Sunday 30 September 2012

Janice here.  We are sitting at a sidewalk cafe in San Gimignano drinking wine. We are undercover because it is pouring rain.  We arrived in Tuscany yesterday.Our apartment is very nice.  We don't have wi-fi there so will send blogs when we can.

Friday 28 September 2012

Hello:

We left Innsbrook Wednesday morning for Venice. It was only 30 minutes to the Italian border which means at that point you are high in the Italian Alps. We drove downhill through small villages for almost 2 hours going towards sealevel. Very beautiful countryside and as you would expect a combination of Barvarian and Italian home styles - picturesque. We would suggest to anyone driving through Italy that they avoid the autobaun (freeway) as we learned there is no opportunity to view the countryside as they build solid high walls along the freeway.

We arrived in Venice around 3:30PM parked in  car park on the Island, then proceeded to try and locate the apartment. This resulted in us viewing a great deal of Venice lugging our luggage - apparently there was a more direct and shorter route. Asking for directions in Venice always gets a very friendly response but the directions are always the same - straight ahead and to the right - which brings you to another individual to ask direction again. We made it to the apatment and it is as advertised -  5th generation luxury apartment - Residence Palazzo Odoni - on a canal and the gondulas do past by and we can watch and enjoy the singing and music.

We are located centally and walk to all sites and points of interest. We have had 2 dinners: one on a patio overloooking the Grande Canal and the other at a resturant near our apartment which has a garden area and a 4 member band came in and entertained us after we dined. We had some very interesting courses such as octopus soup (12 small octopuses in a tomatoe base soup), black tagliatti pasta with scampis covered in a pumpkin sauce; and excellent veal with potatoe pie.

The weather was really hot for walking on Thursday and apparently Ed & Sharon could have used his new GPS unit to help get back to the apartment - who knew. The wine is excellent, reasonable, and plentiful as well we have acquired some lemoncello and lemon creame to augment the nightly wine menu.

There are a lot of very friendly people in Venice and we have talked to people from North Carolina, Calgary, Vancouver, and Ottawa. People seemed to gravitate to any one speaking English to get directions or just to talk.

Tomorrow we go to the out lying islands.

Photo to follow.


Thursday 27 September 2012

Janice here.  Sending a few more photos from last few days.
                                          Hitler's Eagle's Nest
                                          The view from Eagle's Nest
                                           Ed making like a mountain goat
                                          View from the balcony of our hotel in Innsbruck
                                           Cable car station in Hungerburg
                                          Cable car up to Seegrube
                                           View down to Seegrube from Hafelekar (2256m)
                                            Having coffee in Seegrube(1905m)
                                           Cable car we took back down to town.
                                           One of the many bridges in Innsbruck
                                           The famous "Golden Roof"
Walking in the Old Town

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Hi all again.  Janice here. Bringing you the blog from yesterday.  We were in Innsbruck, Austria.  We had the most fantastic view of the mountains.  The weather was nice and sunny.  After coffee and pastry in the room we went on a walking tour of the Old Town (our hotel was very central to what we wanted to see).  We walked the narrow streets, saw the Golden Roof, the Palace, Marie Teresa monument.  We did a bit of shopping.   We met 3 sisters from Colorado and talked to them for while.  Then we walked to the station to get the finicular to go up the mountain.  We took this to Hungerburg at 800 metres(base camp) and then a cable car up to Seegrube at 1905 metres(where the climbing team had lunch). We also took photos of the amazing views.  Then onward and upward to the very top at Hafelekar 2256 metres(the Mt Everest of the Alps). And April we did it all in one day and no altitude sickness.  Ed had no problem with the heights at all.  He stood at the front of the cable car to get the best view. 
We had coffee at Hungerberg(base camp) and then went down and slowly wandered back to the hotel.  We had some wine, rested and then went out again at 5:30pm to do a bit more wandering around, then we went for dinner at 7PM as Ed had made reservations earlier in the day.  When we got to the restaurant the maitre d' welcomed Ed like an old friend, called him Mr Ed. We had a great meal and did a bit more wandering around before going back to the hotel for more wine and packing and then playig crib (Sharon & I won 2 out of 3).  Photos to follow 

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Monday, Set. 24: Lori here,  made it on our way by 8 am.  Headed out to Obersalzberg, Germany, to go up to Hilter's hideaway called The Eagle's Nest.  We hit quite a bit of traffic so it took longer to get there.  What beautiful countryside!  The little towns you go through are so picturesque.  When we finally got to Obersalzberg, we parked and were heading to get our tickets when someone realized, hey, we have to pay to park here.  Crisis averted, we got a ticket and proceeded to get tickets for the ride up to the Nest.  Didn't have long to wait for the buses but we did manage to get in a little shopping.   Got on the bus and started the 6 kilometer ride up the mountain.  Glad I wasn't driving.  There were lots of hairpin turns and really steep areas.  When the bus finally arrived at the top of the road we still had to take an elevator up some 4 hundred feet to the top. While we were in line waiting for the elevator(about 30 min)we met a couple from Fredericton, New Brunswick.  They were in Munich for a Hockey tourney.  There was also a team from Calgary, who won the tournament.  The NB couple had also been at Oktoberfest on Sunday but I guess we must have missed them(OMG the people).   The views were amazing at the top, you could see forever!  When you first get up to the place where the bus drops you off at the top, you get a time to catch the bus back down, damn German efficency.  We got back to the car and stopped in the town of Berchtesgaden to look around do some more shopping and find a place with character to eat.  We finally found an outside cafe and had a drink and some food.  We strolled around a bit more, bought some wine(cheaper than water) and left for Salzberg to tour around.  The hills were alive with the sound of raindrops!  It poured so we left to go to Innsbruck, Austria.  We tried to stay off the toll roads so it took a little longer to get there.  We arrived about 9:30 pm and we did hit one toll road but we didn't have to pay anything.  It took a little while to find the hotel(put the wrong address into Beulah) but we did make it.  Checked in and found a Subway for a bite to eat and of course had some wine.  Did I mention it's cheaper than water?  The hotel is in the Old Town and is close to most attractions. Tomorrow it's walking around town, and maybe going up the mountain.  Will write again soon.
 





A few pictures of the concentration camp
"Arbeit macht frei" means Work brings freedom. City of Dachau.


                                                   In front of a beer wagon



The Hippodrome - a very lively place


                                          Some chickens cooking.  500,000 chickens give their lives for Oktoberfest
                                          meals.
                                          Paulaner Beer tent
                                           Bar maiden bringing out litres of beer which cost 9.50 euros each.
                                           Another beer tent
                                          We were able to get in to a smaller tent for chicken and beer


                                          Couldn't keep Sharon out of the beer. 


                                          Leaving Oktoberfest.  It was fun but thousands and thousands of people.
                                          6 to 7million attend each year and we are sure about 1 million were there
                                          on Sunday with us. 

Monday 24 September 2012

Hi.  Janice here in Austria.  Here are some pictures from Oktoberfest.

                                                     Aren't we cute!!!!!!
                                             What an intelligent looking fellow, don't you think  
                                            
                                            Cute couple. Look at those chicken legs.
                                            The entrance to Oktoberfest






                                            Pictures of the parade on Saturday.
I will send an update tomorrow and more photos.






Sunday 23 September 2012

Sharon here, Well what a day we had today.  We were up early to make up for what we missed yesterday due to the weather.  We drove to Dachau and spent over two hours at the concentration camp.  What a sobering experience!  It was very interesting, but also very sad.
We stopped at a little bakery in Dachau and had a latte and pastry to fortify ourselves for the train trip to Munich to attend Oktoberfest.  We arrived at the festivities around 2pm and the crowds were already crazy.  The crowd was shoulder to shoulder for approx. 1 km and 4 lanes wide then add in lots and lots of beer.  We managed to get into most of the beer tents (some hold up to 10,000 people each) and that is just those lucky enough to have a seat at a table, there are several hundreds standing as well.  Not sure about the 'fire codes' here...!!  We were lucky enough to find a table in a smaller tent and enjoyed a great dinner with,  of course beer.
Got back to the hotel around 7pm, enjoyed some snacks with a glass of wine.  We are packing up so we can get an early start in the morning - off to Austria!
Pictures will follow shortly.

Saturday 22 September 2012

Sharon here, We are having trouble with the WiFi connection here at the hotel so won't be able to send any pictures until we find another WiFi source.  Yesterday we spent the entire day at a thermal spa in Erding Germany.  There were 25 saunas ranging in temperatures from 35c to 80c with many aromatic therapies.  The rule was the participants were required to either be unclothed or wear a robe - I know most of you will be able to guess my choice...!!  Part of this spa was "not even clothing optional"  and part was bathing suit required - lots of families in this area.  We spent lots of time in the family pool area where Janice and Ed went down the water slides with the rest of the children.  There was a swim up bar in this area as well.  It was very interesting to say the least and to share in this European culture.  On the way home from the spa we stopped to purchase some wine at the grocery store - the wine was 3 euros each and it actually tastes pretty good!

Today we got up early so we could get to Munich to see the parade kicking off Oktoberfest.  We left our hotel by car - had Beulah (GPS) assisting us with directions to the train station, but she got confused so the trip that should have taken 8 minutes actually took about 30 minutes.  When we finally got on the train it only took us about 15 minutes to reach Munich.  We followed the crowds to the street where the parade went by and were very fortunate to be able to stand at the front of the row of spectators and right under the arch which said Oktoberfest 2012.    It is reported that over 200,000 people attend the parade and I think most were on the same street as we were.  The parade was amazing with lots of Belgium, Percherons and Clydesdales and Guernsey bulls pulling beer wagons.  The costumes were authentic and  traditional.  It sprinkled during the parade with some sunny breaks, but as the last float went by, it was like a switch was turned on and it started to pour.  Most of the 200,000 spectators tried to get into the beer tents all at the same time!  We decided to head back to the hotel to dry out and have lunch.  We played cards and drank wine and it is only now - 6ish that it has quit raining so we'll go back into Munich tomorrow to check out the celebrations.

Saturday September 22, 2012

Friday 21 September 2012

Janice here.  Hi again.  It is Friday and we are just having breakfast at our hotel in Bergkirchen.  We had a leisurely 3 hour trip yesterday from Frankfurt that took us almost 9 hours.  We of course stopped at a few small towns along the way.  We found a small bakery/cafe and had coffee and delicious pastry.  We also drove thru Nurenberg and the part we saw was not very pretty or interesting.  We got the GPS working.  Good thing because we would never have stumbled across this hotel.  Beulah (the GPS) steered us wrong a couple of times (or we misunderstood her) but we made it.   We travelled on the autobahn for some of our drive (when we weren't off into a small town) and we were going about 120+ in the middle lane and cars were passing us on the left like we were standing still.
 Once we got checked in we went for dinner and of course some wine.  We also took a bottle of wine to our room.  The room is a bit small, typically European ( not like the B&B in Frankfurt where the bathroom in Ed and Sharon's room was so big there was an exercise bike in it) and  had a loft where Lori & I slept.


Wednesday 19 September 2012

Hi all.  We made it to Frankfurt, Germany.  Ed and Sharon got here first and got the car and we (Janice and Lori) were to meet them at Dollar car rental.  After we landed and got our luggage we followed the signs to the car rental area.  But to our dismay and panic there was no Dollar rental there.   We found an info kiosk and found out Dollar rental was in Terminal Two and we were in Terminal One.   A long walk and train ride later and we got to the right rental place.  Ed and Sharon were getting concerned and were happy to see us.
We all bundled into the car and got the address for the hotel and were going to put it in the GPS but could not get a signal.  I tried to find it on Navigator on my tablet but it wouldn't work either.  We just decided to drive towards Frankfurt hoping we would get a signal.  After not too long we saw a sign that said Frankfurt am Main and this looked like part of the address so we turned but then Lori said it probably just means  Frankfurt on Main (the name of the river).  We made a few turns here and there not having a clue where we were going and lo and behold I saw a sign that said Hotel Amsel to the right.  We made a couple more turns and found it.  We still can't believe we found it.  Frankfurt is a huge city.  Could not do this again in a million years.  Nice old bed and breakfast with character. 
The inn keeper told us about a few taverns we could go to for lunch.  We set out armed with some vague directions and lo and behold we stumbled on the place he had recommended.  We should have gone out and bought a lottery ticket.
After a nap we took the subway to the area where we were going for dinner.  A very kind gentleman at the subway station helped us get tickets.  We got an all day pass for up to 5 people for 9.5 euros.  Good thing we had some extra time when we got there as the restaurant wasn't where Ed and Sharon remembered it so after a bit of wandering and asking directions we made it Paulaner and had a very nice German meal.
We made our way back on the subway and to our hotel.
Here are a few pictures.

Our B&B

                                                       A beautiful old church


                                                Of course you can't go to Germany and not drink beer