Riding with Willi in his BMW

Like I mentioned in an earlier blog, Willi often took me for a ride in his BMW on weekends, sometimes the trip lasted from morning until early evening. It was a fantastic time, an opportunity to see parts of Southern Germany I would never see again. It gave me a chance to take some beautiful pictures.

On more than a few occasions, we stopped and walked around some of the small places for a while. Willi took me for rides throughout Southern Germany and even over the border into Austria. That I remember, because I had to show my passport.

Some of the small cities we stopped in had interesting things to photograph. The one below had a small stream that flowed through the center of the town.




























And then as in the pictures below, there was this beautiful mountain lake fed by melting water from a glacier. The water was a deep green color, and it was icy cold--colder than anything I have ever seen. That day we could see a windsurfer on the opposite end. I could not imagine someone on a board on that lake, and I once tried water skiing down the river into Island Park Reservoir on a Fourth of July weekend when an unexpected snowstorm dropped four inches of snow on the ground. I wore cutoff Levi shorts, and we were silly enough not to know why I was so exhausted and needed so much help to get me back into the boat. I refused to give up until my dad forced me back into the boat. Ann was glad when I gave up trying. The mountain lake in Southern Germany was colder than that day water skiing.

I will never forget the color of the water, a deep green color that was lighter than a forest green and darker than jade.