Enten

"Enten" means "ducks" in German!

 

For the Fourth of July we went to the Zugspitze Arena in Lermoos, Austria.  (It's in the Austrian Alps just on the other side of Germany.)

 

 

There are lots of ski lifts for people to go skiing in the winter, but in the summer, you can ride them up to the top and do other things, too.

 

We hiked through the wildflowers.

 

So up we went!

 

And down we came on a Rodelbahn (which in English, we call an Alpine Slide.)

 

 

 

Here is a giant beaver.  (We were in a town called Biberwier, which means something like Beaver-ville.)

 

 

 

We were completely surrounded by mountains on all sides.

 

There were also a lot of lakes.

 

Here are the ruins of an old castle next to a not-so-old castle, next to a....what is that?  A barn?  Building?

 

We went to one lake and all the ducks on the lake were following us around.

 

It wasn't that hard to get a picture of them, because they would just swim toward the camera.

 

This is the river flowing into the lake.  It came from waterfalls high in the mountains.

 

Here is the mist on the lake...with...some ducks.

 

Here are some swans next to some swan boats.  The swans were equally as camera-happy as the ducks.

 

The ducks seemed to have a particular liking for Kieran.  Here they have him cornered on a bench.  RUN, Kieran! RUN!!!

 

We finally escaped the ducks...

 

It's getting dark! Time to head back to our hotel!

 

Here is our little Tyrolean hotel.  Kieran and my bedroom is the tiny window on the very top on the right.  My parent's window is where the balcony is next to it.

 

Here we are on the balcony!

 

That's my bed, with the window!

 

 

And here's Kieran's bed on the other side of the room.

 

It would have been a great view for some fireworks, except for one small thing...They don't celebrate the 4th of July in Austria.

 

So, we made our own fireworks with a glowstick!

 

Next time you are in Austria, beware the ducks!!!