by

(Music on/off)

I want to thank Joan (RJKarr) for being so generous in helping me plan our trip. Her encouragement, suggestions and tips made a big difference, I really appreciated it. Thanks to Ben for suggesting the itinerary, we loved it, and for his website. All the information I got here was amazing. Thanks to Nate and his wife for helping us make reservations at the Sesters, one of our favorite stops, and just a great experience. Many other people with trip reports at Ben’s site were quick to answer my questions and give suggestions, and all helped to make our trip as wonderful as it was.

Day 1

This trip seemed to be starting out ominously. I had a lot of last minute things to do, and actually ended up working up until we had to shove the last few items into our suitcases. We rushed out, and jumped into the cab to catch our Lufthansa flight from JFK to Frankfurt. Both Rob and I thought the flight crew were efficient, polite and hardworking, and everything went smoothly from take off to landing. If only the seats had been a little wider...or my rear a little narrower!

We’d opted to pick up the rental car in downtown Frankfurt to save on the airport tax, something I wouldn’t bother to do again, since after the cab ride (40 Euro) we didn’t save anything, and we still had to navigate our way out of a city neither of us had been to before. (We stopped to ask a DHL driver who, luckily, gave us perfect instructions — in German and hand language — on how to get on the right autobahn.) We got an Irish Skoda, an automatic diesel 4-door, with an unlimited mileage plan, which turned out to be great, as we planned on doing a lot of driving. It cost 646 Euro for our two week trip, and we stopped for gas four times at about 40 Euro per fill up.

At the Europcar office I found out that I’d accidently grabbed an old expired driver’s license out of my wallet instead of my current one. That meant I’d be the designated map woman for the entire trip. I can only say, Rob, GREAT JOB DRIVING! I’d planned several stretches of two or three days without using the car which turned out to be a very good thing.

Rob managed to stay awake all the way to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. The beautiful scenery, with all the rolling fields of yellow flowers, farms, and little towns helped. A little disoriented once we hit the outside of the town, we asked a German couple in a parking lot for directions to the hotel, and they very kindly drove in front of us all the way there. We noticed the pattern early on of how friendly and helpful many of the locals were with us.

We loved Hotel Altfrankische Weinstube am Klosterhof. The rooms and hotel had loads of charm. We had flower boxes outside our window with red geraniums, and looking out we could see a hot air balloon rising over the town. (We later found out that a company offers rides from the road just outside of Detwang, the next town over.) Happy Ballooning

Well, we couldn’t wait to get out and see some of Rothenburg. The weather was lovely, sunny and just a little chilly; tons of lilac bushes bloomed everywhere. After walking two blocks, we came to St. Jacob’s Church and went inside to look. Along with the German stained glass windows, art and wood carvings, the church displays a large canoe woodcarving from its sister church in Tanzania. After that, we randomly picked streets to go up and down, and really enjoyed exploring. We came across a few picturesque views from the town wall, including the double bridge that’s down in the valley. We window shopped like crazy to try and get an idea of what items we might want to buy, then we sat at a fountain across from a bakery where we munched on our first Apfelstrudel (good stuff), and just people watched for a while.

After more window shopping, we headed back to the hotel and decided to hit the hay early (after my bubble bath). At about 11:30pm, the sound of singing below in the Weinstube woke us. We’d checked in on a Friday night and it sounded like the locals were enjoying a traditional singing party. We had a good time listening, cozy under our duvets. Things quieted down in about an hour, and we fell back to sleep, very happy with our first day in Germany.

Day 2

We were munching on our first German buffet breakfast by 7:45am. Since I knew most places wouldn’t be open yet, I suggested we take the little hike over to Detwang. The paved path down into the valley turned out to be pretty steep, which was more of an issue going up than down. It followed the river past flowering fruit trees down to the little town of Detwang, described on the Rothenburg website as being the oldest part of Rothenburg. When I say little here, I mean little. It’s made up of a handful of charming homes, a couple of gasthauses, and the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, a small Romanesque church that dates back over 1,000 years.

We headed back up the valley and sat on a bench near the stone wall before heading over to the castle gardens. Besides all the colorful pansy beds and flowering horsechestnut trees, walking around the walls at the garden we had great views of the rest of the town and of the valley below. We found a small church that dated back hundreds of years, with a memorial to the Jews on the outside, and a list of names inside of the local German soldiers killed during World War II with pine wreathes underneath.

Stomachs growling, we headed back into town to get lunch. We chose a restaurant that had a stone patio overlooking the square next to St. Jacob’s church. We went with the special of the day –– venison stew with spatzle and a purple cabbage salad. I got a beer to go with mine. Afterwards, I had a cappuccino, and the friendly waiter brought it with a heart made of cinnamon on top of the foam, very cute. A fairly brisk day, we were just a few of the people willing to eat outside. It felt good to be in the open air in such a pretty place.

We’d noticed the Stadt museum the first day because it was just a few doors down from our hotel, so we decided to check it out. An old Benedictine monastery, the town converted it into a museum with a hodge podge of things. We enjoyed the weaponry exhibit on the second floor, which is an extensive collection of all types of guns, swords, knives, armor, and on and on. Lots of the pieces were made by some of the top artisans of the time, many of the guns with elaborately carved ivory handles, silver and gold work. Neat stuff. The museum also has Jewish artifacts and even bones, pottery and coins from the area that date back as far as 500BC.

We explored a little more, and went to buy the souvenirs we’d scoped out the day before. We found a drugstore to buy notebooks (to keep a journal of the trip) and took the opportunity to grab a couple of Ritter Sport chocolate bars that I’d heard so much about. We bought postcards to send back home and stamps. We headed back to the castle gardens to fill out the postcards and just chill.

Since we’d had such a leisurely lunch, we decided to grab a German "fast food" dinner –– I had a plate of currywurst and fries and Rob had a gyro with fries. We ate outside at a table on a side street off of the main square. After dinner, we headed out in search of a Geld machine and soon found ourselves in the middle of a celebration that looked like a mini-beerfest. Tables had been set up for people to sit and drink beer and wine, the kids had a small merry-go-round and games (a treasure hunt in a tank of sand). Performing in the middle of it all was, I’m pretty sure, that same troupe that played and sang at our hotel. We grabbed an ice cream for dessert after getting our money, then made our way back to the hotel to rest (waving hello again to the waiter at the currywurst restaurant).

Granted, we stayed in the town for just two days. Still, overall the people struck us as extremely happy and friendly, the place lovely and welcoming.

Day 3

We headed out early the next morning to Salzburg, Austria. The day was a little gray and drizzly, which reflected our mood: sad to leave. I got us on the wrong road, doh! A quiet two-lane drive through rolling green fields. Not a bad wrong turn at all. Soon, though, we made it back to the Romantic Road heading south, eventually planning to cut east, driving just north of Munich, and then further east into Austria. We knew to slow down in towns, and yet we still got that ominous flash of light that spells s-p-e-e-d-i-n-g-t-i-c-k-e-t. Ah, well, part of the experience. Along the way, the sun managed to fight its way through the heavy rain clouds, and we did get treated to some spectacular scenery: little towns in the middle of fields, churches rising above all the houses, dramatic rock cliffs, rushing streams. Past Munich, the autobahn winds past Chiemsee, with the lake on one side filled with sailboats, and the cows in pastures and mountains rising up through the clouds on the other. As we neared Austria, the landscape seemed to me to get prettier and prettier, with all the farms, pastures, horses and cows, small towns.

We made it into Salzburg without a problem; finding the hotel wouldn’t be as easy. I oriented myself quickly, but traffic zoomed around us and the streets were windy and narrow. Finally, I had Rob stop at a little parking lot and I went by foot with our hotel confirmation (I knew I wouldn’t have to go far, our hotel being right under the Fortress). With the help of a couple of kind strangers, I made it through the old town streets and up the little hill to Hotel Restaurant Weisses Kreuz. After checking in, I walked back to get Rob.

Well, I’d e-mailed them two weeks prior to our leaving to make sure we’d have a parking space. They’d assured me we’d have one. The garage they obviously used was undergoing extensive construction (the chain link fence and bulldozer gave us a clue to that), so they told us to park on the little street right next to the hotel. Then they asked us to give them the car keys so they could move it if anyone had to make a delivery up the street, doh! A friend of mine told me a request like that isn’t so unusual, but with a nice rented car on our hands, which we were fully responsible for, we didn’t feel very comfortable with that solution. We drove it back to the pay parking lot where we’d originally stopped and left it there for two days (27 Euro for our peace of mind).

All set up, we headed out to explore some of Salzburg: the giant chess game, street vendors (make sure you buy one of the pretzels from the woman surrounded by barrels of different varieties, including chocolate and nuts and another with cheese and bacon, delicious), the Dom, the Mozartplatz with the statue of Mozart, St. Peter’s with grave markers made of metal crucifixes and surrounded by small beds of flowers. Hungry and tired, we went back to the hotel to have dinner there. I enjoyed the platter of Balkan specialties, Rob had a steak.

Afterwards, we walked over one of the pedestrian bridges over the Salzach River, window shopped, and strolled through the Mirabell Gardens. On our way back, we decided to sit on one of the benches on the river for a while. The sun kept bursting through the rain clouds highlighting the buildings, churches and the fortress, very lovely.

Day 4

Early the next morning after breakfast, we walked over to the Monchsberg Aufzug - the lift that goes to the top of the cliff above the city. We didn’t know it at the time, but the funicular going up the Fortress wasn’t working. In fact, the entire city seemed to be in the midst of a big construction effort: fountains, streets, buildings, the Mirabell gardens, even the Aufzug was getting a big complex added at the top.

A clear sunny day, we got a great treat of wonderful views from the top of the cliff. As we walked on the paved path through the woods over to the Fortress, again and again we stopped at little viewing areas with fantastic vistas of Salzburg, its suburbs, and the Austrian mountains. We got to the Fortress and still had some steep climbing to get through. It turned out to be worth it. Again, wow, what views! The weather cooperated too, sunny and clear. Walking down again was still tricky but much easier. We headed into the old town to get lunch and ended up finding a little café with a handful of tables. It had great food –– I had farfalle with gorgonzola sauce, Rob had a stacked sandwich –– and wine, so we took our time to enjoy it and rest from the morning hikes.

After some window shopping, we walked back to the Mirabell gardens again to explore more and relax. We found a raised garden surrounded by a stone wall only accessible by a little wooden bridge. All along the oblong path stood these strange misshapen dwarf statues in costume. We meandered through a small hedge maze, found an interesting tunnel, then ended up sitting on a bench by a fountain surrounded by flowers.

The next day we planned to go to Hallstatt by train, so I thought it would be a good idea to buy a picnic lunch to take with us, and to buy some simple dinner for us since we’d had a big lunch. We searched for and found a grocery store in Mozartplatz with all kinds of cold cuts and breads, potato chips and drinks. An elderly woman buying her groceries was ahead of me in line with a beautiful little basket. I like the idea of using a basket rather than plastic bags all the time, which generates so much garbage in New York. Lastly, we bought a chocolate pretzel from the vendor near our hotel to eat as a snack after dinner. Yum.

Day 5

We got up early to catch a cab to get to the Bahnhof. I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to find one, but there by the Rathaus we found a line waiting to go. We had a friendly and fast cab driver who zipped us through the surprisingly busy streets to a pretty empty train station. We paid 59 euros for both of us round trip. About 45 minutes early, we had plenty of time to sit and enjoy the morning. I was excited to see the Austrian countryside, and in a few minutes we were riding through the fields covered with yellow, white and purple wild flowers. We passed lots of little farms, and rode through suburban looking clusters of houses.

In a little less than an hour we reached Attnang-Puchheim where we had to transfer to the train to Hallstatt. I double checked with the information desk to make sure we got on the right train. The clerk was charming and carefully explained in English (which I got the feeling he rarely had a chance to use) which platform to catch our train and when it would arrive. The ride to Hallstatt lasted about 1.5 hours, mostly because we stopped at every little station along the way, sometimes it seemed like we didn’t go more than a few hundred feet. Some of the stations weren’t more than little houses in the middle of what looked to us like empty countryside. We loved the ride though, through resort towns that hug the mountain lakes, and tunnels under the pine covered mountains. Older people in traditional folk costume boarded the train from time to time.

As dramatic as the scenery got the closer we came to Hallstatt, we were happy to finally get there. The ferry is carefully timed to meet the trains, so we didn’t have to wait long to get on board the Stephanie. (I could just picture the guy who sold us our tickets with a surfboard on a California beach, with his long blond hair and tanned athletic look. Too funny.) Well, just remembering how gorgeous going across that lake towards that little town on the mountainside makes my heart ache to be back there. We made our way up the hill, stopping to be wowed at the views every now and then, to see the Catholic church and the (in)famous charnel house. We explored the streets (complete with rushing streams that go through the town, once used to power their grain mills), enjoyed the views and the swans and ducks, ate ice cream in a lovely square, had coffee from a vending machine (and it was good), bought souvenirs. I stopped in the Protestant church before we boarded the ferry back to the Bahnhof. We liked it so much, I regretted not planning a night in Hallstatt.

I’d originally planned on having a beer there, we couldn’t find a single empty seat! Ha. Instead I bought a container of strawberries and gawked at all the great food on display. We bought sandwiches, milk and pastries for dinner and dessert, and decided to eat the (delicious) sandwiches in a cute little park off of the Sendlinger Tor. As we ate, a small group of unicyclists holding hands rode past us, earning cheers and applause from everyone on the benches, including us, of course. Our first day in Munich, and I already loved it.

Day 7

Even on a European vacation, dirty laundry will rear its ugly head. Day 7 found us up early in order to do our laundry in the big laundromat just a block away from our hotel. We stashed our freshly cleaned clothes, then went to try out the U-bahn; target destination, the Englischer Garten. It turned out that we picked a religious holiday to go to the park, so lots of sunbathers were around. We lounged, walked, had a bratwurst, then a beer in the Chinese beer garden, enjoyed the great weather and the oom-pah band there, had an ice cream, then decided to go to the Residence to see the Treasury.

After we got an eyeful of jewels and gold, we decided we’d go back to the Rathaus to see the famous Glockenspiel. I hadn’t seen Michaelskirche yet, either. I’m very glad I didn’t miss it. For dinner, we stopped and got slices of pizza on the corner café right near Michaelskirche, delicious. We picked up a couple of pastries to eat later as well. We roamed around seeing the sights in the area, and ended up sitting near a fountain with bronze bulls for a while before we headed back to the hotel.

I was sad to leave Munich. I definitely wished I’d had the time to explore it more. Garmisch called, though. Since the drive would only take about an hour on the autobahn, we decided to take a detour and go on the Alpenstraße for a while. We got off the autobahn right near Grossweil and drove through Kochel am See. It was so pretty, I made a mental note to stay there next trip to Germany. Once we hit the two lakes, Kochelsee and Walchensee, the road became very windy, hairpin turn after hairpin turn (didn’t slow down the German drivers though). The alpine waters of the lakes glowed a sort of turquoise blue, really lovely.

Even with the detour we made it to Garmisch by the early afternoon. The neighborhood where the apartment we rented was situated had lots of small streets, so I had Rob park while I went to look for the FeWo Fiakerhof. It didn’t take me long, and when Monika showed me the apartment, I knew Rob would love it. Actually, once I got into the building, I knew Rob would love it. Lots of charming details in the hallways and everything was spotless. The room was large, clean and very nice, with a balcony looking out onto the mountains. I loved it.

After we parked and unloaded our luggage, we headed up the street to get cash and lunch. An Italian place called Pizzeria Da Renzo looked popular, so we picked that. I got a big dish of spaghetti carbonara, Rob got lasagna. Refreshed, we headed out to see a little of the town, do some window shopping, and buy some groceries. Still a little tired, we retired early to enjoy our balcony and watch a little German TV.

Day 10

Castle day! We got up early to drive to Schwangau, winding our way through Oberammergau, past Ettal, and through some incredible countryside. It ended up being a good thing we’d left extra early because once we hit the Romantische Straße, we had to follow a detour. In that countryside, we actually didn’t mind at all.

I’d made reservations through the Internet to see both castles, so after picking up our tickets, we climbed the hill to Hohenschwangau, with the beautiful views of the mountains and alpine lake there, the Alpsee. We liked our tour guide, and the group was fairly small. I couldn’t believe the views of the lake from the windows, it looked like it couldn’t be real it was so beautiful. And from one room we could see the parasailers flying over the fields.

We decided to skip the hike and take the bus up to Neuschwanstein. What a nice long line we had to stand in, and then what nice people who cut in front of the line so that we had to stand in the bus!! I admit I closed my eyes as we navigated that road up the hill; it looked like a long way down a steep incline. Of course we had to see Mary’s Bridge. Reading about it and seeing pictures is nothing like experiencing it. You can see through the boards that make up the bridge down to the ravine below, kind of made our palms sweaty.

Our Neuschwanstein tour guide struck us as a little burned out, but seeing the 13 amazing rooms Ludwig II finished of the castle made for a great experience. I ended up convinced the King had to have been a little eccentric. On the other hand, a washstand made with silver swans, doesn’t everybody have something like that in their house? Starving, we pooped out and ate at the castle café, which turned out to be not so bad, if a little expensive. After souvenir browsing, we opted to walk down the hill. We’d brought our mini-umbrellas, a good decision on our part since half way down, it started to hail!

We took the same road back to Garmisch so that we could stop and see the Wieskirche. Not only is the church amazing, but the setting is so lovely too. Lots of tour buses there, and stands selling souvenirs, and Japanese tourists with private guides. Back in Garmisch, we made dinner in our apartment and enjoyed our balcony again.

Day 11

We’d designated this day a take it easy day, since I was having some problems with the altitude. I hadn’t slept well and was suffering from weird headaches that came and went. Rob was having some problems with his ear too. We walked to the town center and did some shopping. I found a store I’d bought a stein at 20 years earlier, when I’d been in Germany during college! It looked almost exactly the same, which amazed me. We both bought steins for ourselves, and got some other small items to take home for people. For lunch we picked Italian food again, and shared a piece of tiramisu for dessert. Afterwards, we went and spent some time walking and lounging in the town park, tiny daisies and dandelion covered the grass, and tulips and pansies filled the flowerbeds. We could see the Alps.

I still had a couple of more things I wanted to get, so we headed back to the other side of town near our apartment where I’d seen a chocolatier. A woman, I think the owner, helped me pick out different pieces of liqueur filled chocolates and had them put in a blue and white checkered box, like the Bavarian flag. All the workers, about 5 people, waved and said goodbye to us as we left.

After a little more grocery shopping, since we were headed to another apartment in the Black Forest the next day, we went back to the apartment to pack and take it easy. Tomorrow would be our longest drive. We could hear Monika’s daughters and their friends playing below our balcony. We both wanted more days in Garmisch, not only for sight seeing, considering how much we both felt we still wanted to see, but to relax, and walk and enjoy the beauty. I thought it would be a great place for a honeymoon.

Day 12

We’d planned to meet a French friend of mine in the early afternoon at the train station in Strasbourg, so that the three of could spend a couple of days in the Black Forest together. I chose a route on the autobahn rather than taking smaller roads because I thought it would be faster and easier and that we’d have much less chance of getting there late, even though it was less direct. Well, the best laid plans....After a beautiful morning’s drive through part of Austria, we headed north at a good clip, then after a quick lunch, turned east towards Karlsruhe –– only to be stopped by a nasty accident involving multiple cars and a huge truck. It had just happened moments before, so we pulled over to the side of the road and watched as ambulances, fire trucks, a helicopter and tow trucks made their way to the scene. Pretty awful and scary. We prayed for the best for all involved in it. Another hour of driving and all of a sudden the traffic started to slow and stop again. This time we were so far back from the origin of the slow down we had no idea what was causing it. We crept forward slowly, then stopped, crept, stopped, on and on for about two hours. Finally, we saw the reason: workers repainting the lines on the road. Arghhhh.

Three hours late(!), we made it to Strasbourg, navigated the tiny streets, parked and found our way to the train station and Elize. We were bummed because all the time we’d allotted to sight-seeing in Strasbourg had been wasted on the autobahn. We drove back to Gengenbach, got a few groceries (at a huge supermarket), and directions from the very friendly checkout woman, then went to find the Sesters and our Black Forest apartment. The Sesters live in a traditional, 170-year-old Black Forest farmhouse (the Oberer Schwärzenbachhof) at the end of a tiny road that winds through a neighborhood and past other farmhouses. In a building separate from the farmhouse, with two bedrooms and a living room with murphy beds, we had plenty of room to spread out (all for 45 euros per night for the three of us). The balcony overlooked the little valley, and from the kitchen window we could see the vegetable garden. They kept cows, geese, goats, chickens, and probably other creatures we couldn’t see. There was even a running brook right next to the road. We loved the place. We left to have dinner while Mrs. Sester and her daughter fixed the bedding and brought towels.

We wandered into a restaurant with a big bar in the middle, and a sky light that covered the courtyard of what looked like balconies for hotel rooms. Very nice place. Rob had their Flamenkuchen (pizza), and Elize and I had pork medallions and Spargel with potatoes. We had some of the local wine to go with it. The waiter was really friendly, and we had a laugh when his much younger brother came over with a pad thinking we spoke German to take our after dinner order for coffee. The poor kid’s mouth shaped an O and his face turned red when he realized we spoke English and not much German. We still managed to communicate, and his brother brought us some great coffee.

We went back to our apartment afterwards, and enjoyed looking at the stars and the moon and the lovely countryside. We stayed up talking for hours.

Day 13

We got up to another sunny, lovely day, and headed out to see the Open Air museum (the Vogtsbauernhof) near Hausach. After a couple of hours, and a little lunch there, we drove back to Gengenbach and decided to see some of the town. We wandered into a beautiful Romanesque Catholic church, St. Mary’s, looked at the old towers and enjoyed the old, narrow cobbled streets, then sat in the town square near the Rathaus. Elize and I went to the funky fool’s museum in the Niggel Tower while Rob rested on a bench. The fool is the mascot of the town’s yearly carnival, and the museum has a collection of costumes, masks and photos as well as other items displayed on several floors reachable by a spiral staircase that rises through the middle of each room. Afterward, we picked a restaurant with tables set up on an outdoor patio and had a leisurely dinner –– we’d picked it because Rob had wanted to try the Black Forest cake, which they had on the menu but then didn’t have when we tried to order it. Oh, well. He ended up with a huge slice of apple cake. Elize and I ordered the day’s specialty, a salad and soup.

We headed back to the apartment, very sad to think about our last night in Germany. I wanted to pay the Sesters that night, so as not to disturb them too early in the morning. Mrs. Sester offered us a tour of their home, which we happily accepted. We visited the cows in the barn, saw the old, large porcelain stove in the grandmother’s portion of the house, saw their huge modern kitchen, their still for making liqueurs from local cherries and berries (I got a bottle of that, yum). Really interesting since we’d seen the Open Air museum that same day, with houses just like theirs. Then we sat down on their outdoor patio and shared a bottle of red wine and talked with them and their friend (a pharmacist and hunter) named George, and played with his dog Bella. The saddest moment was saying good night. Great people in a great place.

Day 14

Now that we’d already driven to the Gare de Strasbourg, we managed to get there and park in the garage underneath it without any problem. We helped Elize carry her bags to the platform and waited with her for the train to leave. We all hated to say goodby, but planned to see each other again in the not too distant future.

The drive to Frankfurt airport went smoothly, and we found the car rental drop off area very easily by following the signs. Apparently, the American government had issued a terrorist alert, so we had to leave the terminal several times and the guards patted us down and waived a wand over us as well. We both considered our trip to Germany a fantastic experience, one that we know we’ll always remember. In fact, we can’t wait to go back and see some of the things and places we missed!

Auf Wiedersehen...