At breakfast, writing some notes. The people in this area (Reutte/Tirol) are very friendly. I've never been anywhere in the world where surly teenagers working at convenience stores were likely to smile and say hello while serving you. The men are generally pretty handsome, and teenage boys on bicycles are likely to smile at you as they ride by. A teenage boy with his hair dyed red giggled and smiled at me as he walked by me on the main street of Reutte yesterday, and then ducked into a cafe to join his friends.

Our pension (Pension Waldrast just outside of Reutte) has a big friendly and slow-moving dog named Bari. We have a view of two different castle ruins from the balcony of our suite, for all of $55/night.

Another table at breakfast was a group of Americans, who seemed to be veterinarians. They happily talked about things like delivering calves and difficult births as they ate breakfast. I was impressed when all four of them got into a Ford Ka to go somewhere.