the hills are alive...

Hey all! I’m writing to you moments after narrowly avoiding a technological disaster. My computer came very close to receiving a beer bath because my imperfect German language skills caused me to misunderstand what the server was saying. As a side note, “server” may not actually be the right word because Brenda and I are on a train right now.  The worker is more like a flight attendant but, you know, on a train. Let’s go with train attendant. Anyway, my computer was almost drenched, but good fortune, or the train attendant’s steely grip, saved the day.

Brenda and I are heading home after visiting our friend Andreas in Hohenems, Austria. We were there for around forty-eight hours and had a great time catching up with him and seeing the beautiful area he lives in. Hohenems is in western Austria and is very close to the Bodensee (Lake Constance in English). If my Geography is correct, three countries border the Bodensee: Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Thus, if you live near the Bodensee, you live near other countries. We experienced just how close Hohenems is to Germany when we traveled down there on Monday. To get there we took a long-distance train to Lindau, a town in Germany, and then transferred to a local train that took us into Austria and lasted around thirty minutes. By the way, I think it’s remarkable that we could go between Germany and Austria without any border control whatsoever. That is definitely one of the great things about the European Union.

Andreas was a fantastic host. He showed us around the area (which included trips to several nearby towns), he took us on a gorgeous hike, and he helped us compensate for any calories we burned during our sightseeing by taking us to some wonderful restaurants. Here are a few photos to give you a feel for our trip:

 The three of us on a hike.

 

The wooden part of the path was recently constructed after a rockslide prevented hikers from using the old path.

 It took about fifteen minutes of steep hiking to get to this spot.

 Our hike led us to the "Kirchle," which is a cave-like rock formation.

 After the hike we went for a boat ride on the Bodensee and walked around the lake afterwards. In this picture Brenda is striking a dramatic pose in the stands at the Bregenzer Festspiele, an opera festival that is putting on The Magic Flute this year.

 We did a little sightseeing in Lindau today, which included a walk up to the top of the lighthouse.

Here's the view from the top.

So now we’re headed back to Frankfurt. Brenda has two more performances of Don Giovanni this weekend but, as hard as it is for us to believe, once those shows are over she only has one left this season at Oper Frankfurt. There are almost two weeks between her last two performances, which will give us ample time to prepare for our upcoming relocation to Santa Fe for the summer. I will also be able to focus on some possible post-law-school opportunities during that time. I’ll let you know if anything works out.

It looks like we’re getting close to Frankfurt so I should wrap things up. I hope you’re all having a wonderful week, and we’ll talk to you next Tuesday!