Bregenzerwald

We drove to the town of Hittisau in the Bregenzerwald to meet up with Jim's cousin Regina Pichler and her husband Meinrad. We love the Bregenzerwald. We had nice weather and when we arrived, in late afternoon, we all immediately set out on a hike. We hiked up the mountain, over the border into Germany, where we had refreshments at a cozy little Gasthaus before climbing down. We laughed because on the trail Jim got an SMS message on his cellphone. We were wondering who it could be, and it tuned out to be the German cellular company, welcoming him to Germany!!

The sun was setting, and the hike was quite atmospheric as the last rays of the sun made for a nice Alpenglow. When we got to Meinrad & Regina's hotel, the Gasthaus Schiff, we went in the sauna to warm up and then dressed for dinner. The dinner was awfully nice. If any of you are ever there, I would recommend the Gasthaus Schiff in Hittisau. They had a beautiful outdoor heated pool (you swim under a wall to get outside) as well as a nice sauna. Nice and hot. Meinrad and Regina treated us to dinner as well as to some more excellent Austrian wines. It was a lovely day.