Here are some highlights of our travels together . . .
1992 - Bavaria and Central Austria
This was the very first European trip that Judy and I took together. On the flight to Munich, which is one of our favorite cities in Europe, we were fortunate to meet Christiane, one of the United flight attendants. In addition to surreptitiously supplying Judy, who was sitting in coach class on the way over, with drinks and other goodies during the flight, she recommended that we spend some time in the village of Ellmau in the Austrian Tirol.
Her recommendation was excellent, and we spent many pleasant days and nights in the villages of Ellmau and Lofer. We hiked in the Wilder Kaiser and the Loferer Steinberge areas before returning to Munich. We also made a brief visit with our friend Kuno in the Bavarian wood carving and Passion Play village of Oberammergau.
1997 - Glacier National Park, Banff, and Lake Louise
This was our year to tour some of the United States with our new Jayco Popup camper. We traveled from Boulder through Wyoming and Montana to the east side of Glacier National Park.
From there we headed north toward Calgary, then west to Banff, B.C. and Lake Louise. We really appreciated the camper here, as it rained much of the time we were in the area. We had also planned to drive up to Jasper, but were told there was ice and snow on the road.
From Banff we drove south back to the west side of Glacier National Park, where we had some great hikes, searched (unsuccessfully) for grizzlies, ate lots of wild blueberries and fought off the mosquitoes. Once again we really appreciated the camper!
Then it was south to Yellowstone National Park and a visit with friend Jim Halfpenny, who is tracking the wolf packs in Yellowstone and leading "bear awareness" trips in the park. From Yellowstone, we drove south through the Tetons and across Wyoming for a last night of camping in the Snowy Range near Laramie before returning to Boulder.
After beginning our genealogy research of Judy's family, we decided it might be fun to try finding some Gunklers in Germany. As we were on final approach to München, we selected the village of Markt Erlbach in Mittelfranken, Bavaria on our map, where the internet told us a Gunkler or two still lived, and decided to go there first. This led to an exciting and interesting week of finding some Gunkler roots in Markt Erlbach, Nürnberg, and later in Untersontheim and Ummenhofen near Schwäbisch Hall.
From there we traveled to the Rhein wine village of Bacharach to stay with our good friend Frank Conrad for a few days of sightseeing, enjoying the local cuisine and drinking with the local wine club. Just across the river from Bacharach is the village of Kaub, where our friend and Boulder Valley educator Marion McClellan was born and raised. We took an interesting day excursion by ship on the Rhein from Bacharach to Boppard, passing the famous Lorelei, with a castle around every bend of the river.
We traveled by train from Bacharach to the idyllic Tyrolean village of Maria Alm south of Salzburg for some more Alpine hiking in the Steinernen Meer and Hochkönig, after which we returned to Munich for our flight home.
2001 - Northern Ireland, Switzerland, Germany and Austria
In 2001 we decided to visit our friends George & Margaret Crooks in Cookstown, Northern Ireland, whom Judy hadn't seen for over 30 years. We had a wonderful time visiting them, their children and grandchildren and they were great tour guides!
From there, we flew back to Frankfurt, going on to Braunwald, on the North side of the Klausen Pass in the Swiss Canton of Glarus. Braunwald is only accessible by a cog railroad and has no motorized vehicles. The family-run Hotel Tödiblick was wonderful, with a great view of the Tödispitze from our bedroom window.
From Braunwald, we took a short train ride to Schruns, in the Hochmontafon area of the Vorarlberg region of Austria. We arrived in pouring rain, but hearing music in the air we wandered a couple of blocks to a village festival, complete with singers, band, bratwurst and beer. After reviving our dampened spirits, we boarded a bus for the short ride to Partenen, where we experienced our first and only Austrian barbeque. Partenen is at the Western end of the Silvretta Hochalpenstrasse, where classic sports car and motorcycle rallies are run each year. We had a wonderful time in Partenen, either hiking directly from the village, or taking a bus up to the higher trailheads along the Hochalpenstrasse.
As our time to return home drew near, we once again boarded the train to Wiesbaden, passing by the Bodensee and through the Black Forest region on our way. In Wiesbaden we were met by our friends Maggie & Reiner, who drove us to their home village of Rauenthal in the Rheingau (Central Rhine wine region). We spent a delightful weekend seeing the area between Wiesbaden and the famous wine village of Rudesheim. Then it was off by train to Flughafen Frankfurt for our Lufthansa flight back to Denver.
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Flying into Wien for the first time, we spent a night at the Hilton Danube, saw a bit of the city and enjoyed an evening at a Heurigen.
The next day we enjoyed a scenic ride on a train known as the Mariazellerbahn to the mountain pilgrimage village of Mariazell in Niederösterreich (lower Austria). We found an excellent small hotel, and watched a pilgrimage march from our hotel window. Unfortunately, much of the pilgrimage church was hidden by scaffolding as the church was being renovated. We enjoyed a number of lovely hikes in the surrounding hills and mountains.
From Mariazell we traveled by bus and train to St. Lorenzen in the Murau Valley in South central Austria. We stayed at a private pension (B&B) with an Austrian family that had two sons. There was a festival in town that week, complete with the chopping down of the Maypole. At the festival, there was a wild "soapbox" car race that the sons of our hosts entered, driving a vehicle that they built while we were there. The train that ran up and down the valley provided access to a variety of hikes and to other villages nearby.
After a relaxing few days in St. Lorenzen, we then moved on to the Tyrolean resort of Zell am See, with great hikes and views of the Hohe Tauern. From Zell we took a bus to hike near the glacier above the village of Kaprun, and took an excursion by train to Mittersill to hike and see the waterfall. The local ski lift took us to trails on the high ridge west of Zell am See, from which there were great views of the Grossglockner to the south
Finally, we spent a delightful few days visiting our friend Christiane once again in Prien am Chiemsee, Germany. Bidding farewell to Christiane, our last night was at the Hilton am Park, near the famous Englischer Garten in München. We enjoyed our last dinner in Germany at the historic Ratskeller restaurant, located in the basement of the Rathaus (City Hall) in the old city.
2005 - Norway, Switzerland, and Germany
2005 found us flying to Oslo where we spent two weeks absorbing the beauty and culture of Norway with our good friends Bernt and Gunvor who lived in Aardalstangen.
From Norway we flew to Zürich, from where we set out for 10 days of hiking in the Alps. Our first stop was Curaglia in the Val Medel below the Lukmanier Pass, which is East of the St. Gotthard pass. We had planned to then spend time in the canton of Ticino, but the weather wasn't good so we decided to head for Austria.
However, when we reached Feldkirch, Austria, we were told that the entire area of Western Austria was closed to traffic, with no train or bus travel, due to extensive flooding. We then decided to travel around the flooded areas via Southern Germany to the picturesque village of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. We spent a week there, hiking in the mountains and enjoying the music and food.
From there we took a train to München, where we spent a very nice weekend before flying home via Frankfurt courtesy of Lufthansa.
2007 - Upper Austria, Czech Republic, and Germany
On our return flight in 2006, we passed the time reading about Upper Austria (the region between Salzburg and the border of the Czech Republic), and since we hadn't visited that area previously we decided to begin our 2007 vacation there. An early highlight was spending a few days in Mattsee, located in the lake district north of Salzburg. We were hosted by Austrian relatives of Boulder friends, who gave us a personal tour of Salzburg. From there we traveled east and south to the famous and interesting town of Hallstatt, which is built right on the steep shoreline of the Hallstättersee. Next it was off to the east again, where we found the wonderful Hotel Lavendel in Windischgarsten. We were befriended there by a group of German tourists and joined them for a day's outing. After exploring the surrounding area for a few days, we began heading north toward the Czech Republic, pausing for a few days in the historic Austrian town of Freistadt before continuing on to the UNESCO Heritage Site of Czesky Krumlov. There we absorbed a bit of the Czech culture, albeit surrounded by tourists from many countries. We traveled by minivan back to Linz, then by train to Munich, where we visited friends and took a day trip to the Passion Play village of Oberammergau before returning to Denver.
2010 - Germany, Austria, Italy
In 2010 we searched for out-of-the-way valleys in Austria, at which we were very successful, and decided to also visit the Dolomites again, choosing the Val di Fassa in the southern Dolomites east of Bolzano, Italy. We began with hiking near the village of Trins in the Gschnitztal, about 35 km south of Innsbruck, Austria, where we were joined by our friend Christiane. We then traveled by train to Bolzano, Italy and then by bus over the Passo di Costalunga to Pozza di Fassa, Italy. Next, we returned to Bolzano from where we traveled via Merano to the village of St. Leonhard in the Passeiertal near the Austrian border. After 5 days of hiking in that area, it was of to the village of St. Lorenzen in the Lesachtal, one of the most unspoiled and natural valleys in Austria, located south of Lienz. We stayed in the wonderful family-owned bauernhof (farm B&B) Anderle Hof, where we were treated to many fresh home-made dairy and bread products. The weather turned wet and cold after 5 days, so when we woke to snow on the peaks on our last morning, we decided to take the train to Bad Hofgastein for a final few days of hiking. Then it was off to Munich for 2 days, roaming our favorite European city and visiting with Christiane and friends Reinhard and Christa, who live on the outskirts of the city.
2012 - March: Cycling the Santa Monica Mountains and Hiking Death Valley
In March, 2012 we drove to Las Vegas for a visit with Bill's son Brett, wife Dena and their two boys, Cole and Trey. From there we headed to Anaheim, CA to see Judy's college friend Mary and her husband Don for two days, then continued on to Agoura Hills, CA where we met a group of our cycling friends for 4 days of riding our bikes in the Santa Monica Mountains. Once our legs had given up, we traveled north on the California coast to Santa Barbara for a visit with Bill's college roommate Jarry and his wife Susie. After a few days enjoying their company and hospitality, we headed home via Death Valley, where we hike for a few days before making the final trek home to Boulder.
2012 - May: Netherlands, N. Spain, Austria and Italy
In May we began our adventure flying to Frankfurt, Germany and then traveling by train to visit our friends Margot and Frans in Arnhem, Netherlands. They then joined us in flying to Madrid, where we met up with 5 other couples whom we know and our Wandermeister guides, David and Mauro, who introduced us over the following two weeks to the Picos de Europa and the Parque Natural Somiedo on the northern coast of Spain. We finished our tour in Santiago de Compostela, and from there flew to Zurich, then traveled by train to the Austrian Tirolean villages of Fieberbrunn and Wagrain. After hiking and enjoying the food and wine in Austria for about 10 days, we headed south to the Pustertal (Val Pusteria) in the northern Italian Dolomites, where we stayed in the village of Sexten/Sesto. While there we divided our time between hiking and attending the Alta Pusteria International Choir Festival, with performances in concert halls, village churches, mountain huts and outdoor venues. At the end of 5-1/2 great weeks, we once again took the train to Munich for our return flight to Denver.
In September of 2013 Boulder was hit with a devastating flood that destroyed almost all of the roads leading north and west. In addition, many homes, ours included, suffered flood damage. After recovering from the flood, we took a short camping trip. Then in early November, Judy got non-Hogkins lymphoma, and a tumor compressed her spinal cord, leaving her unable to walk. After two surgeries, a week of radiation and 5 months of chemo, she began the long road to recovery. Due to her determination and hard work throughout 2014-15years, she was once again able to hike and bike. So in 2015 we were once again able to travel to our favorite places.
Flying into Munich, we traveled by train directly to the village of Mathon in the Austrian valley Paznauntal. We had planned to visit there in 2013, but were deterred by a major late season snowstorm in the High Tirol. After hiking for 4 days, we took the bus to the top of the Reschenpass, where we stayed with a wonderful family in Nauders, which is on the borders of Switzerland and Italy. Then it was down into the Val Venosta/Vinschgau village of Laces/Latsch just below the Austrian border. We enjoyed wonderful weather and watched the annual bringing of the cows from the high pastures. Then it was time to head to Pisa, where we would join the rest of our group of cyclists from the Bicycle Adventure Club for 10 days' riding in southern Tuscany, based in Marina di Castagneto Carducci on the Ligurian Sea. After enjoying the fine fall weather there, we traveled north to Cinque Terre for a few days, then flew from Pisa to Munich before returning home.
This year we built our trip around performing at the 20th Anniversary of the Alta Pusteria International Choir Festival. We flew to Munich a few days prior to the start of the festival, hiking in the Karwendel region of Scharnitz, Austria near Innsbruck. We then took the train over the Brenner Pass to the Val Pusteria, where we were joined by the other singers in our choir and our director, Lisa Atkins, at the wonderful Hotel Santer in Dobbiaco, Italy. We performed in concert halls, on the Kronplatz, at a mountain hut, and along with over 3,000 other singers in the town square of San Candido/Innichen.
After the festival, friends Linda and Ray spent 8 days with us in the Dolomites in the villages of Sottoguda and Arabba. Judy and I then moved on to the East Tirol village Ausservillgraten and then Brixen im Thale before spending our final two dath ys in Munich, where we had a delightful dinner with longtime friend Christiane from Prien am Chiemsee.
2018 - August & September: Switzerland, Austria and Italian Dolomites
We decided in 2018 that it would be interesting to re-visit places that had been our favorites over the years since our first European trip together in 1992. At the top of our list was the Hotel Toediblick in Braunwald, Switzerland, where we had fond memories of our stay in 2001. On August 20 we flew to Zurich, the following morning taking a 2-1/4 hour scenic train ride, followed by a trip up the funicular to the village high above the valley. Since there are no cars in Braunwald, a horse and buggy ride brough us to our hotel, where we renewed our acquaintance with the family that owned the hotel - the son and daughter-in-law of the previous owners.
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The Dolomites sounded intriguing, as did the Northern Italian cuisine and the thought of opera under the stars. We flew to Milano, traveling by train and bus to the mountain village of Madonna di Campiglio where we hiked in the Adamello and Brenta ranges of the Dolomites.
From there we went to Verona where we enjoyed a great performance of Aida in the ancient Roman amphitheatre, the Arena di Verona.
hen it was back to the mountains in Selva/Wolkenstein near the top of the Passo Gardena, where we hiked in the Sella and Puez Dolomites. We finished our trip with a scenic train ride back to Lugano and up the mountain valleys to Zürich for our flight home.
1998 - Germany, Switzerland and Austria
We played tour guide and organizer on this trip with our good friends Peggy & Richard. After a great Lufthansa flight from Chicago to München, we spent a few delightful days in the town of Füssen where we enjoyed a local beer festival and saw the famous castles Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau built by "Mad" King Ludwig of Bavaria and participated in the local town beer festival.
From there, we traveled to the Unterengadin (Lower Inn River Valley) village of Lavin, where the inhabitants speak a dialect known as Romansch, which we were told grew out of ancient Roman Latin. In the Unterengadin dialect, spoken Romansch sounded to us like German spoken with an Italian lilt.
After 4 days of hiking in the Swiss National Park in the Val Mustair along the Italian border, a scenic train ride through Northern Italy and over the Brenner Pass brought us to Innsbruck, where Peggy and Richard left us. Judy and I went on to town of Mayrhofen, where we spent a week hiking the surrounding Alps.
Then it was on to visit our friend Christiane in Prien am Chiemsee before returning to München for our flight home.
2000 - Germany, Italy and Austria
Upon arrival in München, we immediately boarded the S-bahn and train over the Brenner pass to Dobbiaco (Toblach), Italy for some hiking and sightseeing in the area of the famous "Drei Zinnen/Tre Cime" - or Three Needles. We by chance selected a wonderful, friendly hotel with TERRIFIC food and wine.
From there, we took the train to Lienz, Austria and then a bus to Prägraten, which is almost at the end of the valley on the south side of the Grossvenediger. There we met Maggie and Reiner Brüggemann in one of the huts, and spent some wonderful times with them hiking, dining, and going to a local village play that was entirely in local Austrian dialect.
We then traveled to Schladming/Rohrmoos which are in the Steiermark region of Austria. We had traded our Breckenridge timeshare for a unit there that was very new and modern. We absorbed some of the local culture, did a lot of hiking in the Schladminger and Dachstein Tauern.
We finally headed back to enjoy some time in München, with a day trip to visit our friend Kuno once again in Oberammergau before returning home.
This year was special - we finally got married on June 22, 2002 at 2PM at the Hyde Chapel of the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, CO. The day before the wedding we enjoyed the company of family and friends who came to celebrate with us at Ed's Cantina, our long-time favorite Mexican restaurant. After the Saturday ceremony, we and our 50 guests enjoyed visiting at a reception at The Other Side restaurant.
Our honeymoon trip in August took us from Denver to Athens on Lufthansa, where we wandered the city, saw all the "must see" excavations and sampled the shops and restaurants in the Plaka. The wonderful weather allowed us to enjoy dinner on the outdoor patios of the small cafes. Even the underground subway stations in Athens are museums of a sort where they have preserved and display many artifacts that were discovered during the excavation.
From Athens, we traveled by train to the village of Ornos in the Peloponnesus near the former capital of Greece, Nafplio. After a few days on the beach, we rented a car for an excursion through the remote countryside to the famous mountain town of Kalavrita where we relaxed, did some hiking, and visited the cliffside monastery Mega Spileo which was built in 362AD.
Then it was back to Athens for our flight to Mykonos, where we spent a week exploring the many beaches and Mykonos town itself, the only real town on a relatively barren island. We had traded our timeshare for one outside the town that was located on a large bay. We enjoyed the local seafood at the small restaurants that were located right on the beach.
. A hydrofoil carried us back to the mainland, where we then rode the subway to Athens for a final two days of exploring before we headed home.
2004 - Austria, Italy, and Switzerland
Our travels for 2004 began with our overnight flight on Aug. 19 from Denver to Frankfurt on Lufthansa, connecting from there to München. Then it was just a short trip by S-Bahn and train to Neustift in the Stubaital, a mountain valley Southeast of Innsbruck, Austria for five days of hiking in the Stubaier Alps. We were joined for a couple of days by our good friend Christiane from Prien, Germany. It turned out that she and her family had spent time in this area when she was in her teens and not visited there since.
Our plan was then to work our way West with 4 or 5 day stops in a number of valleys until our final few days in the area near Appenzell, Switzerland. However, the weather in Austria was unpredictable this year and what looked like a few days of rain moved in, so we jumped on the train to Corvara, Italy to see a bit more of the Sella and Puez Dolomites that we first explored in 1995. This time we were on the East side of the Passo Gardena, and had four days of great hiking weather when once again the rains moved in.
So we picked up where we had left off in Austria, traveling back to St. Leonhard in the Pitztal, west of Innsbruck.. This valley has huge glaciers and lots of steep hiking that we enjoyed for four days. We met two very nice German couples with whom we shared dinner and a "Tiroler Abend" - an evening of Tirolean music and Schuhplattler dancing. We also got to practice our German by spending a day hiking up to the Braunschweiger hut with a German man who was staying at our Pension.
Right on time, the rain came once more, and we headed for the Appenzell region of northeast Switzerland, where the sun shone on us for the rest of our trip as we did some hiking in the rolling hills and low mountains bordering the Rhein and the Bodensee. From Appenzell, it was a short train ride to the Zürich, Switzerland airport for our Lufthansa flights home through Frankfurt to Denver on September 7.
2006 - Liechtenstein, Austria, and Germany
Our 2006 plans had us flying once again to Zürich, then taking the short trip to Triesenberg in Liechtenstein, arriving a day before their 200th Anniversary celebration on August 15. We spent about 5 days getting to know Liechtenstein and its people, hiking in the mountains above Triesenberg.
From there we traveled to the Brandnertal, which is in Austria, just over the mountains on the Eastern border of Liechtenstein for another 5 days.
Next, a short stay of a few days in the Montafon in the area of Schruns was followed by a week in Sölden in the Ötztal. We had planned to visit these areas in 2005, but they were all flooded.
After our time hiking in the high mountains of the Ötztal, we traveled by rail once again to München, our favorite Bavarian city, to relax for a couple of days before flying home.
2009 - Austria (Carinthia & East Tyrol), Slovenia, and Germany
While planning our 2009 vacation, we were in contact with our good friends Franz and Margot from Arnhem, the Netherlands. We had been told of a beautiful part of Slovenia that wasn't overrun with tourists, called Logarska Dolina. We invited Franz and Margot to join us in visiting there, and decided that we would meet in Klagenfurt, Austria, rent a car, and drive from there to Slovenia - a drive of only a couple hours. We first flew into Munich, and traveled by S-Bahn and train directly to the village of Mallnitz, in the Kärnten (Carinthian) province of Austria. We spent 5 days there, and were invited to join the procession hike on August 15, the feast of "Maria Himmelfahrt" (the Assumption of the Virgin Mary), followed by beer and brats at a mountain hut. We then traveled one valley east to the Maltatal, which is known for its rock and ice climbing. Then it was time to join Franz and Margot in Klagenfurt for the drive to Slovenia. They then traveled with us to the Defereggental in the province of East Tirol, northwest of the city of Lienz, Austria, where we spent another 5 days hiking the surrounding mountains. Our next stop was in the village of Ramsau, near Berchtesgaden, Germany, where we were joined for a day by our friend Christiane. And, of course, our trip wouldn't be complete without a final few days in Munich before returning home.
2011 - May Camping in the National Parks and Monuments of the Southwest
2011 was our year for a break from traveling in Europe. Instead we decided to spend three weeks in May with our Jayco pop-up camper in the National Parks and Monuments that are so abundant in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. The weather was great for hiking, with highs in the 50s and 60s and lows in the 30s and high 20s, and the crowds were minimal. Our trip began amid stormy clouds and rain as we drove from Boulder to Hovenweep National Monument, which is located in the southwest corner of Colorado. It's surrounded on two sides by Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, where we also did some hiking and viewing of some interesting ruins. From Hovenweep we then did the short drive to Cortez and on to Mesa Verde National Park, which neither of us had visited for a number of years. After 4 days there, we left for Chaco Canyon National Historical Park in New Mexico. The last 20 miles of dirt road into Chaco was not something that we'd recommend, however - severe washboarding and lots of dust resulted in having to do a few hours maintenance and repair on the camper. Aside from many loose screws, the connection to our propane tank worked loose, and we thought that we had lost all our propane, with the nearest refill station back over the 20 miles of washboard. Fortunately, the check valve shut off the gas and we had enough to get by. We left Chaco after 3 nights and headed across Arizona, initially planning to spend a night at Navajo National Monument, a small site in Arizona. However, after driving for hours in rain, wind and snow we decided to keep going to Page, AZ, which is just below Glen Canyon Recreation Area, and get a motel for the night. After getting a good night's sleep, we drove on to Bryce Canyon the following day, entering the park in a snowstorm which fortunately disappeared within an hour. Bryce was awesome, and we spent 4 days hiking the various trails and taking dozens of photos. Our last evening there, we joined friends who were on a Heartcycle bicycle tour in the area for dinner. We left the next morning for Escalante National Monument and found a great campsite at the BLM Calf Creek Campground. We hiked to Lower Calf Creek Falls on our first full day, then drove a ways to hike to Upper Calf Creek Falls the next. We saw our cycling friends again as they rode from Bryce through Escalante to Boulder, UT. After three very pleasant nights at Calf Creek, it was time to head for home, arriving the Friday before Memorial Day.
2013 - June: Bicycling in Provence, Hiking in Germany and Austria
June found us flying to France for a 10 day fixed-base bicycle tour with the Bicycle Adventure Club. A number of our friends joined us in the village of Vaison la Romaine, north of Avignon. Our stay at the medieval Hotel le Beffroi and rides in the Provence countryside, including a climb by Bill of the (in)famous Mont Ventoux were outstanding - as were the fabulous French meals served each day by the terrific staff at Le Beffroi. Following this group tour, Judy and I traveled on the TGV (high speed train - up to 320km/h!) to Germany, starting with a brief visit to Freiburg, near the Black Forest. We then went by train and bus through the Black Forest first to the Kleinwalsertal in the western Tyrol regions of Austria and after a week there, to the Tannheimertal in the Allgäu Alps. We had planned to then travel to higher altitudes, but un-seasonal weather changed our plans after some higher passes received 30cm of snow with temperatures in the 30s and 40s! Our wonderful friends Christa and Reinhard from Munich had spent a few days with us in Tannheim, and provided us with a ride to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where we spent another 10 days hiking and enjoying the Bavarian food and music before heading to Munich for the last two days and a visit with our long-time friend Christiane, whom we met on our very first trip together to Europe, before returning home on July 10.
More to come . . . .
2016 - June & July: Germany, Western Austria Arlberg Region and Zurich, Switzerland
On June 15, we boarded Lufthansa Flight 447, our direct flight to Frankfurt where we'd meet our dear friend Maggie Brueggemann. Upon our arrival, we were dismayed to see Bill's long-time travel bag on the carousel with the zipper torn off! Fortunately, the safety straps kept it closed and nothing was lost! After talking with Lufthansa's baggage personnel and finding no suitable replacement, they wrote us a voucher to pay for the bag. An inauspicious start to our visit - but since Maggie was collecting us at the airport, we were able to get to our lodging in Rauenthal without further mishap! The next day while touring Wiesbaden with Maggie we were able to buy a great replacement bag (with ROLLERS and backpack straps, even!).
We spent a few relaxing days in Rauenthal with Maggie and walking in the area, visiting both Wiesbaden and Mainz, and a poignant afternoon visiting the "green" memorial spot where the ashes of Maggie's husband and our wonderful friend Reiner were buried. Then we left with Maggie forSchoppernau in Austria's Arlberg, which we hadn't previously visited but had been a favorite of Maggie and Reiner. There we spent a delightful few days hiking and visiting together, until it was time for Maggie to return home.
Judy and I next traveled by bus to Kloesterle, just west of the famous ski resort St. Anton am Arlberg, where we encountered the first rain on our trip. But we were saved by the Arlberg Music Festival, which was held in a big hall, complete with lots of beer, Austrian food and music! Next on our itinerary was the Pension Jaegerhof in Feichten in the Kaunertal, a beautiful valley southeast of Landers, Austria. In a fitting follow-on to our luggage mishap, all of the restaurants and the grocery in the village were still closed for a few days' holiday! We were saved by a nice bakery and conditerei, as well as the hearty breakfast at our pension and a local hotel allowing us to join their full pension guests for dinners. After enjoying a number of interesting hikes and a bus excursion to the Kaunertal glacier, retraced part of our journey back to Pettneue am Arlberg, east of St. Anton. A "wanderbus" took us to St. Anton, where there were a number of ski lifts to take hikers to the trails high on the mountain.
From Pettneue, it was a scenic bus ride to Haus Schoenblick in Bach am Lechtal, where we were met few days later by our German friends Christa and Reinhard from Munich. They were hiking the Lechweg with Swiss friends and a cousin from Germany. We hiked with them to the next village, and enjoyed drinks and afternoon snacks together, leaving two days later for Zurich and our July 13 flight home.
2019 - August & September: Austria, Germany, Slovakia and Poland
Flying into Munich on August 19, the next morning took us by train and bus to Filzmoos in Austria's famous Dachstein area.
Reit im Winkl, overnight Munich, fly LOT via Warsaw to Krakow. With David to Levoca, Slovakia. Strbske Pleso. Zakopane, Poland. Krakow, Horyniec, Krakow. LH Krakow-Frankfurt-Denver
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