One might think that by now four women in a small car, together constantly, would start to get on one another's nerves. ... hence the family trapped comment. Well in all honesty....someone is, in fact, becoming more and more irritating everyday with her dumb jokes, bad singing and endless stories.....But the Killer Aunts are being very patient with me.
So off we head, in the direction of Neuschwanstein Castle... the most famous castle in Germany. The trip there was easily our best day of driving yet. We drove through THE MOST amazingly picturesque villages you could ever imagine. Each one looked to be straight out of a story book and the countryside in between the villages was alternately the evil forest and Jack's little farm pre-beanstalk. We took four hours to make what normally should have been an hour drive because we kept stopping and exploring.
An interesting part of each little village was a prominantly placed Maypole. They we all at least 30 feet tall and we spent the entire day wondering what the heck they were ... Thank goodness fot the Internet. This entire region is obviously supported by the lumber and wood industry. ... but even with the variety of trees available, it was amazing how tall and straight these Maypoles were.
As we approached the first castle we could see it peeping out of the clouds l. I can't describe and the photos don't show just how incredible it looked. It was just as magical as we got close. It was truly a fairy tale castle.
After a busy morning of village hopping and castle chasing we decided it was time to reward ourselves with some good Bavarian food and thought an authentic biergarten was the perfect spot to do so. We were right. Cold local beer with sausages, cheeses, and bread definitely hit the spot. Our best find at the local joint however were out two new friends Peta and Ronnie. They told us lore of the area, some places to be sure to see and some funny stories about growing up German. They even attempted to teach us some German. When Ronnie was telling me that felin danka meant thank you very much, Aunt Joyce, hearing only part of the conversion jumped right in. "Hi Felin, I'm Joyce". He looked confused. .... And we laughed. Tomorrow we are gong to work on listening to all of a conversation before jumping in.
Leaving the biergarten we headed to Salzburg. At a round-about we heard several cars honking and people shouting. Since I was in my lane this time and going the correct direction, I assumed some other bad driver was on the road. The honking and yelling continued... weird. .... And we could hear it remarkably well.... weirder. But still, I seemed to be breaking few if any traffic laws. I looked in my rearview mirror and discovered why the commotion and why we could hear it so well..... our hatchback was open! I pulled over, Tita and I jumped out to survey the damage. While trying to determine what was missing, two heroes showed up....one driving and honking, trying to catch and alert us, the other running down the road carrying our dropped suitcase. Morals of the story. .. Bavarians are exceedingly nice and I am not yet proficient at operating our vehicle.
An hour later we had arrived at our place to stay... incredibly the real, authentic, actual von Trapp home. What a great experience. It was simple and elegant. We had the entire downstairs to ourselves. We had a great time exploring, especially Aunt Joyce who explored herself right into the room of the only other guests at the villa. Once again we were amused. .... Them.... Not so much. We turned in for the night and read more about the actual facts of the von Trapp family's lives. The only negative.... if we had to say there was one, was when we discovered that they had not fled Austria on foot over the mountains, but instead left by train. The aunts just might be happy because now I will not try to drag them on a hike over the escape route tomorrow.
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