Mountain High

The week before Easter we made a car trip through Austria to Switzerland (to visit friends), then back into Germany (Heidelberg, to visit friends), and on through Bavaria (to visit friends). On the way to Switzerland we overnighted in Innsbruck. The city is all about mountains. Down every street you see snow capped mountains. Before we left we took a Gondola to the top of one of the mountains. Wow!! First, there is still plenty of snow, way up top, even in April. Second, it was a perfectly sunny day. Third, it's like you are in heaven way up on top of the mountain. You can see forever, over three or more distant snow capped mountain ranges. In fact you feel like you are above the mountain ranges looking down! It's as if you were standing on a cloud! A small airplane flew past us standing on the mountain edge, and it was BELOW us!

Not much was going on this late in the season, but that added to the pleasure as we were not in any crowds. A bar, and ice cave were open behind us, and the bar was pumping out chill trance music. The sun was so bright and warm you could sun bath in the snow!

As an added pleasure we played with a big black dog. We threw him snow balls to fetch, and in general chased each other around. The dog was pitch black, and if it wasn't for his playful mood I would have taken him as some kind of evil mountain spirit.

We want to go back to the mountains this summer. It's such a mind blowing experience standing up there. So peaceful, so free. Gotta do it again.

Zell am See Vacation!!

Finally a vacation! We went for 3 nights to Zell am See, about 1 1/2 hour by train south from Salzburg. It was nice to get out of the hot city and into the green cool mountains. We had a nice room overlooking the lake with the mountains behind. The first day we hiked the Schmitten Hohe. We took the cable tram up the mountain and hiked downhill. Along the way Sabine spotted blueberry bushes and showed Ani and Pascal how to pick the berries. The two of them picked and ate like little bears. If you look closely in some of the photos you can see that Ani and Pascal's lips turned blue from all the berries they ate. Funny thing....about 45minutes down the blueberry trail Sabine finds a sign showing the difference between blueberries you can eat, and their close cousin blueberries that will give you a stomach ache. We were picking the right ones!!

The following days we took less adventurous hikes because our (my) calves were sooo sore from our 4 hour downhill hike the first day. We visited a huge waterfall an hours busride from Zell am See, and the day after that a narrow canyon, or Schlucht, or Shoot, with raging water below. All in all it was nice to leave the city for awhile and enjoy the cool mountain airs.

Pictures from top to bottom: 1. from Schmitten Hohe with the Glacier in the distance 2. Ani with a handfull of blueberries 3. Ani scratching a drawing into a rock 4. View from top of Schmitten Hohe looking toward the Tauern region 5. Pascal playing in the sparkly glacier sand 6. Pascal, Sabine and Ani half way through the first days hike 7. Ani in the boulders 8. Pascal in the boulders 9. Sabine swinging Pascal down the hill 10. A view of the Tauern mountains 11. Coffee and Water, MMMmmmm 12. Ani and Pascal the little blueberry pickin bear cubs 13. Ani with pre-blue lips 14. The top of Schmitten Hohe looking at the glacier 15. Looking down from Schmitten Hohe at Zell am See 16. The view from our balcony