CHAPTER 23: CHIEMSEE, GERMANY
Friday, November 5

Your roving reporters are now in Germany. We left Prague after one more run-in with Czech government employees (this time at the post office) and headed south for the border. While driving out of Prague, we were amazed at the sheer size of the city. The section that the tourists generally see is not very large and can easily be navigated on foot. That part is surrounded by hills, however. Cross those hills to the east and the city stretches for miles and miles and miles. It was like driving in a third-world version of Long Island (although some would consider Long Island to be third world itself). Be that as it may, we crossed into Austria, drove through Linz, then hit the autobahn and headed west into Germany along the foothills of the Alps. We're now in a nice hotel on the shore of Lake Chiemsee (pronounced “KIM-say”), which is in the southeastern corner of Germany. Sure is nice to be back in a first-world country again!

This area is really beautiful. We're right on the edge of the Alps, with steep mountains and ridges just to our south. Almost all the leaves are off the trees now, but grazing fields are still a bright green. The many villages and towns are picture-postcard perfect, with heavy timbered houses, stone churches with impossibly tall and slender steeples, and narrow, winding, cobble-stoned streets. Weather over the past couple of days has been overcast, rainy, and cold. About what you'd expect of late fall in the German Alps.

We are staying in the Hotel Luitpold am See, in the town of Prien. This is a German resort town and hotel. It is probably the nicest place we've stayed during our entire trip. The room is large and comfortable and has a large balcony overlooking the waterfront. The staff is friendly, and although only a couple of them speak English, they all do their best to answer questions or get us what we need.

We've been to the American military base at Bad Aibling, which is about 20 miles west of here, in order to replace Janis's stolen ID card and take care of business. Very fortunately for us, they have a lot of facilities that we can use, like computers, a laundromat, a movie theater, and other things. There is also an American military hotel not far away that we will check out soon.

Although our adventures sound like fun, traveling like we have been doing is a real strain, much more than we had envisioned. Every week we've had to get settled in a new place, arrange our stuff, get a different kind of money, learn something of a new language, figure out the best way to get around, etc etc etc. About the time we get comfortable with our arrangements, money, and languages, it's time to move on again. I've spent the past 20 years moving around and am pretty used to it, but even for me this is getting tough. Janis is a "nester", though, and without her home nest, this trip has been really hard for her. Each move has gotten more difficult for both of us. This last one, coming on the heels of the Prague pickpockets and associated difficulties, was a real pain in the butt. We're trying to figure out ways to make it easier, particularly for the run down to southern Spain, which will probably take four long days of driving in a row ... sounds more like a torture test than a relaxing jaunt.

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