Day 6: Slip Slidin' Away
Foods of the Day
Local Fish
Obatzda
Practicalities
Cities: Castelrotto, Füssen
Weather: Cloudy but warm
Hotel: Altstadthotel Zum Hechten
Sights: Luge
Ehrenberg Castle
Knowing When to Say When
This was the day of the highline, the long pedestrian suspension bridge, and Trish wrote a blog entry about it in terms of pushing yourself to do things for kicks. I do think that’s a good thing to do on a trip – sometimes.
But I want to give the opposite perspective here -- other times it’s good not to push yourself too hard, or you’re likely to have an accident. For me, this was one of those moments. I had pushed myself to do the luge earlier in the day and then pushed myself to climb the hill to get to the bridge, but I was done in by the time I got to the bridge and somewhat embarrassed not to be in as good shape as other members of the group who clearly had no trouble with the path up the hill.
Even without a very full day I was starting to succumb to mid-trip exhaustion and really felt that I would enjoy climbing around the castle more if I sat and rested while the majority of the group went over the bridge and back.
The great thing about being on a My Way tour was that I felt free to opt out of that activity, and it was no problem to do it my way. I did get a second wind from sitting, resting, and chatting with the others of our group who also opted not to do the bridge, and by the time the others came back I was ready to enjoy scrambling around the castle ruins. So I have no regrets about not doing the highline this trip, although I might go back and do it someday.
We eat our final breakfast at the Cavallino D'Oro, as Rick walks by making a video. Farewell Italian coffee. We walk back down to the parking lot where Hilde is waiting with the bus, load up, and pull out at 8:20. This morning's soundtrack is the Kastelruther Spatzen, a local folk group. We retrace our route back to Austria and then into Germany. Cloudy weather makes a planned stop at the Zugspitze pointless, so instead we stop to do a luge or Sommerrodelbahn. To reach the top of the course we take the ski lift up.
And then the sled back down. It sounded terrifying, but it really isn't as scary as it looks because you can always slow down.
You can get hurt on it, though, particularly if you don't keep your arms and legs tucked in. One member of our group had a major wipeout and got scraped up; he went right back up and did his second run. Bill ripped out the pocket of his travel vest and left his Swiss Army knife on the track. Trish kindly stopped and retrieved the knife. (Thanks Trish!). I didn't realize until later that he had also scraped his knee. It didn't seem very bad at the time, but seven months later you can still see it, so I include the following photo as a cautionary tale.
By 2 we arrive in Füssen and after checking in we walk down to the supermarket for picnic supplies and are delighted to find obatzda, a German cheese spread with beer and seasoning. It's great with pretzels. We eat and then gather up a small load of laundry, which the hotel will do for us. And at 5:30 we meet back at the bus for a trip to Ehrenberg Castle (see photo at the top of the page). Rick's friend Armin meets us for a quick tour of the museum where we have fun trying on costumes and looking at models of the valley.
Meeting Armin
Fun with costumes
Next up is a climb up a very steep hill. This is the moment when I realize I am the most out of shape person on the tour. I start up first and arrive last, huffing and puffing, while everyone else seemed to bounce up the hill, completely unbothered, and in Rick's case encumbered by clinking bottles of beverages. And so I sit and rest while most of the group does the bridge over to the other side of the valley. On their return we walk over to the castle, dispose of the contents of Rick's bottles, and scramble among the ruins. Then we descend to the bus and return to Füssen. Bill and I enjoy a late dinner at Ritterstub'n where the local fish is excellent.
Luge Damage
View from our hotel in Füssen
Ehrenberg Castle