This October both David and I coincidentally (and bizarrely) had work trips in Germany the exact same week. At first we tried to finagle a plan for Sally to stay with a friend in Ireland while we went off to our respective work obligations. Then we thought, why not bring her? David was to be outside of Frankfurt, and me outside of Stuttgart, and our wonderful friends Chris and Shar Warner (and their two kids, with whom Sally is good friends) live not too far from in between these two locations. So…we asked very nicely…and Chris and Shar amazingly said yes!
So, David and Sally flew to Frankfurt, where Chris nicely picked up Sally and took her back with him to their home near Kaiserslautern, where Chris is stationed at Ramstein AF base.
Sally had an incredible couple of days with their awesome family - she did watercolors with Shar, visited the base with Chris (and went in the control tower and into a plane!), and hung out with Autumn and Alex.
I spent the first half of the week outside of Stuttgart in tiny town called Singelfingen, where there was an advanced equine ophthalmology course at an equine clinic. The hotel was very basic but clean and a close walk to the clinic, and that’s about all I can say about it that is positive. The conference itself was very interesting and the clinic hosts were lovely, feeding us local specialties (but always with a vegetarian option!) like ravioli soups and potatoes/sauerkraut.
I got to enjoy a beautiful walk through an apple orchard to get there each day, and on my last morning I made it out for one of my nice exploratory runs, passing through many more apple orchards and a lot (a LOT) of turnip fields.
On Thursday I checked out of my hotel and waited for my ride at an adorable cafe called Ingrids Glückswelt. David and the Warners arrived and we headed on down to the Alps. We were stunned by the views - the fall colors were in full effect and it’s just a breath-taking part of the world, to say the least. That evening we checked into our very modern/cool airbnb and had dinner nearby.
On Friday we drove to Neuschwanstein Castle, the castle upon which the original Disney castle was modeled. The castle is lovely enough on a bad day, perched upon a small hill adjacent to a gorge with a waterfall with two lakes below. Add in the autumnal colors and it was really overwhelmingly pretty. We enjoyed the tour, learning about the eccentric king who built it, loved opera, barely ever got to be there, and then died a mysterious death. After a quick local, fresh-made doughnut, we got a horse-drawn carriage ride down the hill to enjoy a yummy lunch in the charming little town below the castle. We also saw a weird “hummingbird moth” that I never even knew existed!
From there we drove back towards Garmisch and stopped at Highline 179 in Austria, between Burgruine Ehrenberg and Fort Claudia. This suspension bridge spans over 400 meters at an altitude of 114 meters and is in the Guinness Book of Records as the "longest pedestrian bridge in the Tibet style.” We took a cool funicular up, explored the castle ruins, crossed the bridge, and walked down. I won’t lie, the first few steps on the bridge definitely felt creepy, but then it was really cool. Some jerk was making her poor little dog walk across, and I almost intervened and then she picked him up and carried him.
That night we left the kids home with their preferred dinner and the grown-ups headed to a delightful Bavarian restaurant called “Restaurant Husar” with many frescos and excellent service. The pumpkin soup was perhaps life-changing.
Saturday I started off with a gorgeous (and chilly!) run around the valley - loads of cows and horses with bells, and I was beyond delighted.
That day we all went on a very pleasant hike to Kuhfluchtwasserfälle waterfall - there was loads of cute stuff all along the trail (like wooden activities for small children) and we saw my very first fairy ring (ring of mushrooms).
After the hike we sat for lunch at Da Nico Sonnenterrasse Holzofen, adjacent to a pasture with grazing (and friendly) Belgian draft mares (all wearing bells!), with a view of the snow-covered Alps behind, and an amazing playground just beyond the pasture for the kids. It was pretty magical.
In the late afternoon Shar, the girls, and I meandered around town, and spent some time at the local park in Garmisch that had a tight rope that the girls adored.
That night we again left the kids home (with pizza this time!) and popped down to the square for drinks (with random Australian tourists) and dinner (really good Italian food).
On Sunday I kicked off the day with a very rainy run along the river Loisach, caught the tail-end of a traditional parade of some sort in the town (maybe they do that every Sunday? It ended at the church), then we took the train to Munich and flew home.
It was a really terrific trip - had an incredible time with the Warners, met loads of nice Germans, ate surprisingly good food (I know to say “surprisingly” is insulting and for that I apologize), and found the scenery completely captivating!
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