July 12 – Volksmarche, Donut Boat and Austria

This morning we said a very early morning goodbye to Lahr and started our trip to the next stop in Damüls, Austria.

Before getting to Austria, Patrick found a local Volksmarche we could participate in in Eisenbach, Germany. Volksmarching was a big part of the weekend when Patrick lived in the area. Every weekend they would find a new one or an old one but new year, to walk 10, 20 or in Stanley’s case 40 km. Today’s walk was the 11km version. Getting there early we got all set up and out we went. With one small hiccup at the beginning we were setting a good pace until the last 3 km when Sable and Bryan started to slow down but we all finished and were treated to a free beer from the organizers.

Heading out afterwards we stopped at Titisee to walk into the beautiful lake. Seeing a boat rental we went over to rent something called a donut boat. This definitely was not a speedy boat but we managed to get more than halfway across the lake and back within 60 minutes. A quick stop for some gelato and we were back on the road again.

Getting closer and closer to Austria, the mountains started to appear in the distance and kept getting bigger and bigger. Driving through the tunnels amazed us. No going up and over hills/mountains when you can just go through them. We are staying in a place called the Hotel Lucia. Which was up a very windy scary road. With some clenching and some not so nice words we managed to get up to check in (45 minutes after we were suppose to check in…oops who only has a 2 hour checkin?) by the lovely owner. We were very surprised to see that this unit was a full apartment so will find a grocery store tomorrow to stock up again.

The view up here is amazing! Seeing and hearing cow bells in the distance as they move was fantastic. Can’t wait to explore more.

Total step count today, 23,018…not as much as Paris but still good for 30+ degree weather.