Day 19

Another day gone, andother day here. Day 19 was a pretty good day. Our visit to Heidelberg was short lived. We woke up early and were out the door before 5:30, or at lest we thought we were out the door. Because the hostel is on top of some other buildings, the main door closes at 10 and opens again at 8 am. We were told to go out the back exit. So we did, but we found that the back exit door didn’t open. So we tried to go back up and possibly exit through the front. Maybe they only lock it from the outside. But we had a problem. We had already turned our key in, so we couldn’t get back into the hostel. So now we were stuck in a stairwell, with the clock ticking, and our train was due to leave in less than 20 minutes. Dilemma. We started knocking on the door hoping that someone would hear us and rescue us. But apparently not many people are up at 5 in the morning. So we tried the bottom window. But that had bars on it. And I was not about to jump out of a second story window. After many attempts we were finally able to get the back door open and we made it with only a minute to spare on our platform. We were now in route to Triberg. While riding in the train we noticed that the sun was shining brightly. This was a good sign for the rest of the day. We arrived in Triberg ready for the day. Tirberg is famous for several things. One, it is where original German Coo Coo Clocks are made, usually hand carved so that every one is individual. It also houses Germany’s tallest waterfall. It also is in the black forest and produces black forest cake. We started our on our hike with a bag of peanuts for the squirrels we were told that we would encounter on the way. We could head the falls coming up ahead. It was beautiful. It was more like a series of mini waterfalls rather than one large waterfall, but it was still amazing to see. We continued hiking and still found no squirrels. After our nature walk, we ended our tour of the black forest and its waterfalls and headed back into the city. Don’t worry, we made sure that the peanuts didn’t go to waste. We walked inside a few shops, including the store of 1000 coo-coo clocks. I don’t know if there were 1000, but there were a lot. They had suck great detail and were pretty amazing to see. I even heard one coo-coo! It was lunch time so we stopped at a mini pizza place and each gout ourselves a pizza. It was almost as good as back home, and pretty cheap at 3 euros a pizza. It was almost time to head back to the train station, but first we had to get some black forest cake or schwarzwald kuche. We took it to go. As soon as we got on the train, I had a taste. Pretty good. Whipcream, chocolate cake, more whip cream, and cherries. Unfortunately I did not know that one of the layers of the chocolate cake is soaked in some kind of alcohol. So that was the end of the piece. I did manage to eat all of the cherries and whip cream, so I guess it wasn’t a total waste. We arrive in Lindau a few hours later and the weather was still beautiful. By this time I had taken off my sweatshirt and had even rolled up my jeans. We walked along the “coast” and could even see Bregenz way out in the distance. We saw all of the old lighthouses and tours and walked through the city. It was very pretty and touristy, but it reminded me of a beach city back home. We only had a short amount of time in Lindau if we wanted to catch the direct train to Innsbruck. We were waiting at the station and noticed that our train was late. That usually means 5 to 10 minutes. But this time, it means 90 minutes. So all that time we thought we would save by getting a direct train didn’t turn out exactly as we had hoped. After we picked up some snacks for the ride our train finally arrived and we were on our way to Austria. The countryside was beautiful and we could even see snow on top of the mountains. Too bad we don’t have our skis. After a very very long train ride, we made it to Innsbruck and started the 1.4 mile walk to our hostel, stopping at McD’s along the way for some dinner. That seems to be a reoccurring theme this week. After a room mix up, we finally settled into our beds and went to sleep. We’re seeing the city tomorrow and going to the zoo! I can hardly wait.