Day 10 Austria Aug. 7, 2010

I love the GPS! It let us wake up in an out- of- the- way medieval village in Germany, pilot our van to the auto- bahn and zip at 100 mph directly to our next hotel, which was hidden in the mountains of Austria.

Tomorrow morning early we will be arriving at the fairy- tale castle of Neue-schwan- stein. By 10:00 the crowds are too much for us from the wide open spaces, so we plan to be in the first group up the mountain. In order to do that, we'll sleep just over the border in Austria. The picture shows our rural B&B.

This afternoon, however, is for hiking in the Alps! Just above our little B & B are four old ruined castles. It's a World Heritage site.

We'll drive most of the way up the mountain, and hike up the rest and climb around the ruins.

Guess what! Three of us decided to hike down. We could see our house far below in the valley, and decided it couldn't be very tough to get there.

Surprise! It was so steep and slippery after a rain that we all fell several times. Add trails that can't be found and many others that were probably made by deer crisscrossing the mountain, and you get the idea.

So what! It was a glorious hike anyway! It was sunny and warm, and we could see clear across the valley to the far mountains. Far below were several little villages and there were lots of wildflowers.

We came out of the forest a little way up the road from our house, and after awhile we came trooping home. We found the rest of our group sunning themselves on the terrace. They really missed an experience!

That evening we decided to explore a Tyrolean festival in the next village. What authentic color! People who at other times live very modern lives pull out their traditional costumes to wear to the festivals. Picture several oom- pah bands and one heavy metal for the youth. Add lots of beer in huge glass mugs, bratwurst on a bun with fries, tables set up in the streets, and men in beat-up lederhosen.

Austrians are known for being friendlier than Germans, and so they seemed this night. I'm sure we were the only tourists at the festival, so the musicians in one of the bands made a point to talk to us and try to get us to dance. So all the Mormons danced and had a great time at the Austrian beer festival!