10.01.2007

Reutte, Tirol, Austria






On Friday morning, we set out for Reutte to visit our friend Thomas. Thomas worked with all of us at some point during a one year exchange program at Stowe Mountain Resort. He and his brother now own the hotel that his parents handed down to them. It has been in the family for over 200 years. He said there are so many people with the same last name in the town he doesn’t know them all. It is in downtown Reutte, a small Austrian village surrounded by mountains and ski areas.

Upon arriving at the hotel, Thomas greeted us and offered to take us to the famous castle near Fuessen. This castle, built in the 1800’s (relatively new for European castles) is the castle that the Disney World and Disney Land castles are based on. We went into the entrance area, but in order to go inside the castle you have to pay for a tour. He calls it Chinatown, and you can see why. He said everyone in China has visited this castle he thinks. We didn’t have the time or desire to do a tour, so we snapped a few pictures and then headed back down the hill. He said the castles are what bring the business to the area in the summer and fall so he can’t complain. We went to some ancient ruins from the 1400’s where he caters a lot of functions. It is where they used to trade “white gold” salt and there were some medieval battles. He drives like a crazy man but that is how they all drive except for the Germans. He says Germans don’t know how to drive but they own the nicest cars as he passes them on these little country roads.

Thomas had to cook afterwards (he is the Executive Chef for the hotel) and offered to make us an authentic Tirolean meal. When Thomas and his friend cooked at Stowe, there was a strong Austrian influence to the menus, so we all had been looking forward to some authentic Spaetzle, Weinerschnitzle and other dishes we hadn’t had in a long time. Boy, were we in for a treat! Thomas sent out the full spread, starting with a delicious traditional soup made with sliced pancakes, or crepes. The broth is much like in miso soup. Afterwards, a full family style meal followed, with a beautiful salad, amazing spaetzle with a local cheese he said makes the dish (other restaurants use cheap cheese that doesn’t work as well). Then some pasta filled with mashed potatoes and local cheese shaped like big perogies made from his grandmother's recipe that she always made them for them growing up. He said she once told him and his brothers that they couldn’t all come over at the same time because they ate too much. The third bowl contained a sort of home fries but with herbs, bacon and boiled beef. We each had a local steak (Kristin had pork) as the main course with a potato pancake on the side. It has some great mushroom sauce over it with herbed butter on top of the steak. A very rich and starchy but amazing dinner.

That night we went out with Thomas to a local bar across the street and talked to his friends and brother for a few hours. In Tirol they “burn” this amazing schnapps and so of course we all had to have a few shots of it. We had apricot and honey that went down a bit too smooth. It is distilled but they call it 'schnapps brennin' or burning but they couldn’t tell me why. He also had us drink his favorite beer which was very good. One of the locals came in about half drunk and starting testing Jason on his German pronunciation, and he passed after some lessons. Roland, Thomas’s brother, asked Jason why he spoke German (as if it was very strange) and said that everyone speaks English so why speak German.

After that we ended at a club a few blocks away but everyone was tired so we barely finished one beer and went home.

Breakfast was very good the next day and even included eggs which was a first for us except for the soft boiled ones we had that you need a little spoon to eat after breaking off the top. Very European. We had to part ways with Kristin & Charlie, as we were onward to Frankfurt and they had to return to the hotel in St. Johann before making their way to Munich to fly home.


After we said goodbye to Kristin & Charlie, Thomas was kind enough to drive us back to the castle to pick up a few souvenirs and then to the train station just over the border in Fuessen, Germany so that we could start our journey to Frankfurt. It took about 5 hours to get to Frankfurt...which we'll cover in the next post!

9.29.2007

Hiking in St. Johann

Thursday first looked like we’d be socked into rain clouds, but after we finished breakfast is was clear that we would have a good day, so we decided to take a hike in town that the hotel fitness center manager recommended.  We walked up past the church and to the beginning of the trail to Hahnbaumalm, which was a very long staircase that went past a large pasture.    The trail led us to the many farms and homes in the higher elevations, through many pastures, under ski lifts and along a stream with many footbridges, trail turnstiles and switchbacks.  It was taxing at times, but when we finally reached the top at the area ski lodge, it was well worth the effort.  We climbed about 1500 feet to exactly 5000 feet or 1600 meters. When we got to the top it was about 10AM and the lodge didn’t look open.  There were people inside, however, and a woman came out and greeted us and asked us to come inside if we wanted.  Turns out that several people (locals) were around and some even arrived after we had already gone in.  We weren’t sure if they all worked there or if some were simply a visiting.  We asked if we could have a beer and she said of course!  So, we all enjoyed a draft after our climb and then proceeded to make our way back.  ‘Alm’ is the word for a restaurant on the top of a mountain.  Someone lives there all the time and usually makes their own cheese and meats from the livestock.  This one was at a ski resort so I don’t think they made cheese or anything there.  No one spoke English up there either but I asked a man sitting at the locals’ table with a old lady which was the best road down because there were two.  He said one was the new road and the other the old one so I asked which one was better to which he replied, “Ganz egile” which means “exactly the same”  and he just turned his head and looked over at me like what does it matter.  We took the new one.  I said thank you and the old lady chimed “Viel Spass!” which means “Have fun!”

 

Before walking back to town, we finally got in touch with our friend Thomas in Reutte.  We all worked with Thomas at Stowe Mountain Resort back in 1999.  Our Austrian boss had hired him and two other Austrians to work at the resort as chefs for a year.  We knew he ran a hotel with his family in Tirol, so we got in touch and he invited us to come a visit and stay as his guests one night.  So, we called him (after a couple of days of not being able to get in touch with him) and we planned our trip to Reutte for Friday.

 

Meanwhile, we had decided to simply walk down the road back to town since the trail on the way up had been wet and slick in some spots.  This was a grand plan until we couldn’t quite figure out if the road did, indeed take us back to St. Johann or another town.  A couple of direction changes, and a couple of dead ends later including one with two heifers with horns and two calves standing in the way, we found ourselves walking the long way back.  What we thought would take about an hour to get back probably took more like two.  But it was a good hike and the scenery was breathtaking.  We were happy to have been able to go, because the weather hadn’t been so great on Tuesday, and we heard that we’d have more of the same. 

 

We got back to town and were famished, so we grabbed sandwiches at the supermarket which probably saved us a combined $15 rather than going to another restaurant.  We had a good portion of the day left and thought we’d try to see the big hydroelectric dam that was only about 40km from us.  While we were in the car on our way, we realized that the elevated tram you had to take to get to it made the last trip at 3:30.  It was just after 2:30 so we tried to make it there in time for the last tram.  It was a bit hard to find, and when we got there, we entered “The Twilight Zone” parking garage.  It was desolate and all you could do was go up.  And up.  And up.  We didn’t feel like we were getting anywhere but then, finally, we reached the very top and saw other cars and the walkway to the tram area.  We ran.  We missed the bus that takes you to the tram.  Oh well.  Jason got an earful from some Austrian guy there who told us that we could still go up, but it would take 40 minutes to get up there and then we’d have to basically turn right back around so we were “too late!!” and you need at least 3 hours.   So, we walked around for a few minutes and then headed back from whence we came.  We drove by a gondola on the way that was taking people up to a glacier for skiing.  From where we were it looked like it was taking them to nothing, but it was taking them up and over the mountain to a HUGE bowl of a glacier where you can ski almost year round.  A ski pass there for 6 days of skiing was only 62 Euros!  We’ll be coming back for a ski vacation there!!

 

We headed back to St. Johann and relaxed a while and did a little bit more laundry.  Then we headed for dinner to one of the two Austrian restaurants in town named “Havannah”.  It was a very nice meal and every enjoyed what they had. 

 

Next post: To Reutte!!

 

Kitzbuehel, etc.

On Wednesday, we were a little worn out from Oktoberfest and it was a rainy day, to boot.  We opted to sleep in a bit and Kristin and Adriane did a little bit of laundry since we had all but exhausted our wardrobes.  A little before lunch time we decided to go for a drive that Kristin’s parents had recommended we do one day.  Our drive took us through Zell am See and onto Kitzbuehel, a picturesque little town.  We got out a walked around a bit and did some shopping.  Afterwards, we went on towards Erpfendorf, which is a small town where Kristin used to go with her parents when she was little, as they once lived in Stuttgart when her father was stationed in Germany, and they would travel around.  Erpfendorf is a very quaint village where they used to dine at the Alpenrosen restaurant and they would also ski at the nearby ski resort, where Kristin learned to ski when she was little.  The guys had some goulash soup with fresh hard rolls, Kristin had cream of broccoli because that was the only thing she could know exactly what it was and Adriane had Apple strudel with ice cream.  The owner served us and she didn’t speak any English so Jason had to translate as much as possible.  The food was very fresh and good and the lady was very friendly.  It is always interesting to see the locals just hanging out in the back room smoking cigarettes and drinking beer no matter what time of day. Usually in every restaurant there is a table that the locals sit at, I think this is mostly an Austrian thing because I don’t remember it from being in Germany. We stopped at a gas station and they were even standing in the back room there watching tv, drinking beer and smoking, it was comical because it was such a small place and there were about 5 guys standing in this little room. 

 

The drive back was hair-raising in that we took a very windy mountain pass in the dark and fog.  Austrian drivers are very daring and between the narrow roads, fog and curves, we were just glad to get back to the hotel where we gladly went to the spa and soaked in the hot tubs for a while.

 

A simple entry for a simply day – a down day that we very much needed on this very active vacation!

 

Next post: Wandern in St. Johann

9.27.2007

Oktoberfest!

For Americans, the comparison has to be Mardi Gras, but that comparison only relates to the craziness inside an Oktoberfest tent. 

 

We ventured to Munich on Tuesday morning to experience Oktoberfest for ourselves.  We took 2 trains to get there and before finding our way to the festival, we walked to Marionplatz, where the huge glockenspiel is.  Unfortunately it was undergoing big renovations, so we could not see the whole thing, but we got pictures nonetheless.

 

Afterwards, we hopped on the U-Bahn (underground railway) and headed to Oktoberfest.  When we got to the fairgrounds, we were blown away.  None of us realized that Oktoberfest isn’t just a bunch of beer tents serving beer and food, but an enormous fair with rides, vendor tents and everything else you can imagine.  It may even rival Disney World in size!  OK, maybe not Disney, but pretty darn close.  We weren’t really sure where to begin!  But, we had come to drink beer, so we headed for a tent.

 

The first tent was the Hacker-Pschorr Brewery and was (we would later find out) very calm and even a bit empty.  We weren’t really sure how it all worked – whether we had to buy a ticket to get a beer or if we were allowed to just sit.  Turned out the latter was the case, since reservations were typically for 4PM on.  Before that, tables were fair game.  After we sat, a very friendly fraulien came over and took our order, which was easy because everyone just orders beer.  No choice in size, because everyone gets a liter beer stein, and no choice in type, because you get the kind of beer that they serve in that tent.  We all ate some cheese pretzels and downed our first liters of Oktoberfest beer and then decided to move on.

 

The next tent we went to was the Hofbrau Festzelt Brewery and it was much more fun.  It was a much younger crowd and the band had the crowd singing and standing on the tables.  Germans and Austrians really love American music, and at one point the entire tent was all singing “Hey Baby” together.  We got video of it and will try and put it on the blog here soon because it is worth watching.  We had one beer here and then moved on.

 

We heard that the AugustinerBrau tent next because we were told at the previous tent that theirs and the Augustiner tents were the best tents at all of Oktoberfest.  So, we figured (after already having 2 liters of beer in us) why not see?  So we did.  We ended up finding a seat smack dab in the middle of the tent with 4 Americans from Chicago.  They were very much the fraternity type and had been travelling all over Europe with Oktoberfest as one of their main destinations.  We of course, had another beer each.

 

Need I go on?  I mean, really, by this point, Oktoberfest had become our craziest festival yet and we’ve now been there and done that!  Suffice it to say that we went, we saw, and well, we made it back to our hotel together and with all our belongings.  If you can experience Oktoberfest for yourself, we highly recommend it.  But if you do, stick to one, MAYBE two tents and eats LOTS of food beforehand.

 

Next post: Driving Tour of Kitzbuhl & Erpfendorf on a rainy day

 

 

9.26.2007

Salzburg!

Onto Austria!

 

On Sunday morning, we hopped on the first of 4 trains that took us to Austria.  It was a bit of a long trip, but the scenery was worth it.  It is amazing to watch how the landscape and architecture transforms as you leave Italy and get into Austria.  We passed miles and miles of vineyards, many high on steep mountainsides.  As we got into Austria, the mountains got much bigger and higher, some with snowy peaks.  The leaves are just starting to turn here.

 

We finally arrived in St. Johann around 8:30PM to be greeted at the train station by Kristin & Charlie.  It was so good to see them!  They had a wonderful time in England visiting friends before heading to Austria.  All a bit tired and hungry, we walked the 10 minute trek to the hotel from the train station and ate at the hotel’s Italian restaurant.  Afterwards, we made our plans for the next day and then headed to our rooms to get some much needed rest. 

 

Monday was our day in Salzburg.  It is a little more than an hour train ride from St. Johann to Salzburg, so we made a day of it.  We wanted to see the fortress and had heard there were a couple of street festivals in the city.  But, no one we talked to seemed to know anything about any festivals and they seemed to think that the festival season was over.  We also wanted to visit an abbey where the monks brewed beer and you could get a traditional beer stein ad enjoy a beer in the beer garden.  Although we saw something on the map that could have been it, it said nothing about beer or a beer garden.  So, we all agreed on what we thought was a  central part of the city and hopped a bus to begin our sightseeing. 

 

On the bus we saw there were lots  of tents along the river and realized it was one of the market festivals we had read about.  But the buss long passed them by the time we reached our stop, so we decided we’d walk around and make our way back to it.  We went down a side street and walked right into the street festival we had read about, too!  And looking up, we saw the fortress that we wanted to visit.  It was all coming together!  We all enjoyed some beers and pretzels and then walked a bit through the festival.  We were able to buy some nice artwork from a local artist and we slowly made our way over to the river market, which was lined with vendor tents. 

 

After strolling along for a while we decided to try and find the abbey, and looking on the map, we thought we saw the building up on a hill to our left.  We took a couple of turns, and after a couple of good guesses, we found it no problem!  It is well hidden and not at all advertised.  We thought it was an abbey, but not the one we were looking for – until we saw the beer steins and the wells and the beer garden!  We were so excited to have found this place and it was a really neat experience!

 

After a couple of rounds and some brats and kraut, we left the abbey, with intentions to head back towards the city center and make our way to the fortress.  We saw some nice walking paths up around the abbey and thought we’d check those out first.  We had amazing views and decided to keep walking.  As it turned out, it was a relatively unknown walking path to tourists and one Austrian woman who was trying to learn English told Jason and Charlie that if we kept on the path, we’d come to the fortress.  It was a great way to see the city below us as we walked to the enormous citadel. 

 

We got to the Festung Hohensalzburg (fortress over Salzburg) and had a beer and pretzel looking over the city.  It is a huge place with a few restaurants and conference facility.  The cannons were pointed through the wall at one place.  Took the tram down and went to the festival going on in the middle of the city and had another beer before heading back.  They were playing music (the 30+ person band played “It’s Raining Men” and everyone was up and dancing – totally hysterical) on stage and people were dancing on the tables.  It was fun.

 

We then went on a hunt for an Austrian restaurant to have some wiener schnitzel for dinner.  One problem, though…it seems that Indian-Italian restaurants were more popular and we couldn’t find a restaurant that had wiener schnitzel.  We walked for a while before a friendly and round Austrian man showed us a couple of good restaurants where the schnitzel was good.  We enjoyed a great meal and then headed back by bus and train to St. Johann.

 

We could not have planned the day more perfectly.  The weather, the flow of our day and everything in between worked out effortlessly.  By far, it has been one of the best days of our entire trip.

 

Coming up next:  recapping Oktoberfest!

 

9.23.2007

9-22 in venice

Our VIP tour of Venice that Daniele & Gabriele took us on was an experience we will not soon forget.  They were wonderful hosts and we cannot thank them enough for their kindness and hospitality while in their beautiful city.  We have so many things to write about, but for now, we will sum up our day as best we can.
We had many experiences while walking through the streets and looking at the shops, bridges and boats through the canals: 

We had pizza at a shop owned by Daniele’s friend, an Armenian fellow and very friendly person. After having some pizza and some turkey gyros, he pulled out his stash of  Armenian “moonshine”  which he offered us as a token of friendship. We can say now that we have had authentic (and amazing) Italian pizza!

Daniele & Gabriele’s son Luca’s best friend’s father (Sergio) took us on a 20 minute gondola tour around the Grand Canal under the Rialto bridge and through some narrow canals.  Adriane said everyone that we know with a boat would never try to navigate through these narrow canals.  I think Britton would have tried with the MC.  The gondola ride, normally about 70 euro was free because we were with them.  Can’t complain about that.  That was when we realized we were VIP.

We visited the Doge’s palace and saw more amazing paintings, architecture and a way of life you can’t imagine existed in the 1200’s. there was a museum of various artillery, swords, suits of armor and other medieval artifacts. We walked across the “Bridge of Sighs” to the dungeons where they kept the prisoners and looked at the various rooms and creepy corners where people were undoubtedly tortured etc.

Then we walked around some more, drank some beers at the park and watched the boats, a bride and groom having pictures taken and some interesting people along with the tourists walking by. 

Walked more through the streets and looked for some wall hangings to decorate the new addition.

Adriane found a great Gelati shop and enjoyed what she thinks is the best ice cream she ever had. 

Jason & Daniele haggled with a Venetian street vendor about a Venetian flag that Jason wanted for a wall hanging.  Eventually talked him down to 11 from 12 Euros.

Jason finally bought a mask that he wanted for a wall hanging after looking at about 5 different shops soon to realize they had about the same thing and they were all too expensive.  I settled for something modest.

We took the bus back to Mestre instead of the train this time.  We then took showers and went to dinner to have local seafood with Daniele and Gabriele.  It was a great 4 course meal consisting of all fish.  The first course was sardines prepared with traditional Italian onions with vinegar for preservation. Then shrimp, octopus, something similar to crawfish or prawns (white meat) - almost like a large shrimp. The second course was a type of scallop broiled with olive oil and herbs (they aren’t scallops, but they had a dark pink muscle that we call the foot normally  Daniele explained that the shell of these (looks just like a scallop shell) is the symbol for St. Marc and the people used to use the shell as a symbol atop their masts or walking sticks. Also a symbol which means “Peace Be With You”.   Then squid and prawns (large shrimp) we each had 2.  And finally they served 2 kinds of white fish.  One was oily and one was kind of like tilapia.  It was all very good.

 

We walked around the square after dinner where a festival was just coming to an end but a lot of people were still out.  In Venice has about 80k people and in Mestre about 150K and they consider Mestre a small town.  Each town has a main square known as the piazza where all of the people gather every night between 6 and 8:30 for aperativos or special drinks.  Then they, mostly the young people, go home for dinner or to the pizzeria.  When we were walking at about 10:30 there were still some tents open.  One had  cheese and samples to boot!  Jason, of course, had to take a sample and Daniele was able to get us a “Venetian discount” by mentioning that we are Americans.  The owner of the business immediately stood up , wiped his hand and shook mine. He said we would get a discount and asked us where we are from. I don’t know how I knew what he was saying but answered correctly and said Pennsylvania.  He said he loves the US except for Bush and was very excited to talk to us.  He was from Sardinia.  We kept waking and eventually went back to the apartment we are renting.  It is very nice and even has a stove, fridge, tv/vcr, comfy bed, nice bathroom with a bide and a great location close to Daniele’s house and the train station. 

 

On Sunday morning we packed our things and then walked to Daniele’s.  He took us again to the piazza in Mestre and we walked around the festival a bit more.  He showed us one of the churches in Mestre and they were having mass.  Not a big church compared to St. Marc’s Basilica in Venice, but still quite impressive and beautiful.  Jason bought some Italian salami to go along with the pecorino he bought the night before so that we could have something to eat on the train ride from Mestre to Salzburg.  We write now as we are en route to St. Johann where we will arrive just before 7PM.  We are looking forward to meeting up with Kristin & Charlie for a week of more fun European experiences!

 

¡Ciao!

 

 

9.22.2007

¡Bella Venezia!

 

We left Bern yesterday AM on a 9:40 train to Venice.  The ride through Switzerland into Italy took us through the Alps, and it was breathtaking!  We couldn’t get pictures to do it justice, mainly since taking them through a window isn’t ideal, but we attached a couple to show you.

 

We arrived in Venice a bit travel weary (the train ride was about 7 hours total), ears ringing slightly after listening to 3 very chatty Italian women the entire way.  Jason’s friend, Daniele met us as soon as we got out of the station.  Daniele and his family (wife, Gabrielle, daughter Laura, 13 and son Luca, 9) are all wonderful and we enjoyed a fabulous home cooked Italian meal at their home last night.  The boys even had fun playing a game of fusball together!

 

After dinner, Daniele took Jason and I on a wonderful tour of Venice.  Daniele lives in Mestre, which is the town just over the bridge from the island of Venice.  We can walk to the train station from our B&B (picture attached, it is so beautiful and cozy!).  Experiencing Venice at night was almost too much to process!!  I had no idea how big this little island is!  We are headed there again today, as well as possible another of the islands, so we are in for a real treat.  We are too lucky to have a local tour guide!  Daniele knows so much about Venice that it is a cultural experience for us, too!  We’ll write more tomorrow after our experiences today!

 

Pictures attached: Scenes from our train ride from Bern to Milano; Daniele & Jason with a friend of Daniele’s who owns a pizza shop in Venice enjoying a friendly beer last night.

 

¡Ciao!

9.20.2007

Bern, Baby, Bern!

 

Well, after an unusually uneventful trip overseas (we breezed in and out of security, didn’t have to check any bags and encountered few, if any, lines), we made it to Frankfurt at 7 AM this morning!  After Jason had his ceremonial in-airport beers, we hopped our first train on our trek to Bern at 8:54AM.  Many snoozes and 3 trains later, we arrived in Bern to amazing weather!   To include some historical info, Bern was founded in 1191 by the Duke Bechtold von Zaehringen, who, on his first hunt, caught a bear and that is where the name came from. Aside from a lot of construction, Bern is an amazing city to walk around.  We got that chance because we a hard time finding an affordable hotel.  We finally settled for the last place we found, which is a very old hotel with a shared bath. 

 

Today’s highlight’s include:

·         Our amazing buffalo, arugula and ham pizza (pictured below)

·         Getting to wander aimlessly through the streets of Bern (Jason getting ti talk to every innkeeper and hotel clerk in German along the way)

·         The Aare River

·         Finding a horizontal location for real sleep which we are looking very forward to after almost 30 straight hours of travel.

 

Tomorrow:  Onto Venice!

 

 

9.13.2007

Getting Butterflies!

I have to say that I am really getting über-excited about our trip.  I am very anxious, though.  Once we get on our flight from Detroit to Frankfurt, I know I’ll relax.  It won’t be until then that I’ll know that we have everything we need and we are truly on our way.  It is very hard for me to believe that this time next week I’ll be having a beer in a pub somewhere in Bern, Switzerland!

 

Adriane

 

9.05.2007

We have a Blog

Hi everyone!

We created a blog to document our travels. With our upcoming trip to Europe only a couple of weeks away, we thought this would be a great way to write down the things we see and do before we forget any details! So, although we aren't leaving yet, go ahead and bookmark this site and then you can follow us as we travel throughout Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Austria!

Adriane & Jason