resort. Fog caused us some concern and we drove slow in the dark-with people passing us left and right-but again the maps weren't that good and the roads not marked well. But we did end up back where we belonged had a nice meal at the 1st place we went to then packed up for our trip back home.
It was a nice trip, lots of sights and we enjoyed just being together. Next time though-we're getting a GPS and bringing friends :)
