Good-bye to Appenzell - Saturday July 10, 2010

Good-bye to Appenzell - Saturday July 10, 2010

The first picture shows the farm where we stayed and the 5 level zig-zag to get up out of there. The other 2 pics are of Appenzell area. No pics of the Spreewald area since we have not arrived yet.
We left the Susanne and Benjamin Rempfler farm in Appenzell just after 8:30 am and set the GPS for Zwickau, Germany and started the 5 + hour drive north. It was to be a stopover point on our way to the Spreewald area just south of Berlin. At about 2:30 pm we stopped for coffee at a McDonalds along the autobahn. We were about an hour short of our destination but it was soooooooooooo hot - 34 degrees C outside as we were driving and the hot pavement made it seem worse. Along the way we had seen numerous cars pulled over with motor problems - their hoods up and poor people standing along the autobahn must have been horrendous. Several accidents and 3 or 4 tow trucks loaded so we decided to get a motel right here behind McD’s rather than pushing our luck further. Turning off also we saw a couple stores much like our Dollar Stores so we went in there to cool off a bit. In a drug store they were selling Blau World phone cards which I figured I needed since I had been getting a message that time was running out. Bought the 15 Euro card and asked the clerk for help with the German to load the card. Come to find out there are 2 Blau World companies - one is Blau.De and one is just Blau so the 15 Euro card of coarse was the wrong one and it would not work. After 30 min. messing with the silly thing the clerk called the manager and they agreed to give me my money back. The nice guy that I am - I gave the girl 5 E and said thank you - Merry Christmas and walked out to the car.
The room in the FICHTELGEBIRGSHOF Hotel ( try to say that 10 times fast) was small, fairly warm with no air conditioning but we managed. After supper in our room we walked over to a Burger King and had milk shakes to cool off a bit. It did cool off later in the evening - windows wide open - no screens - no flies or bugs here - how do they manage that?