They took advantage of the surrounding mountains and Alpine atmosphere and modeled the town after a Bavarian village to encourage tourism. They planned festivals throughout the year and remodeled all the buildings to resemble Bavaria.
They did a pretty good job, the buildings looked very similar to some I saw during my visit in Alsace Lorraine a few years ago.Naturally, as in all tourist towns, there was SHOPPING! I was very good though. We visited a shop that specialized in Nutcrackers. I've been collecting them for a few years now, but I've never seen such an assortment. There was a whole wall of them. I was in heaven, until I saw the prices. They were very expensive, much too rich for me. They must have been either imported or hand carved.
They also had some Hummels which I used to collect, but stopped when I bought my favorite, "Blessed Event".
On the way back, we stopped in a 50's style diner. They had all kinds of old pictures and a TV that was showing "The Cisco Kid". That really brought back some memories.
It was a wonderful day. The scenery along the way was magnificant. There was a lot of snow along the road in some places. Later in the week they had more snow and they did some avalanche control.
I just wish they'd change the name. All I could think of was Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas and a federal prison.
