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Happy New Year!

More pictures of Germany and Austria available here on Picasa

We had a splendid Christmas break this year even though we missed our families terribly. However, we did have the best fondue ever with some friends from church on Christmas Eve and a wonderful lunch with our neighbors on Christmas Day. It was great to have fellowship with others that are away from home and those that have made Grenoble their home, if only temporarily. We have been blessed with friends within our community, which makes the distance from home seem not so far.

The day after Christmas we headed out in a borrowed car (Thank you Steiners!) to Baden-Baden, Germany and fought some post-Christmas traffic on our way there. I didn’t know there were so many Netherlanders who headed south for Christmas, but now I know to stay out of their way the next time I decide to travel on December 26th. European traffic isn’t so much stopped, but more like an ooze that has a hard time regulating it’s speed according to the objects around itself. That is until we made it into Germany and everyone realized that, “Hey, I can drive as fast as I want to!” We made great time in the last 70km, which hardly made up for the traffic before Germany. The weather in Baden-Baden was particularly freezing, but we found that the Christmas Market was still open so we took advantage of the numerous food stands to partake of some weinerschnitzel and not so healthy desserts. The stands were filled with the typical Christmas kitsch like cheese, meat, food, candles, glowsticks, clothing, and woodwork, which was all made in Germany of course As Stacey’s hands were turning purple we decided to retreat back to our room at the hostel, which was pretty much deserted besides a really loud group of Japanese-Germans who came in rather late and were doing really annoying things that disturb one sleep like blow drying hair, yelling each others names from one floor to the other, eating McDonald’s take out, and oh yes, talking very loudly. I don’t think they knew they had people sleeping in the same hall so I banged on the inside of our door really loud and I think that frightened them because I didn’t hear a peep out of them the rest of the night.

The next day was spent driving through the Black Forest, which looks a lot like the Smokies in East Tennessee, with a touch more snow. It was quite the drive and the only really sunny day we had the whole trip. A lot of the area is developed around tourism and we found a few of the towns filled with bus loads of people wandering around looking for cuckoo clocks. I admit, we were looking for one too until we saw the price tag for one we thought would go perfect in our dining room. “My goodness!”, I said, “We could use that money to make a down payment on a house.” Stacey agreed and we drove off without a clock but with the feeling that we made the right decision not to buy one after all. That evening we ate at the Christmas Market again and branched out into the finer areas of German cuisine like Sauerkraut, Noodle, and Sausage casserole and Whole Potatoes with Curry Sauce. Yum yum….. Don’t get me wrong, it was very tasty going down but getting it to digest was a task that we were obviously amateurs at. We tried Mezzo Mix, a German mixture of Coke and Orange cola, and that didn’t work. Next we tried hot tea and that seemed to do the trick.

While still processing the food from the night before, we headed out for Munich. We stayed at a B&B which is run by a Portuguese and Dutch couple with 2 big furry dogs. They acquainted us with the area and which train we should take to get into town. We found Munich to be one of those cities where if you like to shop and dine then you will love it, and if you don’t do either one of those than you might not care for the place. The locals in Munich make the hipsters of Nashville look like hobos. They are without a doubt the most fashionable Germans around and give the French and Italians a run for their money. I think the highlight of the city for me was the Hofbrauhaus, which is really a tourist trap for people looking for a “real beer hall”, but was quite a rowdy experience to behold and take part in. The second best part of Munich is that it is very pedestrian friendly and is easy to get around quickly by foot.

Well rested and fed by the innkeepers in Munich we headed out for Salzburg, Austria. This is where The Sound of Music was filmed, but we didn’t go there for that or for Mozart. We went there for something that we didn’t even know about before arriving. After walking around the city and checking out the hills near the fortress on the highest point of the city we found the coolest coffee shop/restaurant called Afro Coffee. This place is seething with coolness and had the atmosphere of something in between an opium den and a modern bar. The menu served food of African origin and drinks from everywhere around the world. We’re thinking of asking them about franchising opportunities : )  We stayed at a Guesthouse right outside of Salzburg which was a converted barn full of country charm. The breakfast was once again amazing, and I’m pretty sure we didn’t eat lunch either day we stayed there!

For our second day in the Salzburg area we went to Bertesgardnerland, which is the area where Hitler installed his second office of command. The famous Eagle’s Nest was closed for winter but the Documentation Center where the bunker is located was open and very interesting. It is an extremely exhaustive exhibition and I was very impressed how the Germans have preserved and documented this part of their history that most countries would have tried to forget. We also learned that German children are required at some point in their education to visit a concentration camp to witness what happened not too long ago. After trying to hike up the snow and ice to the Eagle’s Nest we went to a small town nearby named Konigsee with a pristine mountain lake closed in by mountains with a church across the lake accessible only by boat. It was a pretty amazing sight with three bright red onion domes for a roof and nothing else within miles.

The last 2 days of our trip we stayed in a town named Bad Kohlgrub at a guesthouse with the nicest German couple, who didn’t speak a lick of English, but were always telling us about sights and the weather and who knows what else since we don’t speak any German! After we checked in we headed to Neuschwanstein castle, which is the castle Mad King Ludwig II built and Walt Disney used as inspiration for his castle in Disneyworld. The inside was closed since we were visiting on New Year’s Eve, so we saw the inside of the lesser known neighboring castle of Hohenschwangau (actually a hunting lodge for the summer) built by Ludwig’s father. The tour was interesting and informative of the family and the people who visited the place, but the coolest part of the area was not the castle, but the Marienbrucke, which is a bridge overlooking the gorge and the back of Neuschwanstein. It is incredibly high in the air, fitted with delightfully loose wood boards, and sways ever so gently in the wind, all of which made the experience all the more exhilarating. For New Year’s Eve dinner we went to one of the few restaurants in Bad Kohlgrub, La Locanta, which is Italian and very good. Huge portions for next to nothing by European standards. We only had an hour since the table we were sitting at was reserved for a larger party, but it was so great we went there again the next night (okay, maybe we just couldn’t handle the thought of eating any more sauerkraut!).

The last day we ran out of stuff to do and see so we went to a couple of small towns and hiked around until we decided that we needed to go back to the Guesthouse and relax since it was our vacation after all. That night it snowed and we awoke to frozen powder-covered roads. I think we surprised our hosts by getting up so early for breakfast, because Mrs. Gerold was still shopping for breakfast goods. Nevertheless, they served us up a huge breakfast and sent us with some sandwiches and hard boiled eggs for our long drive home. Mr. Gerold even came outside in the icy weather and helped scrape all the snow and ice off the car. We had a great experience with all the places we stayed at in Germany, but they were definitely the friendliest people we met and we will remember them for years to come.

So, I am tired of writing and you are probably tired of reading. Leave comments, we love to read them!

-Ian

P.S. Check back in a few weeks when we will have a new tale of an adventure in a much warmer climate…