We're staying at a Fancypants hotel - the Tiefenbrunner, where everything is decorated like a lodge and the staff wear traditional Austrian dress (think liederhosen and the female version). Below you can see the view from my window (as well as my window!) and the fancy light and fancy key.
After checking in we wandered around a bit and found, in the churchyard, the most fascinating cemetery. Each gravesite contains, at the foot of a wrought iron grave marker, A small 3' x 4' garden plot, each one unique and lovingly tended, obviously by the family of the deceased and the community at large. The plots are usually family plots, dating as far back as the 1800s and as recent as this year. Just being there for twenty minutes, we saw at least six people tending various plots. It was truly a neat concept, somehow so much more respectful and caring than the standard grey rock in the middle of a field of grey rocks. This cemetery was a happy place; perhaps mournful, perhaps full of death, but also overflowing - literally - with life. Also, it contained the most creative and personal grave stone I have ever seen - see the miniature mountaineering man below.
Lastly, I feel I must record for you the magnificent four-course meal we had in the hotel. It was a set menu with limited choices, but oh! It was delicious.
Melon with prosciutto (I only ate the ham)
French Onion soup (amazing!)
Salad bar with about a dozen different gourmet vinegars and oils and plenty of unique add-ins & a make-your-own bread basket with French baguette, seeded rolls, German black bread, and others
Spaghetti with basil, olive oil, and garlic (my choice out of three fancier meals, but it was surprisingly flavorful!)
Apricot strudel with vanilla ice cream and red currants (yummmmm!)
Near-perfect meal for a hungry Ariel. :)
I can't find the gravestone? Whyyyy?
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