As usual, the first day begins the day before with a long day and overnight plane ride. We worked Friday and then headed for the airport. We arrived in Frankfurt around 11:00AM and then hopped the train toward Oberstaufen where our resort will be our home away from home during our first week in Germany.
The first leg of the train ride was on a fast train to Augsburg moving at about 100 miles an hour. We enjoyed the passing scenery, but didn't have enough energy to man the camera for photos of the quickly changing views. Not far out of Frankfurt the scenery was dominated by rolling grasslands with short enough hills to have long distance visibility. As we moved south we saw many bright yellow fields. We weren't quite sure what it was at the time but a couple of days into our stay we saw a report on TV about local farmers replacing hops with rapeseed in their fields and we instantly recognized our mystery yellow flowers. Rapeseed is used to create efficient biofuel. As we traveled into Bavaria and closer to the Austrian border, the hills grew larger and forests more plentiful. About 20 minutes before the end of our train journey we saw the mountains with snow-covered slopes in the distance and then went by the edge of the beautiful alpine lake.
There was still some daylight left when we arrived in our apartment and we could enjoy a nice view from the balcony.
Resort had a restaurant on site (oddly enough, Italian restaurant) and while we were ready to sample German food we very much enjoyed their excellent Marguerita pizza.
