Bad Gastein, Austria

After very little sleep working on a proposal, I hung out with the family on Saturday until my flight at 4:45 then flew to Frankfurt, Germany, 2 hr layover then took another quick flight to end in Munich. Killed 3 hrs in the airport walking around and then figured out the train system to employ my pre-purchased ticket to Bad Gastein, Austria. 3 trains, a taxi and 5 more hours later, I arrived at my hotel just in time for the start of my conference.

I checked in to the hotel, and was asked if I wanted dinner included with my stay (+24Euros/day). Since I hadn't eaten all day other than a clif bar, I tried to explain to her that I was vegan and hoped they had food I could eat, and she recommended the a la carte menu. I asked several times what that means since there are no prices on the food, and still don't know if I'm being charged $31/day for dinner or not. I got a miniature little salad and a smoked tofu dish that were very cute, but very small. Beer was good though!

Attended the opening talk and headed back to my room to finally sleep. I slept like a brick and could barely peel my eyes open at 7:30 to start preparing for my talk. Talk went very well and we ended the morning session and have a break before tonight's session, so I went out to explore the area.
I found a trail right outside the hotel that heads up a stream. Encouraged, I followed it.

It headed steeply up and up

 Cascaded wasserfallkeg

 I tried out photosynth at this turn in the trail. Captured the whole scene pretty well
Does this next photo count as blue sky? That's about as much sky as I've seen in 2 days. I was pretty excited. However the photos do not do the peaks justice. It's so gray you can hardly tell the amazing glaciated Alps in the background.

 I ran to the next town over and entered this national park with a nice snowy road, pretty perfect for running.

 Giant picture frame...

 Pretty awesome Icy cliff.

 Back into town (Bad Gastein)

 My Neighbor is gonna be pretty jealous of this setup.

Garmin Data: 8.84 mi in a little over 2 hrs (took a whole bunch of pictures and walked around town quite a bit). http://connect.garmin.com/activity/157300893