Expectedly exceeding expectations exponentially

Originally published  10 June 2013

Our hotel in Austria!

​We woke this morning at our hotel in Fusch. We had a great breakfast and bid one of our favorites so far adieu.

I was VERY disappointed. We were to drive the Grossglockner Auto Road today and it was raining and the mountains were fogged in. We had come half way around the world, and this was one of my major "to do's" on this trip......and the damn thing is fogged in. We decided to head up anyway....maybe we would get lucky and have a hole in the clouds.

Just a wee bit of snow.  In JUNE.

​We went up the first mountain and it was pea soup. You couldn't see more than 100 feet. When we reached the top, it was right at freezing. And snowing. Granted, it is the weather and isn't controllable, but I was disappointed nonetheless.

Our steed.  A NICE 6 series BMW.

But not everybody travels by car here.

​We continued our trek down the mountain, and hit a spot with a little bit of visibility, maybe a few miles. So we stopped and had cake and coffee at a little restaurant looking down into a valley. While sitting there having great apfel (apple) cake and a latte, it cleared off where you could see very far down the mountain, and promptly fogged in again. It did this like three times while we sat there. We finished and headed down the mountain to hopefully catch a few more spots with no fog.

The little bar with great apple cake!

​As the day wore on, the fog burned off.....and my disappointment disappeared, to be replaced by total amazement. David made the comment "HOW do you explain this to someone when you get home?" I didn't have an answer for him and I still don't. How can you explain seeing something so visually fantastic that you really can't find the words to describe it? Words fail me...as they would anyone.

Grossglockner, the highest peak in Austria

The  glacier

We're back in Bechtesgaden for two nights, to do a few things in this area that we missed the last time. I'm sure we'll see a thing or two we did before, but we're also planning to do a few things we weren't able to before. Namely, Eagle's Nest, and visit the salt mines.  Tomorrow......more amazement.

Now a word from Laurie!

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The view down on the glacier

​Haven't had the energy to add to this for the last few nights. Fighting a cold which I caught from my dear husband but better today. The last day in Munich was a little rough with low energy from it but we managed to get laundry done with the rest of the male population of Munich. Surprised me that most of the people doing laundry were men. Once that was done we went down to the river and saw how much we didn't see in Munich. Great city and worth another trip. Didn't get to any of the museums which are supposed to be wonderful but did get to spend lots of time in the market and doing other things.

Glass observation area

​The Residenz was worth the trip in if for no other reason than to witness unbridled greed at work. It is amazing how much money the Wittlebacks wasted on things like wall paper and miniatures while the population starved but I guess they also employed a lot of people too. Guess they could be considered the original 1% when it really was 1%.

Still moving snow off the parking areas....in June.

​Anyway, once out of Munich we spent the night in Garmish after hiking the gorge which I can't spell right now. It was rainy and chilly but worth the hike and the trip through geological history. The whole valley was carved from glacier movement. We had a relaxing evening and morning and a good meal served by Nick, our Dutch waiter.

Cubic gorgeous

​When we got up today to drive to Grossglockner I was a little nervous that it was going to be a day of trying to make the best of things but it turned out fantastic. There were interesting exhibits about the geology and ecology of the Alps. There are basically only 4 animals that seem to survive there so they had lots of information on marmots, ibex, snow hares and ptarmigans It was really cool though to see the flowers they talked about in the exhibits and understand more of the harshness of that environment summer and winter and what it takes to survive there..

Cubic gorgeous  version 2.0

The Alps are beautiful in any weather, but when we came all this way to see the views, it was nice of the weather to cooperate at the end and allow this to happen. Now I can check off seeing a glacier from my to do list. It is almost impossible to describe the Alps. They are amazing - like trying to describe the Grand Canyon. You just have to be there.

​Tomorrow is another adventure into the mountains with Eagle's Nest.

Our wonderful room in Berchtesgaden.

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