GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN!

that is me on the Salzburg bull!! If you ride up the funiculaire in Salzburg to the old fortress Hohensalzburg, you learn the story of the Salzburg bull. When we got to the top, it was early in the morning and we stepped off, seeing the Austrian mountains, and and empty fortress. It was about 9AM. All of a sudden a random man steps around a corner and says, "Museum this way, bull that way." Wh-hhhhat? We thought he was playing a joke on American tourists until we rounded the corner and saw the actual, wooden, freshly painted, Salzburg bull! Basically, when the fortress was under siege 500 years ago, the people ran out of food and the only meat left in the entire place was one bull. So the industrious commander paraded the bull on the battlements to prove there were still animals inside. Then the townsfolk washed the bull and painted him black! And paraded him on the battlements again. The enemy realized the fortress could withstand the siege for much longer, packed up, and went away. Thus, a bull saved the fortress. Let me tell you...that is a hefty bull. It took a little assistance for me to finally get up there, equestrian extraordinare I pretend to be!

Austria was my favorite country to train through. I couldn't stop looking out the window, Julie Andrews was just constantly in my head. It was beyond all words. Snow capped mountains, Super high bridges over gorges, deliciously accented English. Our hostel played the Sound of Music daily at 8PM so we caught the end of it after our first sampling of apfel streudel. What could make less than 24 hours in Austria better?

Maureen and I left Kym and took a train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, in Germany on Monday. Well. The reason we got such a good deal at our hotel is because winter tourism is over! and summer has not begun! We arrived to find out that we missed snowshoeing by TWO days and nordic walking by ONE day! Then we were one of four rooms in the humongous hotel, a little creepy but not too creepy until we were handed our room key which had a heavy brass voodoo man on it! I really just couldn't figure out what it was...vaguely Native American, maybe? But I would expect that from a hotel in Arizona, not a hotel in the middle of snowy (allegedly?) Germany. So we took it off of our key ring and put it in the wardrobe...then I thought about the Indian in the Cupboard all night.

Trying to discover our fun new town, Maureen and I went out to find food to see town deserted. Literally, it was a little eerie. Do Germans not eat out on Mondays? Someone, please explain. We were wandering around after dinner, homesick for Galway and sad (I mean, I had been away 13 days by now) and we found a pub called Glaus Haus. We just wanted a drink with PEOPLE for goodness sake! I looked on the outside menu and noticed they served Baileys on the rocks so we went in and what did we find---------JESUS. or God. Or Santa Claus. One of them was definitely there, because allllll of the tables had a Baileys insert card between the salt and pepper shakers with three Baileys drinks! Even the candle votive was Baileys. So we had two Baileys coffees each and I had apple streudel. The first night in Germany was a little intimidating, to say the least.

The next day, we went hiking in the woods by ourselves after a mostly unsuccessful trip to the tourist office. The famous tram to the highest glacier in Germany was not running because it was so cloudy (really? was this actually happening?) and did not run all day. One of the main Garmisch attractions. So we hiked for the morning to some old ruins, and a lake, and saw pretty mountains and lots of elderly people near the bottom of the mountain who we smiled at because we could not answer their obvious greetings in German (although I think I heard a Gutentag at least once, which was exciting enough, but by the time I realized what was said he had passed us and we could not respond in kind). What a great morning! Endorphins flowing, there was a great free breakfast with a British waiter, greatness, and a delicious lunch. Then we decided to use our free bus pass to visit the Olympic Skistadion in Partenkirchen.

Well, I've never seen the movie Deliverance but once when I was going to a wrestling match at Perth Amboy high school, the wrestling coach made a comment like, "Wow, this looks like Deliverance." Well, if Deliverance ever had an Olympic Skistadion, we saw it in Germany. Lots of construction + middle of nowhere in Partenkirchen + dirty snow + no ski jumpers + NO OLYMPIC RINGS ANYWHERE and signs in all German = a big letdown. Skistadion? Not worth a visit, if anyone's going to Garmisch soon.

Dinner was nice, we went to the town casino and had pizza (I had Hawaiian, I really needed some fruit) and we each had a liter of German brew, mine was called something Ludwig something. I remembered to pronounce the 'w' as a 'v', so that was exciting. We decided to wake up early the next day and just go to Munich...where we were supposed to meet Dad's colleague Peter Johnson and his traveling companion, David Rockefeller! Germany might be looking up!

Well of course it was raining in the morning and we were wearing nice clothes, because we were going to meet good ol' Dave. Hour train to Munich, we found a luggage locker, and then the highlight of Germany so far (besides the streudel, obviously) was the Starbucks in the train station. I am sorry to sound so American! But we had been separated for 4 months! It was like almost being divorced. Anyway...after the way the last couple days were just comically ridiculous, it rained all day in Munich on us and my cell phone had died, so I did not receive the messages from Peter Johnson saying don't come to the hotel at 3, come at 4. We missed Pete and Dave by 15.

Unfortunately, poor Maureen realized in line to check her bags at the airport that she booked her flight home for last week in March instead of the first week in April.

What's the moral of the story? Well, there's two.
Why go to Germany when you can spend three days where the Sound of Music was filmed?
and
Go to Germany when there are things to do.
Oh, and a third.
Germans really do not smile often.

Well, that's the end of my spring break saga. Being in Galway really was like coming home. I feel so lucky that I have a place in Ireland that I can say is "home" and truly be excited to visit my favorite places when I returned to the city. I listened to "Galway Girl" almost the whole way home. I've never felt more like a Galway girl then on that bus home from 'the continent.' I can't even imagine leaving.