Munich to Salzburg - Day 1

We arrived in Munich about 5 pm local time on Weds, Sept. 3 and spent 2 hours getting to our hotel, where we eventually connected with friends, Anne, Roberta and Tim. On Thursday morning (today), Tim and Roberta took their small rental car back to the airport to exchange it for a VW vanagon to transport the 5 of us to Salzburg. Meanwhile, Anne, Hal and I roamed a bit in Munich and went to the Apple store to replace the laptop charger I forgot to pack. :-<
As remembered, Munich is full of amazing old buildings like the Rathaus (city hall)

and all these gorgeous old churches (this is St. Michael's)

The man on the rafter is actually a sculpture

This is Anne and Hal posing with a large bronze statue of a wild boar.

And I couldn't resist taking a picture of this very elaborate wind vane on top of one of the old tile roofs.
Then we loaded all our bags in the very nice van and headed to Salzburg about 11:30. When we got near the Chiemsee (a large inland lake), Roberta and Tim deftly took us off the autobahn and found a place to have lunch overlooking the water--the Chiemsee Yacht Club, no less.

We arrived in Salzburg about 4 pm and quickly headed into town on foot along the Salzach River. They have adopted the custom of putting padlocks, bearing the names of couples, on one of the bridges over the river.

We wandered through old town and saw a shop that sold nothing but decorated eggs!

We had a a beer and then checked out more wonderful architecture in the old part of the city

before heading back to the hotel for dinner about 8 pm. As you can see, I now have photographic proof that I went on this vacation since Hal took a picture of me on one of the bridges over the river at twilight.

Hal is already sound asleep and I need to get there soon as we have a big schedule for tomorrow!

Pike Place Market, Seattle - May 2014

We had a nice visit with dear friends Catherine and Kevin when we recently went to Seattle for the big wedding of long-time pals Flora and Betsy. We got a day of mixed sun and rain on Monday when we ventured down to the Pike Place Market. Here are pictures of Cath and Kev with Hal.

 Seattle has its own ferris wheel now and there are just more and more high rises going up.

Tulips were in season so the market was especially colorful!

 As usual, there were plenty of gorgeous vegetables on offer...

 

 And lots of interesting pastas, dipping sauces and other tasty treats for Hal and Kevin to try.

 And of course lots of fish!

 

Chimney Rock - April 2014

Once again, our intrepid tour leader, Leslie took us on a wonderful high desert hike above the Crooked River to Chimney Rock on April 28. My friend Betsy was visiting from Boise and joined us (that's Betsy in blue and Chimney Rock dead ahead).

Fellow hiker Charlotte, was kind enough to take a picture of Betsy and me in front of Chimney Rock when we stopped for lunch.

It was quite a climb, but at the top we were rewarded with some panoramic views of the Cascade mountains.

There were some nice wildflowers along the way, paintbrush, townsendia, etc.

Here is a picture of Leslie and the rest of the hiking group when we stopped for lunch.

When we came back down to the river there were all these mud bird nests across from us with birds flying in and out. Unfortunately, did not seem to capture the birds, just the nests.

This hike is well worth repeating!

Painted Hills - April 2014

The Painted Hills Unit is part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Park, which lies about 2 hours northeast of Bend, through the beautiful Ochoco Mts, and not far from Mitchell :-) The colors of the clay layers that create the painted effect can vary depending on how much moisture has been recently received.

I did not get a good picture of Ranger Scott Rinker (?) who led us up hills and down, but here are the two group leaders from Bend Parks and Rec, Leslie and Ron.

You had to keep your eyes open for rattlesnakes and cactus (this should sound familiar to my Nevada hiking pals). The hedgehog cacti were just starting to bloom.

We saw several other types of wildflowers, including Yellow Bee Plant (cleome):

Chaenactis:

Larkspur:

Pink and White Bitterroot (Lewisia rediviva):

Getting pictures of the latter were responsible for me spraining my ankle - sigh - but they were indeed beautiful and amazingly delicate looking amidst this harsh landscape.
Saw an interesting antler along the trail that had been dyed pink, maybe by the minerals in the soil??

We went onto BLM land (out of the park) under the guidance of Ranger Scott and were able to pick up rocks with petrified leaf fossils.

The spans of time revealed in these geologic formations are truly mind boggling.

And isn't it nice to know where some of the basic ingredients for your toothpaste and your kitty litter come from?!