From Crafts to Treetops

The day started out gray and foggy.  We went to the park to check out emails and scores.  We have to go to a wi-fi area in town because we don't have wi-fi in our apartment.  Main street was closed and we had to detour.  There was a banner, but it was in German so we couldn't read it, but it said something about 29/9, so we knew it was today.  After finding a place to park we took off to see what it was all about.  A local craft fair was going on in the square.  Oh, what fun!  We saw woodworking, felt hats, yard art, woolen socks and even an organ grinder.

I bought some great little note cards from an artist that also did ceramics.

There was a vendor in a top hat with custom made dog products.  Who knew dogs wore lederhosen?

We saw some beautiful carved doors on the way back to the car.

The day's getting brighter already.
We set out for Scheidegg, home of the Skywalk Allgau.

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They advertise, " you walk above the treetops", and in some places, we really did.

This was a great family place.  There was a neat playground area for kids.

Good news, there's a lift to get us up to the walkway.  The views at the top were spectacular even in the fog.

There were some tricky spots testing our balance.

We passed on the tube slide down.

The day might have started out gray, but it ended up fun.

Day Trip to Dornbirn

We took another day trip to a charming Austrian town.  Today it was Dornbirn.  We read where the city square had  comical architecture--but we didn't see anything comical, only charm.  There was a combining of the old and new.

The older buildings were especially elegant, with painting on the outside.

We couldn't figure out the "dead ladybug"--some kind of political statement, maybe.

We found a sign for Longhorn barbecue, sounds like a perfect lunch.

We sat down in the restaurant, but found out we were not at the barbecue place.  Oh well, we made do with a nice lunch of Austrian tapas and beer.  The beer was a local beer and we were sitting in the shadow of the brewery.  Talk about "fresh" beer!

We sat next to a couple from Vancouver, Canada.  They were in town to see their son play hockey for the Dornbirn team.  We really enjoyed visiting with them.  Another short stroll through the town square and then back home.  On the way home, we saw a herd of Axis deer next to a cow pasture.  "Let's all just get along"!

The Cinderella Castle

Today we felt like a king and queen, because we went to visit a castle.  Well, we can dream can't we? This is the Neuschwanstein castle in Hohenschwangau, Germany.

It's the one Disney modeled the Cinderella castle after.  It's also the one the "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" car flew over in the movie.  We could have taken a bus or a horse carriage up to the castle, but we chose to take the 40 minute walk up.

As we climbed the mountain, we passed a beautiful waterfall and saw walkers taking  a different route across a high bridge.

This castle was built for King Ludwig II, but he never got to see it finished because he died in 1886, before its completion.

We took pictures in the courtyard, but pictures were not allowed inside.

We had a wonderful drive home through the German/Austrian countryside.  On the way home,  we saw some typical buildings which were works of art.

Weekend on Hochgraf and in Zurich

What a nice weekend.  The weather was perfect--cool temps and clear skies.  We waited to take our gondola ride until the fog and rain were gone, so we could see all that lay before us!  The Hochgrat mountain range is the highest in the western Allgau region at 1834 meters.

The ride up the mountain was spectacular.  We could hear the the bells on the cows as we passed over where they were grazing.

At the top we could see forever.

There were hikers, bikers and like us, viewers.

We had lunch at what seemed like the top of the world.  The beer was cold and the soup was hot.  (I'm practicing for Oktoberfest).

It was quite a view from this magnificent point.

On Sunday, we drove to Zurich.  With the help of our GPS, it was an easy trip in about an hour and a half.  Zurich is a beautiful old city with lots of charm.

We parked and took off to see what it had to offer.  They don't have hop on, hop off buses, boo!  We found a very lively street fair aimed at children and families where the streets were blocked off.

Some even took advantage to have lunch in the street.

There were many church spires and bell towers, the twin towers of Grossmunster being the most famous.

We just had a quick day trip, so we didn't see as much as there was to see.  But the street fair was fun and we enjoyed watching the kids.