The sun was shining today as we left our campsite in the Black Forest and set out. Daniel had awoken saying that his wrist was much better, so we decided to wait another day and see how he recovered. We drove to a town called Worms. Martin Luther made a plea in Worms Cathedral for the reformation of the church, and Tim and I were interested to see it. We also had a wander around the town which is one of the oldest in Germany. After a short stop at a toy store so that the kids could stock up on some Playmobil (at much cheaper prices than in Australia), we drove to St. Goar. St. Goar is another old town on the banks of the Rhine. The section of the Rhine river from Sr. Goar to Bacharach is known for being spectacular due to the towering cliffs topped with castles and vineyards. Our campsite is amazing! The banks of the Rhine lap at our door, ferries and barges busily charge up and down the river, and castles look down from their perches. We were planning to do a cruise from here tomorrow, however Daniel is again complaining about his wrist so we will definitely need to get him looked at tomorrow. It is hard to know where to go in a foreign country, but I guess we will work it out.
We are trying to slow down but somehow seem to be speeding up! Perhaps after more than two months we are just getting better at this! We had a big day on the 16th – we drove along some of what Germany’s tourist office has named the Romantic Road. The Romantic road is a series of roads (about 350km’s long) that links well preserved towns in south-west Germany. We had seen one of the towns already, Fussen, and were keen to see Rothenburg as it was listed as the best preserved medieval town in Germany. On the way, we went through its smaller cousin Dinkelsbuhl, and stopped for lunch. We were not terribly impressed with Dinkelsbuhl although to be fair it may have been due to yet more rain dampening our spirits. It was pretty but had a dead feel, and we have seen so many pretty towns that we weren’t thrilled with it. 50 kms on Rothenburg presented a much prettier picture. Rothenburg has a well preserved city wall around it which the kids enjoyed running along. Caleb insisted on pretending he was throwing rocks and arrows down on the enemy from the arrow slits. Rothenburg also had some great little shops with some more interesting souvenirs than the usual variety. The houses and shops were all seriously quaint. On the outside of on of the city gates was a big mask of a face. Apparently, the townspeople used to pour pitch through its mouth at the enemy. Caleb was enraptured with this mask, and could not stop talking about it all the way back to our campsite! We stayed at Detwang, which is a tiny town down the hill from Rothenburg. It was a lovely walk back through the trees.
City wall
Mask used for pouring pitch
The next day was raining again, so we decided to move on. It was an eventful beginning as we watched another campervan requiring a tractor to pull it out of the mud! We managed to get our campervan out of the site with no hassles however due to our skilled driver. The next stop on our list was the northernmost part of the Black Forest, near the city of Stuttgart. The Black Forest did not have a great write up in our guide books. We find it extremely pretty however, with dense forest and trickling rivers. We found a lovely little campsite, and are parked right on the banks of a little stream. The gurgling water is a very peaceful sound to listen to at night while going to sleep! More rain over the last few days has prevented us doing much walking around here, although there are numerous paths around the park. The campsite thankfully is very well equipped with indoor and outdoor heated pools, an indoor soccer field, craft activities and playgrounds so there is plenty to do even in the rain. Daniel hurt his hand badly while playing soccer with some German children yesterday, and today Tim and I were contemplating perhaps taking him to hospital to get it checked for fractures. However, he is happily playing now so we will hold off for a bit and see. One thing we are enjoying on our trip is trying the local delicacies. It was a real hardship to try the Black Forest Cake today! Tomorrow we are planning to go to the Rhine river. The campsites seem to be getting much less busy, so we must be nearing the end of the peak season.
The stream at our site
Trying the Black Forest cake
The lake region of Salzburg was really special. We enjoyed another day of cycling into Mondsee – this time with Daniel perched grinning on the back of Tim’s bike as he could not have possibly made it himself. It was such beautiful countryside. The bike ride was right next to an idyllic stream with pebbles in it and bridges to cross, and there were majestic trees everywhere. Cows looked on at us from their knee high grass paradise – imagine, green grass in summer! It was wonderfully peaceful. The boys also enjoyed our stay as they played in the pond, diverted water in the stream, and played soccer on the soccer field at the caravan park. It seems they are getting into the other type of footy!
Pond at our campsite
This morning saw us up early (as per usual for the boys) and driving to Munich. We are staying in a fair caravan park where we are packed in with other campers like sardines. We need to pay for showers, but it is quite cheap to stay here, and the campsite is in a great position next to a river and a huge park. We did a walking tour of Munich this afternoon with our guide book (not Rick this time so the kids could not groan!). Just as the escalators from the subway planted us at the foot of a famous clock tower, it began chiming for 12pm. There was a big crowd gathered and we soon found out why as high up in the tower toy dancers and jousting knights were sent spinning around. One knight was knocked off his horse right at the end – the Austrian one! Munich has a lot of lovely buildings in it, most of which have been fairly recently rebuilt after the city was bombed in the war. The highlight for the kids was definitely the Science Museum. This colossal museum is 47 000 square metres in size. It had some fantastic exhibits in it including a special section for kids which was not unlike its equivalent at Scienceworks Melbourne, a fantastic display of real aircraft (including the some Me’s from the war), a model train display and various old ships which Caleb was very excited about. Tim and I tired long before the kids did. Funnily enough, it is usually us that are dragging them around complaining of sore feet etc.! We arrived back at the campsite to have a cheap dinner out at the restaurant here. Eating out is surprisingly cheap in Germany. My schnitzel and chips for example cost only AUS$8. Tomorrow we head for the quaint town of Rothenburg.
Tim helping to build in the Science Museum
A giant guitar in the Museum
Aircraft in the Museum
Vienna is the most beautiful city I have ever seen. It is certainly right up there with Paris, but much better I think because it celebrates horses. There seem to be horses everywhere here – horses and carts galore, horses as statues, and of course the Lipizzaner stallions of the Spanish Riding School. We have spent the last two days being awed by the grand buildings and beautiful parks that make up this place. Yesterday we took a tram ride to see some of the city around a big ring road that was apparently made when the city walls were pulled down. We also visited a music museum that celebrated the lives of the many composers that had lived in Vienna including Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn and Strauss. The museum was a very interactive one with lots of things for the kids to do. Even though the kids have had enough of churches, we paid a short visit to the magnificent Stephensdom Cathedral. We were planning to have dinner out while watching some free opera at a film festival in the evening, but that plan needed to be canceled as the kids got too tired.
Today we visited the Spanish Riding School. There are no performances running at the moment as the horses have August off on holiday. However, we had an hour’s tour of the stables and riding complex. This was definitely one of the highlights of my holiday in Europe. The main arena where the stallions do their performance was a beautiful old Baroque building, made elaborate by paintings and crystal chandeliers. The Lipizzaner stallions in their stalls were magnificent. Even the tack room was interesting and full of beautiful leather. Hopefully Tim will start on the plans for our new tack room in the Spanish Riding School style soon! It would certainly be an improvement from the cubby house. The guide gave us lots of fascinating information. You can tell I enjoyed myself immensely!
Vienna could not be Vienna without coffee and cakes I am told. The boys have a CD that sings to the tune of Strauss’ famous waltz “Oh the Viennese…coffees and their teas…,are quite tasty…..like their pastries….”, and they have enjoyed singing along to this in Vienna. We made our way to a famous café called Demel. Here you can pick out wonderful cakes and there are even glass windows at the back of the café where you can watch them prepare their creations. The wedding cakes on display in the windows were impossibly large and elaborate.
We wandered around the city a bit more and took another tram ride, then decided to go home as the kids were begging to go back in the caravan park’s sandpit. I got off the train a few stops early to go to Vienna’s famous palace called Schonbrunn. It was an amazing place, similar to but perhaps slightly less grand than Versailles near Paris. I splashed out and signed up for a guided tour, and spent the next hour with a very entertaining and informative tour guide. It makes a place so much more interesting when you know some of the history behind it. I had no idea, for instance, that Marie Antoinette was born and raised at the two palaces in Vienna (the one I saw today was just the summer palace!) before she went off to Paris destined for the guillotine. Nor did I know that Mozart’s career was launched from the ‘mirror room’ in Schonbrunn where he appeared with his father at the age of six. It was surreal to the standing in that room where he had performed. It is obvious not everyone feels the same way. The guide told us that you could hire out the rooms, and the ‘mirror room’ had recently been hired out to give a dance party in to some jungle techno music!
By the time I returned, the kids had spent about 4 hours having a happy time in the sandpit, playing with some French children. I think we will stay here another day, we are enjoying it so much.
Yesterday I ventured out unencumbered by children. The persistent ‘I’m tired’, ‘I’m thirsty’, Can we go home now?, ‘How much further?’ had limited our ability to experience the full potential of Vienna. I left early leaving the boys in the sand pit with Karen where they spent most of the day after school work. I covered a lot of ground and spent most of the day on foot as I traveled from the north to the south and along the main shopping strip in Mariahilfer Strabbe in search of a new watch for Karen.
The Central Cafe
I caught the number 1 and 2 trams that circumnavigated the old part of the city as well as having a brief look at the massive park to the east of town. I briefly contemplated a quick trip to Bratislava by train (1 hour each way) but thought it wasn’t wise as I had no passport or hadn’t mentioned to Karen where I was going. I also contemplated a brief visit into the Albertina museum but decided I’d seen enough art for a while.
I thoroughly enjoyed my day wandering the city. Outside of London and Paris which I always love, Vienna is now one of my favorite places to visit. One of the highlights was coffee and cake in the Central Café which in the past was frequented by Beethoven, Freud and Trotsky. It was a short stroll from the Hofburg and is filled with so much history and character. It’s famous for newspaper reading which suited me perfectly as it was well stocked with English-language papers and there were no children in toe to inhibit the budget or relaxation potential.
We left Vienna this morning and have arrived in a beautiful camp site in Mondersee which is part of the lake district to the west of Salzburg. We’re perched high on a hill overlooking a pond (described as a lake in the brochure) with views down the valley to the lakes. We tackled an adventurous bike ride into town this afternoon for more coffee and cake! It was so adventurous that Karen and Daniel turned back half way because of the challenging path. We’ll camp here for a couple of nights before heading back into Germany.
Today started early as we tried to make it to mass in the Salzburg Cathedral. I had heard that there was an orchestra that played in the Cathedral on Sundays. There was no orchestra, but nevertheless it was an interesting experience to be in the impressive Cathedral when a service was on. It was standing room only, and the singing echoing through the church was beautiful.
We stopped to watch a number of musicians perform as we walked through the streets of the old town. Salzburg, like Vienna, is known for its musicians. Mozart was born here and spent 2/3rd’s of his life in Salzburg although reportedly he hated the place! We saw among other things a harpist playing, and it was very interesting to watch her up close. We visited the house where Mozart spent most of his years in Salzburg, and did an informative if somewhat dry audio tour of it. There was not really enough to hold the kids’ attention. There were lots of things we could have done in this town – a fortress, cable car, palace, museums – however we needed a bit of a break from all the sightseeing and decided just to wander the town and savor it. It is a very pretty old town that has been carefully preserved. Wrought iron surrounds the names of shops (even McDonald’s!), lovely old buildings and fountains, beautiful gardens, and lots of interesting little side streets to wander down. We contemplated doing a ‘Sound of Music Tour’ as this was where a lot of the scenes were filled, and also going to a marionette play of Mozart’s Magic Flute but in the end as these things were expensive we settled for a good play in the excellent playground near our campsite. The kids had far more fun there than I think they would have had at any performance! Hopefully we will inject some culture into them in Vienna, our next destination!
The most fun to be had in Salzburg!
Aug 9: we are now in our Vienna campsite. Unfortunately it does not compare to the excellance of our last campsite! Hopefully it will be easy to get to Vienna which is probably the most important thing.
On the way here we made a stop at a concentration camp in Mautheson. Tim and I tag-teamed to go in and left the kids behind. We did not think it really suitable for them. I am glad we did not take them in as I found it very disturbing. I will not describe any of it for any younger folk who may be reading this!
We are spneding a relaxing afternoon in our campsite. The boys have found a sandpit so they are very happy playing. Tim and the boys have a bit of sightseeing fatigue so we are trying to slow down a bit. It has become ‘just another castle/palace/cathedral’ for them. I think I must take after dad however as I am still going strong!
The slide down the mine
We spent this morning inside the van as it was still so wet and cold here – only 10 degrees top! As the forecast suggested it might be better weather tomorrow, we packed up the van to drive half an hour out of Salzburg to tour an old salt mine. Everyone else apparently had the same idea as it was very busy!
Salt (Salz in German) mining was what made Salzburg rich. Salt was known as ‘white gold’ and the mine we visited had been mined originally by the Celts in BC times but is no longer commercially viable. The tour was very interesting. Our tour guide thankfully was multilingual and he gave explanations in fluent German, English and Italian. We rode into the mine in a fast little train, then toured around and learnt about how they used to extract salt. To get to the lower levels, we all went down two slides, one of 42 feet in length. They were very fast slides, and Caleb did not enjoy them at all! Josh and Daniel however found them most exciting. After the tour we looked around a reproduction of a Celtic village. Unfortunately, the rain had not abated and we made a quick exit back to our campervan.
Looking good in mining gear
Our afternoon and evening were spent in music practice, and playing Uno. The weather is finally clearing up now, and we can see a great view over Salzburg towards a huge castle. We will stay another 2 nights here now so that we can see Salzburg from a closer distance!
The miners stop work for a minute to pose
The weather did not improve, and so we decided driving in the rain was probably better than dragging three sodden boys through more mountain delights. We did a long drive through Austria to the German town of Fussen. Fussen is listed as one of the “Romantic Road” towns that the tourist bureau here promote as a well preserved medieval town. We stayed in a caravan park (or rather parked just outside one for a much cheaper fee), and early the next morning saw the main drawcard of the town, Neuschwanstein Castle. We were in the queue to visit the castle by 8:10am as I had read that it was very busy, however we still had to wait until nearly 10am to get in! The castle is one of Germany’s biggest attractions, and was commissioned by King Ludwig II who was apparently mad. His saneness certainly seemed questionable when we viewed inside the unfinished castle. He loved swans and Wagner’s operas, and there were pictures of the operas and swans absolutely everywhere. We enjoyed seeing the outside of the castle very much as it was really beautiful, but the inside was way too over the top for us. It was made just over 100 years ago, and did not seem quite as interesting overall as the much older ones we have seen already. After walking back down from the castle in the pouring rain (we were a bit unprepared and got soaking wet!), we did a quick visit to see Fussen. The town is surrounded by an old city wall and was certainly very pretty but it lost much of its appeal to us in the cold and rain! We consoled ourselves with bratwurst sausages and weiner snitchels for lunch. The food in Germany and Austria seems to be much better value than in other countries, as are the caravan park fees.
Into Austria again, we drove to the town of Hall in Tirol. Hall is situated near Innsbruck and is meant to be another pretty medieval town surrounded by huge mountains. I say ‘meant to be’ as we saw very little of the town’s attractiveness. It did not stop raining the rest of that day, and was still raining in the morning. It was very disappointing, as we were hoping to have done some more hiking in the beautiful Austrian mountains around us. I could not even convince Tim and the boys however to venture out of the van to see the town! One good thing was our campsite. The caravan park allowed us to park outside in a secure area, and to use all the facilities for only 15 Euro – much cheaper than we have been used to. It seems that this practice is quite common in Germany, and it suits us well especially if we are moving on in the morning.
This morning we drove into Germany again and saw Eagle’s Nest. Eagle’s Nest is a dwelling that was built high up on the peak of huge mountains as a gift to Hitler. Hitler used it to entertain guests, and at the bottom of the mountain had another base during the war. Tim was very keen to see this piece of history. It was quite difficult to find, and the signs were somewhat ambiguous. We finally spotted a hopeful sign that seemed to indicate the road was for caravans and trucks, so we confidently ventured up it. Twenty terrifying minutes later we were up at a high altitude and in the Eagle’s Nest carpark. I don’t know what caravans would have attempted that climb, but certainly our one at home could not have made it! Tim thinks I am exaggerating. I beg to differ. Buses from the Eagle’s Nest carpark took us up further to a dizzying height where the structure was located. It was an amazing view, even with all the cloud cover and drizzle. We were right up at the same level as the snow on the surrounding peaks. Far below our feet lay two beautiful lakes. There was not much to see in the dwelling itself, apart from the room where Hitler used to talk to visitors which is now a restaurant. We had a lovely apple cake and coffee there – we are really enjoying the Austrain cuisine! Back down at the carpark we considered going into the Hitler museum, but decided against it. We have found in Germany and Austria that English is far less common. In many other places we have been, there has been at least some English written, but here English is rare. We decided that the museum would not be thrillingly interesting, especially to the children if it was all in German. People here also seem to speak far less English than in other countries, and it is the first time I have had trouble being understood. It is little wonder as I speak no German and I expected as much, however English was so commonly understood in France, Italy and Switzerland that I am surprised.
Back to Austria and we are now in Salzburg. We had some trouble locating our caravan park as our not-so-trusty Nav lady decided that a factory was a good place for a caravan park, and took us there instead. This caravan park is lovely. It is close to the city and buses, and has the most amazing toilet block. Small things are appreciated! Josh commented that the toilets looked as though they were cleaned hourly. A bit different to France and Italy again! They are heated which is also appreciated as it has turned very cold here and is still raining as I type this in the evening. I really hope it fines up overnight so we can see Salzburg in the dry. Sound of Music tours and Mozart await us!
View from our camp site in Salzburg.
Crazy King Ludwig's castle that the Disneyland castles were based on.
View from the Eagles's Nest car park before heading up the lift to the 'nest'.
At the top of the Eagle's Nest with the building in the background.
Today began with more rain, so we
delayed going up the mountain until after lunch. We took the train up to a different station and caught the most amazing cable car I have ever been in. It held up to 70 people, and went straight up the mountain almost vertically to a dizzying height. Caleb clutched the seat beside me, and I wasn’t much better especially after Josh started talking blythly about broken cables and falling cable cars. Even Tim was a bit uneasy! When we got out we found we were higher than the snow on the peaks of Jungfrau. We did a walk of about an hour and a half into another town. It was idyllic. Hills full of flowers…cows on our path…the valley far below and towering mountains all around us. I think it is the most beautiful place on earth. I had told the boys that we would rest on the way in a good spot, and we could then eat a delicious vanilla slice which Tim had bought on the way. My idea of a good spot would be flowers, cows, sun and a good view. Tim predicted that I would be eating the vanilla slice in the cold wet drizzle with no view to look at as we were in the clouds. After a bit of time however, I did find my spot! It was lucky we ate when we did as the cloud cover grew worse and before long we were walking in the rain. It was difficult to keep up motivation in the troops by this time! Thankfully, a nice warm chalet offering hot chocolate, coffee and plenty of icecream for the boys revitalized them and we could make it to the next town. I think we have a way to go before we match any of the hiking Swiss families! There were goats wandering around the next village at the train station. We made our way back to Interlaken via an hour and a half’s train ride, On the way back to the campsite, the boys got to see someone playing the traditional alphorn which was deafening. We need to decide tonight whether to stay and do more walks with our train passes (which have turned out to be good value) or to move on.
Rain and thunderstorms were forecast for today, but nevertheless we rode by train up into the mountains as early as we could to try to see a bit before the weather turned. We took the train to a quaint but touristy town of Grindlewald and wandered around for a bit before going further up the mountain. I am amazed by how well the place is set up for hiking. There are trails to suit every level, from 1 hour strolls with prams and children to full on mountain climbing with ropes and ice picks. You can do everything the hard way, or take the more lazy option of numerous trains, buses, funiculars, cable cars and chairlifts to get you to the top of the hike so you can walk down. We preferred this option! We found a lovely little hike down a mountain to a fantastic playground. This was imaginatively set up with a little mountain stream complete with spades, buckets and diggers for the kids to play and create dams and bridges in. Needless to say, our children spent much more time in this than on the play equipment. Josh and Tim rode down another path with two scooter-type bikes which they also loved. Just as the rain came, we scrambled into a nearby cable car which whisked us effortlessly down the rest of that mountain and back near our train station. We were very glad to be dry, but we did wonder how safe the cable car was with the thunderstorm and lightening!
Back at the campsite it rained for the rest of the day. The kids enjoyed a free concert organized by the campsite for the children. It was all in Swiss German and I don’t think they understood much which was probably just as well as it was somewhat unsuitable anyway! Still, another good experience for them. We plan to do a few more days of hiking if the weather improves enough. Even the Milford Sound hike which I enjoyed so much is on a par with this place. The kids here seem to get right into it too, with proper little packs on (note for next time the kids will carry all their own gear!), walking poles and good hiking boots. I have also seen numerous 80-90+ year olds walking up these mountains. They put our cable car rides to shame!
