The train from Munich to Innsbruck is 2 hours, and the clouds we encountered at the castles followed us to Innsbruck. It’s a weird feeling knowing you are surrounded by mountains, but not being able to see any of them!

But once we got to Innsbruck, I fell in love with it.

As much as I was charmed with Munich, I was completely blown away by Austria and the Alps.

It’s the home of Swarovski!

There’s so much history and interesting architecture and art.

Mozart lived here (I think)!

But Innsbruck was a special trip for me for another reason.

Herbert Fettner is distant, distant relative (I don’t even know how we are related), from the line of my family that immigrated to South Carolina in the 1700s (this information may only be 40% accurate, but I think this is the story anyway). When tracing our family history, my grandparents found him and visited him many times, and he visited them in America.

Herbert and my grandparents.
He gave me this picture when we met. I think he was about my age when he first met my grandparents, and they were around his age now.

I contacted Herbert when I moved to Germany and we have written emails back and forth over the last few months. I decided it would be an easy trip from Munich and we planned to meet each other.

He picked me and Kristen up from the train station and drove us around town the whole day, paying for our meals, drinks, and entry into various museums. I was floored by his generosity.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was when he asked if we wanted to go “upstairs”–up one of the mountains. The further up the mountain we got, the cloudier it got…so visibility was only a few feet. When we reached the top, I had to towel the sweat off my palms.

We arrived at a restaurant in the clouds.

As we approached the gate, a head popped up. Llamas!! What?!?

We went in and had some traditional (read: heavy) Austrian food and talked. And sat. And waited for the clouds to clear. And waited. He was sure the clouds would go away.

Finally, the clouds began to clear.

The view was spectacular!

Me and Herbert

Me and Kristen

After our afternoon on the Alps, we headed back down to the town of Hall, a gorgeous little mountain town.

Then we headed back to Innsbruck and explored more of the town, and had some beer in a bar that overlooked the town.

Even though I had never met Herbert before, I felt a connection to him that I can’t describe. I think meeting him helped ease a sense of homesickness and missing my own family that I hadn’t realized I had. Although we communicated in broken English and German, we still understood each other and had an amazing day.

I will definitely go back to this amazing town and visit with Herbert (and meet the rest of his family) very soon!

Now, I have to tame this wanderlust I have acquired for the Alps. Switzerland, anyone?