Overnight in Oberaudorf

There are two kinds of free campsites in the guide. Really free, and free overnight parking if you buy dinner in their restaurant. Austria doesn’t have either kind, but Germany is littered with both. We decided to try the second kind, in a little place called Oberaudorf, which is in Germany, in the little corner surrounded by Austria (near Munich and Salsburg). It turned out to be a good choice. The beer was local and good:

And the food was also good – fried mushrooms and scrambled eggs for me and some kind of fish thing for Ivo:

But the kids were done, it was too late, we should have stopped for food earlier but Liam was sleeping, and they couldn’t deal any more, so eventually we were back to eating one at a time while the other took Kaya outside. Luckily that wasn’t terrible since there was a plastic cow in the beer garden outside that fascinated her (sorry, no cow pictures).

In the morning, we got a good look at where we were. Nice hotel and restaurant:

We headed out to find a bakery for breakfast – luckily in Germany bakeries are open on Sunday mornings, about the only things that are. It was in this cool building.

View walking back to the hotel:

And the sign on the hotel, saying it’s been in the family since 1441. 1441. Fifty years before Columbus did his thing. Wow.

We decided to walk to the swimming pool our GPS showed as being 450 meters away – Liam entertained himself with stones as we got ready:

And then we walked. And were passed by this lady who has probably been wearing these type of clothes for 70 years or so:

But the swimming pool was deserted and empty, apparently for a while. Sadness ensued, though Liam really did take it pretty well, despite having been excited.

And we walked behind it to make sure and were treated to this vista:

I’m trying something with panoramas here – an app called PhotoSynth on my iPhone – the panoramas are hosted by them. Let’s see how that goes.

So, swimming out, we decided to go up the chairlift since it was only a few hours drive to Slovenia and the sun was gracing us with its presence. The kids liked that:

Nice views at the top:

And, there was a playground at the top!

Kaya found a slide (and Liam too).

And Kaya really, really wanted to do this, but her legs were just not long enough:

And there were swings:

And it’s really hard to see in this picture, but those little things are people up there by the cross, and they were having a service as hikers strolled by. It is a cool place for a service.

Kaya insists on drinking, by herself, from the big water bottle, although this usually results in wetness:

And then it was time to go down and get on our way. First we took the chairlift down (yes, we’re lame and lazy, and have two small kids and a new country to get to):

And then Liam and I took the summer sledding course down – Ivo was going to take Kaya, but she fell asleep on the chairlift. The sled was very cool, like a self-controlled roller coaster – unfortunately I didn’t leave enough time after the mother and daughter before me and they were very slow – help up not just me but the three young boys behind me who really wanted to go fast. Here’s the course, of course couldn’t get a pic on it:

And then, finally, towards our destination. Of course, we’d only decided on the country…