April 26: Auf Wiedersehen, Innsbruck! Grüss Gott, Oberammergau

We got up and frankly dragged our feet getting out of the hotel... we have so enjoyed our time in Innsbruck.  Downstairs for some Latte, up to finish packing, and Judy went out for some last pictures.  The night before, she'd captured some fantastic evening views from our room. 

After dawdling as long as we could, we schlepped our stuff to Innsbruck Hauptbahnhoff (main train station).  It's a bit of a hike laden with luggage, but the morning was gorgeous and we wanted a last walk through town.  In fact, by the time we got to the Hauptbahnhof, it was warm enough to strip off our fleeces... for the first time since we had arrived in Innsbruck.

It's supposed to hit 80 degrees F tomorrow, from what we hear.

We caught a local train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen.  I highly recommend it.  The view along the way is beyond description.  In our case, the train was nearly empty and we had an amazingly pleasant journey.

Upon arriving at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, we looked for a bus to Oberammergau.  I found the platform for one that was leaving in 40 minutes -- time for a quick drink on the sidewalk at the local cafe. 

Have mercy!  Been waitin' for the bus all day (obscure ZZ Top Lyric).  New KY friends behind.

There we met a couple of men from Kentucky, one of whom had recently retired from the faculty of the U. Kentucky and was now farming himself out as an adjunct around the world.  He'd been out of the U.S. for 4 months and hoped to continue to do so, focusing on Southeast Asia.

Sounds like a plan to me.

The bus came and we went over to the bus driver to ask for advice on where to get off.  Oberammergau has 5 stops and we didn't have a clue, other than an address for our hotel.  The bus driver didn't know a word of English so I had the opportunity to try to resurrect a little German.  He didn't know our hotel or the road it was on, so we figured we'd wing it.  As we carried/dragged/kicked our luggage toward the rear of the bus, a young woman asked, "so where are you trying to get to?"  Her advice was to get off at the bahnhoff (train station) as we could get a cab and maps.  So we thanked her and carried/dragged/kicked our luggage to a seat. 

The bus was truly local and filled with schoolkids heading home.  Pretty chaotic, but it was easy to figure it out the system.  An LCD screen at the front showed you the next 5 stops coming up so we knew when we were getting to Oberammergau, the last stop being the bahnhof.  But Judy and I had a sneaking suspicion that we could get closer if we could figure out the town (without a map).  So we kept our eyes open, and after the third stop (where Judy spotted a sign that said E.B. Ott), we both actually saw our street.  We carried/dragged/kicked our luggage out the back bus door, and guess what?  We were less than a block from our hotel!!   This has never happened.  Actually, we've never even found our place on the first pass.  And we've only found it on the 2nd pass once. 

We were exceptionally proud of ourselves.  Or maybe it was just relief.

In Oberammergau, we are living in a postcard.  Seriously.  If you don't believe it, check this out:

Pension Dedlerhaus, Oberammergau. 

Yeah, that's our digs here.

The Pension Dedlerhaus is a family-run B&B.  The lowest floor houses their shop, which sells woodcarvings (Oberammergau's 2nd claim to fame, after the Passion Play) as well as other souvenirs.  Behind a locked door is a charming breakfast room.  We're at the top of the stairs, next to a deck that is ours to enjoy.

We dropped the bags and went in search of lunch and adventure.  We stopped at a restaurant with a table outside:  it was probaby 70 degrees F, not a cloud in the sky.  We were feeling good, and I ordered in German and for the first time in our entire time here -- I'm not kidding -- the waitress let me go ahead and finish ordering.  And not only did she cover her snickering exceedingly well, but she responded to me in German.  Trust me.  She had no illusion that I spoke German.  But it was a very kind gesture that I was genuinely touched by.

Until the food came.  We ordered schnitzel, and we got brats.  Which we accepted (and they were really good), as I assumed I'd somehow misunderstood the menu.  That was until we paid the bill, and I went by a guy in the same restaurant with the schnitzel we ordered.  Oh well.  At least I felt redeemed.

We wandered around town, making a pilgrimage to where the Passionspiel (Passion Play) is held every 10 years.  But -- and this is hard for me to admit -- the best part was the window-shopping.  For any of you who don't know me (or have been living in a cave), there is no better way to ruin a shopping trip than to invite me.  I hate it.  Pretty much across the board.  But the woodcarving here is exquisite.  We ended up picking up a small piece (50% off, and I was the one urging to get it... that never happens).  Here it is.

Woodcarving from Oberammergau

This puppy hit all my hot buttons:  beautiful carving, skilled painting, and bagpipes!  The ultimate Rock & Roll axe.

A little trivia:  bagpipes are thought to have originated in Egypt.  Virtually every culture in eastern, central and western Europe has them.  Scottland is pretty much the last place that they arrived.

Oberammergau is really quiet this time of year and we felt incredibly blessed:  70 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and no crowds.  So we had an amazing day wandering one of the most picturesque towns I've ever seen, with no more crowds than you would expect if only locals were there.  Pretty awesome.

We'd gone to the information center and heard about a Hanzel and Gretel house and a Little Red Riding Hood house, which were near each other and a little south of us.  It sounded really cheesy, but we went anyway.  What the heck. They are awesome!  Check it out:

Little Red Riding Hood story, on a house

Little Red Riding Hood story, on a house



Little Red Riding Hood story, on a house

Hansel & Gretel



Hansel and Gretel

Afterwards, we went out to dinner.  Great food, great Bavarian beer.  I ordered entirely in German again, and this time the waitress didn't even snicker.

I love this place.

April 25: last night in Innsbruck

I actually ended up letting the students out early, as I had reserved the afternoon for an exam and we changed it to project plus take-home.  Nobody complained about getting out early.  The project presentations took up the morning, and were good, and fun.  It was a nice way to end the class, and several students came up afterwards to say how valuable that was compared to just more lectures.   Of course, I am still grading them, so I'm not sure how much of that is the "suck up" factor.  One student will be done with his degree after writing 2 theses of his choice and has decided he really wants to do one on international consumer behavior.  He's asked me if it's OK to write for advice and readings and I was flattered and happy to oblige.

It was an absolutely gorgeous afternoon and Judy and I went to her favorite place -- Tiroler Bauernkeller -- for a late lunch.  They have an all-you-can-eat buffet and I do not recommend that if you're trying to keep your figure in Tirol.  But I didn't take my advice, and it was good, and my stomach still hurts 7 hours later.

We said our "good byes" to our friends at MCI and spent the afternoon walking, sitting at cafes, and just enjoying the sun and the warmest weather we've had since arriving almost 2 weeks ago.  After a much lighter dinner, we returned to the room to catch up on blogging, upload pictures, and simply sit on the porch enjoying the sunset.  One last late-afternoon shot, from our balcony:

April 24: almost done... RATS!

I had another long day, but at least we did a simulation in the afternoon which was far less boring than a lecture (for the students and for me).  Judy met me at school for my lunch break, and it was -- as they say in New Zealand -- "peesin' rine."  Truly miserable!  But by the time class was done shortlly before 5:00, the skies had cleared.  We ended up just walking around, enjoying being dry.  Then had some dinner at the Elferhaus, which has pretty OK food and a good beer selection.  I had a sausage plate with 5 different sausages, and unfortunately I can't tell you what they were.  One was a knockwurst, 3 were hotdog-like (but not hot dogs), and one was really good and different but the waiter didn't know what to call it.  Rats.

One more day of classes.  One more evening meal.  Then off to Oberammergau.  I'm excited for the next leg of our adventure, but I am really going to miss this place!

April 23: Hungerburg and Alpenzoo

The weather cleared again and we wanted to take advantage of it to do something outside.  That, and we discovered that the museums were closed on Monday.

No class today, and Judy had wanted to check out the Alpenzoo.  There's a combo ticket from Congress Station that lets you take the cable car up as far as Hungerburg and give you admission to Alpenzoo.  While you can get off right at the zoo, we had really liked Hungerburg and had not been there in good weather.  We went up to Hungerburg and walked down a fairly steep but reasonable path down the mountain toward Alpenzoo.  Here's some of what we saw along the way:

To be honest, I really wasn't expecting much from Alpenzoo, but it is a truly delightful place.  Not on a scale of, say, National Zoo in Washington or San Diego Zoo, but the aesthetics and views are far superior. The layout is extremely thoughtful and not the largely paved landscape you encounter in many zoos.  Plus, there's a fun playground for the kids at the bottom, and a fun patio with very reasonable draft beer, wine, and snacks for the adults, overlooking Innsbruck and the mountains.  The weather was warm, the sun was out... what a great way to spend an afternoon!

Alpenzoo patio view

Alpenzoo patio view

April 22: church and rain

Today was a pretty chill day.  Literally.  The rain moved back in during the night, and it was cold.  We had decided to go to Christuskirche, an evangelical church of undetermined denomination not far off the Inn river, somewhat downstream of us. 

We left the hotel in a cold rain with not-so-great umbrellas and arrived about 5-10 minutes after services started (as is our custom), like a couple of drenched rats (not so much our custom).  So we snuck in the back and sat.  The congregation present was very small (maybe 40).  The pastor was a slight, 60-to-70-ish woman. 

Neither Judy nor I remember much of the little German we learned in high school and our first year of college.  We are actually pretty pathetic.  I am more likely to try because I'll do anything to get a laugh.  Even a derisive one.

But the church was liturgical and we got enough to follow along with the liturgy.  Same in Italy and Mexico.  It is something about liturgical churches that I hadn't appreciated before these experiences.  There is something remarkable, and comforting, and inspiring, about being able to share a common understanding among believers, across such disparate languages.

So liturgy, we did OK.  We got lost in the sermon.  I did get pretty happy at one point when the pastor mentioned something about a "kinderbuch," which I knew meant "children's book." I hoped maybe I could keep up with something aimed at pre-schoolers.  No such luck.  I did figure out that it was a story about sheep because the pastor started bleating like one.  And it made sense, because we'd figured out the Gospel reading as the text about "I know my sheep, and my sheep know me."  But that's about as far as I got.

I liked how they did communion, particularly for such a small fellowship.  They all came forward and formed a circle.  The Pastor passed the bread and cup to the next person, and they presented it to the person after them, and so on.  We stayed out, not knowing if they would view our participation as appropriate or not.  But I thought it was really nice.  I don't know if that makes me "Synodically-correct" or not, but I'll bet it was pretty close to what Jesus had in mind.  Just my opinion.

As we left, the Pastor said something to us in German, which I didn't understand.  Mustering my truly pathetic command of the language, I stammered, "Wir sind Americaner.  Wir sprechen kein Deutsch."  Before I finished the second sentence, she interrupted and said -- in perfect English -- "so, would you like to get some coffee?"

This has been typical of my experience in both Germany and Austria.  I feel completely illiterate.  And deservedly so.  My German is so bad that I can't get 2 words out before the person I'm talking to figures, "this guy is hopeless... I'd better help the poor schmuck out before he really embarrasses himself."

We got some brunch and returned to the room, where I caught up on blogging until the clouds lifted during the late afternoon.  Judy got online and we live-streamed the King of Glory church service from Williamsburg, where Pastor Tom Zehnder was preaching.  Tom was in town for the ordination of Larry McReynolds, our longtime Music Ministry guy who has been working toward ordination basically since coming to Williamsburg.  My one regret being here (offset by many Woo Hoos!!) is missing that.  It is a great accomplishment that Larry has been working toward for a long time, and I'm sure that we were probably the only people who missed it.  Larry is much-loved by everyone at King of Glory.

Afterwards, we basically roamed around town, picked up some groceries, and got some dinner.   We discovered the biggest grocery store we've seen so far in the basement of the Haupt Bahnhoff -- the main train station.  And we ran into Kurt and Ruth Matzler there.  I squinted at Ruth and said, "hey, don't I know you?"  That got me a laugh and a hug.  (If that doesn't make any sense, read the blog from 2 days ago).

April 21: Salzburg

Judy and I did get up in the morning (though not that early), and caught a 9:00 train for the two hour trip to Salzburg.  We met a young woman from Plattsburg, NY on the train.  She'd just graduated from school in Industrial Design and had landed a job with Swarovski, which acquired some manufacturing facilities in Plattsburg.  They flew her to Innsbruck for a few weeks of training at corporate HQ.  Not a bad way to start a new job, eh?

We'd decided to hit Salzburg on Saturday because the weather was supposed to be pretty good... and the weather did not disappoint.  We had a spectacular ride northeast through the Inn river valley, bounded on both sides by spectacular mountains, before turning due west after emerging from the mountains and following them to Salzburg.

We decided to get tickets on the "Hop On/Hop Off" bus that makes a loop around the historic city and out to some of the nearby palaces.  To gauge by all the visitor collateral, Salzburg is most famous for two things:  Mozart, and The Sound of Music.  And that certainly got emphasized, and we certainly did all of the cheesy things like visiting the site locations for the movie shoot.  But it's also a really interesting city, with a known history dating back to Celts who settled here, and Rome's first outpost north of the Alps.  Salzburg gets its name from nearby underground salt mines, salt being a particularly precious commodity in ancient times that was brought down to the Salzach river for transport.

Salzburg is built around the Mӧnchsberg (monk's mountain) and imposing hill with sheer rock walls overlooking the city and the Salzach River.  Stift St. Nonnberg (Nonnberg Abbey), the home of Maria von Trapp when she was a nun, is built into it.  This is the oldest nunnery in Central Europe, if I heard correctly.  At the high point is Festung Hohensalzburg ("Festung" is German for "fortress"), a truly imposing castle visible from pretty much anywhere in town, on any side.  Trust me.  I've got dozens of pictures to prove it.

Dom Cathedral, with Festung Hohensalzburg on the hill

Festung Hohensalzburg picture #2,359.  Kapitel Platz

Ein Prosit!  Party for locals (and whoever else wants to bust in).

There is also a Capuchin Monastery built into another cliff, Stift St. Peter (St. Peter's Abbey) built into the foot of the Mӧnchsberg, and a number of beautiful and inspiring kirchen as well as the Dom Cathedral.  Outside of town are a number of summer palaces, including Schloss Freisaal, Gwandhaus, Schloss Frohnburg, and the impressive Schloss Hellbrun with its gardens, glass pavilion (site of the "I am Sixteen" segment of The Sound of usic) and wasserspiele (trick fountains).  And of course, Schloss Leopoldskron, which everyone who's seen The Sound of Music will recognize.  I'll put in some pictures.  You'll figure it out.

The Glass Pavilian where Kurt hits on Lisl in The Sound of Music

Schloss Leopoldskron (think Sound of Music)

We noticed a lot of folks walking around in lederhosen and dirndls and thought it odd, but hey, you see a lot of tricorn hats in Williamsburg.  Maybe they're interpreters.  As it turned out, around dinnertime we stumbled upon a local fest in Kapetel-platz, between the Dom Cathedral and the foot of the Mӧnchsberg, right below the fortress.  An Austrian band, dancing, beer (of course), bratwurst with saurkraut and hard rolls (of course), giant soft pretzels (of course)... we ended up hanging out and enjoying ourselves for a good long while.

Before heading back to the train station, Judy wanted to see if we could find the Pferdeschwemme, the Royal Horse Bath, located near Siegmundsgate, the tunnel through Mӧnchsberg at its narrowest point.  While looking around, we stumbled across some very old steps in a very old wall that looked like they climbed up to Festung Hohensalzburg.  Now, you can take a funicular up to the castle... but that's for wusses.  And we had some beer, pretzels, and brats to work off.  So up we went.

You know, the top of Mӧnchsberg is a lot further than it looks!

So, we came back down, and we did find the Pferdeschwemme, and we did take a lot of pictures (including 3,467 of Festung Hohensalzburg).  And we did post them in a Google+ album.  And you can see them by visiting this website:

https://plus.google.com/photos/110323470356616481793/albums/5734193538401417313?authkey=CM3Ul6-1iLe2Qw

And we did catch the 8:00PM train, and we did get back to the hotel around 10:30.  And we did sleep.  Well.

April 20: class 2, and a lesson in remembering

The second day of classes felt less painful, at least to me.  I changed the final exam to a project that the students can start working on now, and it should be a lot more fun and motivate some of the stuff I'm teaching them. 

Kurt Matzler and his wife Ruth had invited us to dinner at their house and we were to meet them in front of our hotel at 7:45.  Judy started down, but I'd forgotten a bottle of wine we'd gotten for them so I went back to the room.  When I got downstairs, Judy was there with Ruth and I introduced myself... completely forgetting that Kurt and Ruth had come to our school in October and Todd had arranged for me to talk with them about a project I was working on.

Ruth was (justifiably, and puckishly) ruthless for the rest of the evening, managing to work in some comment about remembering people probably every few minutes.  But in a very fun way, to the point that I asked if it was OK if I just crawled under the table and stayed there until dinner was done. 

The Matzler's have an absolutely gorgeous home in Hungerburg, well up the mountainside with what must be absolutely spectacular views of the Alps and Innsbruck (unfortunately, it was rainy the night that we were there).  Kurt prepared a fantastic dinner, and they kept our plates and glasses filled as we talked about a variety of subjects (besides my memory).  One that was particularly interesting was the (relatively) recent history of Tirol, which I knew little about.  Tirol has 3 regions.  Ruth is from what is considered east Tirol, while Kurt is from south Tirol, and in fact is an Italian citizen (though his native language is German).  South Tirol was settled by Germanic people but was promised to Italy in 1915 in return for entering the War on the allied side.  It was annexed by Italy in 1919.  Hitler and Mussolini signed a pact that would allow South Tirol to remain Italian while Hitler annexed the rest of Austria, with the German-speaking South Tirolians to be transfered to German-controlled land or dispersed around Italy.  That never happened due to WWII, and when Italy surrendered Hitler stepped into South Tirol.  After the war, the allies decided that Italy would retain South Tirol, with the stipulation that the region be granted a large measure of autonomy.  That didn't work, as South Tirol was grouped with Italian-speaking Trentino and the German-speaking Tiroleans were a minority.  This led to a lot of dissatisfaction and some insurrection and terrorism.  It wasn't until the 1970s that the South Tiroleans had very real autonomy.  If I understood correctly, until then they couldn't have German-language signage.

I asked Kurt and Ruth if Tirolians consider themselves that first, or Austrian or Italian, as the case may be. They thought about it a little and agreed that it's probably Tirolian first.

After more than enough wine at dinner, Ruth broke out the schnapps, including some she had made herself.   It was an enjoyable and informative evening, though Judy and I planned to get an early train to Salzburg the next morning... and morning was going to come too quickly!