The Playground, the Brass Bands, and the Snowy Mountain

Adult-sized zipline? Sign us up!

Our sweet home-for-a-week. The upper floor of a converted horse barn. They still breed and train dressage horses right here.

Just your average beautiful front-yard shrine.

I just thought this pictures was too perfect and needed a place in my album . . .

One evening Bella and the Composer and I took a five-minute train ride over to the next town for a brass band concert. Every musician was in full traditional dress, glorious! Each man had his own pair of hand-knitted socks with his own special insignia knitted in and they were clearly custom-knit for each pair of calves.

Flowers in every hat.

And flowers in every yard.

One day we took the bus to Mittenwald, a charming and more bustling town. A cable car zipped us up to the top of a snowy mountain. We walked through the guest building, into a long tunnel, and stuck our heads out the door to find ourselves at the top of a very, very high and steep ski slope. No thanks!

That's us! Not many of the trails were open, too much snow. I walked this little saddle with the Composer back in 1989. At the top you can put one foot in Austria, if you can keep from sliding down the mountain.

Back in the valley, the Composer's trifecta: raspberry, hazelnut, banana.

My all-time favorite mural--looks like an illustration straight out of "Freddie the Pig." In the villages, many of the houses were decorated. Faux window frames are a favorite, as well as scenes with happy Bavarian tradesmen, and my other favorites, monks chopping down trees.

These were probably done by chainsaw though. Woodpiles here have achieved excellence, that's for sure.

One of a nonstop stream of unbelievably beautiful churches. We all went to a service on Sunday morning.

Loved the plastic Great Blue instead of a pink flamingo.

On our usual evening walk to the lake.