On the way to Radstadt, Austria, for our annual ski trip, we stopped for lunch in Neubeuern, Germany, a small town not too far south of Munich. This is where my father and his family were refugees after WWII. They lived here in the shadow of the castle, which is now a school, from 1945 to 1949, when my father immigrated to Tennessee to work on a farm. It was from Neubeuern that my father was sent to Traunstein, last year's stop, for school.
We only skied three days, and of those days, only the first was good. It just got too warm too fast, and the snow became slush. But, nevertheless, we had fun and the boys are developing into pretty good skiers. Better than me!
The rest of the week we spent swimming or hiking near our apartment. One day we visited Burg Hohenwerfen. Every year drive by this castle on the way to Radstadt, so this year we decided to pay it a visit. It turns out that this was the castle featured in the movie "Where Eagles Dare." Unfortunately, it's been a long time since I've seen this movie, and so it did not seem familiar. We took a tour of the castle, which included a torture chamber and weapons cache (it seems to me that this is how people during medieval times spent their leisure hours--inventing new ways to inflict pain), and saw a great falcon show. I was impressed, because at the end they released a Kaiser eagle, a vulture, a large hawk and two smaller hawks all at the same time. With the exception of the Kaiser eagle stealing some food from one of the smaller hawks, they all seemed to enjoy flying around together. Add your own metaphor here.
PS Oscar's blog has also been updated.
