Innsbruck

Friday - May 28
Innsbruck

Well, two weeks have passed already, and we are moving slower than
ever. Where did the time go?? For us it is passing so quickly, while
at home it is dragging along for Peyton.

We have cut out lots of stops that we had planned to make, and are still
behind. It seems like we just cannot get away from the hotel before
11AM every day. Yesterday we got away from the hotel earlier, but
laundry duty took forever! Then since we were in Innsbruck, we decided
to stay and have a look around. It was both a fun and exciting day, as
well as a very frustrating and trying day! We were excited to see that
Innsbruck had a laundrymat - something we needed, even tho we didn't
want to take the time! We packed up our dirty clothes (which pretty
much was all of them) and headed toward the laundrymat. Of course, we
couldn't seem to find it, so we asked our GPS lady for help. She
almost redeemed herself by taking us to one of the three in town.
(Later, however, she tried to take us away from a castle instead of
toward it, and locked up a few times, so she's still in trouble with
me! We foiled her dasterdly plan, tho, by actually following the signs
to the Castle!!)

Our first test came when we tried to do the laundry. There was another
couple there, as well, so the laundry man thought that I was with the
other man, took his money, and paid for my washer. Obviously that did
not go over well with the other man's wife. We got it all straightened
out, gave the wife the money to replace what the man had paid, and went
on to do our laundry. We found that the couple was from Australia,
traveling around for 3 months. The man, who is 82 years old (but
didn't look it), had fallen on an escalator in Llubjana, and had taken a
taxi to the hospital there, because he didn't want to pay for an
ambulance. They said that the line at the hospital was very long
(socialized medicine, here we come), but that they moved him to the
front of the line when they realized that he had a pacemaker, was a
foreigner, and could sit there and bleed to death on them. He had
stitches all the way up his leg, and was having to go to doctors along
the way to get the dressing changed. He refused to let that stop their
vacation plans! They still have 6 weeks to go. I hope that I still
feel that way about traveling when I am 82!

We finished our laundry around lunchtime, and as we were taking it to
the car, there stood a policewoman writing us a parking ticket.(First
time that's ever happened). Lonnie tried to talk her out of it. I
just asked her where I needed to go to pay it and thanked her. We also
found that the parking passes were about a half block down the street.
We had just missed them in our rush to get the laundry done! That
turned out to be some expensive laundry. Had she not come along when
she did, however, we would have walked on into town and found an even
bigger ticket on our car when we got back three hours later.

Innsbruck is beautiful. It is one of the places that I came on the
tour when I was 18. It is a smaller town nestled at the foot of the
Alps, with mountains rising all around it. Walking through the town
was fun - I bought some souvenirs, then toured the church where
Maximillian is buried, with life-size statues standing around his tomb.
It is really a neat place. I had been there before, but it had been
many years. Then we walked back to the car and drove up to the Schloss
Ambras. I had not been there (and still haven't seen the Castle - they
closed at 6). We did get to see the Armory, and the Hall of
Curiosities. It was great. There were some beautiful pieces in the
Hall of Curiosities (as well as some Ripley's Believe it or Not type
things - from the 1500's), and the Armory was fantastic! I had never
seen that many different types of armor before. I would have loved to
have seen the Castle, also, but that will have to wait for another day!
And the jousting sticks that Knights used were huge! I don't know how
they managed to hold them! Those knights must have had some muscles!

Once again we started out for where we were supposed to be the day
before - and once again, we are not there! To be perfectly honest, I am
not sure where we are - I just know that we are somewhere in Germany and
still a full day's drive from where we were supposed to be two days
ago. Hope we make it today, but Lonnie is still in bed asleep, so who
knows. Also, I know that we are near the Castles at Fussen, so we will
drive by there and take some pictures before traveling on. We have
been in both castles before, so it will just be a drive-by (I think).

My final frustration of the day came at 11PM last night. We were
finally in our hotel room, so I called and wanted Peyton to pay the
bills that are due on the first. He was able to pay a couple of them
okay, but was having trouble paying the credit card that we are using.
I was able to get on-line here at the hotel to try to pay it myself. It
was then that we discovered that while Bank of America had not changed
our credit limit, they had changed our card number and expiration
date!! (I told Lonnie that they probably just now figured out that
neither of us are working, and are afraid they won't get their money,
even though we have always paid our bills on time and in full! That
kind of attitude from banks makes me so angry that I cannot see straight
- and I usually don't get angry about much!) The new cards are being
mailed to our home address, and the expiration date has been changed to
November. Crazy people. We spent the last of my phone minutes calling
them to get it straightened out. Not sure that it is, but we will
see. (Don't worry Mom and Peyton, I plan to re-charge my phone minutes
this morning!)

It is a beautiful day in the German Alps, so I am ready to seize the
day!! Hopefully, my husband will be ready to seize it soon, too.
And, yes, even with all of the frustrations from time to time, I am
still thankful for the Lord's grace and goodness in letting us come on
this trip. I know that He is in control, and even with my frustration,
I still depend on Him totally! I hope that all of you do, too!

Going to go finish packing the bags now. Catch ya later!