Oberstdorf

As we got closer to Oberstdorf, the landscape got hillier and greener, the houses grew stouter with longer eaves and lots of flower boxes, and cows were everywhere. But it was still a surprise how quickly the Alps spring up, with Oberstdorf cradled among them. On our first visit, we arrived by car and felt the same excitement as the mountains appeared. This time I think I was more excited, because now I know just how great Oberstdorf is!

The first four days of our visit were blessed with fantastic weather. We rented e-bikes on two days and biked out into narrow valleys connected to the larger area where the town sits. Thanks to the e-bikes, we climbed a long 10% grade and were rewarded with a mountain farmstead with gorgeous views … and cows standing in the road. Other bikers were more blasé than we were and just biked right by; we waited for a little more clearance.

M doesn’t understand how the cows haven’t all gone crazy from the constant ringing of the cowbells every time one of them moves…

Our second ride didn’t go as expected – we took an unplanned ride into Austria! We thanked the batteries again as we headed back up another steep grade to try to find the turn we had missed…to no avail. Ah, well, we had a nice 33-mile ride anyway, though I think we missed the best views. When we come back, as I’m sure we will, I’m determined to do it again and figure it out! The first step will be buying the bike map instead of just taking a picture of it…

We took gondolas up to the panorama view on top of the Nebelhorn and it was just as spectacular as we remembered. (And I told myself several times -it’s Germany, I’m sure they maintain these better than that one in Lisbon…) This time there were many parasails around the peak – singles and tandems. Perhaps next time we’ll try tandem rides. If the first President Bush can do a tandem sky dive at 90, M can do a tandem parasail at 75, no?

We had a ginormous meal (aka American-sized portions) at a restaurant partway down the mountain, and talked about places to hike nearby. Alas, it wasn’t to be. The weather closed in for the rest of our stay, with the clouds obscuring the views and frequent rain. We could have coped with the rain, but why hike with no view? We contented ourselves with walks around Oberstdorf. And we were very lucky we got here when we did and not four days later!

As we headed out on a train toward Vienna, the morning fog cleared briefly to show snow on the mountain tops. Fall really is here….