Quick Update
There are 2 new galleries available for your viewing pleasure on the right there... go on click them, you know you want to :)
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Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Saturday, October 14, 2006
The Rest Of Our Trip..... It's Ma-hoo-sive!!
Sunday 17
Well I think that today I learnt that 1 day is not enough for to gain a taste for Vienna. It is a much bigger city than the other’s we have visited so far, and I think that that makes the ‘jewels’ harder to find. It is not that they are more spread out, but I think perhaps that there are a lot more of them and therefore it makes narrowing down what is important more difficult.
Also I found it strange that for such a big city, some might call it a European hub, it runs on Perth time. That’s right, all the shops closed at 6 on the Saturday night and some did not open on the Sunday at all!!!
We started at Stephensdom, or St Stephens cathedral. A big gothic structure in the very centre of town. It was surprisingly still open for tourists, I say surprisingly because it was Sunday morning and mass was in session. They just separated the riff raff from the church goers with zoo like bars, we didn’t stay long, I felt a little uncomfortable that we were intruding on somebodies quiet time.
From there we walked to Hofburg, no not a dodgy shrine to David Hasselhof, but the imperial palace of Vienna. Enormous, with plenty of nooks and crannies, we didn’t stop here for any of the museums or galleries, instead after a quick stroll through the museum quarter we took a tram out to a museum called Oberes Belvedere, a beautiful building with lovely lovely gardens – however like most of the other places in Vienna it was being renovated, so unfortunately you wont see much in our photos other than scaffolding. The museum/gallery was excellent and we left feeling very enlightened. Housing one of the biggest collections of Gustav Klimt (including Judith and The Kiss), it also had a large display of Egon Schiele’s work. [Don’t know who these people are, neither did we until a few days ago, apparently very famous impressionists :); Kilmts painting The Kiss is the most expensive to ever be bought/sold]
I think what we really liked about this gallery was the size. It only had 2 levels, and was completely doable in a couple of hours, so leaving it we actually felt cultured and that we had had the time to appreciate the works before us.
From there we headed to the City Cemetery, where we visited the tombs of Beethoven, Strauss, Brahms and Schubert. There was also a memorial here for Mozart although he was buried in another cemetery.
We headed back to the hostel with the idea of cooking dinner, only to find that the supermarkets were among those not open on Sundays. Luckily for Duncan’s tonsils we had bought two packets of soup yesterday so he was set. Sara and I ended up with Kebaps (the Wien spelling of Kebab :), our attempts at self sufficiency thus far laughable.
I did however learn for future reference (if anyone is thinking about going to Vienna) that you can get standing room at the Royal Opera House for two euro – brilliant!!! Have to do that next time1
Sara and I briefly considered going back out to see the city by lights, but our feet were soooooo sore, so we opted for a quiet one in instead.
Monday 18
We made an early start and after a really nice train ride arrived at our next destination: Salzburg!!!!!!
Yes I have been looking forward to this stop since planning the trip as it is home of the Sound of Music (and the same name tour). We have also been looking forward to this as it was the first destination we were going to be out of hostels and into tents…..
So with those two reasons stacked against us, true to Murphy’s law the weather forecast said that it was going to rain. And rain it did!!! It started pretty much the exact time we were stepping off the train, and I have not seen such torrential rain since leaving Australia. It was raining so much that the roof of the station couldn’t cope and the rain was coming through it!!
We quickly abandoned our camping idea…… well not abandoned, but modified. Instead of putting up our own tents we chose the tents that are permanent ones at the campsite, like little huts with a table and 4 stretcher beds. Not quite so cheap as our own tents but still a lot better than the local hostels.
The rain eased off for a couple of hours giving us enough time to go and get some stuff for dinner and breakfast and head into the old town for a brief orientation. The old town charming though it was, was in a little organised chaos with the world championship cycling on making our life a little difficult as roads were closed and buses not running.
That night we cooked a yummy dinner in the camps kitchen, the first time we had had that much vegetables for a while (most of the eastern European food seems to come as meat and potatoes or meat and dumplings or meat and sauerkraut). And the heavens opened again. This time they did not stop. Duncan can attest to this as the springs in his camp stretcher had sprung and he didn’t sleep very well. Sara and I on the other hand after enjoying some local vino over dinner slept very well.
Tuesday 19
It rained and rained and rained, the next morning while it was still raining I stuck my head out the tent door looking for Noah, when he and his ark were no where to be found, I half walked and half swam to the bathroom.
But we are hardcore, and rain was not going to keep us from our sight seeing. Armed with a newly purchased Salzburg card (34euros for three days covering all bus rides, and most entry fees) we headed into town determined to get our moneys worth.
We started with Mozart’s residence, very interesting, before jumping on a bus and heading for Brauhaus, a brewery for Steigl beer. It had an interesting little tour of how beer was made followed by a museum, 2 glasses of beer and a gi-normous pretzel!
We finished our beers (well actually I had one and Sara and Duncan finished my other one) and made a beeline for the river, there was a cruise up the river we were interested in taking. But we got there to discover what had been a light azure blue the afternoon before was now murky brown and about two meters deeper and a whole lot faster. This all added up to a sign on the ticket office saying they weren’t running due to the water levels.
With that mode of transport not an option we had to find another mode to Hellbrun Castle, which ended up being a far less interesting bus. Hellbrun was way cool though. Built as a summer palace by a Bishop with too much time and money on his hands it is home of a garden of “trick fountains”. Hidden around the garden as you walk though are a series of fountains which can be turned on to get you at any time.
The showcase was probably the dinner table. It was a big stone table that had a long recess in the middle through which a spring flowed. This was where the wine jugs were kept to stay cold. It was surrounded by 9 stone seats, 4 along each side and one at the head.
If during dinner the guests got a little rowdy, or perhaps just on a whim, the Arch Bishop would have a switch flipped and the a fountain would squirt out of each of the guests chairs into their….. whazooos :). You would think that the obvious reaction would be to leap out of the chairs, however there were two things against this. Firstly it was apparently an executionable offence to stand while the Bishop was sitting, and secondly if that was to slip your mind in the moment of…. coldness… there were more fountains spurting from behind you and arching over the table, so if you stood up you wouldn’t just have a wet whazooo.
Parts of the gardens (with no fountains) are available to the public for walking and cycling, and one such lady was riding her bike leisurely down the path with her beautiful retriever next to her. He looked like a young dog, and after contemplating the large fish in the lake decided it was a good idea to go for a swim. He just jumped in – ha ha ha ha!
Back in Salzburg that afternoon we took the cable railway up to the Fortress. Established in the 7 or 8th century it has been expanded over the years and is now an enormous conglomerate of museums, theatres, restaurants, churches and I believe private residences. Sitting right up on the top of the hill it is very imposing. The view from the top was eerie. The weather and low clouds made the city look like it had been the set for an Alfred Hitchcock movie not the Sound of Music. The museum was very well done.
We thought we would hit the pub across the road from the camp ground for dinner. However it did appear that the English Menu was different to the German one…. We thought that was a little bit dodgy so walked around the corner to an Italian place that could have also been a little dodgy (perhaps a front for La Cosa Nostra), but the food was good and the prices were the same whether you read the English or German menu.
We had decided to change tents last night, because there was so much water that it was coming up through the floor. The tent next door looked a lot drier so we crossed our fingers and went to bed.
Wednesday 20
Awaking to what seemed a very dreary day I was reluctant even refused at one point to get out of bed. This was the day that we were going to do the Sound of Music Tour, and it was going to rain on my parade, therefore I was going to stay in bed.
However it was a “yellow pants” day for Sara (she had been saving them for the occasion) and she assured me that only good things happen on Yellow Pants days. And she was right. There was no rain, in fact after our first stop (in the lakes district where some of the film was filmed) the sun came out and has been shining brightly ever since.
As I mentioned we started in the lakes district where the opening shots were filmed as well as some from Do-Re-Mi, from there we went to a small village nearby where the church that was used in the wedding scene was, and also the trees still remain that the children were climbing. From there to the gazebo which was so popular (we weren’t allowed to run around it though) the house and lake that were used as the back of the house were the last stop (we drove by the house that was used for the front). Sound of music aside it was a beautiful drive, and well worth it, and for those fans it was interesting we learned the differences between the real live story and the Broadway story, and other trivial facts like the movie not being shown in Germany until 2000!!! A-mazing!!
The sun continued to shine as we made it on our river cruise, we enjoyed it I think because we were so happy that the sun was out. The little fella infront of us not too happy though. A little spaniel I think who was clearly not a water faring dog!! From the moment the boat started and took off he wanted off!! And when it started going fast and doing fancy turning things, he was not happy. I have never seen such a small dog tow an adult so quickly, when we docked he was getting off that boat!
We continued the relaxing theme of the day with a visit to the Augustiner Brewery, a local beer brewed and sold in a monastery. As far as beers go it was OK but I think Sara and Dunc enjoyed it. It had a very pleasant beer garden, and was clearly a favourite amongst the locals.
The brewery was (as monasteries always are) up on a hill, and we walked around the face of the hill past the modern art museum and down to the Nonnberg Abbey. Almost as old as the town itself, this was the place Maria was a novice, and where the scenes from the movie were filmed.
Finally we hit the Mirabella gardens, immaculately kept they also played a large part in the movie. But even if you are not a fan just fabulous. It is amazing what you can do when there are not water restrictions.
And speaking of water….. the tap water from the Austrian Alps, mmmm so delicious and cold
It was with tired feet, sun in our eyes and the sound of music in our heads that we went to bed tonight.
Thursday 21
Since the sun had officially returned we wanted to fit in one bit more of sight seeing. That was a trip up Untersberg Mountain (sp?). To get there you could walk, but that is just silliness, it would take hours and we were on a tight schedule. So we took the cable car, much more civilised, enjoyed the fabulous views (although a little hazy) had a coffee and some strudel and headed back down.
After satisfying my desire for tacky sound of music souvenirs we got a train to Munchen (Munich).
We now have the tents set up, Sara and I have had a nice shower and washed and dried our hair (her drier may not work any more as while drying my hair she sucked some of it into the back of it…. ooopsy). I have my thermals on, and am going to bed.
Luke and Belinda should be here tonight, and we are going to experience Oktoberfest in true German style tomorrow
Til then
Friday 22
Well it was officially cold last night. Luke and Belinda arrived and set up tent around 1am, however thanks to some rowdy neighbours they did not get to sleep until 3:30-4:00am.
After an attempted early start we got away lets say sometime after breakfast time and before lunch time, caught the tram into the centre and walked to the festival ground. I was very surprised, I thought that Oktoberfest would essentially be a whole lot of big tents. Not so – it was actually a little bit more like the royal show, except minus the animals and agriculture. So basically it is like sideshow alley with beer tents :)
We spent a little bit of time exploring some of the bigger tents, steering relatively quickly away from those containing already obscenely drunk aussies and kiwis (if I wanted to drink with antipodeans I would stay in London) and decided on Augustiner. Yes the same as the brewery that we went to in Austria, I am not sure whether it was the same one or not.
It was around 11am. I remember this because Sara was getting towy she wanted to have at least 1 beer before midday otherwise it would be just like any other day :). The tent was already packed and finding somewhere to sit was proving difficult. Eventually a waitress ushered us onto the end of a table that had 5 people already sitting on it. There were three Germans Wolfgang, Manuel and Artie and two Austrians Max and.. Max’s brother.
It was a very entertaining afternoon, lots of beer, lots of “Prost” (cheers) and singing. Although the beer flowed freely I think Belinda and I wore more than we drunk. A couple of the 1L steins got knocked over a couple of times down the front of Belinda and to a lesser extent me.
The guys were very nice, taught us the words to the songs that were being sung; one of them quite fancied Sara, and inspite of her insistence that she was spoken for, he either did not understand or chose not to understand. Give him is dues he was persistent!!
Sometime in the afternoon Sara decided that she had had enough and left. Where too?? Nobody knows, not even Sara, it is still a mystery. Although she insists she spent all that time looking for the train station we left the tent quite some time after her and got back to the campsite before she did. I know mum I know, I can hear you saying “stay together” but she just went out for some fresh air and then she was gone.
Belinda and I poured the boys into bed sometime around 9.
Sat 23
This time it was Dunc, Sara and I who suffered from rowdy neighbours. A group of Aussie boys, footballers (need I say more?), one of whom interestingly was a year ahead of us at La Salle. Anyway one of them was a big fan of a footy player called Scotty West. And was singing a little song about Scotty West, he’s the best, in his woollen vest…… over and over and over……….
We didn’t really have much sightseeing lined up for today because Munich doesn’t have heaps of highlights, we thought we would spend a chilled day checking out the main mall and the glockenspiel, maybe even try to buy some Birkenstocks. Breakfast (I am ashamed to say) was McDonald’s – I think it may have been Belinda’s choice, she was feeling a *little* rough in the morning and wanted some grease.
After much window shopping we could not find the Birkenstocks we wanted in the right size so contented ourselves with Haagendaas ice cream and went to meet the boys (who had abandoned us on our shopping excursion)
I did however buy myself a couple of handbags to replace the $2 one that I bought in Nepal all those years ago which is now looking very sorry for itself.
Dinner was in the university district – excellent!! Student = Cheap. And cheap it was – but that was not the only drawcard, the little restaurant was home to the world’s biggest schnitzel, a single pieced of schnitzel that was full dinner plate size! It came with pomme frites (fries) but they were hidden under the schnitzel. The wine was horrible but the schnitzel was amazing. I tried to top it off with apple strudel but didn’t really like it – not quite hot enough….. ate it anyway – very very very full :)
The tram ride home was….. amusing. We were fortunate enough to bear witness to the drunk ramblings of three Aussie girls who had spent too long in a tent at Oktoberfest, it was something like Muriel’s wedding cross the Castle plus a little bit of Kylie Mole… classy!!
Sunday 24
Luke and Bel packed up and headed off to see some castle somewhere. We took a little more time and headed into city thinking we would fit in a little more shopping. Little did we know that like Vienna all the shops are shut on Sundays.
That afternoon we picked up our car. We had been “upgraded” of course (don’t they always) to an Alpha Romeo with all sorts of funky electronic fandangles and sat nav!! They didn’t tell us in they were upgrading us to damaged goods :) but hey, what’s a small dent in the front amongst friends.
Our first destination (once we worked out how to use the sat nav) was Innsbruck. We pulled in quite late set up our tents in some pretty ferocious wind and went into town.
Innsbruck was picturesque. However!! Contrary to what the Lonely Planet said, the mountains were not snow capped. They were apparently supposed to be snow capped all year round but not this weekend.
Monday 25
Good Morning Innsbruck.
We hopped in Brumilda (pronounced brrooom-ilda) and took a scenic drive through some of the neighbouring villages. We stopped in Igls (not sure how to say it but we pronounced it Iggles) for breakfast. It was quiche and we had to sit inside to eat it. The lady at the restaurant told us to sit inside because it was too windy out, we thought it was very considerate of her to be so concerned for our health/hair, however later when we watched her bring our food over too us, we realised that with her bad joints she actually probably couldn’t walk that far, especially carrying a tray.
From Igls we continued to Schloss Ambras a beautiful medieval palace which had more recently been converted to private residence, and even more recently into museums. We skipped the museums and walked the lovely gardens including a pond with a selection of birds from all over the world including black swans from home.
After several “detours” a few misdirections and a somewhat frustrated Sat Nav lady we made it to the Swarovski Crystal Museum. We agreed with review by CNN – the 8th wonder of the world. A little random, it did not contain much about how you get a crystal but just lots of different things you can do with a crystal, both practical and useless, relevant and seemingly irrelevant. Like the smallest and the biggest crystals, fancy kaleidoscope crystals, or crystals used for glasses binoculars and road reflectors!?!? It was innovative and most importantly sparkly – something for everyone. And it finished with a tour through a gift shop. I have a lovely new pair of earrings.
After a stop at the campsite we spent the afternoon in the old part of Innsbruck, exploring the small streets and nooks (there are a lot of them in Europe). We saw the world famous Golden roof that some emperor built to impress his sheila. It was smaller than we expected. We gathered bbq equipment from the local Bauhaus and prepared for a feast.
And a feast it was – albeit after a few early mishaps we ended up eating about 9 in the dark. We bought lava rocks instead of coal, and found that we are not sure what lava rocks are for but they are certainly not for a bbq. Then had a huge mental block about what we could use for bbq material so went rushing around the town in the car looking for bags of coal. It wasn’t until we were pulling back into the driveway of the campsite empty handed that we remember that you can actually fire a barby (no pun intended) with wood!! So off we went into the little forest to collect our firewood.
We cooked corn in the bed of coals, and flame grilled some burgers and ate by the light of Dunc’s headlamp.
Tues 26
Well I think that today I learnt that 1 day is not enough for to gain a taste for Vienna. It is a much bigger city than the other’s we have visited so far, and I think that that makes the ‘jewels’ harder to find. It is not that they are more spread out, but I think perhaps that there are a lot more of them and therefore it makes narrowing down what is important more difficult.
Also I found it strange that for such a big city, some might call it a European hub, it runs on Perth time. That’s right, all the shops closed at 6 on the Saturday night and some did not open on the Sunday at all!!!
We started at Stephensdom, or St Stephens cathedral. A big gothic structure in the very centre of town. It was surprisingly still open for tourists, I say surprisingly because it was Sunday morning and mass was in session. They just separated the riff raff from the church goers with zoo like bars, we didn’t stay long, I felt a little uncomfortable that we were intruding on somebodies quiet time.
From there we walked to Hofburg, no not a dodgy shrine to David Hasselhof, but the imperial palace of Vienna. Enormous, with plenty of nooks and crannies, we didn’t stop here for any of the museums or galleries, instead after a quick stroll through the museum quarter we took a tram out to a museum called Oberes Belvedere, a beautiful building with lovely lovely gardens – however like most of the other places in Vienna it was being renovated, so unfortunately you wont see much in our photos other than scaffolding. The museum/gallery was excellent and we left feeling very enlightened. Housing one of the biggest collections of Gustav Klimt (including Judith and The Kiss), it also had a large display of Egon Schiele’s work. [Don’t know who these people are, neither did we until a few days ago, apparently very famous impressionists :); Kilmts painting The Kiss is the most expensive to ever be bought/sold]
I think what we really liked about this gallery was the size. It only had 2 levels, and was completely doable in a couple of hours, so leaving it we actually felt cultured and that we had had the time to appreciate the works before us.
From there we headed to the City Cemetery, where we visited the tombs of Beethoven, Strauss, Brahms and Schubert. There was also a memorial here for Mozart although he was buried in another cemetery.
We headed back to the hostel with the idea of cooking dinner, only to find that the supermarkets were among those not open on Sundays. Luckily for Duncan’s tonsils we had bought two packets of soup yesterday so he was set. Sara and I ended up with Kebaps (the Wien spelling of Kebab :), our attempts at self sufficiency thus far laughable.
I did however learn for future reference (if anyone is thinking about going to Vienna) that you can get standing room at the Royal Opera House for two euro – brilliant!!! Have to do that next time1
Sara and I briefly considered going back out to see the city by lights, but our feet were soooooo sore, so we opted for a quiet one in instead.
Monday 18
We made an early start and after a really nice train ride arrived at our next destination: Salzburg!!!!!!
Yes I have been looking forward to this stop since planning the trip as it is home of the Sound of Music (and the same name tour). We have also been looking forward to this as it was the first destination we were going to be out of hostels and into tents…..
So with those two reasons stacked against us, true to Murphy’s law the weather forecast said that it was going to rain. And rain it did!!! It started pretty much the exact time we were stepping off the train, and I have not seen such torrential rain since leaving Australia. It was raining so much that the roof of the station couldn’t cope and the rain was coming through it!!
We quickly abandoned our camping idea…… well not abandoned, but modified. Instead of putting up our own tents we chose the tents that are permanent ones at the campsite, like little huts with a table and 4 stretcher beds. Not quite so cheap as our own tents but still a lot better than the local hostels.
The rain eased off for a couple of hours giving us enough time to go and get some stuff for dinner and breakfast and head into the old town for a brief orientation. The old town charming though it was, was in a little organised chaos with the world championship cycling on making our life a little difficult as roads were closed and buses not running.
That night we cooked a yummy dinner in the camps kitchen, the first time we had had that much vegetables for a while (most of the eastern European food seems to come as meat and potatoes or meat and dumplings or meat and sauerkraut). And the heavens opened again. This time they did not stop. Duncan can attest to this as the springs in his camp stretcher had sprung and he didn’t sleep very well. Sara and I on the other hand after enjoying some local vino over dinner slept very well.
Tuesday 19
It rained and rained and rained, the next morning while it was still raining I stuck my head out the tent door looking for Noah, when he and his ark were no where to be found, I half walked and half swam to the bathroom.
But we are hardcore, and rain was not going to keep us from our sight seeing. Armed with a newly purchased Salzburg card (34euros for three days covering all bus rides, and most entry fees) we headed into town determined to get our moneys worth.
We started with Mozart’s residence, very interesting, before jumping on a bus and heading for Brauhaus, a brewery for Steigl beer. It had an interesting little tour of how beer was made followed by a museum, 2 glasses of beer and a gi-normous pretzel!
We finished our beers (well actually I had one and Sara and Duncan finished my other one) and made a beeline for the river, there was a cruise up the river we were interested in taking. But we got there to discover what had been a light azure blue the afternoon before was now murky brown and about two meters deeper and a whole lot faster. This all added up to a sign on the ticket office saying they weren’t running due to the water levels.
With that mode of transport not an option we had to find another mode to Hellbrun Castle, which ended up being a far less interesting bus. Hellbrun was way cool though. Built as a summer palace by a Bishop with too much time and money on his hands it is home of a garden of “trick fountains”. Hidden around the garden as you walk though are a series of fountains which can be turned on to get you at any time.
The showcase was probably the dinner table. It was a big stone table that had a long recess in the middle through which a spring flowed. This was where the wine jugs were kept to stay cold. It was surrounded by 9 stone seats, 4 along each side and one at the head.
If during dinner the guests got a little rowdy, or perhaps just on a whim, the Arch Bishop would have a switch flipped and the a fountain would squirt out of each of the guests chairs into their….. whazooos :). You would think that the obvious reaction would be to leap out of the chairs, however there were two things against this. Firstly it was apparently an executionable offence to stand while the Bishop was sitting, and secondly if that was to slip your mind in the moment of…. coldness… there were more fountains spurting from behind you and arching over the table, so if you stood up you wouldn’t just have a wet whazooo.
Parts of the gardens (with no fountains) are available to the public for walking and cycling, and one such lady was riding her bike leisurely down the path with her beautiful retriever next to her. He looked like a young dog, and after contemplating the large fish in the lake decided it was a good idea to go for a swim. He just jumped in – ha ha ha ha!
Back in Salzburg that afternoon we took the cable railway up to the Fortress. Established in the 7 or 8th century it has been expanded over the years and is now an enormous conglomerate of museums, theatres, restaurants, churches and I believe private residences. Sitting right up on the top of the hill it is very imposing. The view from the top was eerie. The weather and low clouds made the city look like it had been the set for an Alfred Hitchcock movie not the Sound of Music. The museum was very well done.
We thought we would hit the pub across the road from the camp ground for dinner. However it did appear that the English Menu was different to the German one…. We thought that was a little bit dodgy so walked around the corner to an Italian place that could have also been a little dodgy (perhaps a front for La Cosa Nostra), but the food was good and the prices were the same whether you read the English or German menu.
We had decided to change tents last night, because there was so much water that it was coming up through the floor. The tent next door looked a lot drier so we crossed our fingers and went to bed.
Wednesday 20
Awaking to what seemed a very dreary day I was reluctant even refused at one point to get out of bed. This was the day that we were going to do the Sound of Music Tour, and it was going to rain on my parade, therefore I was going to stay in bed.
However it was a “yellow pants” day for Sara (she had been saving them for the occasion) and she assured me that only good things happen on Yellow Pants days. And she was right. There was no rain, in fact after our first stop (in the lakes district where some of the film was filmed) the sun came out and has been shining brightly ever since.
As I mentioned we started in the lakes district where the opening shots were filmed as well as some from Do-Re-Mi, from there we went to a small village nearby where the church that was used in the wedding scene was, and also the trees still remain that the children were climbing. From there to the gazebo which was so popular (we weren’t allowed to run around it though) the house and lake that were used as the back of the house were the last stop (we drove by the house that was used for the front). Sound of music aside it was a beautiful drive, and well worth it, and for those fans it was interesting we learned the differences between the real live story and the Broadway story, and other trivial facts like the movie not being shown in Germany until 2000!!! A-mazing!!
The sun continued to shine as we made it on our river cruise, we enjoyed it I think because we were so happy that the sun was out. The little fella infront of us not too happy though. A little spaniel I think who was clearly not a water faring dog!! From the moment the boat started and took off he wanted off!! And when it started going fast and doing fancy turning things, he was not happy. I have never seen such a small dog tow an adult so quickly, when we docked he was getting off that boat!
We continued the relaxing theme of the day with a visit to the Augustiner Brewery, a local beer brewed and sold in a monastery. As far as beers go it was OK but I think Sara and Dunc enjoyed it. It had a very pleasant beer garden, and was clearly a favourite amongst the locals.
The brewery was (as monasteries always are) up on a hill, and we walked around the face of the hill past the modern art museum and down to the Nonnberg Abbey. Almost as old as the town itself, this was the place Maria was a novice, and where the scenes from the movie were filmed.
Finally we hit the Mirabella gardens, immaculately kept they also played a large part in the movie. But even if you are not a fan just fabulous. It is amazing what you can do when there are not water restrictions.
And speaking of water….. the tap water from the Austrian Alps, mmmm so delicious and cold
It was with tired feet, sun in our eyes and the sound of music in our heads that we went to bed tonight.
Thursday 21
Since the sun had officially returned we wanted to fit in one bit more of sight seeing. That was a trip up Untersberg Mountain (sp?). To get there you could walk, but that is just silliness, it would take hours and we were on a tight schedule. So we took the cable car, much more civilised, enjoyed the fabulous views (although a little hazy) had a coffee and some strudel and headed back down.
After satisfying my desire for tacky sound of music souvenirs we got a train to Munchen (Munich).
We now have the tents set up, Sara and I have had a nice shower and washed and dried our hair (her drier may not work any more as while drying my hair she sucked some of it into the back of it…. ooopsy). I have my thermals on, and am going to bed.
Luke and Belinda should be here tonight, and we are going to experience Oktoberfest in true German style tomorrow
Til then
Friday 22
Well it was officially cold last night. Luke and Belinda arrived and set up tent around 1am, however thanks to some rowdy neighbours they did not get to sleep until 3:30-4:00am.
After an attempted early start we got away lets say sometime after breakfast time and before lunch time, caught the tram into the centre and walked to the festival ground. I was very surprised, I thought that Oktoberfest would essentially be a whole lot of big tents. Not so – it was actually a little bit more like the royal show, except minus the animals and agriculture. So basically it is like sideshow alley with beer tents :)
We spent a little bit of time exploring some of the bigger tents, steering relatively quickly away from those containing already obscenely drunk aussies and kiwis (if I wanted to drink with antipodeans I would stay in London) and decided on Augustiner. Yes the same as the brewery that we went to in Austria, I am not sure whether it was the same one or not.
It was around 11am. I remember this because Sara was getting towy she wanted to have at least 1 beer before midday otherwise it would be just like any other day :). The tent was already packed and finding somewhere to sit was proving difficult. Eventually a waitress ushered us onto the end of a table that had 5 people already sitting on it. There were three Germans Wolfgang, Manuel and Artie and two Austrians Max and.. Max’s brother.
It was a very entertaining afternoon, lots of beer, lots of “Prost” (cheers) and singing. Although the beer flowed freely I think Belinda and I wore more than we drunk. A couple of the 1L steins got knocked over a couple of times down the front of Belinda and to a lesser extent me.
The guys were very nice, taught us the words to the songs that were being sung; one of them quite fancied Sara, and inspite of her insistence that she was spoken for, he either did not understand or chose not to understand. Give him is dues he was persistent!!
Sometime in the afternoon Sara decided that she had had enough and left. Where too?? Nobody knows, not even Sara, it is still a mystery. Although she insists she spent all that time looking for the train station we left the tent quite some time after her and got back to the campsite before she did. I know mum I know, I can hear you saying “stay together” but she just went out for some fresh air and then she was gone.
Belinda and I poured the boys into bed sometime around 9.
Sat 23
This time it was Dunc, Sara and I who suffered from rowdy neighbours. A group of Aussie boys, footballers (need I say more?), one of whom interestingly was a year ahead of us at La Salle. Anyway one of them was a big fan of a footy player called Scotty West. And was singing a little song about Scotty West, he’s the best, in his woollen vest…… over and over and over……….
We didn’t really have much sightseeing lined up for today because Munich doesn’t have heaps of highlights, we thought we would spend a chilled day checking out the main mall and the glockenspiel, maybe even try to buy some Birkenstocks. Breakfast (I am ashamed to say) was McDonald’s – I think it may have been Belinda’s choice, she was feeling a *little* rough in the morning and wanted some grease.
After much window shopping we could not find the Birkenstocks we wanted in the right size so contented ourselves with Haagendaas ice cream and went to meet the boys (who had abandoned us on our shopping excursion)
I did however buy myself a couple of handbags to replace the $2 one that I bought in Nepal all those years ago which is now looking very sorry for itself.
Dinner was in the university district – excellent!! Student = Cheap. And cheap it was – but that was not the only drawcard, the little restaurant was home to the world’s biggest schnitzel, a single pieced of schnitzel that was full dinner plate size! It came with pomme frites (fries) but they were hidden under the schnitzel. The wine was horrible but the schnitzel was amazing. I tried to top it off with apple strudel but didn’t really like it – not quite hot enough….. ate it anyway – very very very full :)
The tram ride home was….. amusing. We were fortunate enough to bear witness to the drunk ramblings of three Aussie girls who had spent too long in a tent at Oktoberfest, it was something like Muriel’s wedding cross the Castle plus a little bit of Kylie Mole… classy!!
Sunday 24
Luke and Bel packed up and headed off to see some castle somewhere. We took a little more time and headed into city thinking we would fit in a little more shopping. Little did we know that like Vienna all the shops are shut on Sundays.
That afternoon we picked up our car. We had been “upgraded” of course (don’t they always) to an Alpha Romeo with all sorts of funky electronic fandangles and sat nav!! They didn’t tell us in they were upgrading us to damaged goods :) but hey, what’s a small dent in the front amongst friends.
Our first destination (once we worked out how to use the sat nav) was Innsbruck. We pulled in quite late set up our tents in some pretty ferocious wind and went into town.
Innsbruck was picturesque. However!! Contrary to what the Lonely Planet said, the mountains were not snow capped. They were apparently supposed to be snow capped all year round but not this weekend.
Monday 25
Good Morning Innsbruck.
We hopped in Brumilda (pronounced brrooom-ilda) and took a scenic drive through some of the neighbouring villages. We stopped in Igls (not sure how to say it but we pronounced it Iggles) for breakfast. It was quiche and we had to sit inside to eat it. The lady at the restaurant told us to sit inside because it was too windy out, we thought it was very considerate of her to be so concerned for our health/hair, however later when we watched her bring our food over too us, we realised that with her bad joints she actually probably couldn’t walk that far, especially carrying a tray.
From Igls we continued to Schloss Ambras a beautiful medieval palace which had more recently been converted to private residence, and even more recently into museums. We skipped the museums and walked the lovely gardens including a pond with a selection of birds from all over the world including black swans from home.
After several “detours” a few misdirections and a somewhat frustrated Sat Nav lady we made it to the Swarovski Crystal Museum. We agreed with review by CNN – the 8th wonder of the world. A little random, it did not contain much about how you get a crystal but just lots of different things you can do with a crystal, both practical and useless, relevant and seemingly irrelevant. Like the smallest and the biggest crystals, fancy kaleidoscope crystals, or crystals used for glasses binoculars and road reflectors!?!? It was innovative and most importantly sparkly – something for everyone. And it finished with a tour through a gift shop. I have a lovely new pair of earrings.
After a stop at the campsite we spent the afternoon in the old part of Innsbruck, exploring the small streets and nooks (there are a lot of them in Europe). We saw the world famous Golden roof that some emperor built to impress his sheila. It was smaller than we expected. We gathered bbq equipment from the local Bauhaus and prepared for a feast.
And a feast it was – albeit after a few early mishaps we ended up eating about 9 in the dark. We bought lava rocks instead of coal, and found that we are not sure what lava rocks are for but they are certainly not for a bbq. Then had a huge mental block about what we could use for bbq material so went rushing around the town in the car looking for bags of coal. It wasn’t until we were pulling back into the driveway of the campsite empty handed that we remember that you can actually fire a barby (no pun intended) with wood!! So off we went into the little forest to collect our firewood.
We cooked corn in the bed of coals, and flame grilled some burgers and ate by the light of Dunc’s headlamp.
Tues 26
We awoke to a gentle pitter patter of rain on the tents. It was quite early and I am pretty sure everyone rolled straight over and went back to sleep. It wasn’t until a little later when there was (as Forrest G says) sideways rain, rain coming up from the floor, big fat rain….. Duncan and I were quite comfortable, warm and dry in our little tent. We were a little worried about Sara in the Purple Palace (her tent) as we were not sure of the Palace’s capability to withstand such conditions. Turns out the Purple palace didn’t do too badly although there were a few spots where the water started to come down through the roof and up through the floor. This however was not Sara’s main concern. She was lying awake and fraught with worry about being in a little tent with metal poles with the thunder and lightening all around.
The rain did solve one problem. We had been tossing up wether to go hiking or too the zoo. I really wanted to go hiking but the others weren’t quite so fussed. On reflection I decided I am a fair weather hiker, and we went to the zoo.
The zoo is the highest (altitude) zoo in the world. It was an Alpine zoo, so lots of Alpine type animals. The enclosures were well kept and spacious there was not much cement. A lot of the signs were in German though. We saw:
- little furry things curled up sleeping (possible relate to a weasel, liked to sleep with his tongue out)
- The otters were on holiday
- Vultures, Golden Eagles, massive big black birds
- Terranium which apparently had snakes in it…. I think they were on holiday with the otters because we couldn’t see them
- Wild pigs and wild piglets (very cute), Bison
- Timber Wolves
- Bears – a big fat one spreadeagled on a log
- Moooooose
Onwards towards Freiberg, it worked out well that it was horrible and rainy because we were going to spend most of the day in the car on autobahns, and although the mountains had a certain sinister beauty about them in the low cloud and mist it was nice to experience it from the car.
We had a couple of stops along the way. One was in a small town on Lake Constance which we looked over to Switzerland on the other side. A few kilometres away we saw signs for Titisee, which was one of our planned stops – we had originally planned to go to Freiburg first not realising the Titisee was closer.
Titisee is a teeny tiny little village on Lake Titisee which is one of the Schwarzwald’s (Black Forrest) biggest natural lakes. We chose a peaceful campsite right on the otherside of the lake with views back over the lake to the village. Polly the Purple Palace was retired to the drying room of the campsite as on discussion it was decided it would probably be drier and cosier (cosier = warmer) with all three of us in the one tent. We fired up the bbq (chicken, capsicum, onion and zucchini shish kebabs and corn on the cob) did some washing, hung out the purple palace to dry, played a little cards (memory) and went to bed.
Wednesday 27
I got up early this morning and took my book and sat down by the lake. It was fresh, and there was a mist rising off the lake. It was very still and very quiet. Slowly though, the world began to wake up, the birds began to chatter and you could here the click-clack of Nordic Walkers and their poles making their way around the lake.
We had breakfast by the lake and bought some old bread and croissants to feed the ducks a water fowl who thought he was a duck and a goose with a broken wing.
We walked around the lake to the little village…. Ahh the serenity.
Being such a teeny tiny village there really wasn’t a lot to explore so we had an early lunch in a little café (I had weiner sausage and mash mmmm) before walking back to the campsite.
Remembering the rest of this day makes us all laugh
Frieburg was not all that far from Titisee so we got there quite quickly and I think after being spoilt by the beauty and smallness of some of the other places we did not find Freiburg as nice. The main drawcard for me though was its apparently famous wine region. Alas it was not to be, we went to the tourist office and were told there were no wine tours operating and none of the wineries have open cellars til the weekend. So we decided to move on.
And on we went to Triberg, a small tourist hub of the Black Forest due to it having Germany’s highest waterfall. Triberg itself does not have a campsite listed, instead there was one in a neighbouring village (10km away) called Schonach. As well as having the only campsite in the area it has the world’s largest cuckoo clock.
The term campsite was applied very loosely, it was in fact a parking lot for camper vans, where you could pay a ticket machine. No toilets, bathrooms nothing. Just a dry run ski jump next door with kids trying to practice their skiing and entertaining us by stacking it frequently :)
No problem we thought, we will just head to Triberg, it has one youth hostel. A quick stop at an internet café for the address, we programmed it into the sat nav and sat nav lady directed us up the hill to the 125 bed hostel. But wait there were no beds, 125 beds – full!!!! Get out of town!
Ok not ideal, but we can manage a hotel for one night. Nice theory but putting it into practice a little more difficult. The only one we did find open smelled like cigarettes and was quite expensive.
So with a pleading look in my eye I managed to get a brochure of accommodation and we ended up choosing a private guesthouse. Just a couple of kms from the centre it worked out being cheaper than the hostel, more intimate, our own bathroom and breakfast woohoo. And a bed :) In retrospect it probably was a good thing for us to get a good nights sleep in a bed.
Thurs 28
Breakfast of bread, cheese, hams, jams was served at 8, after which we went back to Triberg, bought our tickets and peanuts and went for a little nature walk around the Triberg Waterfall. The nuts were for the squirrels which are apparently quite tame. However it wasn’t until we had got well past the waterfall and into the forrest that we even saw sign of squirrels. When we did see one, he had already been “fed” and was dashing somewhere with his cheekpouches stuffed full. Sara was ready to take her nuts back for a refund when we finally saw another one. Rather than eating the nuts thought he was breaking them open then burying them all over the place. He was a dark red brown colour and very cute.
And so invigorated from our morning mountain walk we left the town of no accommodation.
We had quite a bit of time up our sleeves and half way to our next destination we saw a Freilichtmuseum (sp?) advertised along the way. As we passed we saw that the carpark was enormous and that there were quite a few coaches there. Up the highway a little we found a spot to turn around and headed back to the museum.
It was kind of funny though because there wasn’t really any English signs so even as we crossed the bridge through the little souvenir village and went to the ticket booth we didn’t really know what we were about to pay to see. So feeling like a bit of a fool I asked “excuse me, what kind of museum is this?” It turned out to be an open air farming museum. It was very interesting. One of the farm houses had been standing on the same spot since 1649. That’s one old house. It was lived in until the mid 1950’s and the same family still own it. As well as that house and its related outhouses there were a selection of other very old houses (1500 – 1700s) which had been literally picked up and moved to the museum site. They showed some of the structural variations with that resulted from the regional variation in Austria. The houses that were built almost into the hill were done so to protect them from the harsh wind and weather conditions up in the slopes on the mountains, a little different from those houses built in the lower valleys. A couple of common features though were the sloping rooves (for the snow of course) and that the stables and stock yards were under the same roof as the rest of the house. Usually a ramp leads up into the house so you can just ride the horses right in. Also none of the houses/kitchens have chimneys so all the kitchens are black. It was really pretty and just amazing to think that these houses were standing long before Australia was even “discovered”.
We made it to Freudenstat and hit the tourist info for some accommodation advice. We were the only tent at the campsite we selected. It backed onto forest with a selection of walks leading from it. We were getting used to the quietness of the campsites as the camping season was nearly over (most of the campsites close in October).
We went to afternoon tea at a little rustic café that you had to walk into. It wasn’t a long walk but it was a fair way off the road. The charm of this place was that has no electricity so all the meals and drinks are prepared the good old fashioned way. And if you stay for dinner it is by candlelight.
That evening we explored the town of Freudenstat. It is definitely not one that the Backpackers or Fanatics tour groups would put on their list. A very sleepy little place it was all closing down while we walked around. We chose what must have been one the busiest restaurants in town, the host managed to squeeze us in and we had what was arguably our best meal since being away. The service was impeccable and food delicious – good black forest food of course – meat and potatoe. But the meat was cooked to perfection and vegetables very tasty.
Friday 29
That next morning was quite clear, which was becoming more and more unusual. The majority of the mornings that we were getting toward the end of our trip were misty with low cloud that eventually lifted. Duncan and I decided to make use of this beautiful morning and went for a short walk in the trails behind the campsite. It was what I would think to be typical black forest territory with evergreens and lakes and streams.
The tourist information had recommended a visit to a nearby castle. It was about an hour away and a little bit out of the way but we thought why not!?! And it was worth the trip. Situated majestically on top of a hill it is the castle of the Royal Family of Prussia (although the Prince of Prussia no longer lives here). It has like all the castles and forts a long colourful history. We did a walk through of the rooms which were lovely (although the tour was in German so we had to read the information from a book :). Because it was a little out of the way there were very few people there – it was lovely.
Ahhh we love the sat nav!! An hour or so later we were in the centre of Calw, which became one of my favourite places while we were there. The campsite was more like a trailer park, no other “holiday makers” like us just the regulars. It was a short distance from the centre of town (about 1.1k according to the sat nav) so that night we decided to walk in, so that we could all enjoy dinner and a few drinks without having to worry about anyone driving home. It was quite early still when we got into town so we took in the architecture. I loved it! It was just how I would imagine a German town to be, those almost A framed buildings side by side with heavy beam work. We sat in the square with some fruits of the local forest (beer for dunc and sara and wine for me), watching the world go by. Some of the best moments of the trip were spent in a way similar to this. We had dinner in a basement restaurant. It was nice but nothing like our treat last night.
Turns out in Germany in the Black Forest that 1.1km can be all up hill!! Something we did not take much notice of as we walked into town, but suddenly became very apparent on our way home. We did have our own personal motivator though, with Sara encouragingly insisting that it was only 3 minutes away (every 3 minutes). Needless to say we got there safely eventually and we were nice and warm from our uphill climb.
Saturday 30
The next morning we headed downtown for breakfast. We had seen that a market was being set up the evening before and we thought we would check it out. It was called the Calw Fishburger Markt. Lots of fish, sausages and cheap clothes and also what we thought was a local wine store but it wasn’t opening til later. We grabbed some bbq grilled pork in a bun for breakfast and headed toward the abandoned Hirsau monastery in the neighbouring village. It wasn’t open yet so we drove on to another town called Bad Libenzell with beautiful gardens and lovely cafes. Finally we tasted some real ridgy-dij true blue Black Forest Cake, and it had so much cherry schnapps that we were worried about Duncan driving back. Luckily for us we only had one piece between the three of us.
We grabbed a map of Calw and explored some of the historical sites. Before heading back to the Monastery, the monastery itself was beautiful, in ruins it sits very peacefully at the foot of a mountain. We had a great time posing some photos, being photos and generally appreciating the atmosphere.
We celebrated our last night on holiday with our last bbq, and I think it was one of the first ones that we actually had in the daylight and didn’t have to eat by the light of the headlamp or car headlights. Following this we hit the campsites bar. It was kind of an odd little set up. This small little bar with free internet and the only customers were locals who were all like one big happy family (except quite an old family really – I don’t think there was anyone there under the age of 50). The hospitality was fabulous, Gerhart (sp?) the owner of the caravan park and the runner of the bar spoke a little English and was very happy that we were Australian as he thought that we were robbed in the world cup :) He had a German Shepherd called Tessy, and asked us to keep an eye on her because she was, ah…. “hot” (on heat) and he didn’t want little puppies with big heads. Along with him there were a handful of others that were very hospital oldies – especially a couple of widows (one German and one Croatian) both of who spoke just enough English to make the conversation interesting.
The night was a little late, Duncan felt a little worse for wear that evening, and Sara felt a little worse for wear the next morning. Me I felt fine hee hee.
Sunday 1 October
So with Sara and Duncan requiring a little bit of grease they were lucky that Maccas was only a few minutes away.
We drove to Baden Baden (where our flight home was leaving from) and up to Michaelsberg park. It had lovely views out over the city. We didn’t stay long but instead found our way to the airpark, returned the car and spent the rest of the afternoon waiting for our flight.
A few hours, some reading, some duty free shopping, some sudoku later we boarded our flight and arrived back in London. We flew in to Stansted where Sam picked Sara and up, and to avoid the trains (which takes at least an hour an a half) we spent an exorbitant amount of money on a cab back to our house.
And as simple as that our amazing holiday was over and we were home!!
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