Here are a ton of notes but sorry no pictures yet...there are about 25 I will be putting up later but we have to kinda rush and get checked out of our hotel in Salzburg right now.
5.5.08
Today started out to be a bad Monday but turned in to THE BEST AND LONGEST Monday I've EVER had. *Warning this is a long post ;)
This was our only day in Garmisch and was meant to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle "just outside" the city. We were told it was only 20 minutes away by bus but this morning we found out it takes 2 hours each way. This presented a problem because we were supposed to leave this evening for Salzburg Austria and that didn't allow enough time. Riding the bus to the castle, exploring it, and and riding the bus back would have put us in too late to catch the train. It wasn't looking like we couldn't do it. I wanted to see the castle but was prepared to except not seeing it. Brooke really really wanted to see it, and pushed for an alternative. I'm glad she did too! So what did we do?
Yep, we rented a car in Germany! We had to talk it over and weigh it out for about 10 minutes, but decided to go for it. The plan was to drive east to Fussen where the castle is, explore for a couple of hours, then drive back west all the way into Salzburg where we would turn the car in the next morning.
I have never driven outside of the USA but have always dreamed of driving on the AUTOBAHN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was everything I dreamed it to be, and to my amazement all the rental company asked for was my passport and my driver's license. We got a French made Peugeot 207cc (convertible!), that is not sold in the States. So cool. We packed that little car to the brim with luggage, even with things IN the floor boards behind our seats.
Without any research or training on what the road signs mean, we ventured off. It took us about 30 minutes of wrong turns before we got out of Garmisch and pointed the right direction. As it turned out we started on correct roads the first try, but doubted ourselves and made a few u-turns. It really didn't take that long to get acquainted with the road signs and flow of traffic. Signs are much smaller here so you have to really pay attention. The stop lights are neat too. When you are at a red light, it goes to yellow, then to green giving you a chance to be rolling when it turns green. For me it's kind of like a drag strip starting line with multiple lights going off before the green. Also the green lights start to blink when they are about to go yellow, then to red again.!
The roads here are everything I could've asked for. They are smooth and winding. People are MUCH more educated on how to drive (to get an actual license here you have to pass a test that is so much harder). In Texas, the computer you take the test on just SHUTS OFF when you get a "sufficient" amount of the test correct.....horrible standard. On top of that, people here in Europe treat driving with a greater respect and awareness. You don't see idiots on cell phones or bimbo soccer moms in suburbans doing their make-up. I'm sure it's against the law to do so, but people actually follow the law on the road here.
Once we got out of Garmisch we drove through the countryside of southern Germany and parts of northern Austria. At this point we weren't on the "Autobahn" (which literally just means highway), we were on small country roads with speed limits.
The drive was fantastic and without doubt the coolest place I have ever driven. We wound through little German villages where there are no tourist, just real German life. We made it into Fussen, were the castle is, without a hitch thanks to Brooke navigating with the little map the rental place gave us. For lunch we HAD to have traditional German food after the Asian dinner the night before. We both had bratwurst, potatoes, and beer for lunch at a German cafe in Fussen. It was really really good too! MUCH better than anything we had in Switzerland.
The castle is up on the side of a mountain available either by horse carriage or by a 40 minute hike on foot. For some reason we decided to hike it.....We made it but about collapsed at the top :) This castle was the inspiration for the castle in Disneyworld but SO much more impressive being in the Alps rather than Florida. Everybody has to join a tour with a group of people and a guide to get in the castle, costing around 8 euro each. The guide we had is very hard to describe to do him justice.....
Picture a very thin and boney person, with a blonde boyish haircut, hollow eyes, stood feet together and a little hunched over. We walked up TOTALLY thinking it was a woman with a bad haircut and posture.... We were greeted with high pitched, " Haallow" in a thick German accent. Not until the tour actually started did we see his name tag......Benjamin and realize it was a guy. I was in disbelief.
Benjamin had really funny mannerisms. Slowly turning his head to the right, closing his eyes while bringing one hand close to his mouth point toward the ceiling - just like he always did before speaking - and said, " Now, ve vill start zee tour". I bit my lip to fight laughter and just looked down. Benjamin never turned his head, only his entire body when he went left or right with that hand close to his mound pointed at the ceiling. He was the strangest, nerdiest, little German guy ever and it was perfect for a tour of a castle haha! We were not the only ones fighting laughter. I noticed several others, so I don't feel so bad.
The hike down was much easier and when we got to the car, we decided to put the top down for the cruise to Salzburg because it was a gorgeous day. This is when I found the best driving roads. We headed back west but further north of Garmisch this time, into more country roads. It was the most picturesque, smooth, winding roads. The only thing I could have asked for was say, a Porsche 911 without 200 lbs of luggage haha! But hey, can I really complain? No. I even called home to rub in the fact that I was spending my Monday driving through the Alps in a convertible and they weren't. I just had to do it.
I pulled over and re-taught Brooke how to drive a standard transmission because my next car will probably be a smaller standard trans car, plus she has been wanting to re-learn anyways. She has it on her mind I'm going going to let her drive my future sports cars........Her performance gave me hope. She did pretty well!
Then it was back on the open road with the top down. We eventually hit a major highway, the Autobahn!!!!!! One of my fantasies was coming true. As soon as I drove onto the on-ramp, cars were BLOWING by me at well over 100 mph.....so I nailed it, rowing through the gears!
People on the Autobahn are very aware and always move to the right lane unless they are passing. It is strictly forbidden to pass on the right. This makes high speeds much safer. I was cruising at 150 kph(93 mph) - 190 kph(118 mph ). I WAS FREQUENTLY GETTING PASSED AT THESE SPEEDS < COOL ! I did have the top up and the car would not have gone much, if any faster than about 195 kph. It was such a small car it felt alot faster than 118 mph....Brooke never got freaked out either. We can thank Adolf Hitler for the Autobahn, he was the one who pushed for the completion of it. There really aren't speed limits, only suggestions.
Getting into Salzburg Austria was not too hard at all. We did have a problem with out hotel room. It smelled like total vomit, it was gross! It was also on the 3rd floor and there is no elevator. Brooke was NOT thrilled about smell. I was so tired and happy from the drive I didn't care. The guy that showed us to the room left to check if there was another room but never came back! I later called the front desk and he said he checked and there wasn't another room open. Then he told me to go park my car......nice..... We used their parking garage, aired out the room best we could and went to sleep.
It didn't ruin my day, it was the best Monday ever! I did a total of 6 awesome hours of driving in Europe today........I WILL be back to the Autobahn.
5.4.08
This was the 8 hr train ride day I briefly described from my phone on the train. We traveled from Interlaken to Garmisch Germany. That post from my phone was towards the beginning of the train trip, so I was pretty happy-go-lucky about it....
At about the 5-6th hour ,when we got on a low-end local train that had an air-conditioner that barely worked, with locked windows , and was packed, that when the trip started to DRAG. The 2 little screaming babies didn't help either. We had a little stretch there of bad luck with crying babies on the trains.
We switched trains in Basel, Olm(this was the bad train), Munich, then to Garmisch.
Checked into our little German hotel where the staff wears traditional German clothing and were very nice.
Wandered in the dark to find some German food......accidentally ended up in an Asian/eccletic restaurant! It was actually good though.
5.3.08
Took an hour and a half train to the highest railway in Europe, the Jungfroughjoch at 11,782 feet.
We rode through Wengen, a very cool little village at the top of the cliffs looking over down over Lauterbrunnen Valley. We tried to stay their but most hotels were closed because its the low season.
The train ride up was miserable. There were a ton of a certain race of people that all desperately needed to take a shower and buy deodorant. They would't let us open the window, it was DISGUSTINGLY over powering. Again, there were screaming babies on this train ride too.
We gazed at the mountains and glaciers on top of the Jungfroughjoch center who guarantees snow year round at their station. It was kinda hazy but still had incredible views! We then came back through Grindelwald and look around a bit and went back to Interlaken.
We made the mistake of going into a Swiss chocolate store when we were hungry.....we bought like 4 pounds of chocolate! It made from a little shop outside of Zurich they aren't a reseller of the big name brands like Lindt Chocolate. It's amazing stuff!
Side note: we were on the top floor our hotel and there was something strange going on down the hallway...... There were 50 or so boxes with Arabic writing all over them outside of the rooms, with gaurds 24/7, with walkie talkies (and probably guns) watching over them. It was really strange, who knows.
5.2.08
Got up late, walked around Interlaken for a while. Relaxed, quite town with great views!
Went to a tiny town called Lauterbrunnen about 30 minutes away. It's at the bottom of an enormous valley that has water falls coming down the sides! Stopped at a local pub for a coke. sat outside with the sad pub dog.
Had dinner in one of our hotel's resteraunts, that is traditional Swiss cuisine. I had some kind veal dish and brooke had fish that had the "green fairy" in it....ABSINTHE haha. We have never had that so I'm not sure you could even taste it i the food. This was the only Swiss meal we liked, but not loved. I am not impressed with Swiss food. They are surrounded by countries with great food and what they have come up with pales in comparison. Sorry.
5.1.08
This morning we went inside the duomo in Milan, it has a very gothic style which wasn't characteristic of the time it was built. Being gothic, it was really dark inside and kinda erie, but thats what made it interesting.
There was a May Day rally going on in the square in front of the duomo with some political leader speaking,religious groups celebrating and putting on demonstrations.
We headed out to Interlaken Switzerland after that. Swiss trains are really nice, I think they are newer. We ended up talking to 2 american guys on the train and that was nice to talk to someone who speaks english. They are covering more countries in a shorter amount of time that us, in 3 weeks, not staying in one place more than 1 or 2 nights in hostels.
After train switches in Brig and Speiz, we made it into Switzerland and got to our hotel just fine. We splurged a little on this hotel, it's super nice. It's called the Victoria Jungfrau, a 5 star hotel. Brooke actually found a half price deal online, so it was the price of a nice 3 star.
That evening we walked around town and looked for a Swiss restaurant to eat at. We found one and asked waitress for the best Swiss meal and she recommended the Cheese Fondue. He had noticed the putrid smell of what seemed like stinky feet when we walked in........well as it turns out that's the cheese fondue. She set it down in front of us, we dipped out bread in, and tried it.......VERY bitter! It was no good at all. Brooke took like 3 bites, but I kept eating because I felt bad leaving it. I mean I asked the lady for thier best and everything. So slang for that meal is the stinky cheese fondue.
Others couples came in after us, saw the fondue on our table and ordered it. We watched the grimaces on their faces when they tried it the first time. We laughed about it ;)
So we went back to the hotel and ordered room service. We had a club sandwich haha!
