Regensbury was a trade connection to Venice and Italy--so they got hooked on towers....
City Hall--banquet room that served as German parliment for a long time
A merchant's palace--plus storage--plus tower
Another tower
Joerg and Jessica and beer
This guy is looking at the cathedral
Some story of a race between the bridge builders and the cathedral builders
Danube (Donau) from the bridge
The only surviving mural of many
Schmuck = jewelry, in German. After a year in the US Alex thinks it is funny, too
The university campus--50s, 60s concrete campus
The Danube at Kelheim
Befreiungshalle--built by Ludwig I to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 and the consolidation of the little pieces that became German
Chrysta and Susie
Steffie and her sister Eli
29 angel
On the Danube boat trip
These guys were all ready--to moon the boat when it came by
Kloster Weltenburg--Benedictine monastery which has brewed beer sine 1050--the oldest monastic brewery. Dark beer, to boot
Wurst, and scollaped potatoes
Sauerbrauten and red cabbage, plus kartoffelkloesse
Down the Danube from Regensburg to Walhalla
Another of Ludwig I's monuments
This one to honor famous Germans
Josef, my first BFIS friend, 25 years ago
Heilinghausen, a country inn N of Regensburg
Let's start with some duck breast
How about a wild mushroom "cappuccino"? Hot mushroom soup drunk thru cool foam. Wild!
Some fish from the river across the road from the inn
Venison with wild chantrills
The Hupfers and the Joneses
Oh, no, dessert!
The Hupfer home/office in Aubensburg
Lots of hops grown around Aubensburg
Hops plants
Vienna sausage in Salzburg
Mozart's birthhouse--4th floor (European counting)--in Salzburg
Jones in Salzburg
Into the Tirolean Alps on the Austrian Autobahn
Town gate into Gmund
Park named for Porsche, senior, who shares September 3rd with me for a birthday
Porsche family relocated here from Stuttgart in 1944 to get away from Allied bombing
Porsche museum in Gmund
The first 52 Porsches were built here, by hand. Aluminum panels pounded onto a wooden buck
Here's a million dollar car!
The only remaining structure of the sawmill buildings used by Porsche
Gmund, Austria
Cortina, at last! View from our hotel window
Chiara and Beatrice
Warm salad with speck
casunziei, beet raviloi with butter and poppy seed sauce, our favorite Cortina dish
Hiking from Ra Stua Rifugio
1000 feet up in a mile or so
sheep and goats
sheepherder's cabin
A glimpse of Rifugio Ra Stua where we started
Rifugio Sennes
Sennes is open all year. In the winter people ski up to stay
The good life at Dolomite rifugios
Giorgio sets up at the band shell
Denis Novato, the world champion diatonic accordian player
Giorgio serves beer to Novato and company
Ski lift to Rifugio Son Forca
Looking across at the Faloria ski runs
Rifugio Son Forca
Tagliatelli
Andreina
Nono Luigi
Three ganddads, plus Beatrice
Beatrice has a tear--something didn't go her way
Umberto and Luigi
Marissa reads to Beatrice
Cristallo from Cortina
Someone is having fun with a lawnmower and bikes!
Le Tofane from Cortina. Three gondola rides and you are on the very top! You can see the rifugio on the very top
Band concert
The ladies serve grappa from their wooden casks
A Cortina toast to the musicians
Giorgio at his Birreria Hacker Pschorr
The Cortina band getting ready for the parade
The parade of the bands starts with the trumpets on horseback
Got to have some (Italian) military riders
a band
another band
Got to have a firetruck in a parade
oh, another band
even another band
finally the Cortina band brings up the end of the parade
He's the director of the Cortian band
Everyone moves to Piazza Poste--the parking lot in from of the post office. The alpen horns call everyone
All the bands assemble--800 musicians
The Italian flag--when they had a king.
800 band members play the same tune
In the back--the Dolomites surrounding Cortina
Just before dark, the Cortina band comes from it commune building and promanades up the Corso, following by everyone.
Then down the Corso to the other end, followed by everyone
Finally back to the commune building where they start to "retire" into the building until only the leaders are on the balcony. A farewell and cheers and band day is over for the 34th year
It rained during the night after a perfect band day. In the morning, there was snow on the peaks
Pompanin/Bernasconi family
Lunch at a rifugio in the midst of the ski runs. Perfect for ski in/ski out in the winter
You run the ski area with (a) chains or (b) horns
Overhead, a gondola (the 2nd of 3 to the top) of Le Tofane
Our favorite Cortina hotel
A hike starting at Passo Giau
That's Rifugio Nuvalou up there on top
But we head around on a contour toward Cinque Torri
Tofana de Rozes
Tofana de Rozes in the back, Cinque Torri and Rifugio Cinque Torri
Rifugio Cinque Torri, built 1904
Desserts
The Shafer Trail of Cinque Torri
Time to say goodbye to Beatrice
On the Autopista towards Brenner Pass
Lunch in Innsbruck, then on to the Munich airport and home
