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Published: August 26th 2006
Beautiful Alps
This is the view from our balconyHoly smokes....... it feels like this day lasted a week. It was very eventful. We got off the plane in Frankfurt with no plans at all. We knew we wanted to get to the mountains but I didn't know what that looked like yet. Hadn't decided if we were going to take a train, a plane, a bus, a car (click our heels together) - I thought I would decide when we got here. It's been about 24 hours "on the road" so far and I haven't really slept that much yet. We've been to Seattle, Texas and Germany today.
So we get off the plane and the first strange thing is that people smoke inside the airport. They have smoking "stations". It is 7:00 am German time, which is 10:00 pm at home and my day is just starting. We decided to rent a car and drive down to Munich, from there we can get to the Alps. Sounds easy. That is until I actually get in the car and have to leave the airport. Luckily there was a couple next to me at the rental counter that were renting a GPS with their car which alerted me to
the fact that I probably needed one too. The GPS (Sharin, as Jordan has aptly named her - as in Sharin information) has been our best friend on this trip so far. She talks to us a lot when we make bad directional choices, and her voice is soothing. Oh, except when she told me to go 300 meters ahead, take a u-turn and then another u-turn???? Doesn't that just make us lost, AND going in circles?? I just turned her off at that point and started our relationship over.
The first thing I noticed is that Frankfurt smells really strange. It has a kind of crisp, cold energy, and I really feel like I need to get out of the city right away. So I start heading south towards the mountains, with Jordan fast asleep in the back seat. It is early, I am tired, but I will have to get over that in a hurry, because EVERYBODY is in a rush here. It is insane. It starts as I am getting out of the parking garage at the airport. I am doing about 60 km down a circling ramp and this guy in a bmw is honking
at me. Now, I am a fast driver (I have the tickets to prove it), but I am considered a slug here. I make my way to the Autobahn with Sharin's help and realize that everything I have heard about the Autobahn is true. I am travelling between 125km to 140km and people are passing me like I am at a rest stop. Some must have been travelling at almost 200km, I seriously couldn't believe it. It was frightening seeing the cars in the rear view mirror from far away, they all looked kind of angry and threatening due to travelling at light speed. They were like small missiles coming at me - I felt like Frogger.
Oh well, on I go. After a while I start to get hungry and thirsty. Another monumental task. I have not exchanged any money yet and, surprise!!!!!, the people in the more remote towns don't take american money or master card and everyone speaks....... German!!!! Of all the languages! Who would have thought???? I know, I know, what a moron, but you know me, I never think ahead, that is half the fun. I end up stopping at about 5 different places
The calm before the storm
It looked so much more ominous when you were under it - and much more black. The intense thunder added to it as well. and leave everyone of them empyty handed, it was sooooo funny. Ms. Resourceful can't even buy a water. Some, though, I left because the German guy behind the counter with the menacing smile wanted to give 50 cents for my American dollar. I was thirsty, alright, but on principle alone, I couldn't let him take advantage of me like that. Thank God I didn't have any Euro's or a phrase book! : ) Life just would have been way too easy.......... My one regret is that I didn't have any Euro's when the bathroom machine/turnstyle demanded them. It wouldn't let me in. I forgot that you pay for pubic bathrooms in Europe - that I would have done differently......
I can honestly say that I don't think I could spend time in a big German city. It is something about the energy. It's like it has a hangover from it's past or something. I can't put my finger on it, but it somehow still feels angry here or repressed. I am not quite sure what it is, but I don't feel joy or freedom here, the city feels more like an obligation. Just as the chaos is wearing me
Our safe harbour
These are the only trees we could find for protection from the meteor-like hail down, I come around a corner and the most beautiful mountains ever come into view - the Alps. The energy is completely different and I feel light and happy. This part of Germany is so beautiful I can't believe it. It feels magical, like I have been taken back in time. I love it.
So now that I am about 6 hours into my 3.5 hour drive, I am looking forward to arriving very soon in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and settling in in the Alps. I can't wait to get off my feet, have a hot bath and maybe just lay and watch a movie tonight. The thought is so appetizing, especially since I am having trouble finding food because I have no Euro's, and even if I did, who knows what the hell the menu says. Ha! The powers that be are going to make this trip memorable - not easy. All of a sudden, I am stuck at this juncture on my way to Garmisch. I think Sharin is mad at me because she is giving me crappy advice all of a sudden. The highway is to the left, but the most beautiful, serene, picturesque road is to the
After the storm
This is Irene and Eva, they were kind enough to take us for coffee and something else - whatever it was, it was good - after the storm passed right. It's like it is out of a movie, so of course I go right. Jordan has just woken up and we are stopped at the side of the little road in awe of the mountain in front of us and the ideallic little patch of hills, valleys and homes that you would expect to see in the Princess Bride or something. We are peacful and happy, just taking it all in........ So serene.............. not.
Out of the blue, I see this monstrous black cloud come over the mountain - the picture doesn't do the color of the cloud any justice. If I could have known what was about to happen, I would have taken many more pictures. So this cloud starts swooping over us, and Jordan starts to get a little scared - we are in the mountains now, after all. I tell him it's alright, but I can see these two ladies on the road looking at the sky and I am kind of worried about them. Now the thunder is coming. It is loud and angry. There is always something so powerful about thunder that just makes you feel so small and insignificant. The cloud is
rather ominous, so I call over to them and ask them if they would like to get in the car. They happily get in, they seem a little spooked as well. It turns out they are from Vienna and Austria, and are on a walking journey - 800 km - not all at once, they do a little every year. This enables them to find the most remote little towns. They have this book of a guy that did it many years ago and they say they find the most amazing places on earth. We all start driving up to this little town, Jordan is still trying to wake up, it starts pouring rain so hard we can barely see or hear, there is this huge cloud scaring him, strangers in the car..... the joy of travel! All of a sudden we start to see hail coming down. Well, this hail starts to get the size of golf balls and starts falling so furiously that one of the ladies starts "firmly requesting" that I find a tree to get under - of which there are not many. We kind of find a tree, but not really, and for the next
Our guesthouse
this is where I get to write my blogs, with that fantastic view of the mountain. We are really going to miss this place. 4 or 5 minutes just sit there with the equivalent of 10,000 rocks being thrown at us from the sky. The whole thing would have only been entertaining except there were so many thousands falling so fast and so hard, that we were all scared that the glass was going to break on us. The sound of ice from the sky on metal is not of the soothing variety. I can only describe the sound as imagining one of those baseball throwing machines shooting at you, only it had rocks and could spit thousands at a time.
Within about 30 seconds or so, this lady - also looking for a tree, like it would help - pulls up beside us in her car and she looks terrified. I would have been too, but there were four of us in the car and there was something comforthing about that. She keeps going between looking at us and putting her head in her hands. Then all of a sudden, it starts to slow down. Finally, some relief. I tell Irene it is good, it is letting up and we all breathe a sigh of relief. And, so much like life, just
when you think you have found the calm in the storm, you realize you were only in the eye. It starts again!!!! Only this time harder. Anyways, I'm sure you get the point. It was all very cool. There is no way to describe the energy of a sudden storm like that, especially when you are overseas for the first time in your life and have only been in the country a few hours. It was awesome. Great first day. The best thing about it is that we met two wonderful ladies and got to go to a super remote little town that we would have never found without them. We ended up at this spectacular little cafe in the middle of nowhere and Irene and Eva bought us the best coffee and something else - I would tell you what it was but I don't know - German again!!!!
I'm not sure what is up with this day, but after a while we left the cafe and carried on towards our destination. We got lost because the road we are on does not even register with the GPS system. Sharin was very confused and in return gave us
advice that would have taken us off the side of the cliff, right through the heard of cows. The strangest part of all was right after we left the cafe. About a mile down the road my nose started bleeding very hard. It started bleeding so quickly and so out of the blue that it took me off guard and dripped all down my white shirt. Now you have to imagine me arriving in Garmisch-Partenkirchen to look for a hotel. I have been travelling well over 35 hours, my hair is sticking up everywhere, I am dirty, there is blood on my shirt and the only thing more red than the blood are my eyes. I look like I have been to a rock fight. I walk into this nice hotel to ask where a bank machine is and this very nice and cute gentleman cannot stop staring at me or the blood, I completely took him off guard. It was very funny. If this day is indicative of the rest of my trip, I am in for one hell of a time..............
Bye for now,
Heide
P.S. I have since learned that weinerschnitzle is
Sending messages home
Could there be a more beautiful place to work from.....? Austrian...............
Back in the Highlife - Steve Winwood
All the world tonight - Graham Colton
13,32,44
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Tania
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I felt that I was right there with you and Jordan - and all the others you met on the way. I, too felt the fear of shooting hail.