Germany and Austria, July 9 – July 26, 2014. Part I.

Due to its length, this trip report will be posted in two segments.  The first segment covers our stay in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (July 9 – 18), the second segment covers the rest.

This trip was suggested by Joe and Jess as a family get-together.  Ellie and Kuau used up a lot of their vacation days with Reid, so they decided not to go.  Joe’s original plan was from July 8 to July 30, Anne and I didn’t want to be away that long, so we planned to come back a few days earlier on July 26.  With a toddler, Joe and Jess were quite modest in their expectations, we would fly into Munich, drive to a small town in Bavaria (Garmisch-Partenkirchen, GaPa) where we will stay in a house for about a week, then spend a few days each in Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, and Vienna.  Anne and I would fly back from Vienna while Joe would continue to Munich, spend the rest of the time there before returning to Boston.

After about a week, Joe and Jess decided to cut short their vacation, and they would leave a day after us, from Vienna.  I think the logistics ends up being a bit overwhelming, so it is a good decision.

Wednesday 7/9.

Chung-Shu came by to take us to the airport.  UA3875 was a commuter flight to Toronto.  My experience with immigration and customs at Toronto has not been that great as the lines are always long.  However, transiting at the airport was quite straightforward.  Joe and Jess were already at the Air Canada Lounge when we got there.

Joe booked us in First Class on LH495 with frequent flyer miles.  It is a spacious cabin, with large “suites” and lie-flat chairs.  There were eight seats in the cabin, and we were the only passengers (4 adults and a lap.)  Being an afternoon flight lasting about 7 hours, no one got much sleep (with the possible exception of Emmie.)

Spacious F Cabin on LH495.  We were the only people in it.

Thursday 7/10.

Joe needed some rest before tackling traffic, so we stopped by the LH Lounge.  It turns out one can clear immigration there – I am not sure how people can’t slip through with the set up they have, but I assume it is somewhat foolproof.

The car we picked up was a Citroen SUV, considerably bigger than the Passat wagon we expected, so we had no problem with our luggage at all.  The drive to GaPa is about 120 miles, but traffic around Munich was slow, so it took us about 2 hours.

Emmie in car seat.  Our rental car was a roomy Citroen C4 Picasso.

Schalmeiweg is a small street on the edge of Partenkirchen.  The Swiss chalet-style house we rented is quite large, over 2800 square feet, on three levels, plus a basement.  There was enough room for Ellie and Kuau if they had decided to come.  It has heat, but no air conditioning, and that turned out not to be a problem.  It also has internet which worked most of the time.  The only thing that we missed were a washer and dryer.  They are located in the complex, shared by several families.  That proved to be a bit inconvenient as we often found them in use when we needed to do a wash, and a bit puzzling.  In any case, it was a comfortable place to call home for a few days.

The apartment for our GaPa stay.  Anne and I stayed on the top floor.

Having dinner in the house.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen was formed when the two towns merged as a preparation for the 1936 Winter Olympics.  Partenkirchen is the older sibling, and is quite a bit quieter than Garmisch.  Now by “old” we mean old, it was first mentioned in AD 15, and Garmisch some 800 years later.  The town is situated in one of the many valleys of the Bavarian Alps.  We have heard about Garmisch because that is where Richard Strauss composed a lot of his music.  One characteristic noticed rather quickly is that people decorate the outside of their houses with paintings, some depict sacred scenes, some ordinary life.

There are many fountains around where we live.  Notice the paintings on the house in the background.

In the afternoon - rain or shine - you see people sitting on these decorated benches and chat.  These are squatters.

Downtown Partenkirchen.

We walked on this street numerous times on our way to town.  Badgasse is not what you get after a terrible meal, it can be translated into “Spa Alley.”

Emmie taking a stroll in town.

We took it easy.  Lunch was at a Grille Restaurant in town, dinner was cooked at the house with groceries purchased at Tangelmann, which turns out to be a rather large chain in the area.

This is where we had our first meal.

Meanwhile, Joe would sleep for practically 16 hours straight to recover from his flights and travel.

Staying at Schalmeiweg 13, Partenkirchen, for 8 nights.

Friday 7/11.

Reminiscent of Italy, markets come to town every now and then.  Yesterday it was in Partenkirchen, but we were too tired to visit.  Today it was held at Garmisch.  Despite the slight rain, we decided to visit.  Stalls occupied over a block, and various items (mostly food) were being sold.  We bought various items as lunch -  I had a foot-long hotdog (well, it was some kind of wurst, but I can’t keep them straight.)  We also bought some groceries.

It was a rainy day in Garmisch.  Over the course of the trip, we ate a lot of sausages.

Weather was quite a bit cooler than we expected (60s during the day, 50s at night, and wet.)  Both Anne and Joe bought some clothes for it.

Dinner was at the house, with the main course baked chicken legs prepared by Jess.

Saturday 7/12.

Zugspitze is the tallest mountain in Germany.  It is located minutes away from town, and we could see it readily from where we lived.  However, for most of the time the peak was hidden behind clouds, and today was one of those days.

Zugspitze with its peak in the clouds, as seen from our ride up Mount Wank.

For our first mountaintop experience we decided to ride the cable car to Mount Wank.  The ride was about 20 minutes, taking us from an elevation of about 750 meters to 1750 meters.  We had lunch at the top; for me it was again some kind of wurst.  Actually the weather cooperated and we had great views of the valley where GaPa and other towns are located.  The cable car was a small operation, and it wasn’t particularly busy on this day.

Inside cable car bound for Mount Wank.

View of Partenkirchen from cable car, the ski jump was used in the 1936 Olympics.

Grandpa and granddaughter on Mount Wank.

Everyone in this family wears hoodies (mao mao, as Emmie would say.)

This area has many well-marked hiking trails.  It took us a few days to realize Std in German means hour.

Our first restaurant dinner in the area wasn’t that good (forget the name of the restaurant.)  From how popular it looked, we expected a reasonable meal.  Instead there was only one refrain about the food: too salty!  Turns out food in this area is generally quite salty, some not as heavily as others.  The other characteristic is the food is it is generally rather reasonably priced.  Most of our dinners cost about 80 or so Euros, including a typical 10% tip.

Sunday 7/13.

Our activity for the day was to visit the Partnach Gorge.  We parked the car at the Olympic Ski Stadium and walked about an hour each way – Anne and I did.  Joe and Jess took Emmie for a longer walk along the whole length of the gorge.  Partnach reminds us of Watkins Glen.

Partnach gorge.  To get to the entrance required a 40 or so minute walk.

Dinner was at Taj Mahal down the road from our house.  Afterwards, Anne and I walked up San Anton Cloister, passing by stations of the cross along the way.  We were surprised to see many plaques commemorating the war dead (both world wars.)  I assume many were Nazi soldiers; but parents did lose their sons.

San Anton Cloister and Stations of the Cross.

Plaques in memory of young men who died in the world wars.  A reminder of the high human toll on all sides.

Monday 7/14.

We started with a plan to visit the Monastery at Ettal, a town about 15 km away.  Right before the church there is a small cheese factory; we stopped there for coffee and cake.  They do offer a tour on cheese-making but it was German only.

The Ettal Basilica dates from the 1300s.  It has seen its ups and downs throughout the centuries, but remains a monastery with about 50 monks.  There is a school on premises with an enrollment of 300 to 400.  The brochure we bought says the place is self-sufficient with income generated by the sale of home-made beer and farming.

Emmie enjoying yogurt at Ettal Cheese Factory.

The Ettal Basilica dates from the 1300s.  It still runs a monastery and school.

Since the day was still young, we decided to visit Linderhof Castle.  It was built by King Ludwig II.  Ludwig II is also known as the mad king.  He ascended the throne (by that time it was mostly ceremonial) at age 18 and lived at Linderhof while Neuschwanstein was being built.  He eventually was declared mad and die under mysterious conditions soon after (a day?)  Anyway, Linderhof is like a mini-Versailles, in the real sense of the word.  For instance, the glass ballroom is 1/50 of the one in Versaille per the tour guide.  The other interesting fact is this castle is privately owned while most others are owned by the state.

Linderhof Castle, built by King Ludwig II.

Garden at Linderhof Castle.

Our next stop was Oberammergau, it has a tradition of woodworking.  We bought a rather nice “3-D” picture of a music instrument shop for about 100 euros (turns out to be the most expensive souvenir we bought during the trip.)  We look for the cemetery mentioned in Rick Steve’s guide: it has a panel that says “We honor and remember the victims of the violence that our land gave the world,” but couldn’t find it.  Our encounters with various WWII-related sites suggest that Germans have come to terms with the atrocities they committed during the war, and openly admit to the pain and suffering inflicted on others.

Oberammergau has a woodworking tradition.

We are not into souvenir buying, but couldn't resist buying this 3-D music store work.  The store-keeper told us it was made in Schweinfurt in Northern Germany.

Dinner was at the house, with salmon on the menu.

Tuesday 7/15.

The day started at 9:30 am.  The weather forecast says it would be a good day, but it wasn’t good enough for a visit to Zugspitze, it turned out.  We drove to the Zugspitze parking lot and noticed they provided a live camera shot of the peak.  Together with the low clouds we saw, we didn’t think it would be wise to visit.  So we walked around for a bit, including along the shores of Eibsee, before we gave up on the idea as the mountain top feed continued to show clouds surrounding the area.

Stroll along shore of Eibsee.

This photo reminds me of a picture Anne took during our Yellowstone trip.  Eibsee hotel in the background.

After some discussion, we decided to buy the Garmisch Classic two-peak ticket so we could visit Alspitze today and come back for Zugspitze on Thursday.  Meanwhile, Joe Jr and Jess decided they wanted to do some hiking.  So we split up.  Anne and I took Emmie and went up via Gondola to the Osterfelderkopf station and then connected to the Hochalm station; Joe Jr and Jess would take the cable car up to Kreuzeck.  They would hike there to Hochalm where we met up for lunch, and then they would continue to hike to Osterfelderkopf while we take the gondola back there.  It worked out okay.  Emmie was so tired that she soon fell asleep after being beco’d onto me.  At about 25 lbs she was still manageable.  After we met up we took the gondola back to the parking lot.  It was about 4 pm by the time we were done.

Cable car about to arrive at Alpspitze station.

There are these walkways that take you over the peak so you can look straight down to the valley.  The fog made it impossible to see anything.  Nonetheless I didn’t venture too far out.

We came upon someone preparing to paraglide off the peak.  He took off after some elaborate preparations.

We met up with Joe and Jess at Hochalm.  They hiked up from the Kreuzeck Station.

Joe Jr and Jess (the two people on the right) hiking up to Alpspitze from Hochalm.

We also stopped by Netto to pick up a few grocery items.  This is a discount store and certainly gives Tengelmann a run for their money.

Dinner was at the house with Anne doing most of the cooking.

Wednesday 7/16.

We left at 9:30 am for the 1 hour drive to Schwangau, where the two castles are located (Konigschloss.)  Hohenschwangau is the older one, where Ludwig II grew up.  Neuschwanstein is the one built by Ludwig after he became King.  It inspired Disney in his design of Cinderella’s castle Joe had the foresight to purchase tickets on line, so we avoided the long lines at the ticket counter.  We visited Hohenschwangau first.  The walk from Hohenschwangau to Neuschwanstein is close to an hour, mostly uphill.  Joe and Jess walked, Anne and I took the shuttle bus, packed in like sardines with other passengers.  Close to Neuschwanstein is Mary’s Bridge which spans a gorge.  It was very crowded, I decided to skip it.  Anne and Jess did take a quick look.

View of Zugspitze this morning.  Now that we already bought tickets for Koenigschlossen, of course it is a clear day.

Maypole in Schwangau.  This tradition dates back to before the 16^th Century, with the symbols representing the trades that can be found in town.

Neuschwanstein was only about 1/3 of the rooms had been finished when King Ludwig II died.  The castle was soon turned into a tourist attraction.  During World War II it was used to store the illegal art Germany stole.  The castle has rooms decorated with Wagner opera themes, including a grotto depicting a scene from Tannhauser.  To my embarrassment I couldn’t tell what is what, and I thought I have seen a lot of his operas.  One reason probably is many operas I saw had “new productions” which do not reflect at all Wagner’s original conception of the sets.  For example, Parsifal is set in a countryside in the original, all I remember of what I saw were men in suits without shoes.  Also, Tannhauser and Lohengrin are two that we haven’t seen.

Hohenschwangau.

Neuschwanstein as viewed from Hohenschwangau.

Our bus took us to St. Mary’s Bridge, Neuschwanstein is a short walk away.

Iconic photographs of Neuschwanstein.

St. Mary’s Bridge spans a gorge.  It is very crowded.  Picture taken from Neuschwanstein.

Lunch was sausages, again.  We split up for dinner:  Anne and I ate at Alpenhof, ordering roasted pork loin and ½ duck.  Joe Jr and family ate at the Biergarten.  The dishes were okay, still salty, not as bad as first meal.

Duck and Roasted Pork at Alpenhof in Garmisch.

Joe Jr, Jess and Emmie at Mohrenplatz Biergarten.

We took a stroll around Kurpark after dinner.  And we ran into this cow.

Thursday 7/17.

Today we woke up to a sunny day.  We again left at around 9:30 am for Zugspitze.  Even the line at the station wasn’t long, it was still a 40 or so minute wait before we got on the gondola.  It was a short 10 minute or so ride to the top.

Here are some statistics on the gondola ride: Length – 4453 m; Elevation change – 1950 m, from 1005 m to 2955 m; Steepest slope – 46 degrees; Longest span – 2635 m; Speed – 10 m/sec; Capacity per gondola – 45.

Display at cable car station.  We took the Eibsee-Seilbahn gondola.  The other route up the mountain is via a cog railway.

Boarding the gondola.

PHOTO: The gondola takes close, but there is the actual Zugspitze.  Jess was the only person who climbed over there and made it to the top (she’s the one in the red coat, middle of picture.)

View of Eibsee from Zugspitze.

The cable car station area spans Germany and Austrian sides.  It was about 10 meter below the actual peak.  The way over looked pretty hairy, but Jess still made it to the top.

Austria side of the mountain.  There is a gondola that goes up from Ehrwald, Austria.

Proofs that we were at Zugspitze.

Lunch at Gipfelalm (gipfel means peak) with view below.  The menu was very simple, I had the Viennese schnitzel.  Anne and I returned to house at 2 pm for a Hope CAB conference call.  We brought Emmie along so Joe and Jess could go on a 4 hour hike around Mount Wank.  Dinner was in town at Fraundorfer.  The food there was either less salty or we were getting used to it: the dishes turned out okay.

Friday 7/18.

Anne went to buy some souvenirs (trinkets) from the gift shop in town.  We then put our packed luggage in the rental car and walked to Strauss Institute for a quick visit.  The place is not so much a museum as it is a “working” building with a library and a concert hall.  It does contain a fair amount of memorabilia.  Meanwhile, Joe Jr waited to check out of the apartment; picked us up at around 12 noon.

Richard Strauss Institute was a short 10-minute walk from our house.  We visited it on the day we left GaPa.

 Strauss invented the gift of a silver rose for his opera Der Rosenkavalier.  Here is a gift to Strauss.

Admiring the score in the library, Strauss Institute.

We then drove to Mittenwald, known for its violin-making tradition started by Matthias Klotz who apprenticed with Amati at same time as Stradivarii.  Lunch at pizzeria, pretty good pizza and pasta; the staff there spoke Italian to each other.

 Lunch at Media Silva in Mittenwald.  Their take on Onion Soup is quite different from what we are used to in the States. The food in general was quite good, a nice break from the blander (except for saltiness) German food in the area.

We also visited Geigenbaumuseum.  The instruments there dated back to the 1700s, and their ages showed.  I wonder how these delicate instruments managed to survive for centuries; especially the Stradivariuses that are used constantly in performances which are well-polished.

Model of a violin maker’s workshop, Geigenbaumuseum, Mittenwald.

This concludes the first part of the report.  Salzburg, here we come!