longest travelogue EVER
Well, I've spent a lot of time covering what was, essentially, the first two days of a week-long trip thus far. So now I shall cram the entire rest of the trip into this one post, and then we can move on to business as usual: No posts for months at a time. ;-)
So, we left Scuol and drove into Austria (actually, we sorta went in and out of Austria/Switzerland/Germany quite a bit, so I'm sure we hit them all the next day). We drove through the lovely Tyrolean Alps and wended our way to Innsbruck, Austria, where we found their Herbstmesse going on. So we went and had a look around -- and I bought a waiter wallet in bright blue (heh) and a bunch of table linens (shocker). We all had a sausage and then called it good. Our headlight had burned out at some point, so Scott found a Subaru dealer at the Messe and got the directions to their dealership. We drove there, they had us drive straight into the service bay, they changed the light, tested it, were extremely friendly, and charged us only like 14 Euro for the whole thing. Scott was quite pleased.
On the road again, we were headed for Berchtesgaden, Germany. It was really pretty there -- below is a view on our way there:
Pretty, huh? It really was. And then we got to Berchtesgaden and found our little holiday apartment. It was all quite lovely and we went and found a restaurant for dinner, and then it started raining. So by the next day, this is what it looked like:
Now, I believe that, somewhere on top of that mountain (or another mountain that looked just like it) is the in/famous Eagle's Nest, which was built as a 50th-birthday president for Ad*lf Hitl*r. Jeff had really wanted to go up there, but with the crappy weather, it turned out to not really be worth it. So we hit the road to Salzburg.
Our first stop: Hangar 7, Red Bull's showcase for art and airplanes, as well as Formula One cars, and fast motorcycles, etc. It's a really beautiful building (and it is a hangar -- it's at the Salzburg airport) and was worth the trip to see it. Scott was in Boy Heaven, he's a fan of the kinds of air races they sponsor -- as well as the less-elegant Flugtag events. Here's one picture from inside the hangar itself -- and if you're interested, there are plenty more where this came from:
After Hangar 7 (and I think Jen's favorite part there was the bathrooms -- which were singularly lovely, I must say), we went into Salzburg and checked into our darling little hotel, called the Trumer Stube. It was in a very quiet, VERY small little side street. Here's a picture of it, featuring Jen standing in front:
We got to Salzburg in time to have a really good lunch at a great old place called Alter Fuchs (old fox), and the food was delicious. Then we walked all over town... Here's a picture of the famous hilltop fortress from a square in the center of town, which had this interesting sculpture in the foreground:
To prove definitively that we were in fact in Europe, I post the obligatory cathedral picture -- from the main cathedral in the old town:
Jeff decided to go up to the fortress, so meanwhile we went on a horse-drawn carriage ride around Salzburg, just like a good tourist really ought to. We of course took the dogs, too:
I didn't really get any good shots from the ride, so I decided I liked seeing my dogs in the carriage enough to post them instead. :-)
The next day, we got up and did a bit of sight-seeing before getting back in the car for the next leg of our trip. We went over to the Mirabell Palace and Gardens and had a look. Just to get it out of the way, we obliged by posing for a picture with our faces actually in it, just near the entrance to the gardens:
I look all bundled up and Scott's in short sleeves. Hmm, was it cold or not? I think it was...
Here are some other views in the gardens -- first, a large sculpture with a view over the section near the palace, and then a statue of a dwarf from the dwarf garden. An entire section of the Gardens is devoted to the dwarves who served there, and there are at least 20 sculptures of them.
On our way out of the park, I saw this touristy travesty and had to laugh...and take a picture:
Nice.
Right, then we -- what else? -- got on the road again. We were on the way, roughly, to Germany. But Scott planned in a side trip to see Herrenchiemsee, one of Ludwig II's palaces. It's on a small island in a small lake, so we took a boat out there. Here's my picture of the outside, which looks like Versailles, because, among other oddities, ole Ludwig had an ardent love of all things French:
We took a tour through the palace and it was pretty amazing. The construction of it was never completed, so there are only a few rooms to see -- but they're dripping with gold leaf and velvet and gigantic crystal chandeliers. We missed the English tour, so we toured in German and did just fine. Dogs weren't allowed, so Scott took them on a very long walk around most of the island. I am sure he enjoyed that more than a palace tour in German. :-)
Then, we were off to Munich. Now, we spent two days there, but I didn't really take any pictures. I'm not sure why -- except that we already have a lot of pictures of Munich. We had a great time, ate yummy food, touristed about, and went on a double-decker tourist bus (kind of a tradition of ours -- we do it in every city), where I shot this picture of the Friedensengel as we went by:
Jeff also took a day trip out to Dachau and had a tour, but Scott, Jen and I decided not to go, so we touristed about without him for most of that day.
After our two days in Munich were over, we began our journey home. But, as Scott was the travel agent, we had some great detours. First, we went to the Linderhof, another of Ludwig II's palaces. It was by far the most pretty, in my opinion. The setting was just beautiful and the castle itself quite small by Ludwig's standards -- apparently, it was one of his favorite places too. Here is a view of it from the side:
And here's a view up the hill behind it, with a cool fountain:
Up that hill, there is also a man-made cave called the Venus Grotto. I didn't get very good photos of it, but here's a picture of the main part of the cave...which kinda looks kinda cheesy when you see it in real life as well, so it's not just the photography:
I kept wondering if Ludwig liked little boys or something. :-o
Anyhoo...the Linderhof is located just a few kilometers from Oberammergau, home of the world-famous Passion Play. So we drove through there just to have a look -- it's a very cute town right now, but in 2010 it will be thronged with thousands and thousands of people. We couldn't begin to see where they'd all find a place to stand or stay, but I guess they manage.
Our next stop on the way home, after driving for a bit along the Romantic Road, we went and saw the most iconic of Ludwig's castles, Neuschwanstein. This is the castle that Disney supposedly modeled his after. Now, here's my photo of it:
Great picture, huh? The fog really ruined the view. Hmph. So here's what the castle is SUPPOSED to look like:
Pretty cool, no? And on top of a very high hill that takes nearly an hour to hike up to, so we opted not to. And then got in the car and began to head home. On the way, we had to go through Liechtenstein -- because, after all, how often do you get a chance to go to the only other country in the world that uses Swiss Francs as the currency?? We had planned to drive into Vaduz and get our passports stamped with a Liechtenstein stamp in their customs office (apparently one of their great tourist destinations LOL), but we were too tired. So instead we stopped at a Burger King in Switzerland, then drove the rest of the way home.
We had a great time!! Scott, you are the best travel planner EVER. Thanks for a really fun trip. And thanks, Jen and Jeff, for coming to visit us and going on the trip with us. :-)
So, we left Scuol and drove into Austria (actually, we sorta went in and out of Austria/Switzerland/Germany quite a bit, so I'm sure we hit them all the next day). We drove through the lovely Tyrolean Alps and wended our way to Innsbruck, Austria, where we found their Herbstmesse going on. So we went and had a look around -- and I bought a waiter wallet in bright blue (heh) and a bunch of table linens (shocker). We all had a sausage and then called it good. Our headlight had burned out at some point, so Scott found a Subaru dealer at the Messe and got the directions to their dealership. We drove there, they had us drive straight into the service bay, they changed the light, tested it, were extremely friendly, and charged us only like 14 Euro for the whole thing. Scott was quite pleased.
On the road again, we were headed for Berchtesgaden, Germany. It was really pretty there -- below is a view on our way there:
Pretty, huh? It really was. And then we got to Berchtesgaden and found our little holiday apartment. It was all quite lovely and we went and found a restaurant for dinner, and then it started raining. So by the next day, this is what it looked like:
Now, I believe that, somewhere on top of that mountain (or another mountain that looked just like it) is the in/famous Eagle's Nest, which was built as a 50th-birthday president for Ad*lf Hitl*r. Jeff had really wanted to go up there, but with the crappy weather, it turned out to not really be worth it. So we hit the road to Salzburg.
Our first stop: Hangar 7, Red Bull's showcase for art and airplanes, as well as Formula One cars, and fast motorcycles, etc. It's a really beautiful building (and it is a hangar -- it's at the Salzburg airport) and was worth the trip to see it. Scott was in Boy Heaven, he's a fan of the kinds of air races they sponsor -- as well as the less-elegant Flugtag events. Here's one picture from inside the hangar itself -- and if you're interested, there are plenty more where this came from:
After Hangar 7 (and I think Jen's favorite part there was the bathrooms -- which were singularly lovely, I must say), we went into Salzburg and checked into our darling little hotel, called the Trumer Stube. It was in a very quiet, VERY small little side street. Here's a picture of it, featuring Jen standing in front:
We got to Salzburg in time to have a really good lunch at a great old place called Alter Fuchs (old fox), and the food was delicious. Then we walked all over town... Here's a picture of the famous hilltop fortress from a square in the center of town, which had this interesting sculpture in the foreground:
To prove definitively that we were in fact in Europe, I post the obligatory cathedral picture -- from the main cathedral in the old town:
Jeff decided to go up to the fortress, so meanwhile we went on a horse-drawn carriage ride around Salzburg, just like a good tourist really ought to. We of course took the dogs, too:
I didn't really get any good shots from the ride, so I decided I liked seeing my dogs in the carriage enough to post them instead. :-)
The next day, we got up and did a bit of sight-seeing before getting back in the car for the next leg of our trip. We went over to the Mirabell Palace and Gardens and had a look. Just to get it out of the way, we obliged by posing for a picture with our faces actually in it, just near the entrance to the gardens:
I look all bundled up and Scott's in short sleeves. Hmm, was it cold or not? I think it was...
Here are some other views in the gardens -- first, a large sculpture with a view over the section near the palace, and then a statue of a dwarf from the dwarf garden. An entire section of the Gardens is devoted to the dwarves who served there, and there are at least 20 sculptures of them.
On our way out of the park, I saw this touristy travesty and had to laugh...and take a picture:
Nice.
Right, then we -- what else? -- got on the road again. We were on the way, roughly, to Germany. But Scott planned in a side trip to see Herrenchiemsee, one of Ludwig II's palaces. It's on a small island in a small lake, so we took a boat out there. Here's my picture of the outside, which looks like Versailles, because, among other oddities, ole Ludwig had an ardent love of all things French:
We took a tour through the palace and it was pretty amazing. The construction of it was never completed, so there are only a few rooms to see -- but they're dripping with gold leaf and velvet and gigantic crystal chandeliers. We missed the English tour, so we toured in German and did just fine. Dogs weren't allowed, so Scott took them on a very long walk around most of the island. I am sure he enjoyed that more than a palace tour in German. :-)
Then, we were off to Munich. Now, we spent two days there, but I didn't really take any pictures. I'm not sure why -- except that we already have a lot of pictures of Munich. We had a great time, ate yummy food, touristed about, and went on a double-decker tourist bus (kind of a tradition of ours -- we do it in every city), where I shot this picture of the Friedensengel as we went by:
Jeff also took a day trip out to Dachau and had a tour, but Scott, Jen and I decided not to go, so we touristed about without him for most of that day.
After our two days in Munich were over, we began our journey home. But, as Scott was the travel agent, we had some great detours. First, we went to the Linderhof, another of Ludwig II's palaces. It was by far the most pretty, in my opinion. The setting was just beautiful and the castle itself quite small by Ludwig's standards -- apparently, it was one of his favorite places too. Here is a view of it from the side:
And here's a view up the hill behind it, with a cool fountain:
Up that hill, there is also a man-made cave called the Venus Grotto. I didn't get very good photos of it, but here's a picture of the main part of the cave...which kinda looks kinda cheesy when you see it in real life as well, so it's not just the photography:
I kept wondering if Ludwig liked little boys or something. :-o
Anyhoo...the Linderhof is located just a few kilometers from Oberammergau, home of the world-famous Passion Play. So we drove through there just to have a look -- it's a very cute town right now, but in 2010 it will be thronged with thousands and thousands of people. We couldn't begin to see where they'd all find a place to stand or stay, but I guess they manage.
Our next stop on the way home, after driving for a bit along the Romantic Road, we went and saw the most iconic of Ludwig's castles, Neuschwanstein. This is the castle that Disney supposedly modeled his after. Now, here's my photo of it:
Great picture, huh? The fog really ruined the view. Hmph. So here's what the castle is SUPPOSED to look like:
Pretty cool, no? And on top of a very high hill that takes nearly an hour to hike up to, so we opted not to. And then got in the car and began to head home. On the way, we had to go through Liechtenstein -- because, after all, how often do you get a chance to go to the only other country in the world that uses Swiss Francs as the currency?? We had planned to drive into Vaduz and get our passports stamped with a Liechtenstein stamp in their customs office (apparently one of their great tourist destinations LOL), but we were too tired. So instead we stopped at a Burger King in Switzerland, then drove the rest of the way home.
We had a great time!! Scott, you are the best travel planner EVER. Thanks for a really fun trip. And thanks, Jen and Jeff, for coming to visit us and going on the trip with us. :-)
posted by Swizzies at 19:56
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