By this Author: nutmeg2000

Our second to last day in Lucerne we went to Mount Rigi. This involves a beautiful boat ride on Lake Lucerne followed by a cog wheel train up the steep mountain to the best view in the Lucerne area. The boat ride was amazing with incredible deep teal blue waters. A young deaf woman from the Midwest wanted to hold Cosmo, which he was surprisingly totally fine with.

The cog wheel train up the hill stopped roughly every kilometer. I decided to get off about 2/3 of the way up where there were several trails as I thought it would be less crowded for Cosmo. We walked down a paved path that wound through some houses that had a cat sign posted. At first I thought they were saying no cats allowed, but the translation was “cats on the road” presumably to advise dog owners to keep their charges on leash.

Cosmo on the bow of the boat

Cosmo really wanted to roam about a bit and the sign signaled a safe area for cats so I let him off. The road was not well traveled with hikers coming by every 15 minutes or so. I sat down on the road for over an hour. 30 minutes later I got impatient as he had been hanging out under a deck next to a house (turns out it was an apartment building). The cog train only comes once an hour so I decided to leave him there while I took the train up to the top of Mount Rigi for the famed view. The walk to the station only took 6 minutes so I was there almost 20 minutes early. Unfortunately due to the return train being delayed it was nearly 2 hours before I got back to Cosmo. He didn’t come when I called so I pulled out his locator. However, there was no signal. My stomach dropped. I walked all around the area, no signal.

I think he must have thought I left him and went in search of me. I retrace our steps to the train station and run into the girl from the boat. She offers to help me look. We hike a kilometer down to the next station. I call out for Cosmo all the way down but get no reply. I figure he must have just wandered a bit far and maybe he is back at the house where I left him so I take the train back up while my friend continues down the hill and takes the boat home.

I am so hopeful that Cosmo has returned and am crushed when he is not there. I go further, 200 yards in every direction except only 100 yards to the left and I can’t go up since I run into private property. We met some grandparents and two grandsons earlier who lived in the house/apartment building who were impressed to see a cat from the USA. I explained what happened and they offer me some wasser (water) or brot (bread) but I’m too stressed to eat. My phone battery is low so I ask if I can charge my phone and they send the boys down to let me in. They are on the top floor of what I thought was a house, but is actually an apartment building. And they have a killer view.

I am at a loss as to what to try next so I try to think like Cosmo and I know he doesn’t have the stamina to go more than ¼ mile uphill so I figure he might have gone downhill back to the boat so I take the train back down and walk ½ mile along the water calling towards the hills for Cosmo, pissing people off with my loud calls before taking the train back up.

It’s nearly 8pm by the time I get back to my new friends and there’s still no sign of Cosmo. The tram and boat I had tickets for have stopped running for the day and it’s getting too late to roam randomly around the mountainside looking so I leave Cosmo’s backpack on the porch with Churu squeezed out inside. My new friends’ son has come home from work and he speaks English. I get his number and he agrees to check in the morning to see if Cosmo has come back to eat it. Then I head for the train down before they stop running for the night. I also decided to post on his Instragram because I figured we could use all the prayers we could get!

On the trip down I look at a map to see just how big the area is where Cosmo might be. It’s big. I also notice several streams coming down and knowing how Cosmo hates water, there’s no way he would come downhill near where I looked before. So when I get down, I walk a few miles along the water calling for him the last 2 miles. At this point it’s getting dark and people are more annoyed at someone yelling “Cosmo” into the hills as loud as possible. Sadly he did not show.

Cosmo: It’s nice to be off leash and get a chance to really explore. I’m almost ready to go back to Ashley but I wanted to check out these steps. There’s a cool wood shed and...a dark colored bully cat! He lets me know this is his territory. I leave quickly but don't want to go right back to Ashley like a chicken, so I explore under the deck of an apartment building. It has so many interesting smells. More than one cat was here! I also locate a cat door. After awhile I hear Ashley calling impatiently but I can't go back now that I’m exploring this door. She sounds like she is leaving for a little bit, but I’m sure she'll bet back in a few minutes like when she uses the bathroom.

Where’s Ashley? it's been a really long time. I don't go inside the cat door, but the smells all around it are so interesting! uh oh. here's the bully cat. Maybe this is his territory too. He chases me up the hill. I run and run. I'm very fast! Where’s Ashley? This is all her fault. if she had come back when she was supposed to none of this would have happened. it's all her fault.

nice view from the apartment building

Ashley: Crisis Tips 101: I feel lucky that for several semesters now I’ve been talking to all my classes about handling math anxiety, which includes what I call “not going down the ‘what-if’ rabbit hole” where you freak yourself out and get nothing done stressing out while wasting valuable time. I consciously refused to think of bad endings and focused on what was in my power to do so that I could find Cosmo. This started with lots of Googling where I discovered that non-scared adventure cats will seek higher ground and I found a website to post a lost notice for the area. Once back at the hotel I kept myself bust focusing on just the next steps I could do: making a missing poster, packing up all our stuff for check out the next day, packing an overnight bag for myself in case I needed to sleep up there a few nights, drying out my wet shoes with the hair dryer, and getting some sleep. Thinking about everything would have been overwhelming. This way I actually got 4 hours of sleep!

The next morning on my way back I called the people in the apartment and left a message. They called back a little later with great news…Cosmo had eaten his treat! I revised my plan to start at the top of the hill and instead went straight to their house where Cosmo showed up on my tracker! It took about 20 minutes to locate him since radio frequency waves bounce around a bit but he was definitely inside the apartment building. Maybe he got in through an open window in the basement and worked his way up? The lady in the apartment wasn’t there. Apparently she was the person I saw going out with some cat food looking for her lost cat. When she returned, she at first said there was no cat inside, then said there was a cat coming through her cat door the last 3 days who scared off her cat. Since we had only been there since yesterday, that must be the bully cat that Cosmo encountered up the hill on the right side when he came tearing back down. I was so relieved to find Cosmo! Though he was so pissed off at me. My poor sweet baby! Next time I will be more patient and simply wait for him to come back.

Cosmo ignoring me on the deck next to the apartment building

beautiful view from Mt. Rigi

Ashley: We arrived in Munich, Germany and walked to the rental car company. Cosmo was very popular there! We got our car which was brand new, having been delivered off the train earlier that day. It’s a VW golf and I can’t get anything on the screen except the AC settings. I plug in my phone hoping that the Android auto will take over but it doesn't. I ease out of the parking lot with several very tight turns conscious of the fact that I do not want to be the first person to put a scratch on this car. we get to the surface and Google maps fails me by telling me to go straight for a block and a half but straight would be directly into a building so that can't be correct! instead I try to sort out the map and figure that I should go right but I'm not trusting Google's directions plus the car is putting various messages up on the screen in German and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Cosmo of course wants to look out the window because that's what he does in the car and I can't take all of that so I grab him and toss him into the backseat. after a couple blocks I give up, pull over and spend some time trying to figure out how to get the car menu up and finally succeed, but now Cosmo is moping and in his backpack and he won't come out

Cosmo: We finally leave the train and get into a car! I know cars, I understand cars, I love cars! I am so happy! I hop into Ashley’s lap and paw at the window to remind her to open it for me. She doesn’t. Instead she grabs me and throws me into the back seat! Me! I’ve been such a good sport and she treats me like unwanted extra luggage. She tried winning me over with a Churu. I ate it of course. There’s no reason to waste one, but afterwards I turned my back on her and walked away.

Ashley: I now know the real reason rental cars have identifying stickers in the back. Yes, it does help renters identify their cars, but it also is equivalent to a sign saying this idiot does not know how to drive here so please be kind or at least beware. Driving in Germany is confusing. I stopped at a red light and pulled to the right side creeping up to make a right turn. Then I started doubting if a right turn on red was legal (it is not BTW without a sign specifically saying you can). On top of that there are actually two different walking Lanes: one for bikes and one for people, but one of them is dotted. When someone honked at me I reconsidered my position and reversed outside of that lane. I turned and saw a motorcycle next to and about 5 feet behind me who must have been the honker. I gave him the okay gesture as a question and he kind of shrugged and did a so so gesture with his hands. I hope they put the rental car stickers on this car because that is equivalent of a sign saying this idiot does not know how to drive here so please be kind or at least beware.

Cosmo: Our first full day we drove into Liechtenstein mostly so Ashley could add another country to her count. We drove up above the castle and found a great wooded path to walk on. For almost a whole blissful hour I had it exactly the way I like it: just forest, no people, no dogs and occasionally something to chase. I like Liechtenstein! The car however is strange. I don’t have enough leash to look out the window or sit on the dashboard. I have just enough to curl up partly in her lap by the console. She said something about German laws, but those insignificant details are beneath me.

walking near the castle in Liechtenstein

Ashley: Our second day was our trip to all the beautiful castles that King Ludwig built. The first and most famous was the Neuschwanstein, the one that Disneyland’s castle was modeled after. We got there early, 7:40am and considered the long 40 minute walk uphill but there was a bus starting at 8am, which seemed like a far quicker option. We first went to Marienbrucke bridge, which has a wonderful view of the castle, then continued past it along a wooded path so Cosmo could have more outdoor time. We got some even nicer pictures from the overlook there before heading back to the castle to see it up close. Since we could not go in (no pets allowed) the view from the bridge was much nicer. However the castle area did have a much needed bathroom and a place to buy souvenirs.

Cosmo overlooking the castle

The amazing Neuschwanstein Castle

“Mad” King Ludwig is associated with 3 castles in the area. The famous one, plus a small cute one down the hill from the first which was his childhood home, and Linderhof Palace with its massive gardens and grounds. We went to Linderhof later in the day and Cosmo had a fine time wandering around the grounds and outside the grounds near the parking lots. In between I tried unsuccessfully to rent a bike to ride around the beautiful lake Forggensee so instead we parked and walked along it for a bit.

Cosmo crashed out in the car on the way home from the castles

Linderhof Castle

beautiful section of Forggensee

How hard is it to ride a bike in Munich? Apparently for me very hard. They have a pretty good bike sharing app as part of the Munich public transportation so I downloaded the MyRadl app and found a station right across the street with some bikes. They even had small baskets in front where I could attach Cosmo so I securely attached him using the bungie cords and after about 5 minutes I felt like I had done a pretty good job. However when I went to scan the bike it was an e-bike and I need a regular bike. Ebikes are too powerful for me. So I switched and looked for a regular bike but the basket was broken. I found another bike where I could access the basket easily (their back wheels are locked so you can't move them until you rent them) but once I got Cosmo hooked up I discover I had messed up and this was also an e-bike! I blame menopause brain fog.

Finally I got him attached to a regular bike and went to scan it to pay, however my payment was declined from Chase even though there was no actual transaction that I could select to approve. I find this happens sometimes especially in other countries when you need a pending authorization or other odd things, for example my covid Visa application for Thailand 4 years ago had to come through AmEx so they could send me a “safe key verification” via text. No problem. It only took me a few minutes to get my AmEx card added and get the safe key verification. Then I discovered that MV-go does not accept American Express payments even though they show the AmEx Logo. I tried calling their helpline but they are not sure what the problem is, though they suggest using the separate Nextbike app so I download that which takes a few more minutes and go to make a an account which requires cell phone text verification. That’s not a problem since I have my Verizon service here with ultimate unlimited but the text never comes. I resend it a couple times and it still doesn't come. I try exiting and reentering. I confirm that I have allowed notifications in the app. I check my blocked and spam texts but it's not there either. Finally I tried calling the helpline and they actually are able to get me an approval code to sign up. From there it actually works pretty well and I'm able to pay with my Google pay. Nearly an hour after I start I was ready to go! Better late than never!

Then comes the biking part. I don't know whether it's because the bike is built for taller people (though I am able to lower the seat the frame is big). Maybe it's because of the different roadways with unfamiliar signs that I'm not used to or maybe it's just because I don't bike very often and I'm not a great biker. I suppose having Cosmo in the front basket with his weight shifting around doesn't help either. but I struggle a bit especially in the beginning. I'm doing my best not to hit other bikers, cars, people, and especially those darn poles that they put out to prevent cars from going into bike and walking paths. Somehow I managed to not hit anything or anyone and we made it to the English Garden area of the park. Thankfully they often have dedicated bike lanes either on the street or sidewalk which was a huge help!

Cosmo: The bike ride was a little harrowing. Ashley sucks at riding a bike! I kept trying to jump out since 1) it would be safer and 2) I haven’t had a walk yet today. Finally we get to the park and it’s super cool! They had ponds with ducks and geese and wooded areas where I could explore only feet away from the crowds on the paved walkways. They never even saw me through the trees! Riding home was much better and I felt safe just sitting and resting my paws on my backpack to look out. Ashley even managed to avoid a toddler on a toy bike that drifted across our lane on the sidewalk.

Ashley: They also have a small but very fast river that runs through the park and at one point it shoots through a chute and comes out fast enough that you can surf on the river, like they do with that wave machine I tried in Phuket! It was super cool watching them surf and try to stay up. Kids lined up on both sides of the river and took turns stepping onto their boards off the bank and cutting back and forth between the banks before wiping out and drifting downstream. A few were quite good and I got some video of that. 100 yard down the river people were jumping in and rapidly floating off down the river (see video of that as well). In Germany kids just walk around in their swimsuits in the summer. I saw several triple buses pull up to the bus stop packed with kids in swimsuits. It’s strange to me because here we put cover ups on over our swimsuits before we leave the beach.

delicious breakfast and Bavarian pretzel at the Holiday inn

Ashley: Salzburg was another amazing little town, very small and walkable like Prague and sort of Budapest (if you don’t count the citadel). I chose to stay at the Sheraton Grand Salzburg because it is right next to the Mirabell Gardens and I thought Cosmo would enjoy walking there. It was also one of my favorite hotels and the easiest to get to, as I literally walked 700 yards from the train station.

On the way here on the train, the lady I met from Hungary said it rains a lot. I asked “Velleicht nicht im sommer?” (Perhaps not in summer?). She replied “Es regnet immer” (It rains always). That was the theme of Salzburg. It rained every single day I was there though never for the entire day. There was sunshine and some blue sky every day as well. The first morning we woke up to rain. The Grand Sheraton Salzburg was also the only hotel I did not have high status with and did not get a free breakfast, so with no motivation to get out of bed, I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Cosmo: We got up in the afternoon and it was sunny and dry outside! We went out for a walk. The garden was right outside our hotel back patio. Ashley was sitting on a bench holding my leash as I explored some bushes when a lady came up and asked “Is that Cosmo the adventure cat?” which took her quite by surprise. Turns out we had met her friend in the elevator and she recognized Ashley from the picture her friend took. Ashley dragged me out of the bushes for a meet a greet. I got Churu so I didn’t mind.

Mozart's forte piano

Ashley: I walked to dinner across the river the first night and had wonderful schnitzel! I also bought a watercolor from a booth with signs saying “100% handpainted, not prints” from a lady in the square for 40 euros. The next day many people were selling much more detailed pictures for much less, like 20 for the same size, however I suspected they were all prints. When I took two similar ones to compare them (prints will be identical), the guy grabbed them out of my hand and told me to go away, when just a few minutes ago he was saying how they were acrylics that he had done himself. As they say, if the price is too good to be true then it’s probably not.

Cosmo: Morning walks around the gardens are nice though Ashley keeps making me take annoying poses with cat statues or near some movies locations. I caught another mouse! Yes, I know I’m great hunter. It was more interesting than the other mice since it put up quite a fight and even charged me once! Then a dog came along and I had to hide from it so the mouse got away. But the important thing is that I caught it in the first place. I also loved going up the mountain where I got to wander the hills a bit while Ashley sang some song to me about the hills being alive with the sound of music. I think Ashley was glad to have a chance to use her warm jacket since it was very cold up there.

Cosmo wandering the mountain where
they shot some of the Sound of Music

Ashley: The free walking tour was a decent overview of the town, but infinitely more helpful was its website with suggestions on places to eat, what to see, and how to use the 24-hour Salzburg card. I also signed up for the much touted Original Sound of Music Tour. I hopped on the bus to discover…it was a singing tour! My stomach dropped. I was told in my 20’s that I’m tone deaf and I have done my best to spare others the pain of hearing me sing. Luckily I did not have to sing alone so I could just sing quietly. It was a lot of fun so I’m glad I didn’t know before or I would have done a different tour.

This one is the “original” and it was super entertaining to hear stories given to them from the original Maria von Trapp and also from the cast of the movie who all seem to work with this company as there are photos with them and even a video from the actress who played Lisle on the 50th anniversary. Did you know that the house where they filmed the outdoor patio scenes were actually two different locations? One was a house (not on the lake) where they shot with the house in the background. The other was between two houses where they built a patio with the lake in the background. So when they shot scenes with one actor having the house behind them and the other having the lake behind, each actor would have to do their lines as if someone was there next to them and then they pieced together the different clips. Two other interesting facts: most Salzburg residents have never seen The Sound of Music and yet 1/3 of their tourists come here because of the movie. Also Edelweiss was not a national song they all know. It was written by Rogers and Hemmerstein for the movie so most Austrians haven’t even heard it!

view of Salzburg from the fortress

When I finally wake up after our late late night arrival, it’s 79 degrees in Budapest today. Yes! Finally a sub 90 degree day.
Budapest is a great city and I had a blast. Nothing super exciting happened so I’ll mostly just show you pictures and videos. I ate a bunch of great Hungarian food: Langos which are homemade bread with butter which is deep fried then usually topped with sour cream and cheese, Goulash here is served as a hearty soup with bread on the side, yum! The restaurant recommended to me by Cosmo’s new friends in Amsterdam had a highly reviewed duck, which was delicious!

I played a little poker at the Mirage Poker Club. It was 100-200 no limit with a 20,000 buy-in but the money is in HUF and since 100 HUF is about 32 cents it was no problem! They had the World Cup games playing on two giant screens in Liberty Square with food and drink vendors, picnic tables, and more seating on the lawn.. I brought my goulash soup to the Canada playoff game and managed to find some grass seating. Unfortunately the game did not go well for Canada.

the scene at the World Cup viewing at Liberty Square

From Liberty Square I decided to hike to the top of the Citadel for a night view of the city. It was 2 miles there and about 2.5 more to my hotel plus an altitude gain of 380 feet. Ouch! Especially since I had already done 4 miles of walking already that day. It was also the 46h of July and they had the main bridge all lit up in red, white, and blue. There were music groups and pop-up food and drink places all along the riverfront. I even found a table by the US Embassy giving out prizes for people taking a quiz about America. They reminded me it’s the 250th ! I can’t believe it’s been 50 years since I churned butter at a Santa Clara County Fair display as an 8 year old Campfire Girl. The trip up was painful but gratifying. Surprisingly several people were making the trek at 10pm on a Saturday night. I tried a way down with less stairs but it took me far away from the other people, which made me nervous so I circled back but not before I ran into not one, but two hedgehogs! Each trundled along mostly oblivious to me.

The other nifty thing was the train ride to Salzburg. First off, I almost flipped out when the couple waiting on the platform said they were going to Vienna. Vienna is cursed! They misunderstood my misgivings thinking I had the wrong train, but I told them of my 6 hour delay with the unusual lightning strike. Luckily it is only an issue traveling to/from Vienna for ME not for others as we had no problems. I also sat across from a wonderful lady who I thought was German since she spoke German. Turns out she is Hungarian but is fluent in German. We had a great conversation about her life and family, my life and Cosmo, and things to do in Salzburg where she has family. She was very patient with my broken German and it felt great to finally live up to my HS German teacher's goal that if we were dropped in Germany we could get by.

View of Budapest at night from the citadel

Ashley: The first day arriving in Vienna I was such a melted puddle that Cosmo and I sought refuge in our semi-cold room (oddly the hallways were nice and cool) and just recovered from the heat. My friend Val’s husband Harald is from Austria so I hit them up for suggestions. We did almost all of them the next evening, and the last on our last morning.

Cosmo: we're going out in the evening again!? I hate that it never is fun for me. First off it's hot and I'm usually poked and petted by strangers. The first place we stopped at I actually nipped at the first stranger since she was a little quick to reach into my bag. That stopped her! Ashley let me out to walk around a little bit which wasn't too bad but it was far too short. We should just go home. home home home. Then we took the tram to a very loud area that was annoying. I did let the nice young man at the Hard Rock store pet me since he was very quiet and gentle and clearly loved cats, but then some wanker from the UK tried to put his cigarette butt on me pretending to pet me. I wisely let him know I wanted nothing to do with him so instead he dropped the butt on the outside of my backpack which Ashley had to deal with later. See Ashley, strangers are bad!

Her friend Valerie had suggested she tried the fresh bread and some schnitzel and since this was her only meal out in Vienna she got a brioche bun schnitzel Burger which she seemed to enjoy immensely. We sat by this large church called Saint Stephen's as she ate. However, there are way too many people for me to get out and walk around. She gave me a small amount of treat to try to make up for it but it was far too little too late. I thought we would be done at this point but then she drags me to a park and won't let me walk around too much before she takes me into this huge ferris wheel. At first it was interesting and I got to look out of the window as we got higher in higher higher: as tall as the trees and then taller. That was too high and I had to struggle with her a little bit to make her realize that I did NOT want to be anywhere near the window. After that I finally got a nice walk in the park though it was far too short, definitely less than an hour.

giant Ferris wheel in Prater, the Wiener Riesenrad

Ashley: We started out in the evening. I had a great talk with an older woman on the subway who liked my “gross” cat. Gross is German for large. I got to try out my rusty German and answered her questions about his weight and age, expressed my sorrow and that her cat had died but was 14 which is a good life! I'm a little unsure how many cats she had because I originally thought she had four but maybe she was saying hers was 14. Anyways it was also very lucky I ran into her, because I was totally lost finding my connection from the underground Subway to the upper ground tram and she stopped me when I started going the wrong way.

The hundertwasserhaus (not named because of 100 waters but the artist who designed it is named Hundertwasser) was our first stop. It is brightly painted with tons of mosaic tiles and crazy contours and uneven floors (see pics). Cosmo covered the rest of the night pretty well. The giant ferris wheel in Prater park is about 65 meters (212 feet) high and was built in 1897! Early the next morning, before there were a lot of people or heat, we went to our last stop, Stadtpark. Here Cosmo got to explore and finally find things to catch! First one mouse, and then another! He was much happier after that.

Hundertwasserhaus

When we got to Budapest I tried to find parks known to have rats, but unfortunately anything that is googleable about having rats has been taken care of, so we spent a great deal of time and effort going to parks that had little black rodent killing boxes and no more rats. After Budapest was Salzburg and our second to last day, he also caught a mouse, racing to grab it before it could safely get inside an open tree trunk. He played with it awhile, but Salzburg mice unlike Viennese mice fight back. This delayed Cosmo a bit until…Cosmo froze and stared to the right. A dog was coming along the path. The hunter became the hunted. Cosmo slinked away and the feisty mouse lived to tell the tale!

Cosmo: I am fast! I am the hunter! Hear me roar! Unless there's a dog around. Then I'm quiet as a mouse.