Thursday, September 20, 2007

Forest house at the lake

View from the balcony

We've arrived at the hotel "Forsthaus am See", forest house at the lake, tonight in Feldafing, Germany, about 45 min southwest of Munich.  Tomorrow Andreas picks us up for the Coaching trip and so this is the reason we are here as this is close to his stables.  It's quite the vacation area for well-to-do Munich citizens though.  Many million dollar mansions along the lake.  It reminds me of Lake Geneva, WI, the spot of rich Chicagoans to vacation.  Although I think the lake here is just a little deeper, and the view of the mountains (not sure which ones they are) on the horizon is quite spectacular.  My guess is we are headed in that direction tomorrow.  Should be interesting.

Rothenburg 092

Rothenburg 094

What I've gleaned in 1/2 day:

  • There's a path that appears to go around the lake used by pedestrians and bikes.  Larger than the Lake Geneva one.
  • The vegetation is much more like back in WI/IL than OR.  Less pine and more deciduous.  I can imagine when the leaves change here in a few weeks it will be beautiful.  This is in contrast to Baden-Baden, north of the Black Forest, which was more like OR, with many pine and they also grow Pinot Noir grapes for wine as well there.
  • You gotta be rich to live here.
  • Looks like you could create some nice singletrack for MTBing. :)
  • More use of German.  The woman who picked us up at the trainstation, Bahnhof, English wasn't very good and we rely more on our German as we approach the less tourist area.  I had to order most everything today and communicate in German but don't let that scare you off.  Most know enough English to get by.  Partly I'm fueling my own desire to speak another language since I feel ignorant that I only know one.
  • Cool tempuratures.  Jackets at night.  Jeans and long-sleeves during the day.  The driver said she hasn't seen the lake frozen in years though so probably quite temperate like Oregon and UN-like the Midwest.

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