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Page 4 of GGandPaPa Travel Blog Posts
October 3rd 2011
We had a breakfast at the usual time and we left for Lucerne at 8 am and traveled alongside the Rhine River in Upper Engading Valley. It took us about 20 minutes or so to get up to the Julierpass at 7,000 feet where we took lots of pictures of the amazing Swiss Alps. We took pictures of our friend Julie and her husband Merv at her namesake pinnacle. It took us about an hour to get down to the bottom of the valley with extreme twists and turns and at one point our bus and another about to pass each other and our driver Walter “scolding” the other driver in German that he was too far over and to let him pass—we all shouted “Way to go Walter”. Once at the bottom we traveled through ... read more
October 2nd 2011
Today was an awesome day. We were able to sleep in this morning before meeting our group to board the Bernina Express for one of Europe’s outstanding train journeys. We visualized glaciers, lakes and forest as we rode this roller coaster route up the Bernina Pass, only to descend via a series of sharp zigzags and tortuous loops. We disembarked in the Italian town of Poschiavo. We spent a short time in the town before boarding our coach to descend to St. Moritz. It was a breathtaking trip. The rest of the day was free which was very much welcome. We grabbed a sandwich at a local shop (very expensive in St. Moritz) and decided to take the funicular and cable car up to the top of the mountain for breathtaking views. We were accompanied by ... read more
October 1st 2011
This morning we were treated to sleeping in for an extra half hour, then, after breakfast, Sara took us on an hour long walk to the Old City of Innsbruck and saw and heard about: Hofburg, Empress Mary Theresa’s winter residence and Maximillian’s empty burial vault due to Innsbruck elite denying his request to be buried in Innsbruck and finally being buried outside Vienna. After returning to our hotel, we loaded into the bus to meet with Fritz, a wonderful entrepreneur in the carriage rides, entertainment, and building home and barns for his horses. We met him in the town of Axams and got onto a 12 person modern carriage drawn by four horses and made our way from the center of town to the fields of corn being shucked, the animals, and open country space. ... read more
October 1st 2011
Every morning that we wake up, the weather has been the same. It is amazing. It has the feeling of fall in the air during the early morning and fog in the mountainous regions, but then the sun breaks through for glorious sunny days. It has been that way since the tour began. We are very blessed. Today is a traveling day with a few stops along the way. Everyone is very tired and this gave us a good chance to catch up on our sleep. We headed for the distinctive rugged peaks of the Dolomites and entered Italy via Lago di Misurina and the Tre Croci Pass to pause and take pictures of the ski resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo where we had lunch. After lunch we boarded the bus to cross back into Austria and ... read more
September 29th 2011
It was bags out by 7:00 am so we could leave about 8 am. Breakfast was OK and I had my first chef-made waffle on this trip. Sara told us about the Vienna Woods, the dense mostly pine forests from the low valleys to the highest mountains with vineyards in the valley areas. We also learned about the Summer Barden Festival and how Beethoven tried to cure himself from deafness in the naturally occurring and healing thermal waters in the area. She told us about Strauss’s composition “Tales of the Vienna Woods” which she played on CD while we were driving. We traversed the Austrian Alps over the Simmering Pass where we delighted in all the elegant hotels and villas and heard of the World Championships in downhill skiing recently. We eventually crossed into the Styria ... read more
September 28th 2011
Today was like most mornings, up early, breakfast and then at 7:45 a.m. we met our city guide, Angela, who was going to spend most of the day with us showing us this beautiful city. Our first stop was at the Schonbrunn Palace. It is easy to see why we had to leave so early this morning. We were the 1st in line to go through this spectacular palace and spent very little time waiting in line. The Schonbrunn Palace means “Beautiful Fountain.” The palace was owned by the Habsburg’s from 1200 to 1918. It is rich in history and we learned about the family and viewed many of the rooms. During the time of the Hapsburg Dynasty there was no electricity or running water. The palace is full of frescoed ceilings, crystal chandeliers, huge mirrors ... read more
September 27th 2011
We got up early again to pack and eat another good breakfast and left Salzburg about 8:00 am. While heading out of the Mozart city, Sara (our tour guide) told us about the Austrian Lake country of Dachstein Salskammergut (loosely translated: Salt mine region) and such lakes/towns as Fuschel and Wolfgangsee, Attersee (largest lake in Austria), and Traunsee….but because of the early morning fog, we listened well –not saw well. One site she pointed out was the Red Bull Headquarters, a favorite drink of teens and students. Our first stop was at Mondsee where we visited St. Michael’s Parish Church which had 13 altars and, except for the high main altar were quite dark --with the statues, walls, and stucco. This was the church that Maria married the Baron Von Trapp in Sound of Music (but ... read more
September 26th 2011
Today we leave the beautiful city of Munich. We had our bags out in the hall by 7:00 a.m. to be picked up by the porters to put on the bus. After a leisurely breakfast we boarded the bus for the short trip to the resort of Berchtesgaden in the shadow of Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. We made a brief stop in the town to explore, we returned to the bus to meet our city guide, Veronica. We were going to take our tour bus up as far as we could before transferring to another shuttle bus which would take us to the top of Kehlstein. The road was very narrow and there were 4 buses that would go up before the buses on top could come down. Therefore, the buses were very punctual and we were ... read more
September 25th 2011
Munich to Neuschwanstein Castle, Die Weis, and Oberamagau Our morning began with a 6:30 wake up call (too late I learned), and down for breakfast about 7:15 (GG) and about 7:26 (PaPa) with an omellete for each of us and me gobbling my food to catch the bus by 7:45 (just made it—tomorrow its 6 am for me). On the way out of Munich, our tour guide pointed out the BMW factory and Headquarters (mentioning also, Mercedes has a factory here but headquarters in Stutggart, and Porsche, Audi, VW, and SMART—the little car made by Swatch and Mercedes all made in Germany), the Olympic Tower and Village from the 1972 Summer Olympics, and as we went further out of the city: farming a major industry, homes and barns built as one unit, more people vacationing on ... read more
September 24th 2011
Today is the 1st day of the Oktoberfest which is the largest festival in the world and brings 6 million people to the city of Munich before it ends sometime in early October. We overlooked this little detail when we booked our train ticket to get to Munich by late morning on the 24th to meet up with our tour. Everything was going smoothly until we got to the train station. I first noticed a lot of people of all ages dressed in colorful Bavarian outfits. It still didn’t sink in until we went to board the train and after walking through the 1st car I realized that that was as far as I was going to get. We got stuck in the entryway between cars in a space of about 10 x 4 feet with ... read more
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