May 22 - a better day

Sunday, May 22, 2011
Both of us awake and needing a bathroom. So we drove around Vaduz until we found the bus station with open bathrooms. (McDonald’s doesn’t open until 9 a.m.) After that, decided I might as well try to get a Liechtenstein cache and we found one with a short walk. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever found a cache at 5:55 a.m.! There was a nano at the McDonald’s somewhere that I’d tried to find last night but finding a nano in the dark is about impossible.
Now catching up while we are waiting for the store to open. Then heading north to Reutte. We can check in at 2 p.m., then hopefully we can get a good nap.

(insert day going by….)

Well we recovered nicely today. I am happy to report that neither the rapture or sleeping in the car did us in. Shortly after I finished writing this morning, I was getting antsy and Steve had fallen back to sleep. I found out there was another cache about .2 from where we were waiting, so decided to take a bit of a walk in the village. 7 a.m. on Sunday morning is an interesting time to explore, very quiet and not much happening so you can really take a look at things. Unfortunately, didn’t find the cache. But did find the Liechtenstein souvenirs that Steve wanted, and some very interesting places downtown. Came back to the car shortly before 8 and we went into the store, bought some more cold drinks for the day, and were off.
We were briefly back in Switzerland then into Austria. Decided to take the scenic route, another mountain pass. A different kind of beautiful – not as steep and stark, more green but still definitely alpine mountains. The big difference that I saw in small Austrian towns today was that many of the buildings have paintings on them, didn’t notice that so much in Switzerland. As we neared Reutte, our destination, I noticed a cache just off a side road. Steve stopped when I asked, so that I could get an Austrian cache. Before I got out of the car, motorcyclists also stopped. One walked to just about where I thought the cache would be and stopped (back turned thankfully) to relieve himself. I was relieved to find the cache not so nearby. It was a glass jar hidden under a rock, I don’t think it’ll last all that long with that combination. Then on to the Reutte area. We were looking for Ehrenwald and had made those reservations last night for here. Turned out to be great! Six rooms over the restaurant – clean, modern, towels, electricity, and even TV – stuff we’ve been missing the last few nights. And thankfully the price was right even in Steve’s eyes. This is the Klause area, originally it was the tollbooth area for the castle which lies in ruins at the top of the hill. Really wish that we could have hiked up there but shortly after we arrived it started to rain and has done so most of the rest of the day. At least we weren’t traveling through it! Right now all the tourists have gone home so I’m assuming it’s the six rooms worth of guests, if they’re full, plus perhaps the proprietors, as the only people around. While Steve took a nap after we checked in (and we were allowed to check in at noonish!) I explored the buildings in this area, also checked out the cache that was .25 away. Nice little walk…and that made two Austrian caches…
We actually ate dinner in a real restaurant tonight! First one on the trip except for the burger place on base with Scott. I had checked out the menu while Steve was sleeping and thought (correctly!) that the prices were reasonable enough, so we went down about 4:30 for an early supper. They closed at 6 p.m. and we hadn’t had lunch anyway. Steve had Burgherrenteller – which was about five different kinds of meat – beef, chicken, pork, ham, and even a wiener cooked to look like a little octopus. I had the Tiroler Grostli – which was beef, potatoes, and onion with an egg on top. Tasty! The only thing I paused at was the egg which came with the yolk still runny. I decided that if I mixed it all in with the hot food, which I think I was supposed to do anyway, that the yolk would finish cooking. Tasted all right so guess it must have worked. We both had Apfelstrudel for dessert. Didn’t need it, I know, but it was make up for last night time. Had hoped to climb to the castle after dinner but it started raining again so no go.
Planning to get an early start tomorrow so we can get tickets to Neuschwanstein as early as possible. So with my precious little sleep last night, I’d imagine I’ll get an early bedtime tonight.
Looking back at last night…ok, I still probably would. But I have serious doubts as to whether or not HE would ever want to leave again. Though things seemed more turned around today – was it because we were leaving Switzerland, which was so beautiful but sooooooo high priced?

Hard to tell. The grip this cold has had on him has finally lessened, too.