Time to travel again!

So as I sit here waiting to plan another wedding, our oldest daughter is now engaged, I search the internet to make the perfect itinary for our next trip.  "Two daughters engaged at the same time and I am halfway across the world!"  Yikes. ...okay then...to the Alps!  

I didn't know that this updated but when I posted it  - it was all in snow!

I hate to write about it before hand because today the summit of Zugspitze is in white out condition.  Not good if you want to go to the top of Germany's tallest mountain to take photos.  We have a little over a week, so I am praying hard for good weather and planning away.

 As I was saying, The Germany Alps is on the list.  First we will stop off at Neuschwanstein Castle to hike up around to get, well yes, a good photo!  I have been there before but not having the best information did not get the photos that I have been drooling over here of late.  After hours of digging, I found the path past the Marien bridge to get some great shots.  When I was there the last time the Marien bridge was closed due to snow so to hike up past it was not even an option.

This photo of Queen Mary's Bridge (Marienbrucke) is courtesy of TripAdvisor

this is my shot when we were there in April 07 grrrr

 You should know from my earlier post, I have the boots!  I do love the German shoes they are made for walking, hmmm go figure!  I do, I do, I love the shoes! I think half of my "shoe collection" is German now. Anyway, thank you for indulging me on my rant. Snicker snicker. After a day of up and down at the castle we will head to Garmish Partenkirche to spend the night and attempt ZUGSPITZE.  I am so excited it is going to be grand.  I loved hicking around Pottenstien (another gem I found online that most people don't go to - but oh so worth it)  We are not serious hikers but that is not to say we don't enjoy the thrill of a hard days hike, and the reward of a cold beer at the end.  I think given more time I might scare my husband and become a real live hiker!  But for now the hills around the Bavarian towns we encounter are my training ground.  (When we are in the US, we live in the Midwest and you know there really isn't much to climb there!)

You will have to check back to see if we do indeed make it to the top!  Oh and I found amazing "Socken",  I love the German socks almost as much as the shoes....they have a sock for everything!  And unlike the States you can buy them anywhere, even in the grocery ha ha.  So with..."meinem Socken and Schuhen bin ich fur die Berge bereit!" (with my socks and shoes I am ready for the mountain)

It won't be long now....

Since I have been in Germany I haven't really had to think about the upcoming wedding of our youngest daughter.  A winter wedding in January. Snow, diamonds, pine cones, Winter Wonderland. When she announced her engagement, Germany was not even on the horizon...After paying for two college tuitions and knowing we would have two wedding to pay for I decided hey I have nothing but time I can Do It Myself.  After all, with my art and design background it should be a snap....move ahead and here I am sitting in German while everything I had worked on is sitting back in the US of A. I will return in a couple of weeks to meet (and make final payments UGH) to the caterer, the band, the photographer (nope I can't do it myself the girls and husband refuse it), and the florist.  So far I have all the church and reception flowers done, Mercury glass pained, rhinestones set, ribbons threaded, table decorations, invitations, bells, table cards (1/2 done), chairs covers and sashes......hmmm what am I forgetting?  But so much more needs to be tended too.  We are hoping to be back again in December to "finish  things up". Am I panicking yet?  Why no, not at all. A ha...just  a little...well only on some days....okay yes, yes I guess I am.

Unity candles

pew bows...needs fluffing

large tree for escort card table

Mercury glass vases...with many hand placed rhinestones ugh!!

1/2 the tables will have these candles on a brown satin runner with snow on white table clothes

extra mercury vases for gift table, etc....

1/2 reception tables will have this (with candles and aqua lites) with snow and a satin brown runner on white table clothes

invites, table cards, save the date, and the other 1/2 table decorations

bells to ring for the the new couple when they  leave

two of these large arrangements for the church

Okay then Bring it ON....still so much to do but I think I have rested long enough let's get it going.....fire up those irons we have a lot of chair covers and sashes to iron!!!!

New shoes and a guest for breakfast

Okay so I got some new shoes, for walking, well sort of, you can walk in them and they look really good, but they aren't boots.

 hmm I tried them out this morning as I walked into town for my groceries.Not so good on the big cobble stones but I made there and back. I think if we in the US had to carry all of our groceries home in bags we would probably not eat so much!  Not to worry - I did get the Lebkuchen, and chocolate   I mean after all ,with all the walking why not ha ha.

David has been gone most of the week, so I ventured out and found a lovely art store. I bought some colored pencils and decided to draw again. It has been a while but why not.  This morning I was all set to draw when I thought a cup of coffee for breakfast would be good.

Oh first let me digress....I think I have mentioned in an earlier post that Germany does NOT have window screens!  Nope they don't think they have bugs here or something.  When we lived her for years we found some screening and velcroed (is that even a word) it to the windows, but this time being shorter (we think) we decided to save a little money and not put them in.  The windows here are the sizes of doors.  And actually it is quite lovely on a nice day to have the window open.

Okay so back to breakfast and my "guest"  As I walked past the kitchen. The size of your pantry, I noticed what I thought was a brown brush of sort stuck in the ivy right outside my kitchen window.  I had a closer look and it was my own personal Squirrel.  Yupe right here in my kitchen.  Thank goodness I had not gotten around to opening the windows as i do every morning.  Grrrrr, One more thing I can't do now.

Oh and the noise I have been hearing scratching around in-between the floors, I am pretty sure it is my breakfast guest.  All morning I have been trying to think of how to tell them here that there is a squirrel in this apartment complex.....Not something I learned in my German learning! However; yesterday I learned that animals frisst and people isst!  ha ha so maybe I could say something of interest ha ha

If you don't laugh you are gonna cry!
Es ist Eichenhörnchen fressen außerhalb meinem Küchenfenster - there is a squirrel eating outside my kitchen window....somehow I am not sure that is correct.  Oh bother

I need NEW German boots already!

view from our room

We just got back from a couple of days in Bad Salzdetfurth. It is a spa area but that is NOT why we were there. David had some work to do so instead of sitting in the apartment I went along. I think it was to keep him company on the 4 hour drive, and after work. It was nice; however, now I need a new pair of boots.

This country loves their hills and I just can't seem to get away from them. We got in around 19:30 and headed into town for a late dinner. The whole town seemed desereted. Summer pause of something of the sort. The next morning Dave headed out and I headed, well, up - the street. There are numerous paths throughout the town. Again being a Spa community I was not surprised. It was about 8:30 and a bit quite. I walked up a very long street and came to the trail head and headed in.

I must admit it was a bit creepy that early in the morning and as I walked deeper into the woods I got a creepy feeling that this is NOT a good place for a lone woman, from another country to be walking into. However, in the back of my head I heard David say "and you are not going to sit in the room all day, right?" Okay so we have already established I am a bit of a, well for lack of a better description "delicate flower" And I don't mean "pansy" as I am very able to try new things just a bit - sensitive, I guess! But I was determined, so with camera in hand I kept going. I crossed over another trail, at least I think it was and then made a right and went in ....I found a really cool tower and decided to climb up.

202 meters up 

 The whole time I kept saying, "What if someone is in the hut below and they follow me up? I bet I have no cell reception up here? I have my room key in my bag they could take all my stuff...." So get this, I hurried all the way to the top and took a few pictures, of course it was till so foggy I got bunch of cloud photos ha ha and then, yupe I tip toed down very quickly. Like they won't hear me on the metal stairs in the middle of nowhere, where even the falling nuts on the trees make you think they are HUGE falling branches...  I am so silly it is ridiculous I know. But they say admitting it is the first step. I figured my heart rate was up pretty good from both the hiking and the talking in my head, so I head back to the paved saftey of the path. I almost missed the turn too. Good grief.

 Back to solid ground I started the long haul down the hill, through the beautiful park and into town for a coffee. Which I could not find. Weird town shut up tighter than a drum for some reason. I snapped a bunch of photos and head back to the room. They have a beautiful main street. All the half timbered homes have sayings and years carved beautifully into the thresholds.

 You can see more at


https://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.2278336645147.129844.1450685849&l=bfa8bcba11&type=1

I got back to the room and did a bit of resting up, cooling off and reading. Then hearing the voice in my head..."not staying in the room...." I thought I would find the next trail and have a bit of lunch.

ein kleines Pils und Currywurst...hat gut geschmeckte!

I tried the first place that looked open and there wasn't a table to be had. I got nervous and left...found another little place and headed in. Good choice, I could read the menu and sit for a bit. Then it was off, and yes up the hill on the other side of town. I made it about an half hour up and then headed in on the trail head. I started to hear things, no not in my head this time. I got a good way in and thought, okay I proved it to myself now let's get out of here. You might laugh but one is always much taller and much braver when one is not one at all but two! I got back, showered and waited for- yes you got it, dinner! Another good day :)

over 4 hours of hiking, a good lunch and lots of internal dialogue - I was done!