Post by Ann on Oct 11, 2014 9:31:56 GMT
Living in Germany isn't, in the main, so very different from living in the UK. It's the smaller things that tend to catch you out, we have our preferred way of life, they have theirs.
Ann from Winlaton was staying with me last week. We were lucky enough to have warm sunny weather the whole week and decided that, on the Wednesday, we'd book ourselves onto one of the local coach company's Mystery Tours. Unlike some of their trips which had 5.15 am pick ups, it began at the more civilised hour of 10.40.
The coach began in Rosenheim and picked up passengers along the way, so by the time it reached the village, it was already pretty full. We settled ourselves down, looked around and realised that we were 2 of the youngest passengers on board. And neither of us are spring chickens any longer! Several passengers looked like they'd never see 80 again. We headed towards Innsbruck and then started to climb into the mountains. Around noon, the coach pulled up outside a Gasthaus in the middle of nowhere, halfway up a mountainside and the driver abandoned us there for 4 hours! The German contingent all headed into the Gasthaus, where they ate hearty lunches and then, notwithstanding walking aids and the gale force wind that was blowing at that height above sea level, vanished off along all the paths and trails on 3 hour hikes around the mountain. Ann and I, who aren't used to eating full meals at noon had coffee and headed for what looked like a village. It was, but there was only one small shop, a grocer's, and it was closed! The views in just about any direction you looked were absolutely spectacular. If you could keep the hair out of your eyes for long enough to see them that is.
I'd hoped to go on a few of the Mystery tours to find out more about the surrounding countryside, but I'd been expecting more of a relaxed day, with perhaps a couple of stops in places where civilisation was near enough to hand to have the option of either a walk, or a potter round some shops, which I understand is what happens in the UK. Whilst I'm happy to embrace a lot of the differences, I think I'll be giving German Mystery Tours a miss in the future!
Ann from Winlaton was staying with me last week. We were lucky enough to have warm sunny weather the whole week and decided that, on the Wednesday, we'd book ourselves onto one of the local coach company's Mystery Tours. Unlike some of their trips which had 5.15 am pick ups, it began at the more civilised hour of 10.40.
The coach began in Rosenheim and picked up passengers along the way, so by the time it reached the village, it was already pretty full. We settled ourselves down, looked around and realised that we were 2 of the youngest passengers on board. And neither of us are spring chickens any longer! Several passengers looked like they'd never see 80 again. We headed towards Innsbruck and then started to climb into the mountains. Around noon, the coach pulled up outside a Gasthaus in the middle of nowhere, halfway up a mountainside and the driver abandoned us there for 4 hours! The German contingent all headed into the Gasthaus, where they ate hearty lunches and then, notwithstanding walking aids and the gale force wind that was blowing at that height above sea level, vanished off along all the paths and trails on 3 hour hikes around the mountain. Ann and I, who aren't used to eating full meals at noon had coffee and headed for what looked like a village. It was, but there was only one small shop, a grocer's, and it was closed! The views in just about any direction you looked were absolutely spectacular. If you could keep the hair out of your eyes for long enough to see them that is.
I'd hoped to go on a few of the Mystery tours to find out more about the surrounding countryside, but I'd been expecting more of a relaxed day, with perhaps a couple of stops in places where civilisation was near enough to hand to have the option of either a walk, or a potter round some shops, which I understand is what happens in the UK. Whilst I'm happy to embrace a lot of the differences, I think I'll be giving German Mystery Tours a miss in the future!
