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.

Scenes from Two Alpine Days

Garmisch-Partinkirchen--first town we went to that was big enough for a shoe store--I immediately bought shoes more waterproof.

Daisy begins her intense obsession with Maoam candies. She was constantly buying them and offering them to people. And eating them herself.

Chestnut tree beauty, by the Kochelsee, a beautiful lake that the Composer ran all the way around one morning (nine miles. I'm sure it was longer in kilometers).

Horses in a high pasture. And you can't see back there but there are baby alpacas--probably followed Felix in from Peru.

We hit the Composer up hard for his German language, timetable, and map-reading skills. He never let us down.

Cowbells. All the time.

We all wore all of our clothes, all the time. And borrowed woolies from Felix when we could.

Giles calls this shot "Instant Classic."

Muffled birding.

Check our Felix for scale here.

The girls and I took the short loop of this hike, stopping at the bakery for tea and kuchen before we went home. The big guys continued to the top, up into the snow.

In the German spirit of personal responsibility, there was a sign AT THE TOP, indicating that this was a trail for advanced hikers only.

A Jaunt Through Germany

We're home at last from our wonderful two weeks revisiting the Composer's German past. For the next few days I'll share pictures, while catching up on laundry, sending Felix off for the summer, and tending to all the things that family life entails.

We loved our elegant little hotel in Cologne. In the grownups' room there were embroidered linen curtains hanging in the dresser's glass front.

About to head out for shopping--very happy after our wonderful German breakfast, a spread of rolls, cheese, cold cuts, fish, fruit, yogurt, and pickles! But not all on one plate. All so beautifully presented that each big strawberry had its own little china dish.

We left Cologne through its iconic and massive train station.

In the special high-speed train. 200 mph, baby.

Daisy busied herself with her new blank book. This one says "The Girl Who Met a Goat."

This one's filling up with poems. 

I had a tea from the man who was walking by with hot drinks. So many Euros but how could I not?

Clara and I knitted away. She's making a lacy linen apron, I'm working on a merino shrug. I ask for help every ten minutes or so. She's probably tired of me.

Here's where we parked for the next week, an idyllic Bavarian village. The weather wasn't great--drizzly and quite chilly--but we bought ponchos (I had a love/hate relationship with that giant royal blue  piece of plastic) and we had umbrellas. The flowers are unbelievable, and the grass is so green. We arrived at the height of lilac time! Two lilac seasons for me this year, hurray.

As we stepped off the train, Daisy said, "I smell goats!"

Hikes were definitely on the agenda. We went upstream to a waterfall.

Oh, hello, Felix! Nice of you to come all the way from Peru!! He got some life birds this day, and we were all the time trying to point out new ones to him. I think I showed him the same kind five times in one day.

More tomorrow, when we are joined by . . . others.