Local trips and searching for Internet access

Wednesday September 18, 2013

Mittenwald is famous for its violin makers, so this carved monument was pretty cool. This town was our second stop of the day when we took nearby short visits. It was again full of charm, flower boxes, decorated building walls, shops, cafes, and views of the soaring Alpine peaks.

Our first stop was a bit north of Mittenwald, the Walchensee, a small lake. We stopped to view it from the shore, but it was sprinkling so we did nothing more than take this photo:

I had chosen this destination only because it was close and thought it might be scenic. We later read that this lake was "the pearl of the Alps", and a highlighted destination. No homes or civilization on it, no motorized boats allowed, and you can trail-walk around the entire lake. Well, who knew?, but as you can see, it was very nice. Notice Janet's sweatshirt? I wonder if people knew what animal was portrayed on it? Or that an anteater could be the mascot of a major U.S. university? Does Europe even have anteaters?

Back in Mittenwald, we wandered around and just enjoyed looking in the shops, the buildings, and the little river running right through the town streets:

And notice that the tall peaks in the background were still covered with the previous day's snow! Here are a couple more photos we took because we loved the painted buildings.

A cable car went from town up to near the top of that mountain back there. We were tempted to ride one of the many cable cars we were near all over Bavaria and Tyrol, but we never did.

I just had to add one more photo of pretty Mittenwald with pretty Janet. We thought we would see more shops or museums related to the violin-making history, but at least we did see some private shops where they were made and a few instruments in shop windows. As you can see, it was still cold in Bavaria.

We drove up and east over a pass back into Austria, into the Leutasch Valley. This is where some of the 76 Winter Olympic Nordic events were held.

I took this photo of a poster showing an aerial view of the valley we drove through, bottom to top. As the bird flies, it was quite close to Scharnitz, except there were tall mountains between that valley to the east and this valley. This whole area is famous for its 155 miles of trails for both hiking in the summer and cross-country skiing in the winter. At the far end of this valley, we drove up and over, this time leading us to Seefeld.

In Seefeld we began our search for Internet connection. I asked at the train station and a guy said just 100 meters down the street. Janet and I wandered and looked forever but couldn't find what he might have been referring to. I wandered clear into the downtown and asked around, but no one knew anything. When I found Janet, her phone had located something, which we drove to but it turned out to be no good. So we tried the golf course across the street, which was sparse due to the rain. She said we could use their WiFi, so we ordered two beers (although she brought Janet wine for some reason) and set up shop. However, the computer battery died really quickly and Janet had to stick with the tablet.

They closed up and so we had to leave. We decided it was time for lunch, so we found the nice hotel restaurant where we had been two days earlier to use their W/C. As you can see in the photo, we enjoyed a nice chicken for me and spätzle-with-cheese for Janet. That dish has really turned into her favorite.

 Half a chicken...on fries? Oh well. The Kaiser bier was excellent!

After lunch we went looking for a plug converter for the computer, and did find one. Then we visited the visitor center to ask about WiFi and she said that the following evening between 7:00 and 8:30, the library had free WiFi. We decided to come back the next night, and then drove on back to the time share.

We rested for a while, and also went outside to take photos of their exotic birds. This place we were staying was a hotel, bar, store, time share (with sauna and solarium), a taxi service, and a bird sanctuary! Janet would hear these cockatiels singing in the mornings and would feel bad for them out in the cold.

They had two large owls, and another large snowy owl. They had other birds too, but I'm forgetting what they were.

A little later we took a drive east of Scharnitz on small dead-end roads, just to see what was there. Interestingly, at the end of the road, there was a Gasthaus!! Seems like no one would drive way out there to eat a dinner, but what did we know?

This evening, look who ventured into the kitchen.

In my humble opinion, it was an EXCELLENT Bavarian dinner. Just look at those bratwurst, with red cabbage, potato salad, and the cheap-but-great beer.