The next day, Brady, Katie, Maria, Minh, and I, after playing some cards on the balcony and getting a bite to eat at a local restaurant, decided to explore a little bit around Schoppernau and the surrounding towns, and we ended up hiking up one of the mountains. At first, it was a warm, sunny day, as we made our way up the mountain. It was kind of steep, as we wound our way up, zig-zagging up the path, so everyone except for Minh picked up a walking stick to help us along. It took probably an hour and a half to get up the mountain, though we didn't get to the top, where there was still snow. Speaking of which, Minh and I were hoping to do some skiing, but due to an abnormally warm winter, all the snow (aside from that at the very top) was gone. Anyway, due to the fickle European weather, we got caught in a rain/hailstorm, which was made worse by the fact that it got a lot colder. We stopped intermittently under the cover of the trees, but made it up to a tiny hamlet that seemed to be shuttered for the summer, or at least for a while. We tried to find some shelter, and briefly stopped in at a tiny chapel, but only stayed under its porch for awhile, because the door was locked. The views, as soon as the rain and mist cleared, were absolutely breathtaking, and being able to once again breathe fresh air outside of Rome was an even greater bonus. We soon made our way down the mountain, which took half as long as climbing up, and as we got lower, it began to get warmer and sunnier again, and we were able to dry off. Later that night, we continued to celebrate Brady and Katie's engagement by going to the Moosbrugger Cafe, and Stefan, who speaks English well, welcomed us with "some" beverages and a little food. Unfortunately for Brady, however, he had to get up early to get to the airport to fly home, because classes at St. Thomas were still ongoing.
The next day we spent sleeping and relaxing, so not much really happened, and the next day it was raining for a good portion of the day, so other than wandering around Schoppernau a little bit and getting lunch at a local restaurant, we didn't do much until the evening. We were able to go to Mass (in German of course) that evening at the local church, which was stunning because it seemed to be old, yet was well-maintained, with beautiful paintings and ornately-carved wood works. Afterward, we all went the house of their relative, Lily, the other English-speaker in the town, for dinner. I can't remember exactly what it was, but I believe that it resembled something like macaroni and cheese, but with potatoes, and without the cheese. I do remember that it tasted great, however, and was really filling. We finished off with some schnapps, and looked through an album with many fascinating photos capturing her family's history in the town, as she recounted many stories. The really neat thing is that there is a replica (not exact, but close) of Lily's house, calle
d Rößle, in Kohler, WI (I really wish I had gotten a picture of it--dang).
The next morning, we got up a little earlier, had breakfast, bade farewell to Walter and Marlene, and then hopped on the bus to take the hour and a half ride down to Dornbirn, where we waited for our ICE train, which we took to Frankfurt Airport, whence we caught a taxi to our hotel. Although it was a long day for all of us, Katie, Minh, Maria, and I went out in search of somewhere to eat, and the only reasonable place to eat was--an Italian restaurant. The proprietors were even native Italians, and the one time we could have used our Italian outside of Italy, we didn't. Oh well, that's the way it goes, but since Katie speaks fluent German, I guess we didn't need our "perfect" Italian skills anyway.
So, the next day, our last in Germany/Austria, I caught a shuttle to the airport, picked up the car, drove back to the hotel, and picked everyone up to drive up to the Dusseldorf-Weeze airport. I might have mentioned this before, but the RyanAir CEO is extremely stingy, and decides to have his planes fly out of the most far-flung airports, which explains why Minh and I flew into the Frankfurt-Hahn airport, and why we were flying out of Weeze. Anyway, I got to check off one of my bucket list items by driving on the German Autobahn--much to the chagrin and fright of my four passengers (again, Katie, Maria, Minh, and Tim--I apologize for scaring you more than half to death). But I only topped out at just over 180 kph, which equates to about 112 mph--don't worry, it was a perfectly sunny day, with barely a cloud in the sky, though there was some construction. But that was easily THE quietest 3 1/2 hour car ride I've ever been on. The important thing is that we got there in one piece in plenty of time, and I made a pit stop in the Netherlands as I filled the car up with gas. Drive in three different countries in my lifetime? Check. So, we killed some time playing some cards, as we waited for our plane, and we were the first ones at the gate. We would have been the first ones on had there not been a half hour evacuation of the airport. We were sitting there, and all of a sudden an alarm goes off, and a voice comes over the speakers, saying we need to leave. So we went out and stood on the tarmac, but then came in after the fire/terrorist/whatever threat was cleared. Other than that, however, there were virtually no issues getting back home to Rome and, eventually, Bernardi--fortunately, we were able to catch the last train to the Lepanto stop and walk home from there, getting back at about 930pm, completing our nearly 36-hour travel back to Rome, that had started at 10am the previous day in Schoppernau, Austria.
The next day we spent sleeping and relaxing, so not much really happened, and the next day it was raining for a good portion of the day, so other than wandering around Schoppernau a little bit and getting lunch at a local restaurant, we didn't do much until the evening. We were able to go to Mass (in German of course) that evening at the local church, which was stunning because it seemed to be old, yet was well-maintained, with beautiful paintings and ornately-carved wood works. Afterward, we all went the house of their relative, Lily, the other English-speaker in the town, for dinner. I can't remember exactly what it was, but I believe that it resembled something like macaroni and cheese, but with potatoes, and without the cheese. I do remember that it tasted great, however, and was really filling. We finished off with some schnapps, and looked through an album with many fascinating photos capturing her family's history in the town, as she recounted many stories. The really neat thing is that there is a replica (not exact, but close) of Lily's house, called Rößle, in Kohler, WI (I really wish I had gotten a picture of it--dang).
The next morning, we got up a little earlier, had breakfast, bade farewell to Walter and Marlene, and then hopped on the bus to take the hour and a half ride down to Dornbirn, where we waited for our ICE train, which we took to Frankfurt Airport, whence we caught a taxi to our hotel. Although it was a long day for all of us, Katie, Minh, Maria, and I went out in search of somewhere to eat, and the only reasonable place to eat was--an Italian restaurant. The proprietors were even native Italians, and the one time we could have used our Italian outside of Italy, we didn't. Oh well, that's the way it goes, but since Katie speaks fluent German, I guess we didn't need our "perfect" Italian skills anyway.
So, the next day, our last in Germany/Austria, I caught a shuttle to the airport, picked up the car, drove back to the hotel, and picked everyone up to drive up to the Dusseldorf-Weeze airport. I might have mentioned this before, but the RyanAir CEO is extremely stingy, and decides to have his planes fly out of the most far-flung airports, which explains why Minh and I flew into the Frankfurt-Hahn airport, and why we were flying out of Weeze. Anyway, I got to check off one of my bucket list items by driving on the German Autobahn--much to the chagrin and fright of my four passengers (again, Katie, Maria, Minh, and Tim--I apologize for scaring you more than half to death). But I only topped out at just over 180 kph, which equates to about 112 mph--don't worry, it was a perfectly sunny day, with barely a cloud in the sky, though there was some construction. But that was easily THE quietest 3 1/2 hour car ride I've ever been on. The important thing is that we got there in one piece in plenty of time, and I made a pit stop in the Netherlands as I filled the car up with gas. Drive in three different countries in my lifetime? Check. So, we killed some time playing some cards, as we waited for our plane, and we were the first ones at the gate. We would have been the first ones on had there not been a half hour evacuation of the airport. We were sitting there, and all of a sudden an alarm goes off, and a voice comes over the speakers, saying we need to leave. So we went out and stood on the tarmac, but then came in after the fire/terrorist/whatever threat was cleared. Other than that, however, there were virtually no issues getting back home to Rome and, eventually, Bernardi--fortunately, we were able to catch the last train to the Lepanto stop and walk home from there, getting back at about 930pm, completing our nearly 36-hour travel back to Rome, that had started at 10am the previous day in Schoppernau, Austria.
