Bregenz - from the top of the mountain

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After many grey days in Frankfurt we were delighted to see the sun in Bregenz.  We decided to ride the Pfänderbahn (cable car) up the nearby mountain and take a look at the Alps and Lake Constance from this vantage point.  The view was awe-inspiring.  From this point one can see four countries - Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein.  We hiked around, we watched the natives who had come up the mountain to ski and sled, and then we started the hike down, thinking how hard can a walk (supposedly 1 1/4 hours) down a mountainside be?.....

 All the trees and bushes were snow encrusted and glittering like diamonds in the sunshine.

 Wanling was dying to go sledding, but there was no place to rent a sled.

 We start the descent.  you can see the island of Lindau far below (Lindau is in Germany, we were in Austria at this point).

 Now the going gets tough.  Much of the trail was ice-encrusted and narrow.  We did NOT have hiking gear with us.  Luckily in a few places there were ropes embedded in the rock or mounted along the edge of the path.  Wanling developed a (very effective) technique of sliding down on her bottom.

 And as we stumbled down the mountain, the Austrians energetically hiked up, with their boots and their walking poles, it looked pretty easy.  We even saw one man running, in his shirt sleeves.  He passed us on his way up the mountain, and then passed us as he went down again....and he was singing as he ran (we thought that he was just a little crazy).

 This area is very Catholic.  Even in the remotest areas there are shrines.

Needless to say, we were very happy to be down at the bottom of the mountain again, after 2 1/2 hours.  We definitely all had a few sore muscles to remind of us of that hike.  We looked back up the hill (the red and white antenna) and saw where we had been....