Kofel 3

Breathtaking, no? I was there by 6am, bit it had still gotten pretty light already.



THIRD time, woo hoo! (and I promise this was a different day... I just really like this running/hiking outfit ;p I need to do laundry too...

These joksters were still around after I finished. I split an apple between them and they rewarded me with silly faces and biting the fence pole. I will get those to you, Mere ;) Am now at the kleine Thilos! Had a great time in Oberammergau and looking forward to babysitting!

Gerti and Peter

Before and later...

Claire found more bears...

So, I'm practically down to my last day in Oberammergau! So sad! I am, first of all, going to miss living at Hilde's. She says I can come back anytime though ;) Her husband, in case you've forgotten or didn't know, was a woodcarver and the entire house is decorated with his things and other fantastic art pieces he collected (tiny wooden houses that fit together from South America, and African Madonna and Child, Masks)... in addition, I am in the, for all intents and purposes, art book library room which I have been trying to put to good use (there's also an organ in it though(!)) I will miss it here:

Fay left yesterday... it was sad but she said I was going next and didn't have time to be tearful. I've gotten a lot of insights on the history (and family) of the Hotel Schilcherhof from her. I hope she had a nice, pampered flight on her Emirates plane. We managed to have a crazy bear in this picture as well so... score ;)

I also have TONS of horsey pictures (good and bad) for mere... I will try to make a real album so that you can pick out the ones for me to send big files of (and I tried to get the alps in them, since that's what makes them different, probably):

The Kofel is going to be climbed by me, drizzle or shine, tomorrow. (I am not so stupid as to go in a thunderstorm however. My BA'ness has its limits). It has been looking like this the entire week, more or less:

And I found yet aNOTHER bear! Luckily I biked back after my run that day because I saw some buckskin pferde that I wanted to photograph for mom too, and therefore had my camera. I had my eye on that bear from day 1...

Doro's picking me up saturday afternoon! Egads!

WNBA

On my way to the game tonight I was a appropriately apprehensive. I've never been to a women's professional basketball game before, and I frankly wasn't sure if I was really up for it. My basketball glory days are a thing of the past thanks to my arts high school and growth spurt slump. No 5'8" white girl is going to make it onto that court and I've seen the proof.

You may be wondering how I ended up at this game and the truth is a co-worker won 2 tickets to the New York Liberty and since Robyn and I jump at the chance to take anything that is free (yes I took home the complimentary Liberty bag and noise makers, and no I did not need them) we convinced him that they would best be used on us. As in, we would actually go to the game. He was a bit bummed, after all, when he found out that his grand prize at our vendor's day was tickets to a women's basketball game.

Robyn and I questioned what we were doing before we got there. What is a WNBA crowd like? Would there be anybody there besides us? Does anybody care about women's basketball? What sports do we watch that women play? Do the Knicks think they're way more awesome than the Liberty? Are they right? Do we have good seats?

Oh yea, we had good seats. We were also pleasantly surprised to find out that people DO go to see women's basketball. Why did we ever doubt it? Sure it was largely a women's based crowd and at first we felt like we were at a high school basketball game, but it just got better and better. The halftime show was outstanding and whenever they took a time out these old lady dancers would come out and dance to a popular song (think Lady Gaga). It was hilarious! They were into it, we were into it and everybody was having a great time. The mascot was, in fact, one of the best parts of the evenings. That dog could dance! though I'm not sure why their mascot is a dogI was also proud to recognize my favorite play from middle school- the wall. I also realized that it is much more effective when people are moving at fast speeds. My apologies to middle-school Isabelle who learned this all too late.

You may be my last WNBA game... but thank you NY Liberty for showing me that women's basketball is pretty great (and people do show up).

Surf's Up

Oh, and Mom and Olivia came out tonight and took a picture of ME surfing. Kool!

Recent Addition (I know these are usually supposed to go at the end). Isabelle said she liked the second picture best, so I mag'd it up. Now it really looks like Hawaii, verdad?
We'd like to give Tropical Storm Bonnie some credit, but I think these waves just showed up on their own. John and a bunch of friends were out Thursday afternoon. I got out too, but took these shots first. That's John going left above and then going right below. It was a good day of surfing. We'll be back out there this afternoon!

a little more over Oberammergau...

That was the Kofel peak... two days ago this time.

So, in light of the fact that I pretty much only posted pictures last time, I would like to explain a little more...



And let you guys know what's happening in Oberammergau since you can't be at the cafes and in the hotel everyday like I can, hearing about EVERYtinything no matter whose business it is ;) Heehee... no really, it's wonderfully quaint here, and that's the charm to it. Things that have been going on here lately is mainly that:
Martha is learning to Walk:


Konstantine and Christian got into the Mob:
(btw, I have TONS of these pictures, but I'm trying to stay on track)


















Photo'd some Pferde for the Mere (note the parachuter on Kofel!):



And it hailed golf balls today, so much that the Passionplay got stopped for 15/20 mintues. The Orchestra had to rescue their instruments with boards on their heads. I was trapped in Rossman (drugstore), so it could have been worse:


I will try to post more next thursday (or whenever I feel like hooking the ol cable up) more, but for now just know that I am a somewhat regular housekeeping girl in the mornings (I've gotten a lot better at the beds), and an everything girl other times, specializing in speaking english to non german speakers ;p I love living at Hilde's (across the street, Gerti's older sister), and eating abendbrot with all three of them (Peter, Hilde's twin) sometimes in the evenings. Hilde and her daughter, Christine, are also constantly treating me to dinner or evening drinks/tapas. The Munich Thilos are also looking forward to me coming, to which I, much as I love my little life here, am also looking forward to kid time!!! Incidentally, I saw a kino film last night with one Peter, Mathew, a Herod's wife, two Jesuses, and I think more, while Pontius Pilate was working the bar. What's up over there? I know you guys have some out of town celebrities as well...;)

Kofel hike...

How I did it, and then the way I should have done it after reaching the top and finding a dad with his two small boys. hah! Climbing ropes lead astray... (and I'll take some of these down later if you want, I know they take up a lot of room, but wanted to use my internet times!)

Lucy

As you know, Lucy passed away Monday night, July12. She developed bad heart failure about a year ago and was collapsing after any exercise, but a doggie heart pill and diuretic did wonders. But recently she started having the same problems and was awake most nights breathing hard. After returning from Germany, we watched her for two days and it was clear she was no longer her old self. John gave her an aspirin Saturday because she looked in pain. So Monday morning we took her down to the beach with Gus. She had a nice swim in the ocean (and later the tidal pool).

Best of all, she got to eat some seaweed and dead things!

We let her walk up the path without leash, but then a bird flew low over the path and she couldn't help but bolt into the underbrush one more time. She was out of breath within seconds though, and smartly made her way right back to the deck where Mom helped her up. She needed to rest a few minutes, but then was ready.

Homeward Bound

She is now with Lassie chasing birds and rabbits across grassy meadows. We love you, Lucy!

I love Lucy.

Lucy was a great dog. She wore Christmas decorations without too much care, she made sure that baby Gus was never out of line.. even if sometimes she went too far, and she was the most beautiful Lowcountry dog to grace the lands. I think Dad said it best via text: "Lucy made us all happy and now she's happy too." I think we're all a bit sad tonight to think that Lucy will no longer be there when we come home and our poor little Gus won't realize what's happened for a few days. She will be missed and we'll all shed some tears for her. Have fun rolling around in doggy heaven, Lucy. We love you.

Time to come home

Tomorrow morning, Claire, Lynda, and I will get up at 4:30 to walk to the U-bahn, which we'll take to the S-bahn, that will take us to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof and the ICE to Frankfurt Airport (for us) and Oberammergau (for Claire). God willing, we will be home around 11:00 p.m. EST and John will pick us up. But we don't want to leave. We had such a great time in Germany with all our friends! (Well, technically this picture is in Strasbourg which I believe is in France, but ...)At least in Berlin we got LOTS of pictures of Claire barchen with the bears that are all over the city. More pics to come!
We ate out by the river one night, just upstairs from the beautiful people going to Fashion Week in Berlin (but of course I was with the prettiest).
And we took lots of Isabelle's friend's (Janis) recommendations including the restaurant below.

Berlin was great and we all need to go back as a group. I think my favorite was the Berlin Wall history with words and pictures done all around the streets surrounding Checkpoint Charlie. But more stories and pictures later. Time to get a couple hours of sleep!

A Series of Sibling Photos

John looking cool...
and Claire looking cool...