Ah yes! Austria

Living in Denver gives you an itch to take a drive in the mountains every once in a while. Well, that itch came in a hurry over here too! I rented a care and Winston and I headed to Austria this morning. We were going to end up in Innsbruck, but the snowcapped mountains lured us in, so we decided to go in about as deep (and as high!) as we could. Needless to say, we never made it to Innsbruck, but I can't put into words and these pictures cannot do justice to what we saw today. Very incredible!

Welcome to Austria!

If I had a nickel for every time I saw a building or house like this...

It was very foggy early in the morning, but made for some great views once we got above it. This was near a ski resort called Kitzbuhel and eventually the bigger mountains you see below were in the Hohe Tauren National Park. We took a road that was much like Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park that gave us some great views of about 30 peaks all higher than 3k meters (not as high as the Rockies, but remember, we aren't as high above sea level over here either!). The tallest mountain in Austria is in the park and is called Großglockner, so the road was called Großglockner Hochalpenstraße.

Can you say STRAIGHT up!

Look at that mass of snow!

The boys in front of Großglockner.

This was in a town called Zell am See south of Salzburg and east of Innsbruck.

Englischer Garten

The English Garden is about one block from my apartment, so Winston and I spent the afternoon there yesterday. The weather was perfect! Within the park there are numerous beer gartens, lakes, wooded walking trails, rivers, and wide open grassy areas. Here are a few pics and even a video.

The Seehaus beer garten from across the "small lake" (there is a bigger lake) in the park.
River in the garten.

On point! (or just wanting to take a dip, which of course he did later on. He thinks he´s a lab.)Dinner anyone??? One of the other beer gartens in the park.

And now for the video (ok, I thought I was at the soccer...err.. fußall game when I heard this song though!). Sorry, but I was obviously behind a bush. I will be impressed if this works, but let´s try...

Lam, Germany

(The picture is from the hotel's website. I took mine directly into the sun, so it didn't come out very good.)

On Friday night I attended a work party in Lam, Germany, which is about 2 1/2 hours northeast of Munich and only a couple miles from the Czech border. I might post something later on the party, but for now, lets just say it had a beach theme complete with a pool, so needless to say "the new guy" brought back some wet clothes! Today, we had various outdoor activities to choose from, so I chose mountainbiking thinking it would be a nice peaceful ride. My first clue that it wasn't what I had expected was the fact that out of about 25 of us, I was one of the few without my own biking pants or even bike! I guess they don't like to let gravity work for you here either. Instead of starting at the highest point, they drove us to the lowest point in the valley and the 22 mile leisurely cruise turned into what seemed like an entire day of peddling uphill. Although grueling (I'm sure me being completely out of shape had nothing to do with it!), I really enjoyed the day and had a great time. Maybe next time I will suggest we do it in the opposite direction though. Lunch was at an old military outpost at the top of one of the mountains, so we had great views from there. Unfortunately I left my camera in the van, so I will have one of my friends send me some pictures so I can post them later.

This is the hotel in Lam.

German countryside on the way back from Lam to Munich:

First 2 Weeks

Since I'm a little behind, my next posts won't be this long so hang in there with me on this one. I arrived in Munich on September 30th and will be here until April 2010 until my rotation with Ernst & Young brings me back to Denver. I am staying in a hotel until this coming Sunday when I'll move into my apartment. I'm definitely looking forward to having a little more "permanent" feeling which will go a long way in getting settled. I'm still trying to get settled administratively here (at work, setting up a bank account, ordering from a menu, you name it - all the things you take for granted at home).

The best invention ever is the slingbox. If you haven't heard of it, it essentially is a box you attach to a tv or cable box at home and then you can watch that same cable feed anywhere in the world over the internet. I got mine setup this weekend (thanks to Brad letting me keep it at his apartment in Lawrence so I get all the local KU games) just in time to watch some college football (ok, some might mean about 5 games and some channel flipping between others, but hey who's counting). It was just in time too as I was getting the shakes over here! I mean, it's not every year you get to watch the defending Orange Bowl Champions and the defending National Champions in the same year.

When they say there are beer gartens on every street corner, they really aren't exaggerating (well, not that much anyway), so I'm getting my share of the beer, brats, and sauerkraut. I was also able to make it to one of the last days of Oktoberfest. Even though it was one of the coldest (and rainiest I might add) weekends in Oktoberfest history, needless to say I had a good time and can't wait to do it again next year and will hopefully get inside next time - and don't worry, I found a store where I can buy my very own lederhosen!

I'm here with my dog Winston. For those of you who have been around him much, he's obviously been a handful, but honestly, he's been a great companion and been a lot of fun too. Here he is on his way to the vet to get his passport (yep, think he wants a Paulaner too...). Who'd have thought a dog would need a passport, huh! As his aunt would say though...he WAS born with a silver spoon (he's spoiled? ok probably)! I'm sure he misses his buddies at the Castle Rock Camp Bow Wow though.

I haven't taken many pictures yet, but here are a few I took on the way to the vet this morning. They are all from a bridge over the Isar River near the Deutsches Museum.

Why not?

A few people asked that I start a blog to keep in touch and share pictures during my 18 month rotation in Munich. So why not, right.