Salzburg - Day 2

Hightlight of the day - no rain! 

We had one more of King Ludwig II's castles to see today - Schloss Herrenchiemsee.  This palace is another unfinished palace because King Ludwig pretty much put Bavaria in the poor house trying to build his palaces.  Herrenchiemsee was to be the biggest of the palaces being a direct replica of Versailles, but that was not to be for poor Ludwig.  Only the middle section of the palace was completed along with quite a few fountains. 

Contraband photos!

The main entry hall.  The floors and stairs were marble but the walls were a faux plaster mixture to look like marble.  The funny thing is that the faux marble cost more than the real thing!

The wrong end of the Hall of Mirrors.  The other way was spectacular 100 meters long full of candleabras and mirrors. 

King Ludwig II's blue bedroom and Matt's shirt

This is one Ludwig's porcelain chandeliers.  He made sure the mold was shattered after it was made so no one would have one just like it. 

On our way back we drove over to Lake Königssee which is a beautiful almost still lake.  The boats that move on the lake are either powered by oars or electricity.  The lake looks like a sheet of glass, except when the kids thow rocks to wreck it. 

The weather was perfect for an afternoon swim and the clouds parted just enough late this evening for us to see that we have two previously unseen mountains outside our window.  They made a brief appearance.

I think we are going into Salzburg tomorrow, rain or shine.  We are going to do our own Sound of Music tour!

Off to Salzburg!

Friday morning brought a departure from Innsbruck and a journey to Salzburg. We have not bought anything other than two refrigerator magnets, but for some reason packing our suitcases was a bit of a challenge. Thankfully we don't have to fit them on an airplane today becuase they'd make us check for their bulging state.

We needed a bit of back home today and stopped at IKEA in Salzburg to find it :)  It was a ton of fun to roam the store and have have lunch in the cafe.

IKEA Salzburg

Happy lunch :)

For the month of August Salzburg has the Salzburg Festival with concerts all over town. This festival made securing a hotel room difficult. Instead of being near the city center like Munich and Innsbruck we are 10 miles outside Salzburg back to Germany by Berchtesgaden.  The place we are staying is a "wellnesshotel" with a spa and heated outdoor pool. I'd like for the weather to clear up so we can at least get some natural vitamin D while swimming with the mountains in the background.

Breakfast has been included in our hotel stays thus far and this place is no different.  However, they have a Kaffee & Kuchen (coffee & cake) buffet each afternoon.  That's wellness for ya.

The rain started back up at a decent rate so we decided to veg and watch the rain and fog from the balcony.  We solved the dinner dilemma by eating downstairs and had a great meal. 

Tomorrow looks to be a sunny day and we're going to visit another palace!

The Great Glass Elevator

The plan for Thursday was to go west from Innsbruck. The weather continued to be rainy with a lot more rain in the forecast, but we weren't going to hang out in our hotel room all day. Our final destination was Bregenz at the far west border of Austria & Switzerland. This town has a huge lake and opportunities for hiking (like every city) and water sports.  Our drive took us through the Alps, yet again.

In St. Anton am Arlburg

We stopped for a bit in St. Anton am Arlburg; this town is called the cradle of Alpine skiing for good reason. It is located in a valley between the mountains. Many of the shops and hotels were closed because of the off season. The bakery and grocery store were open to grab a bite to eat. 

Where's the elbow?!?!

One activity that was up and running were the gondola ski lifts. Matt is not a fan of heights, but he was game for the challenge. The clouds were starting to roll in so this was our only chance to make a worthwhile trip. The gondolas were very similar to Willy Wonka's Great Glass Elevator, and the ride was not far off from that as well. We could see the town of St. Anton am Arlburg and beyond, and soon we were up in the trees and clouds. We've seen the Alps for several days but this was quite a different. Riding above the trees and eventually the clouds was quite an experience. There was not a lot to do at the top of the mountain as it is the off season. The WC at the top of the mountain was the best one we've used up to now.

Spooky ride up

Top of the mountain

The descent was different than the ride up. The clouds moved in and we floated back to Earth in a cloud, which was good and bad. Matt didn't have to experience the feel of falling through the glass at a steep angle. We operated on the ignorace is bliss principle hoping all was well. As you can tell we survived the ride.

The way back down

The village

The journey continued toward Bregenz. So did the rain. It seemed that the rain became stronger after each mountain tunnel and the decision was made to turn back for the two and a half hour drive to Innsbruck.

Tonight in the Altstadt (Old Town) was a recreation of a street fair for Maximilian I. Maximilian himself attended along with acrobats, ballerinas, and musicians. We lasted all of about 10 minutes because everytime a "proclimation" was made they read it in German, English, Italian, and Spanish. Really? Just do the show. Insetad of standing with the masses we got Gelato and walked through Altstadt one more time.

To end the evening we watched the Slingbox in the lobby (since the wireless internet does not work in our end of the building) and uploaded our photos to the remote hard drive. By the way we're at about 600 pictures with 5 days to go in the vacation. That's going to be one long slideshow.

As a side note, I'm glad to not be a Blagojevich juror. 12 days and only 2 of 24 counts decided, ugh.

Ugh...

Rain.  It's really putting a cramp in our vacation.  Today we drove through Oberammergau, Mittenwald, and Garmisch-Partenkirchen.  These three towns would have been great to explore outside of the car, but the rain had other ideas.  I think it could stop now.

Since these towns were a bust for us, we decided that we needed an inside attraction.  Schloss Linderhof was just what we needed.  This palace is another of King Ludwig II's residences.  It is the smallest of the palaces he built, so it was actually completed.  King Ludwig was a bachelor and, from what I deduce, a lonely life.  He was engaged for about six months but broke off the engagement.  The dining room table in his palace had the ability to sink through the floor to the kitchen so he didn't have to see the servants.

Thankfully we explored the palace grounds before our tour.  It truly is a sight to see.  King Ludwig II modeled the palace after Versailles.  The gardens and fountains are quite lovely.

Couldn't you live here?

Another contraband photo!

King Ludwig I's bed. 

When we walked out of the palace the skies had opened up, so yet again, the Munich umbrellas come in very handy.  By the time finished Schloss Linderhof we were spent.  We had a nice long dinner and gelato.  Gelato is one of the more amazing inventions I've experienced.  For less than a Euro and a half you can experience heaven on a waffle cone.  My favorite flavor is Creme Caramel, I've had it three nights in a row.  It's a good thing that the portions are small otherwise my pants would get a bit tighter.  I feel that all the stairs (oh my are there ever stairs to climb) taken in the day more than cover the gelato calories.   

Creme Caramel. 'Nuff said.

Innsbruck *Photos Added!

Our home for the next few days is Innsbruck, Austria. This was the Olympic host city some years ago. The Old City section of Innsbruck is quite manageable in a day. Much of the main street through town is retail and restaurants. The architecture of Old City is quite charming. At the end of the main street is the Goldene Dachl (Golden Roof) which was built by Maximilian I to watch courtyard festivals from the alcove balcony. The reason behind the name is because the alcove balcony has 2,657 gold-gilded copper tiles.

We, yet again, climbed a whole bunch of stairs of the Stadtturm (City Tower) to get a great panoramic view of the city. The skies were clear and we could see quite far. Of course, the Alps

The castle/palace of the day was Kaiserliche Hofburg (Imperial Palace).  More contraband photos...

One of the many frescos in the palace

The ballroom - just before I got busted

We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the various churches and platz in the area. We had a leisurely dinner and gelato (OMG).

I suppose today's blog post is short, but we actually saw quite a bit. The weather for tomorrow, and the next few days, looks rainy so we're making our travel plan. We'd like to head to Oberammergau, Mittenwald, and Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Waiting.

Today was the day I'd been waiting for, Schloss Neuschwanstein! This castle is what Walt Disney used as inspiration for Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland. There was another fantastic thing about today, I no longer had to sleep in the hot sweaty bed of Munich. Shockingly I didn't get so hot last night that I was awake for hours, but auf wiedersehen horrible bed.

After breakfast, Frühstück, we set the Sat Nav for Schwangau. I knew visiting Neuschwanstein would be a feat due to the number of thousands people and the hundreds of tour busses that visit each day. Hey, we're on vacation so we were ready for anything coming our way.

Matt had a blast driving fast the approximate 90 minutes through the German countryside. The highlight of the morning was when the Alps came into view. I can't tell you how many photos I took of the Alps! Ranging from really far away to really, really close. I've seen the Rocky Mountains before, but this is just amazing. In addition to that the number of idyllic villages set at the bottom of the mountains; each one had their own church surrounded by little houses and shops. The coolest feeling of the day is when we rounded a bend on the coutry road and Neuschwanstein came into view. Thankfully Matt wasn't on the AutoBahn at that time or we might have flew off the road.

Neuschwanstein from the road

Ain't she pretty?

The next interesting job of the day was to get tickets for the castle tour. Let the queing begin! Of course there is a line spilling out of the que. We could have pre-purchased our tickets, but with the travel involved from Munich I was not confident that we'd be there by a certain time. I've read that these tours are quite stringent about being there on time for your tour. If you are late, you've got to buy another ticket. Our choice of the day was to see both Neuschwanstein & Hoenschwangau or just Neuschwanstein. Knowing all the walking we'd done the days before ad that we'd have to hike a mountain to hike up to the castle, we opted just to tour Neuschwanstein. As of when we bought our ticket at noon, the next available English speaking tour was at 5:30. Yikes! Thankfully we are in a vacation, no worries, kind of mood.

We explored the area between the two castles down to Lake Alpsee (I'm guessing the name means see the Alps?) where we saw a beautiful reflection of the mountains in the water. We found a Beer Garden to have lunch and people watch for a while then started our trek up the really big wanna be mountain to Neuschwanstein. We still had a bit of time to wait, but there were some interesting things to see up at the top. The first was a back view of the castle via a short cliff overhang. I'm sure Matt's dad would be thrilled to go on this :) Next was another view of the castle via Mary's Bridge. I've seen friends' pictures of their visit to Mary's Bridge and it looks like a quiet spot to view the castle. They must have been there on the right days because our visit should have had its own que. Truth be told, I was a little nervous on the bridge for the number of people on it. Of course, that didn't stop me from going on it. I needed to add to my already amassed group of Neuschwanstein photos.
The time had finally come for our tour (yay!). This castle is one of King Ludwig II's projects.  Much of the castle is unfinished as he died during construction, and no further work has been done.  Our tour was short, but I loved it anyway.  Below is a contraband photo from the tour as no photos are allowed in the castle. 

The throne room - pretty, eh?

We had one last trek down the hilly mountain to our car.  We once again set the Sat Nav for our next destination - Innsbruck, Austria!  The two-hour drive through the Alps was a lot of fun.  Again, Matt enjoyed the high or lack of speed limit.  At times I became quite nervous as we rounded corners at the same time as semi-trucks going the opposite direction.  Thankfully we arrived safely.  We grabbed a bite to eat and headed off to bed!

Up til now

Last night we crashed into bed around 11:00 for the night, or so we thought.

I was so uncomfortable sleeping in the bed.  I think the mattress pad was made of rubber because I constantly woke up several times each night boiling hot and drenched in sweat.  Then after I cooled off I was wide awake.  By this time it was 1:00, 1:15, 1:25, 1:45, nuts!  I got up, turned on the Slingbox and watched Mean Girls on TBS.  Around 2:00 who joins me on the couch?  Matt.  We watched Slingbox TV until about 4:00 and went back to bed.

We had big plans for Monday - take the U-Bahn out to Dachau to tour the city and the Concentration Camp then get our rental car and drive to Regensburg to visit my friend from school, Ann and her family.  Well, an 11:25 wake up really puts a damper on the day.  We missed breakfast and still had to shower.  We had to scratch Dachau from our to-do list.

We have a rental car from this point on in our vacation.  In order to pick it up we had to take the U-Bahn back to the Munich airport.  Matt loves a good visit to an airport so this provided about 30 minutes of fun for him.  I have a much different view of the Munich airport after this visit.  When we arrived last Wednesday I found the airport to be very industrial and cold.  Now seeing it more in the daylight and having a chance to explore, it's quite a lovely airport.  It has an outdoor Beer Garden (shocking) and a variety of shops and even a grocery store. 

Getting to our car was no problem; Matt was excited to drive an Audi Q5.  The only thing we could not figure out was how to start the darn thing.  The key did not have a metal piece to stick into the ignition; the whole key fob went into the ignition spot.  The thing was there was no button to push and the key fob did not turn.  We felt like stupid Americans at this point.  Pushing random buttons and switches Matt finally tapped the brake and saw a message on the dash that said push the key in while holding the brake.  Success!

After entering Ann's address we were on our way to Regensburg!  Ann and her family are in Regensburg on a two-year plan with her husband's company. They live approximately 90 minutes outside Munich, so we decided a visit was in order. The drive was lovely, and Matt loved the high and sometimes non-existent speed limits.  One thing Ann brought to our attention before our drive was to check out the crops growing along the side of the road; they were hops!  A lot of hops. 

She asked me to bring a few items from the US that she was missing: vanilla extract, Tootsie Pops, and Cinnamon Altoids. I was shocked that vanilla extract was not an item available in German markets. Ann and Jim have friends that live on the military base nearby so she does get some of her contraband items from their commissary.

The town of Regensburg is a city that sustained minimal damage during the war.  The cathedral (Dom) and bridge are quite beautiful sites.  Ann, Jim and the girls showed us all the highlights of their town.  It was clear to see that they are proud of thier town.  The sky was beautiful, and Ann mentioned that it rained all morning so this was a lovely change.  As we were walking we noticed that they sky was getting very dark.  It was just about time for dinner so we ducked under several  awnings and made it, slightly damp, into a Bavarian restaurant.  After dinner we saw that the sun was shining so another walk through town was in order.  Jim stopped us at a Gelato shop to top off dinner.  Wouldn't you know it, they sky got very black, very fast.  We were not really anywhere near their apartment, so we had two choices go it in the rain or stand under an awning for who knows how long.  We chose to go it in the rain.  Maybe not the smartest idea since the rain brought thunder and lightning, but we all survived.  Albeit very wet.  Ann tossed our shirts into the dryer while we talked some more.  About five minutes after we got back to their apartment the sun came out and gave us a double rainbow.  I suppose the walk in the rain was worth it. 

Once our shirts were dry, it was time to leave my friend for our drive back to Munich.  Even with a late wake up we had a very busy day.  Tomorrow is going to be another good one!

And it did!

After a night of extremely restless sleep and a better breakfast we grabbed our umbrellas for a day in Munich.  The radar indicated that the rain was stopping soon so we had high hopes. 

Instead of taking the S-Bahn to Marienplatz we walked the few blocks through the Sendlinger Tor gate to this crazy pedestrian zone.  Since it was raining yesterday we did not get a good feel for this area and the late morning was a good time to do it.  We saw the glockenspiel (although too late for the supposedly over-rated show), Viktualienmarkt (open air food stalls/grocery), Peterskirche (St. Peter's Church).  Peterskirche was conducting Mass so we could not tour at that time, and Matt was not feeling well so touring the Viktualienmarkt was not a great idea. 

The Glockenspiel @ Marienplatz

We walked to the Residenz Museum which is the Royal house of the Wittlesbach family.  The furniture and art in this museum are impacted by bombing during WWII.  Much of the house was destroyed but rebuilt.  Many of the informational signs indicated the use for the different rooms and that the furniture in those rooms was from a different location or the artwork was a reproduction or simply a description of what was formerly there. 

Us in the Antiquarium @ The Residenz

After touring the Residenz we bought a few pretzels and walked around for a bit.  We saw the Hofbrauhaus but did not go in.  The area is across the walkway from the Hard Rock Cafe so it was crazy busy and we weren't in the mood to navigate the dos and don'ts of the Hofbrauhaus.

In addition to our umbrella purchase yesterday we had to purchase a travel clock today.  Would you believe that our hotel room does not have a clock?  Really?  Really.  I wake up several times a night and always have to check the time, but for the last two nights I've been driven crazy not knowing the time at all.  Ten Euros later and I'm a happy girl.

Since the rain let up, and don't say it too loud, the sun came out, we decided to spend some time walking around the English Garden.  This is an expansive bit of land at the north end of Munich that has many walking paths and Beer Gardens.  It is quite easy to get lost, but you really don't care because it's a great place to be. 

One thing to know about the English Garden is that nude sunbathing is allowed in some areas.  I did not anticipate this today since it was not really that sunny, but there was one....

Hey Ugly Naked Guy

Then we saw Augustus Gloop

"No, Augustus!  You will spoil the whole chocolate river."

Our evening ended with a walk to a quieter neighborhood for dinner.  The book we used to find out about this restaurant stated that it took Visa & Master Card, but when we went to settle our bill they guy said they don't take them.  Oh well, Matt didn't mind a jaunt down the street to the ATM. 

*Renee - we are gathering brochures as we can to help replenish your dad's stock from 1972. :)

Rain, rain go away

Friday was almost a bust for us.  The rain was quite heavy and since we really had no clue where we were geographically in relation to anything else, we were hesitant to venture out.  After breakfast, which was an adventure for our taste buds, we returned to our room to make a plan.

We decided to brave it out in the rain instead of wasting a day watching four channels.  The first stop was the S-Bahn station to travel to the Marienplatz.  Marienplatz seems to be the jumping off point for many of the Munich attractions we want to see.  After arriving at the Marienplatz we had to purchase umbrellas.  Bringing our own was a fleeting thought before leaving home, but it never went much further than that.  Then we walked a few blocks in different directions to two of the three churches near Marienplatz: Michaelskirche and Frauenkirche.  When visiting these two churches we were slightly unsure if we were doing it right.  By that I mean our only other experience is visiting Westminster Abbey and St. James Cathedral in London.  At those two places you have to queue up to pay admission and it is clear where to go.  At Michaelskirche and Frauenkirche you just walk in the front door as if you are attending services and look around.  At least that's what we did whether it was right or wrong.  We probably toured the churches a little faster than normal since all of the descriptions were in German.

After touring the two churches we walked back through Marienplatz to the S-Bahn station.  The rain and wind made for unhappy sight seeing.  We grabbed a bite from one of the food stalls in the station and went back to our hotel for the night.  While the thought of four English-speaking channels may not entice you for the evening, we had a secret weapon.  Matt remembered to load the Slingbox onto our netbook.  What's a Slingbox you ask?  It's an amazing device that hooks up to your television and allows you to watch it where ever you have an internet connection.  So we caught a little of the early morning news at lunchtime and spent the evening watching Chicago TV.  However, we did enjoy watching Brett Michaels Behind the Music where the interviews were in English and the narration was in German. 

We decided to call it a night at 9:30.  Not that I get much sleep, the bed and pillow are terrible.

It was a long strange journey (part 2)

We decided that we have too much of a technology need to rely on the computer in the hotel lobby.  Matt found a T-Mobile Hot Spot subscription that should keep us connected in all the cities we visit.  Thank goodness because I need to see my babies via Skype!

Here's a longer run down of Day 1 of our travels.....

We started out with a taxi ride at 5PM to O'Hare.  We cleared security with no problems and grabbed a bite to eat before heading to the gate.  We were happy to see that our plane was already at the gate. 

The first 777

A family of three from Britain sat behind us and we dubbed the boy as G's doppleganger.  We could see him doing all the silly things that this boy did when he gets to be 3 years old.  The accent helped the cute factor exponentially.

After a while Matt noticed that our 8:15 flight had been delayed until 9:30.  Then the plane that was waiting so patiently at the gate was pulled away.  I suppose that was the reason for the delay.  While waiting we had a lengthy conversation with the British family.  They had just spend almost two weeks in Chicago and visiting friends in Iowa.  The dad remarked that he'd love to move to Chicago.  I interjected that we'd love to move to London and had a great house in the suburbs.  He smiled and added that their "detached" house was only 25 minutes outside of London.  As our conversation continued we found that his wife was a teacher of kids with behavior disorders.  The more and more we talked it seemed that this family was the perfect match for a potential house swap :)  I would bet the conversation would have gone that direction as they come to Chicago each year.  However, the flight attendants made an announcement that the flight was oversold and those that volunteered would receive $800 per seat, overnight hotel accommodations, and choice of flights for the next day.  We seriously considered it, but knowing that we had to go further on to Munich it just didn't make sense.  However, our British family took them up on it and we had to part ways.  Oh what could have been.....

Once we finally boarded the plane we thought we were on our way.  How wrong we were.  The pilot said that the ground crew was still loading luggage and needed about 15 more minutes.  We speculated that the delay was to look for the luggage of the people who took the bump.  After 15 minutes the pilot told us they needed an additional 20.  It was at this time we were introduced to Curmudgeon Alan and his Oblivious June.  Alan had nothing nice to say about anything.  Every time the pilot made an announcement about a delay he would state some expletive "under his breath" that all could hear.  Matt loved when the flight attendant's announcement thanked us for flying American Airlines and Alan says, "Yeah, right."  I will say Alan has been added to our inside joke vernacular for ever.  All in all we had a two hour delay leaving Chicago.  That had an impact on our connecting flight from London to Munich.  American easily rebooked us on a flight for later in the day.   

I think the pilot forgot how to get to Heathrow

We figured out tickets and stops for the S-Bahn rail to get into Munich from the airport.  The only damper on the afternoon was that it was lightly raining in Munich and a bit cold.  We did not pack umbrellas so I put up my hood and off we went, but where we weren't sure.  Matt had to get his bearings to figure out the compass directions.  A short walk through some neighborhoods got us to our hotel by about 6:30.  Thankfully the front desk employee spoke English because after almost 24 hours of travel I was not in the mood to do charades. 

Our room in Munich is comfortable, but slightly stuck in the early 80s.  We've got a TV that has over 150 channels of foreign speaking channels.  We've found Bloomberg, CNBC, BBC news, and MTV that speak English.  I have wanted to catch up on my music videos, so I suppose now is the time.  Our anniversary was yesterday (10 years, wahoo!), but we were too pooped to celebrate.  We got some take away pasta from the restaurant next door. 

Happy Anniversary!

One common amenity of German hotels is free breakfast.  That sits well with me as it's the best meal of the day.  We had to figure a few things out for ourselves this morning, but overall I think we did a great job.  The chocolate pastry was delicious and the yogurt is my very, very favorite.  We know for tomorrow that the kitchen can make scrambled eggs and omelets, too. 

The weather today continues to be rainy but it's much colder today.  For now we are chilling in our hotel room watching MTV and still trying to get used to the time zone.  The unfortunate thing for today is that all the things we want to see are outside so we are making a contingency plan.  There are a few national museums that could keep us occupied for a few hours.  More later!

It was a long strange journey

Let me start out by stating that I claim no responsibility for my spelling on these posts.  The German keyboard is slightly different than the one I am used to.  For example the y and z keys swap places.  Then there are two extra keys to accommodate the ö and ä.

Well almost 24 hours of travel and we finally arrived in Munich.  Our flight from Chicago took off two hours late which made us miss our connection in London.  We finally made it to our hotel around 7 last night.  We grabbed dinner at the Italian restaurant next door as most everything was closed.  There was some confusion with Prosecco, but in the end we get our pasta to go.

I tend to be quite self conscious and my lack of language is taking a toll on me.  I know the customary casual greetings, but when spoken to entirely in German I feel bad shaking my head at the person.  I don't want to be the stupid American.

Our hotel in Munich is comfortable, but the stack of newspapers for a pillow was difficult to sleep upon.  We played "Guess the food" at breakfast this morning.  I'm not sure what the "egg" dish was but would have spit it out had I been at home :)

The weather today is rainy and cold, so we will look to find an indoor activity.  Maybe a museum?

What were you doing 10 years ago today?

It was a lovely, rainy August day and we got married!  The rain didn't damper the day one bit.  However, there was one potential disaster; Bob left the house with his tux and house keys locked inside.  Now remember this was in 2000, so cellphones were not the norm and calls had to be made to the actual establishments we were to potentially visit that morning.  Thankfully, we had only two places on our to-do list for the morning, and Tracey had her keys in her purse.  When they guys arrived at the hair salon Tracey tossed her keys over the railing to Bob and the train was back on track. 

Just some of the Bridal Party from left to right: Bob, Nate, Zak, Matt, Holly, David, and Kim

The initial plan was to go to the park for pictures, but the rain forced a change of venue.  Instead of taking a limo to the park we went for margaritas!  Shockingly I didn't spill a drop on my dress.  Shocking.

We melted on our honeymooned in Florida.  The rest, as is cliched, is history.