a short hike to the hotel (172/365b)

lovely morning, starting with apple strudel in the tree-house with mama, and then a church service for erntedankfest where the kids were singing in the choir.

felix slept in

morning routine of reading while henry dances

henry wants his picture taken

our alpine guide called this morning to make sure we knew the weather forecast for tomorrow is very bad. apparently very bad. he gives us permission to cancel but no, we are all for it. besides, who really knows how the weather will actually be on the mountain? we were off to our base camp before the dachstein today. ingrid got to the bus at about 3 minutes before take off. 

the bus when we got there took us not quite up to the hotel. another 3.5 miles or so to hike before dark, pretty steep and short little climb. the busdriver was very funny - gave me the number of a taxi, offered to call for us, reminded us we could call a taxi on the way, and somehow didn't seem to have faith in us making it before dark. we made it just as the sun was setting, followed by glorious light the whole way. brian sent me text messages explaining the best shortcut through the woods so we wouldn't have to be on the roads.

we had views like this from the bus

how could one not stop and look?

we watched the stars: perfectly clear night. big dipper directly over the dachstein peak while we were watching, and slowly setting behind it. the milky way over-head. i did not get any nice pictures at all of the stars although i tried for a while. i got locked out of the hotel by accident. mama let me back in, by chance walking by as i banged on the door. nobody else was staying at the hotel, no other guests. we decided to get to rest early, so we can have an early start before rain or snow.

that's where we're headed tomorrow.