Ruetted

Ruette, Austria
Thursday, 20:50
Up for breakfast (included with hotel price – quite nice), then off to Ludwig’s castles near Fussen, Germany. We walked our rear ends off… first up the hill to the small castle and then to the large castle. As castles go, they were ok. If you’ve seen one, you’ve pretty much seen them all. They look great from the outside… once you go inside, there are a bunch of rooms full of old stuff. Kind of like going to an antique store. You have to take a guided tour, which was a lot of useless info followed by “Now we will proceed to the king’s reading room”. Oh joy. But I’ve always wanted to see these two castles, so now I can scratch them from my life’s “to do” list.
Tomorrow were off to Innsbruck, but actually were staying in an adjacent town called Hall. We’re booked for three nights, but we’ll see how it goes. Rain is in the forecast, which could limit our luge runs. That’s it for plans… after that we’re winging it. Maybe Hallstadt, most likely a few nights in Salzburg, no to Vienna… too far.
Driving is great… the roads are smooth as silk and the drivers are good, except for a few meatheads with a death wish. Along every road is a bike path/walking path. We see all sorts of people using these paths. Very well planned. One thing that has been difficult… cigarette smoke. Germany and Austria are still in the dark ages. The restaurants are full of smoke… not so in France, where smoking is banned pretty much everywhere except maybe your backyard or your bathroom. We were humping up a hill today to get to the castles and people are passing us smoking a butt. Jesus. Everybody here does so much outdoor stuff… skiing, hiking, etc, and they all rave about this great mountain air, yet they all smoke. I don’t get it. My clothes stink.
Hopefully I’ll have a good internet connection in Hall. More later.