...or it would have been, if the weather had been better. We flew to Munich (by Go at £50 return each!) on September 11th, hired a car and drove to Kochel for lunch & the Franz Marc Museum, which had more of his work than we expected. Arriving in Füssen, one of Germany's most charming towns, we booked into the Hotel Hirsch for 2 nights, to be told of the attacks on the USA. This glued us to CNN for a couple of hours. We explored Loopy Ludwig's folly of Neuschwanstein & his grand-father's Hohenschwangau, then went into Austria, visiting Nassereith, the Mieminger Plateau & going up the Stübaital to show Avis an area Ken has explored & talked much of. We took a gondola up to have lunch in the Dresdner Hut before going round the Wipptal, back via charming Igls before a night at Zell am Ziller (Hotel Englhof). The rains really began the next day. We checked Mayrhofen & found it attractive. Then, over the Gerlos Pass, we saw the Krimml Falls, the best in Europe & visited Webern's grave, Ken's musical 'grandfather', both through heavy rain. (The art deco gravestone is off having Maria's name carved on it). After popping in to Saalbach to show Avis next winter's ski village, we slept at Kitzbuhel in our old haunt, the Schweizerhof. The next day, we saw a peasant festival at Schwendt on the way to Herrenchiemsee back in Germany, Loopy's last, biggest & whackiest palace, a throwback to Versailles, with all the trappings of Louis XIV's absolutism denied that constitutional monarch. We spent that night at Sachrang, almost back in Austria (Sachrangerhof £18 b&b each & all mod cons!) & where, the next morning, we saw a church procession for the harvest with everyone in Tracht, complete with banners, muskets & swords in the teeming rain. We made our way to Mürnau, Gabriele Munter's town. At the Schlossmuseum, we had the luck to see a special show of her prints, as well as the normal paintings. There were more in her house, including interiors in context. The last two nights were spent in uncharming Garmisch, where we saw the Richard Strauss House & Institute, popping back to Füssen for Avis to buy more good, inexpensive clothes. A full report of the trip is on the web. Hit this link.