2nd day of Bregenz

Today we woke up to more rain. We ate breakfast (included in the price!) at the restaurant: bread, cold cut meats, butter, house-made marmalade, kiwis, cheese, and hot chocolate, yummm. Later in the morning, the rain gave way to sunshine! So we decided to go hiking! We went up the popular Pfänderweg, or Pfänder (which is the name of the mountain that Bregenz sits beside) trail. It was a very steep, but very enjoyable hike! With each new gain in elevation, the view became even more spectacular! From the top, we could see far across Lake Constance, or Bodensee, and the snowy peaks of the impressive Alps (die Alpen!) On top of this mountain we enjoyed wursts and sauerkraut for lunch. Also there is a small wildlife park, so we got to see many of the awesome Alpine animals! Rams, rabbits, mountain goats, deer, and a marmot! I had the Sound of Music’s “high on a hill was a lonely goatherd…” song stuck in my head about the entire day. Because of the steepness, the hike down was probably more difficult than the hike up! We could have spent some Euros to ride the gondola up and/or down, but I am so glad we hiked! It was a lot of fun. In many ways it was the same as hiking in the Smokies, but there were definitely some uniquely Austrian things…like hearing cow-bells ding-a-lingin’ off in the trees or seeing the many, beautiful different kinds of Alpine flowers! We may have heard an Austrian horn (like those in the old Ricola commercials) but we’re not sure.

That evening we walked around the pedestrian streets and explored a grocery store, a delicious ice-cream shop, and found free-wifi at Café Wunderbar to catch up with everything.