Epilogue (as opposed to ...)

To begin with, a two-week trip to Europe in the middle of a struggling economy and uncertain times may be a reckless enterprise, and we certainly pondered that before we booked our trip. However, we decided that we may never have another opportunity for such a wonderful, outdoors, walking in the clouds over rocks, snow and cobblestones trip again. So it felt right. And we didn't look back.

In 2008, Genevieve and I spent nearly three weeks abroad in celebration of our 30th anniversary; photos from that trip are available on my Flickr account. We learned that Italy was chaotic, so was Prague, and Vienna, while a large city, was quite orderly and manageable.

We discovered how much we each could perspire, and knew enough this time to keep away from the heat. Heck, there was too much of that already in Austin!

We also learned that as bad as the economy was over here in the States, it was worse in Europe, so the bleeding of worthless dollars into Euros might not be as bad this year as it was in '08.

We learned that Rick Steves is a European travel guru, mentor and god, and that we would always be in good hands if we stuck with his guides.

And, oh yeah, we learned that we both packed WAY too many things in too-large suitcases that didn't fit into the overhead rack on the train.

Using these basic learnings, we had a much easier, cooler, simpler and relaxed trip. We spent less money and didn't panic for lack of food or direction. In other words ... we learned that if you plan to take it easy and know how to take it easy, you can run from dawn to dusk every day and not get worn out. In fact, neither of us was ready to come home.

Observations:

1) Transporation in Bavaria, Austria and Switzerland is AWESOME! We did not encounter one late train, bus, tram or boat. Every connection we had to make -- even the seven minute train connections -- we made with time to spare. By comparison ... well, I don't want to bad mouth America.

2) Well planned infrastructure WORKS! Granted, we didn't visit any slums (didn't see any in fact), but when the city's streets are maintained and the water system, parks and public areas are taken care of, it's easy to live there. Less stress. Fewer heart attacks. More healthy lifestyles. MUCH less obesity. By comparison ... well, I don't want to bad mouth ...

3) Health care ... well ... let's just say I'd rather not comment. Pharmacies/primary care offices on most every corner... health information technology that works ... OK, that's all I'll say.

4) CNN International is annoying. Watch the BBC. In Munich, there's a woman who does a call-in game show wearing nothing but a smile. Watch her instead!

5) German beer is better than Austrian beer is WAY better than Swiss beer. We started at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich and ended up in a French bistro in Lausanne. Beer started out a lot better than it ended. On the other hand, pot is legal in Switzerland ...

6) German food, Austrian food AND Swiss food can be combined into a single pig's intestine and served with a chunk of cheese and a liter of beer and would probably taste the same. I happen to like that stuff... if you're into haute cuisine, stay in France and Italy.

7) People picnic so much in Switzerland because a Whopper, fries and a coke costs $15.00. When we picnicked at Lake Geneva, I realized that the food was a lot cheaper and our meal was quite delicious.

8) You really don't need to build amusement parks when you've got the Alps in which to play. They may not be the biggest mountains I've ever seen, but they sure seem like it. A younger me would be hiking, skiing and biking in those meadows year-round.

9) Good for Germany for making EVERY school child visit a concentration camp.

10) For two weeks, stepping into a COMPLETELY different world is exciting, tittilating, envigorating and enriching. But, no matter how hot, dry, frantic and downright frustrating it is ...

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME!

All the Video

Day 11 - En Francais, s'il vous plait!

One last day in Switzerland. We'd seen mountains. Heard muffled yodels and cowbells. Eaten cheese and chocolate.

Genevieve had heard enough German to last her a lifetime. Two and a half hours to the south, they spoke Italian. Two and a half hours to the west, they spoke French.

Guess which direction we took?

It was a pleasure riding the remarkable Swiss train system one more time, taking full advantage of the four-day Swiss Pass we'd purchased prior to our trip. The pass paid for itself within the first day, I figure, and if you ever go to Switzerland, buy that instead of the Eurail pass. You get unlimited travel on all trains, boats and buses in the cities and throughout the country. You get half off the price of cogwheel trains and cable cars in the mountains, and you get free access to most every museum in the nation. What a deal!

Oh yeah, it even works in French.

Weather gave us a break and it didn't rain as we went through the north east of the country, turning south at Lake Neuchatel and heading down to Lausanne on Lake Geneva. Genevieve was thrilled that the announcements on the train shifted from German to French. I was surprised that I also understood them better in French than I had in German.

The town of Lausanne is on the bank of Lake Geneva, and is built on an extremely steep grade. The train station is midway up the hill, and the Metro is actually a funicular railroad that links the lakeside "beach" with the top of the town.

We decided to walk the old city before heading out onto Lake Geneva. So we went up over the cobblestones of another delightful medieval European town. Open air produce market. Expensive shops. Eateries. Well dressed business people and even a few tourists (though not that many). Much of the architecture was French, and even though the famous French spa town of Evian (home of the water) was right across the lake, we still knew we were in Switzerland.

Rick Steves' walking tour of old Lausanne was quite helpful and also pretty strenuous, and by the time we got to the old castle, we had reached the top of the city. View was tremendous, especially since the sun had come out for a change. The lake sparkled, the mountains loomed, etc.

While on top of the town, we looked for and found public WCs near the castle, located in what looked to be caves carved out of some ancient fortification. I had no idea what I was looking at! A shiny metal pan on the floor with a hole and footprints where I assumed you were supposed to put your feet. No paper. Genevieve thought she'd gone to the men's room and called into me. It was then that I realized that we might have been in Switzerland, but we were close enough to France to share some of their less savory customs. WOW! I held it!

Gorgeous marina, playgrounds, eateries and, of course, very expensive hotel resorts, including the original Beau Rivage, an old grand hotel in the 19th century tradition.

After a lakefront picnic, we walked past the Beau Rivage to the International Olympic Museum and park. Lausanne is the home base of the International Olympic Committee and the sculpture park, gardens and museum are all spectacular. On the way up, we stopped to admire the REAL Olympic flame and saw a number of beautiful sculptures, including two enormous sand sculptures -- one of Michael Phelps and the other, a giant statue of "heroes," including likenesses of Muhammad Ali, Katerina Witt and of course, Roger Federer.

The interior was very much like the Smithsonian Museum of American History in that it was full of awesome memorabilia. Jesse Owens' shoes. Jean Claude Killy's skis. Muhammad Ali's gloves. Al Oerter's discus. Katerina Witt's, er, dress. You could take your photo on the medal podium, which I did. Stick your head in Jim Thorpe's likeness, which I did. Pose as a naked Greek athlete, which I also did. My were those folks little!

After the museum, we hopped a train for Montreux, home of the world-renowned Jazz Festival. From there we got on a bus to Chateau de Chillon, one of the truly delightful medieval castles open to tourists in Europe and one immortalized by Lord Byron. This compact castle was in fabulous shape and gave a wonderful insight into life in the middle ages under the house of Savoy. It was also home to the Bernese for a couple of centuries. Lots of rocks, dank dungeons and tiny loopholes. Very much a fortress rather than a palace.

We cruised back to Lausanne and guess what happened? IT RAINED. That was the bad news. The good news was that Lake Geneva is so large that the sun was shining behind us, so we were treated to a spectacular rainbow on the trip back. Tres magnifique!

Hadn't originally planned to see the French Swiss countryside, but when we return to Europe we'll definitely want to come back to see Mont Blanc and Chamonix.

It was after midnight when we got back to Zurich. Packed our clothes. Checked on the Astros and prepared for a long flight back to Austin and return to reality. We'll wrap everything up in the next few days with some overall observations and heretofore unreleased photos, videos and the like, so stay tuned!

Enjoy the entire day's worth of photos!

NEXT STOP -- Austin, Texas! YEE HAW!

Day 10 -- A Walk in the Clouds

When we decided to visit Switzerland, the first thing we did was plan a day hiking in the Berner Oberland, which both excited and scared me, for obvious reasons.

Rick Steves, and most everybody else for that matter, recommended hiking in the Lauterbrunner Valley, about half an hour south of Interlaken and about 15-20 miles north of the Italian border. Glacier country. Big mountain country. Home of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau, the "Top of Europe," as the Swiss call it. Besides, Zermatt and Mont Blanc were just a tad too far away from Zurich to make a decent day trip out of it.

OK, so I'd climbed the stairs a few extra times and joined Genevieve on a few hikes in the Turkey Creek wildlife preserve in Austin's Emma Long Park. I didn't die then, so I figured I wouldn't die up in the Alps.

Up early. Laced tight the hiking boots. Packed the daypack with hat, windbreaker and emergency UT plastic rain ponchos, and off we went.

Trained down through Bern around Lake Thun to Interlaken, where we caught a regional train to Lautebrunnen (very cute little train... shoulda had a bell around the engine). From there, we hopped about an even cuter cogwheel train that slowly shlepped us up the mountain to Wengen, which was quite humid since big gray clouds were rolling in over the mountains above. From there, we hopped a cablecar which shlepped us up into the big gray clouds to the village of Mannlichen, starting point of our Alpine hiking adventure.

Allegedly.

Visibility in Mannlichen was about 50 feet. The fog was so thick, you could cut it. We started down what we thought was the right trail but turned back worried that it wasn't. Finally, a helpful transportation worker told us the way to go. We asked him how long he thought it would be before the fog lifted. "Ten minutes," he said, with certainty. "But ten minutes from now I'll be down the mountain, so it doesn't matter what I tell you, ja?" He laughed and we started walking.

The view was, well, let me put it this way. From the photos you can see we're on the north slope of Mt. Everest. Or is that Mt. McKinley? Or Mt. Bonnell. I challenge you to look at the first photos and prove otherwise! The fog was so thick and damp and cold that we were just doing our best not to fall off the mountain into the mist below for the first 45 minutes or so.

The trail was pretty mellow and we saw a lot of ice and snowpack, some beautiful flowers and occasionally a view into the valley below, but not much of one. The fog did begin to lift, though, in time for a cold, hard rain to start. Thank God we had our trusty UT Longhorn plastic ponchos. We looked like dry cleaning in Austin! But it kept us marginally dry until we reached a shed behind a bunch of benches. Obviously this was the place we were supposed to see what we'd come to see... the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau ... but all we could see was the fog and hear the big drops hitting the plastic bags over our heads.

Oh well... at least we were getting our exercise!

When we were convinced that the rain wasn't going to stop, we decided to just tough it out and hike as quickly as we could down to Kleine Scheidegg for a warm meal and proper shelter.

THEN IT HAPPENED!

The rain stopped, and almost on cue, Switzerland FLASHED US! I saw it first, an outline of a shape up above us. Genevieve couldn't see it. I started shooting photos. Didn't know what mountain it was but it was certainly a mountain.

Thirty seconds later, the clouds parted, the sun came out and there they were, the "Young Girl" (Jungfrau), protected by the "Monk" (Monch) from the "Ogre" (Eiger.) Breathtaking, huge, snowcovered, glacier covered mountains right in our face. It gave us a sense of awe and confusion similar to the feelings we had when we first saw the Grand Canyon... only WETTER!

The clouds that had once parted were coming back. Ten minutes after we saw them, the mountains were gone.

Some older women stolled by singing in German, soaking wet. A couple and their dog marched past up. The rain started again. And we continued toward Kleine Scheindegg, where we stopped at a small family restaurant for lunch. The owner knew by the look on our faces that we'd felt gypped so she gave us a picture book of the mountains to enjoy while they made our lunch and oohed and awwwed at the photos we were able to snap during that 10 minute break in the clouds.

As we headed down toward Wegernalp and the train back to Lauterbrunnen, we heard cowbells off in the clouds below us. Just couldn't see where they were coming from. As we got further down into the high meadows, we not only heard the bells, but smelled where they were coming from. Soon, we were face to face with a herd of some of the most beautiful Simmental cows we'd ever seen. And Genevieve, being the product of a dairy farm herself, knows cows when she sees them. One even reminded us of our dog. She followed us to the electric fence but wouldn't fetch the paper. I mooed in her general direction and all her sisters also came running...we were fast becoming heroes with the domesticated farm animal set!

Cold, wet and tired, we got back on the train down the mountain, admired some waterfalls and spent the evening in Interlaken. It's supposed to be beautiful, and there were certainly some glimpses of that, but in a raintorm, Interlaken was like anywhere else in a rainstorm ... WET and NASTY.

Before heading back to Zurich, we had a light supper at a lovely little tea room. The owners kept it open so we could eat and dry out. He served us some hausgemacht (home made) chocolate - OY - and told us how proud he was of his new, high-tech bathroom. I didn't have any idea what he was talking about until Genevieve came out of there and told me I HAD to see it. Looked like a regular toilet to me but after it flushed, a little panel extended with a brush and disinfectant, scrubbing the seat as it rotated under it. BIZARRE!

Leave it to the Swiss to develop a self-cleaning toilet!

Now if they could only do something about the weather!

LAST STOP: Lausanne and Lake Geneva

Catching up soon!

As you might have figured out by now, the blog is running a day behind "real time."

In the morning, we head back to the US -- with two incredible days yet to chronicle: 1) Our day in the clouds above the Lauterbrunner Valley, searching for the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau, and 2) Our last trip across Switzerland to Lake Geneva and a glorious day in Lausanne, Chateau Chillon and the Lake.

Both days were full of surprises, delights and challenges. And both will be described in full detail -- right down to the self-cleaning toilet seat in Interlaken (did I spill the beans?) -- when we get back on Friday.

I'll also be stringing together some of the videos we shot into something I hope you'll find entertaining. So stay tuned. It'll be a mooooo-ving experience!

(Sorry. Couldn't help myself!)

Auf wiedersehen Alpen! Und danke schon.

Bonjour Etats Unis!

Day 9 - Lake Luzern

Rick Steves, our travel guru went one for three today: 1) he said that Luzern was the best place to make your base camp for a series of day trips across Switzerland. Boy was he right on that one!

We were enchanted by this lakefront city. (Have I said that before about anywhere else? Probably!) But Luzern was yet another incredible destination on what's been the vacation of a lifetime. Only 45 minutes from Zurich, the difference between the two cities is night and day.

Wandered the very interesting old town and then spent a couple of hours at the Rosengart family art collection, enjoying one of the most extensive and intimate collections of Picasso paintings, sketches, sculptures and photos we've ever seen. Actually, this is where Rick's advice was a big stee-rike!

Didn't quite have a "When Animals Attack" moment like we did with the sheep in Innsbruck, but the swans on the Reuss River were rather interested in my video camera until they realized it wasn't something to eat.

The book sent us to the FORMER location of the Picasso museum, which had been relocated to the main Rosengart gallery across the river. So we walked around the block several times looking for a collection that was no longer there at an address that frankly was gone. Good thing we were in Switzerland and not, say, Philadelphia!

Great collection.

Then after a quick lunch on the run, we hit the lake and spent nearly three hours cruising Lake Luzern in a turn of the century paddlewheel steamboat, stopping at about half a dozen quaint little lakeside villages along the way. AND IT DIDN'T RAIN!

Dinner took us into the world of Swiss Cheese and Chocolate. (But Rick sent us somewhere else for fondue and they looked at us like we were N-V-T-S, NUTS!) We did succeed in clogging our arteries, burning holes in our teeth, etc.) I think Weight Watchers will probably make me give back all the stars I've earned this year.

Great day, great weather, beautiful city, delicious food. Early to bed because tomorrow, we rise early and head down to the Berner Oberland for some high Alpine hiking in the shadow of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau.

Pray for the fat guy!

Meanwhile, enjoy the slideshow.

Next: INTERLAKEN, LAUTERBRUNNEN AND THE BERNER OBERLAND

Day 8 - Zoaked in Zurich!

We made Zurich our base in Switzerland mainly because that's where the flight home would depart from, knowing that we'd be making three day trips across the country and have a half a day on either end to visit the financial capital of the country (and arguably the world.)

However, after the high speed shlepping we'd done since leaving Austin (I traveled for 10 days before we left for Europe) we were beginning to get a big goofy... and finding our hotel in Zurich turned into an ordeal. The place turned out to be a good 45 minute walk from the Hauptbahnhof, which we did, dragging our luggage and tuchises behind us. It only made sense that a tram stop was around the block. (Hopefully those stupid "coincidences" will stop before we take the wrong turn and fall off a mountain or bridge or something!)

So using Rick Steves as our guide, we got on the tram (whew!) and headed down to wander the old town of Zurich. It was surprisingly beautiful and very much what we'd expected cities in Switzerland to look like.

It was a very pleasant afternoon and evening, as the slide show will bear out (enjoy!).

Sometime after dinner, we discovered that the umbrellas we'd dragged around with us the entire trip were now missing. No telling where we'd dropped them or how they'd fallen out of the daypack...we just knew they were gone.

So of course, the heavens opened up with the heaviest rainstorm we'd seen since we arrived in Europe. (I guess we had another one of those "coincidences!") When we walked into the hotel, the front desk clerk started laughing and said, "You got vett! Ve haff umbrellas for you to borrow!"

("Coincidence" number 3!)

Assuming we can wade through the piles of vett clothes and towels on our bathroom floor, we'll head down to Luzern tomorrow... and we'll take ALL the rain gear. So I'm sure it will be sunny!

NEXT STOP - Luzern (Lucerne for all you Safeway shoppers!)

Day 7 – Getting VERY High in Innsbruck

It was supposed to rain again all afternoon and evening, so we decided to get an early start and do our outdoor stuff in the morning so we could at least see the mountains before the clouds rolled in.

We had planned to take the Innsbrucker Nordketten Bahn, the new funicular underground railroad, from the center of the old town up to Hungerburg and then, weather permitting, taking the cablecar up to the high camp, and then the smaller gondola to the top. From there we could hike up the last 300 feet or so to the summit and survey the entire region, with a view of more than 240 mountains in the Northern Chain of the Alps.

But, of course, by then it would be pouring down rain and we’d have to settle for the view from the bar and restaurant midway up. A piece of strudel, maybe a schnapps, maybe visit the Alpenzoo at the lower station. If the weather pattern held true to form, we’d give it the old college try and save the heavy schlepping for Switzerland…

NOT ONLY DID IT NOT RAIN, BUT THE SUN CAME OUT AS WE RODE UP HAFELEKARSPITZ, which I believe is German for “heavy tuchis.”

The view was incredible. We were above two layers of clouds. People were “Nordic trekking,” which is cross country skiing without the skis, in both directions, and lots of people were screaming down the mountain on bikes; Hungerburg is one of the world’s top downhill mountainbiking venues, and it looked both exhilarating and dangerous.

There were obnoxious mountain sheep walking around in the snow…so I gave them a little West Texas “howdy!” The head ram didn’t particularly like what I was saying to him and began inching closer to me…followed by the entire flock. He didn’t look happy. I didn’t know if he was going to follow me or attack me. FREAKING SHEEP! But I wasn’t about to find out. We were at altitude, I was ankle deep in snow and carrying a daypack, camera and in no mood for a confrontation with Mother Nature.

A few yards down the road, I caught up with Genevieve, who began nervously walking with me, as the flock got ever closer, some in the back even beginning to run after us. I couldn’t believe we were about to be fleeced! I turned and shouted “GET THE FLOCK OUTTA HERE!” as the patrons on the patio were suddenly overrun by the whole bleating lot of them! A mountain biker dropped his helmet on the pavement and the sheep turned, startled, and fled. I felt like a complete imbecile! Pretty Baaaaaad, in fact!

Now I was out of breath and with the clouds breaking up, and another gondola to ride – not to mention the equivalent of a 25-story building to climb afterward… what the hell, I’d survived the killer sheep, what else could happen?

Fortunately, I didn’t fall off the mountain. Genevieve, who is in wonderful condition, just bounced around the place, dodging the winded tourists and mountain sheep droppings strewn as she made her way to the path to the top. I followed and yes, I made it to the top of the mountain.

It was cold, windy and smelled of sheep. BUT WHAT A VIEW (enjoy the photos). I could only imagine what it would be like to ski the bowls on the high side of this mountain chain.

We spent a while taking in the vistas and soon realized that the air was a tad thinner than we probably thought, so it was back in the gondola for the ride down to the town of Hungerburg and the connection with the Nordketten Bahn train back to town.

Of course we missed the train. So we decided to – gulp – hike down to the next stop, visit the Alpenzoo, feed the mountain rats and catch our breath. The fraulein at the restaurant said it would be a nice easy 15 minute walk that we’d really enjoy. OBVIOUSLY she didn’t speak English very well.

30 minutes later, I took a short video and wiped out on the downhill slope. Fortunately the cameras were unharmed. But we were both becoming quite exhausted, only briefly visiting the zoo and then practically crawling back up to the train station for the ride home. It was a precursor for our planned high country hikes in Switzerland, but a necessary reminder that gravity is good, when taken in moderation!

NOW, SANE PEOPLE WOULD HAVE CALLED IT A DAY, TAKEN A NAP AND HAD A NICE DINNER. BUT, AS YOU KNOW, WE ARE FAR FROM SANE.

There was still a few hours left on this Fourth of July, so we hopped on the tram and headed to the other side of Innsbruck to Berghisel, site of the Olympic Ski Jumping stadium, and still one of the premiere sporting venues in the Alps. From town, the ski jump ramp is visible so clearly, it appears to be overlooking the city no matter where you are.

That’s because IT’S UP ON TOP OF A BIG HILL! Nobody told us that. The transit map shows a bus stop and a tram stop at Berghisel. It didn’t show an elevation map… and with barking dogs and mooing calves, we were in no mood to do another uphill shlep.

But, there was no tomorrow. And the Olympic rings beckoned. So… up we started again, holding on to the guardrails for support all the way. Finally, as we rounded the corner at the top of the trail, we saw a bus leaving. And I thought being chased by sheep was the dumbest moment of the day.

OK, enough kvetching. The ski jump stadium was fabulous. If you’ve ever seen ski jumping from Innsbruck on TV, you’ll see a shot of a jumper in midair with the entire town of Innsbruck in the background. That’s the view we had. And unlike our visit to the Olympic Village in Munich, there was nothing negative about being there. The torches were there, along with a monument to all medal winners in the 1964 and 1986 games in Innsbruck.

We were so tired, I don’t know how we got back to the hotel. But by the time we got there, it was raining hard.

NEXT STOP - Zurich

Day 6 - Innsbruck

Before we took this trip, we had planned out every day in every city ... except Innsbruck. That was because we have come to depend on European guide/ hippie/nerd /genius Rick Steves for suggestions both mainstream and off the beaten path. So far, I think about 90% of his recommendations have panned out for us. But we couldn't find anything by Rick for Innsbruck, so we figured we'd do it bareback.

After a very emotional few days in Munich and Salzburg, a couple of days with no agenda or itinerary sounded pretty good.

Innsbruck proved to be a great place to platz.

Of course, it wasn't that easy. Upon arrival at the train station, we promptly got lost and spent an hour wandering around aimlessly while truck drivers and sunbathers tried to give us directions and we tried to understand why, if all Europeans were supposed to speak Englisch, we found the only 10 people who didn't. (In truth, I'm positively embarrassed we Americans are so linguistically challenged ... I guess we need more Bible in our schools and less education, if possible! But that's another discussion.)

The one thing that became apparent as we shlepped our bags down the street was that Innsbruck is surrounded by HUNDREDS of BIG MOUNTAINS. Most of them were obscured by thick black clouds, but I couldn't get over the forboding, imposing Alps and the way they seemed to crowd the people of this ancient city into a single green valley. The black clouds made it look almost surreal. Though none are as big as the Rockies, they sure seem bigger, sharper and, well, rockier. Maybe that has something to do with the difference in altitude between base and summit. Innsbruck isn't a mile high like Denver, or 6,000 ft. high like Santa Fe.

We spent the afternoon exploring the old city of Innsbruck and the black clouds became a very heavy rainstorm, which continued until evening. So after all the feelings we'd had in Munich and Salzburg, we had a new feeling in Innsbruck. We felt ... WET!



Took a bunch of pictures, had a very nice dinner -- including something that resembled matzo ball soup (except the knedel was full of bacon!) -- and went home hoping that the skies would clear and we'd be able to get up into the mountain villages overlooking Innsbruck the next day.



As the clouds began to clear and the peaks began to peek through the sunset, I began to think that I'd be nuts to actually try to haul my somewhat sedentary self up higher than two or three flights of stairs.

NEXT -- I am nuts!

Day 5 - The Sound of Music Tour

A Little Cheese Mit Your Strudel?

Unlike the tour of Dachau, I felt no deep seeded moral imperative to take the "Sound of Music" (SOM) tour in Salzburg. But just the same, I knew I just had to do it.

Sound of Music was my grandmother's favorite musical and when the film came out in 1965, she took all the grandkids to see it. I'd played tunes from that musical in various bands and orchestras throughout my life and no matter how "gay" my sons call me, I LIKE musicals, dammit!

Besides, the SOM Tour gave us a chance to take an intimate - 6 people - guided tour of Salzburg and the Lake District. We'd get to see some small non-touristy (allegedly) Austrian villages, lunch by one of the lakes and a luge ride up in the mountains. To get all of that, even the most self-conscious would endure a visit to the places where they shot the movie and listen to "Do Re Mi" as you bounced through the high Alpine meadows.

Our guide, Cathy, a young Viennese woman who'd moved to Salzburg and learned her English in Scotland, began the tour by telling the six of us that this would be as cheesy a thing as we'd ever done and it also would be a great time. She was right on both counts.

We began the day with some outstanding views of old Salzburg (see slide show below). Then we visited Leopoldskron, the palace on the lake that was one of the two homes used as the Von Trapp mansion in the film. Following that, we saw Helbrunn Castle and the gazebo where they shot the song "Sixteen Going on Seventeen." I was beginning to feel a little goofy by then.

We then headed out to the Lake District, taking the "scenic route," a narrow one-lane road, through idyllic farmlands full of cows and goats, etc. Cathy gave us a ton of great historical information along the way; one of the better guides I've ever had.

Also, she had the drive timed perfectly. As we climbed into the mountains, she pushed the play button on the CD player at the right moment so that when we emerged into the high meadows, Julie Andrews began singing "The Hills Are Alive..." I couldn't help laughing. The cheese had set in for the rest of the day. While it is positively beautiful up there -- looking, smelling, sounding -- mixing it with the soundtrack from SOM was somewhat volatile. I turned back to the Canadian men whose wives had dragged them onto the tour just to make sure they hadn't slit their wrists. (They were fighting over the razor blade!).

Watching them cringe was as fun as the tour itself.



Before we hit Lake Wolfgang (named after you know how), we stopped for a luge run. Thank God Genevieve voted to go because the four Canadians were rather sheepish about it. But three of them did take the ride. It was a LOT longer and HELL OF A LOT higher than the one I'd taken earlier in the week at Tegelberg, but a great ride...maybe when we get to Innsbruck we can take a real bobsled run. (RIGHT!)

Next, we saw several of the lakes in the Lake District, starting with Wolfgangsee, which we viewed from a balcony of a cafe. It was still only about 11am, so we got cakes and strudel. The Canadians had their chocolate cake with beer... go figure! I had a strudel, but frankly the one we had at the cafeteria at Dachau was much better. (What a day that was!)
The lovely lakes led to the village of St. Gilgan, home of the Basilika Mondsee, the church where they filmed the wedding of the Captain and Maria. An interesting church -- they LOVE their churches over here -- and the first time I'd ever seen a mummified bishop in a glass case. Pretty weird and quirky, just like the whole day was.

And totally delightful.

Next stop -- INNSBRUCK! Enjoy the photos and the video!

Day 4 - Mozart was nuts!

We arrived in Salzburg around noon and immediately fell in love with this historic and cultured town. Last year, we visited Vienna and it was hands down my favorite stop on our entire trek through Europe, but Salzburg is a completely different kind of Austria.

Granted, it's a tourist trap with the Sound of Music mishugas, Mozart souvenirs, etc., but we didn't mind getting trapped one little bit.

First thing we noticed from our hotel room was the view of the old town, the impressive Hohensalzburg Fortress overlooking the town and the mountains in the background. Yes, some of them still have snow. We saw some of the smaller mountains of the Alps on our trip to Fussen, but these rocks are significantly bigger. (The REAL big ones are coming next week in Innsbruck and Switzerland, and I'm sure Genevieve will want to climb all of them!)

Actually that was the second thing we noticed. Our hotel, Hotel Europa, is a 4-star floppenhaus (air conditioned) that's part of the Austria Trend chain, a reputable group across Central and Eastern Europe. They pride themselves in their connection with the more exotic locations in the world and sport photos of outworldly locations on walls throughout the place. Outside of our door hung one such photo of an exotic location -- FORT WORTH, TEXAS!

But I digress...

We couldn't wait to get onto the street and into old Salzburg and dropped our bags and almost sprinted to the bridge over the Salzach River. This town was founded sometime in the 7th century. They said it was mostly Baroque, but from the looks of things they'd had plenty of money through the ages. Incredible palaces, narrow well-kept streets full of shops, restaurants, BAKERIES and coffee shops and a boatload of churches built seemingly on top of each other.

The main platz, Mozartplatz, is one of a series of plazas which lead from the Salzach River through the old town. Of course, the centerpiece is a statue of Wolfie himself. He lived in Salzburg until he was 24 and left for Vienna because the archbishop-prince didn't dig his sound!

Mozart was nuts. This place is super!

Those Salzburger archbishop-princes (odd mix of clergy and royalty) erected magnificent cathedrals and palaces and monuments to themselves, carving into the heart of the mountain itself.

We wandered the streets all day, culminating with a visit to the Hohensalzburg Fortress where we enjoyed some positively knockout views of the old city and the entire area. You can view some of that in the slide show below.

SALZBURG IS AWESOME. Tomorrow, we head out to the Lake District and the Sound of Music Tour. (No, I'm not gay, but sometimes I wonder!)

Stay tuned!

Day 3 - Dachau

We knew we had to go. Visiting one of the camps had been something I'd thought about virtually every day of my life. It meant something different but no less important to Genevieve, who hadn't grown up in the shadow of the Holocaust.

We'd visit the museums in Washington, Dallas, and Houston (Genevieve had). All were designed to capture the feel of the suffering. Dachau needed no such designing.

Felt pretty much the way I thought I'd feel afterward. Not angry. Not vengeful. Not a victim. Determined. The take-away was simple: Never Again. Period.

So rather than dwell on it any more, pleas just look through some of the less disturbing photos we shot.




Ironically, we completed the day at another rather bizarre location but absolutely in character with our trip to Dachau. We visited the 1972 Olympic Park. What a gorgeous park and the city of Munich has done such a fabulous job repurposing the Olympic venues as recreational facilities for the people. We saw the pool where Mark Spitz won his 7 gold medals and then thought about the Israeli athletes who were taken there. (OY! WHAT A DAY WE HAD!)

By the time we got back to our neighborhood, most of the restaurants were closed. All we could find was some ARABIC food. And, without meaning any disrespect to the day we'd had, after a day of Dachau, Munich 72 Olympics and Arabs, we were expecting our room to explode. After the dinner we had, it did!

Next stop SALZBURG!

Day 2 -- Fussen (and fightin!)

"When you wish upon a star..."

When Disney built his castle at Disneyland, he modeled it after "Mad" King Ludwig II's Schloss Neuschwanstein (the new swan stone). Ludwig II, according to all reports, modeled the castle after his fantasy obsession with Richard Wagner, his friend and who knows what else.

Be that as it may, (Wagner was the man) the castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau near Fussen, on the Austrian border, was our destination on Monday.

We wanted to do a little different tour of the region than most folks do, so we booked with Mike's Bike Tours, recommended by Rick Steves (our European savior for the most part) and who offered a bus ride to the castles, a hike through the waterfall gorge below Neuschwanstein, a bike ride to Swan Lake (Schwansee) and the chance to ride an alpine luge. Expecting disaster? Knowing us, you should. But, it was awesome!

First sign that this would be a different kind of trip was the guy behind the signin desk at the Discover Bavaria desk. Guy was wearing a UT cap and an Academy fishing shirt. Called himself Tex, and in fact, had grown up in Houston and attended UH. Throughout the two hour trip down to the Fussen area, he quoted Kinky Friedman (REALLY!) and told rather offcolor jokes, which caused the chaperone of the 25 high school students from Washington to kick his ass rather unceremoniously.

Once we arrived, we were dumbstruck by our first real sight of the Alps... dotted with two majestic castles and a bunch of similarly dumbstruck tourists.

Up we hiked... huffing and puffing... and Tex suggested that older heavier types take the bus up the mountain. Stubbornly I resisted until we got to the cutoff into the vertical part of the trail. Tucked tail and ran back to the bus stop while Genevieve intrepidly climbed with Tex and the younger, fitter hikers. She wasn't very happy at the top, sucking wind and disappointed that the hike up didn't have any kind of view. She should have taken the bus.

After another 200 vertical steps through Neuschwanstein, (I think now that they called him "Mad" King Ludwig because he didn't build an elevator in the place. Hell, I'd be mad too! I WA mad!) we were both winded and happy to be hiking down. That's my specialty. Aided by gravity, we tracked a long waterfall all the way back to the base of the mountain. Of course, after all the water we drank (and a beer!) the waterfall had a predictable effect on me. Could have made a commercial for Flomax!

Next came the luge. Whoopee. I would say that I soiled myself, but I already had. So we needn't elaborate.

Next came the bike ride to Swan Lake. Very nice, marginally challenging ride to a freezing cold Alpine lake. Poured down rain all the way back. They provided us with "emergency rain ponchos" as you can see on Genevieve at left, but they didn't keep us dry and quite frankly, I felt like dry cleaning.

Dried out in the bus on the way back. After a couple of German beers, the Kinky Friedman jokes didn't hurt any more.

Enjoy the photos!



Wrapped up the day with dinner at the Augustiner Brauhall... a well antlered restaurant but subdued compared with the rowdiness of the Hofbrauhaus. It was perfect.

Next stop, Dachau.

The Longest Day

NOTE TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY -- We were unable to connect to the blogger site in Munich, so you're going to get the first three posts all today...

It had been a brutal week at least for half of this scouting party. Began the week in New Jersey, caught a nasty cold, finished the week in Seattle and got back to Austin in time to leave again for Munich.

I'm sure there will be better commentary once the scrambled eggs in the head are sorted out but right now, I remember the day began with Ambien and ended with Beer. Other events did transpire -- street performers. noisy neighbors on the plane and a performing dachshund that refused to perform and yes there is a vomitorium at the Hofbrauhaus -- but for now...

Because the world really needs to know what Genevieve and I are doing...

From June 27 - July 9, Genevieve and I will be vacationing in the Alps ... me in search of the missing lederhosen and she in search of the mind I undoubtedly lost when I arrived at the conclusion that hiking through mountains was just what I needed to ensure my vim and vigor.

Do you see any vim in that photo?

We'll be posting photos and comments along the way... auf Englisch! Zo shtay tunt!