I rm'd the sym link and put that (exactly) along with
order deny, allow deny from all allow from all
I still cannot get in. Is this an Apache issue? (I suppose that I don't understand how these directory definitions work very well)
yes, it is an apache issue.
try adding this (inside the <directory> block, after the other stuff)
<Limit GET POST OPTIONS> Order allow,deny Allow from all </Limit>
now, if you get a list of the files in the folder, you need to determine what the default document is supposed to be (probably something like index.php ?) and add a
DirectoryIndex index.php
to the <Directory> block...