mountains and castles

innsbruck/mieming 1….
innsbruck is a much larger, alpine ski town in austria. their hotels were a bit pricier (maybe because they hosted the winter olympics??) so we were booked to stay in a ski lodge 35 minutes outside of the city. but since we were driving through, we wanted to head up to the hungerburg area of innsbruck where you can take a cable car all the way up a mountain and admire the views. we weaved our way up a zig-zagged mountain road for 20 minutes, found a parking spot, and walked up to the ticket office only to find that it had closed 30 minutes earlier. just our luck. we were able to snap some pretty great pictures though. the mountains were much taller than in salzburg...the alps in all their glory. some snow-capped, some steep, some jagged, some peaked...but all amazingly beautiful. as the sun began to set behind the tallest peak, we headed down and out of town. the houses started to taper off and the true austrian countryside broke forth. it took us several pass-bys and u-turns to find our hotel in the near dark. and it was a good thing we pulled in when we did. we just barely caught the owner who seemed to be locking up for the night. it was also a good thing we had leftover pizza from lunch, because the measly three cafes in town were all closed. the best we could figure was that mieming is a small skier’s village that had gone quiet since the lower snow was mostly melted. i think we may have even been the only people staying in the lodge. it definitely made for a peaceful, alpine, star-gazing evening.

mieming 2....
we had one thing only on the agenda this day....neuschwanstein castle. imagine the most perfect fairy tale castle you can, with pristine stone walls, pointed round rooftops, cut-out windows.....you’re still not even close. this castle is the essence of all castles. first of all, it is perched on an enormous stone rising out of the middle of a mountain. on one side, the view is of a rushing waterfall, barreling into a ravine. on the other side, an immaculate spread of green fields and crystal lakes, with storybook, matching, red-roofed houses scattered about. on yet another side, a huge frozen lake tucked between two towering mountains. and then, there’s the castle itself. massive balconies at every turn. enormous rooms of carved wood and hand-painted walls. winding brushed-stone staircases and arch-beamed ceilings. it.....was.....amazing. this day ranks as one of my favorites, not just because of the castle, but also because of the hiking we had to do to get to it. fresh mountain air. wind-rustled trees. heart beating perfectly in rhythm with our quick, steep steps. outstanding views along the path. there’s nothing better on earth. i could have stayed in this heaven for the rest of our trip. unfortunately, there are no rooms to rent in neucshwanstein castle, so we had to return to our humble mountain lodge. since we had missed having an actual dinner the night before, we were determined to sit down and enjoy some austrian home-cooking this particular evening. driving back, we happened upon another ski lodge with a small cafe inside. enter americans. there were 3 locals at the bar and not another soul at any of the dining tables. the waitress (really a short, chubby woman who probably owned the place) pointed for us to sit anywhere, so we entered a completely empty side room. when she came in with menus, we realized that she spoke absolutely zero english. perfect chance for me to get out the phrase book and try again :) it was probably one of the most pleasant “foreign” experiences we had. she was full of smiles and polite gestures and was quite amused with our attempted communication back and forth. at one point, she even asked if we were from russia. marcus and i spent most of the night alone in that room, enjoying beautifully cooked potatoes and pork, drinking ½ liters of spiegl and soaking up the joy of being completely “alone” in an unfamiliar place. all in all, it was an incredible way to end our last night in a german-speaking country.