The Day of the Fests

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We woke with the sun shining through our window. We both slept very hard. We packed our stuff logged onto the computer and updated the BLOG and checked on the flights leaving Zurich. They didn’t look good, I told Kirsten it was ok for her to go and I would follow on the next available flight. Her response cannot be entered into the blog. Basically, she said we would travel together.
After putting everything into the car, we went to have breakfast. Lara our hostess was sadder than we were about leaving. She loves Kirsten and wants her to stay and help her with her running the B&B. Kirsten was rolling around the idea until I popped that bubble and said Mandy, Will, Mark & Caroline need you more. By the way breakfast was delicious. As we were pulling out, Lara came running out with a bottle of their fresh apple juice and a brown paper bag. She came up to Kirsten and wished us a safe and happy journey. As we drove away I’m digging into the bag as Kirsten is saying isn’t she so sweet, Yea, Yea, Yea. She gave us a bag of fresh cherries, from their orchard. I had two fist full’s and my mouth couldn’t hold any more. Kirsten’s looking at me like and said ‘you just had breakfast’. In a muffled voice; but they are fresh.
As we drove north on the SS12 heading toward the Brenner Pass we came upon a small village. There was a hand written sign with an arrow pointing up the hill. It said ZUM FEST, Kirsten immediately down shifted, cut the Audi to a left turn at a hard 90 degrees. She then headed up to hill to be stopped by the Polizei, she stuck her head out the window and in German asked where the Festival was. The nice looking Polizei smiled and pointed up the hill. As they both sperchen the deusche with each other, she knew where to park. The car was parked and she was standing there looking at me and asking what are you waiting for, there’s a festival. I climbed out of the car and started walking toward the festival. When we got to the center of town there must have been 300 plus people dressed in vintage costume. They were having mass; Kirsten took communion with them and listened to the mass and speeches. Of course I had no idea what was said Kirsten interpreted for me. Ok, so after about 1 hour the mass and speeches were over and that started to ‘Process’ toward me. In the USA, we call this a Parade. So I took lots of pictures because Hedi would be so proud.
Ok, I know what everyone is thinking; what is the festival about and why are they speaking German in Italy. Well it turns out this little town in close to the boarder of Austria and everyone here speaks German and Italian. The festival was for some guy who fought against Napoleon when he came over the Alps.
At the end of the parade was a huge tent, yeah now this is what we were waiting for, German food and beer! I was not disappointed. We had our fill and we were off toward the boarder. We drove through the Brenner pass and started looking for a B&B. Kirsten pointed to a town on the map called St Kathryn and said let’s try that town. We headed that way and found Navis instead. We pulled into this nice looking B&B and the hostess met me half way talking in German. I held up my hand and said English? She was so excited. She immediately switched to perfect English, and told me they had rooms and that this was a special night because of a concert at the church up on the hill. You guessed it, the same guy who fought against Napoleon. I told her I was here just for the concert and that I was from the New York Times doing a special. Could I get a special rate, it worked. We checked in and walked up the only restaurant; remember this is a small town. Kirsten read over the menu and asked if they had a Weiner Schnitzel with a mushroom sauce. They didn’t have that but since you are with the guy with a camera we’ll make it special for you. It was the best Schnitzel I ever had, I’m being to feel a little guilty; NOT.
We attended the concert and it was very nice. Kirsten commented on how well everyone played together for such a small village. There is 25 plus members in the group. I responded, what you think they do up here when there’s 25 feet of snow on the ground.
When the concert was over we headed to our B&B and settled in for a good night sleep.

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Comments

[tracey]

Wow
Looks so wonderful, and sounds even better. You all are extremely hip too! This is amazing and thank you for sharing, we have kept up every day! Travel Safe! xo TR