The first two (three?) days

Well, we managed to survive the first couple of days on our vacation. Three days, if you count the flying, only two if you count the touristing. The flights were on time and relatively pilot error free, which was great. Unfortunately, we were seated in the screaming infant section on our overseas flight, so sleep was really not an option. We managed to get a few minutes here and there and made it through our first day without crashing too early.

We arrived in Zurich, Switzerland, picked up some cash, some train passes for later in the trip, and some Starbucks for breakfast, then hopped in the rental car, a Ford S-Max which is a 7 passenger minivan type thing (why do they always give us such huge cars when we reserve little VW Golf type cars?) and hit the road for Innsbruck, Austria. We side tripped to Vaduz, Liechtenstein, just to say we've been there, and paused for a break in Feldkirch, Austria.

Michelle in Feldkirch

Around this time we noticed that our rental car was behaving oddly, so upon arrival in Innsbruck we went straight to the Europcar rental facility. We will never rent from them again. It took over an hour of nonsense for us to convince them that they needed to give us a car that worked. Long story short, they finally did (a more reasonably sized Golf this time), and we contined down the road a little way to Hall in Tirol and our hotel for the night. We had showers, then dinner, and then we took a little tour of the area around the hotel before calling it a night.

I photographed Jeff

He photographed this

We started our day today with a walking tour of the old town portion of Hall in Tirol. It was pretty cute. Old churches, colorful buildings, narrow alleyways, and a fortress.

Hall in Tirol

After Hall, we proceeded back to Innsbruck to see the Goldenes Dachl (meh), the Helbinghaus (meh), and the Dom, where Maximilian is entombed. We wandered around and found another church, then stopped for a quick lunch and got back on the road.

Goldenes Dachl, Innsbruck

Maximillian's Funeral Procession

Roar!

We drove to Wattens, where we toured the Swarovski Kristallwelt, which was quite possibly the strangest museum ever. I think they let a bunch of semi-known and unknown modern art types run wild in there. Some of the displays were cool, and others were just plain strange and silly.

The Swarovski Giant

Oooh, shiny!

We continued on down the road to our hotel for the next six nights near the Konigssee in Germany. It was a beautiful drive through the Alps and the national park area. We arrived at the hotel just in time for a nice dinner and a relaxing evening. We haven't quite figured out what we're doing tomorrow, but I'm sure it will be fun!

The drive from Innsbruck to Schoenau am Konigssee