Highlights of the trip
- The Autobahn rocks!! A highway with no speed limits...what more can one ask for :) (an extremely powerful car). You can drive at an average of over 100 mph easily and you don't feel a thing. DP was driving at over 200 kph and I did not even realize till he told me. I only wish we had a more powerful car and dp could have easily gone over 250kmph. Well one of the things I felt was you drive looking at your rear view mirror more than in front because there is always someone behind you going faster and you better move out of their way for fear of being a "car snake". Also they are driving so fast that they disappear from your view within seconds. So no point watching the front ;)
- The alps are absolutely breathtaking. The drive through the Tirol region in Germany and Austria was amazing. Surrounded by the Alps on all sides, we didn't know where to look..it was absolutely breathtaking.
- Vienna is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I would say Paris is the only one that can compete with it. And we had so much fun shopping there :)
- Kaffe and kuchen...no other better way to spend an evening.
- Austria has the cutest road signs. How can you not love a country which has road signs like this
- Why can't there be an Oktoberfest here.
- You drive from one country to another and you have to show no passports/visa, the highway remains the same and there is no real indication that you have crossed into another country besides a small board hidden somewhere with the name of the country. It is hard to believe that less than 100 years ago, these nations were at war with each other continuously
- Nothing is more scary than driving on Marienplatz in Munich when the Glockenspiel is about to ring. There couldn't be a narrower road or more people walking around looking at the sky instead of the road!!
- How is it humanly possible for a single person to eat such a large dessert. We were the only ones struggling :( Can you believe..DP struggling to finish a dessert.
- Not really a highlight but more of an observation. Austria was really affected by the World Wars. A lot of the palaces/churches etc were partially or fully destroyed and had to be rebuilt. The affect of the wars did not seem as significant in London or Paris. Maybe we just didn't visit some of the places in France and UK that were really affected.
Description of the places we visited and pics:
Rothenberg ob de Tauber:
This is a medieval town on the way from Frankfurt to Fussen/Munich on the Romantic Road. There are quite a few such towns on the Romantic road but this is the only one that is a walled city/a fortress. Typical cobbled stone streets with shops on both sides. A really nice market square and castle gardens. And the city hall has a tower with breathtaking views of the entire city and the valley beyond. You can walk along the wall of the city but we were too jetlagged and hungry and instead spent the time devouring some local pastries.
Fussen:
This is where we spent two nights. It is about an hour from Munich and very close to one of the most popular castles in the world..Neuschwanstein (All the disney world Cinderella castles are based on this). The town is really a small cute town with views of the alps. Had one of the best pastas in the world here...and also the most delectable desserts.
Neuschwanstein and Hohenshwangau:
This is a really fantastic castle and the best part about it is its location in the Alps. The throne room and the singers hall inside are very impressive. Not really worth going for an inside tour of hohenschwangau but worth going up to the castle for the views. Definitely go to Marienburke (Mary's bridge) for an amazing view of both castles. Also no visit to the castle is complete without spending some time at the nearby Alpsee (lake).
Innsbruck
The drive from Fussen to Innsbruck is the best I have been on. With the snow capped alps on all sides and some really nice valleys with picturesque lakes, it was just too beautiful. We stopped a million times to look around and tried taking a lot of pictures but no photograph can do any justice to how beautiful the entire region is. Innsbruck is also a very pretty town surrounded by the alps on all sides. The main attractions were the Golden Roof, the old town which has some really nice buildings and very nice window shopping, Hofkirche (where King Maximillian is buried) and ofcourse it is the home of the Swarvoski crystals..huge stores with lots of displays and jewelry...a disneyland for any woman ;)
One of the things I wish we could have done was gone for a ride on the luge. Well there is always next time :)
Salzburg and HallStat
Picturesque is how I would describe both these cities. Salzburg is really beautiful with the Mirabell gardens and palace, the Alstadt and the hohensalzburg fortress all adding to the beauty. Because Austria was ruled for a while by the Romans, Roman architecture is very prominent here in the buildings and also in the numerous fountains in the city. Salzburg is of course very popular for being the birth place of Mozart and also because the movie Sound of Music was filmed here. They have a lot of classical music concerts here. In fact you can just walk around in the old town and you would have heard a wide variety of instruments along the way and the street performers are really good too. We got to attend a concert by a Belgian pianist and violinist in the Marble hall of the Mirabell palace. The best part was, it is not some huge concert hall but just few rows of seats (8 probably) arranged just for the event..making it all very personal and nice. We even got to talk to the composer and get pictures.
There are a lot of beautiful lakes around salzburg and the region (lake district) is called Salzkammergut. The town of HallStat is one of the most picturesque of the lot. The city was a salt mining center. The town is really quaint, very nice to walk around and really beautiful and a lot of shops selling unique salt and soap stuff. They have a really nice museum too. There are some ice caves close by that we wanted to visit but unfortunately the cable car that takes you to the cave was closed for renovation.
Vienna
This is a very very beautiful city. Reminded me a lot of Paris. All the buildings are very architecturally rich. And you see different kinds of architecture too - Roman, Greek, Gothic. It has some really gorgeous palaces, churches and museums. We visited the Schonbrunn palace which is very similar to Versailles. The palace is really opulent inside. They have some of the best paintings - huge ones depicting events like coronations, wedding etc. The amazing part about these paintings is each person has been painted with so much detail - very unique be it expression or clothing or..etc. The palace also has lovely gardens at the back and side with a huge Neptune fountain at the back. One of the most unique things in this palace is the Glorietta - a sort of gazebo on a small hill at the back with a pond et all and a terrace with fantastic views of the castle/gardens and the city of Vienna in the background.
Another very nice palace here is the Hofburg palace in the city. The treasury in the castle is a must see with crowns, jewelry and various other valuable items stored here. This palace also houses the Spanish riding school with the most gorgeous lipizanner horses. They have a performance every sunday but we were not there so missed it. But we got to view the training sessions where they do some of the stunts and dances to classic music.
Other places we visited were the Stephansdom (Gothic church), St. Michael's church and the parliament. We did not go into any of the museums but hung around in the museum quarter. We walked all around the inner ring road that has the most amazing buildings - parliament, city hall, musems, palace, opera, theaters...
Ofcourse one cannot go to Vienna and not see an opera at the StatsOpera (the national opera). It is beautiful inside..very regal. The opera was also very nice...especially the sets, the orchestra and the music.
Munich
Really loved Munich. The Mareinplatz area especially is so alive. Munich was a town full of monasteries and it still seems that way with numerous churches. One keeps hearing the bells of the various churches every now and then, almost like a continuous live orchestra. You also get exceptional views of the city from the top of St. Peter's church. The Residenz palace and the Englistener gardens are pretty close to Marienplatz..and it is really nice to walk around too.
We also visited the BMW museum. Ofcourse to visit the factory you need to reserve atleast 4-5 months in advance. Anyway they were closed to visitors when we were there since they are coming out with the new models.
Last but not the least, one cannot visit Munich and not somehow be part of the oktoberfest. We missed it by a week. But we went to the fair grounds and checked out people busy at work setting up their stalls. Also a lot of excitement in general everywhere about the starting of oktoberfest.
Overall a really fun trip. Would definitely want to go back again
- Get a more powerful car and drive on the autobahn
- Visit the BMW factory
- Spend more time in Vienna
- Take a ride on the luge
- Ummm...coffee and pastries. Can never have enough of that ;)
- Go for a hike on the nordkette...(Kidding ...this should get DP out of jetlag ;)
Tips:
We found the book Rick Steves Austria & Germany very useful. He has a good list of all the places to see, attractions and activities in each place and also suggestions on how long to spend your time there. We covered a lot of places in 10 days and this book really helped us in planning our trip. We got a lot of other guides but we did not even use them.The nicest thing about the book was his tips like go during lunch to visit the palace to avoid the crowd, how to see an opera in Vienna by buying a standing row ticket and reserve a spot by tying a scarf, the vignette pass etc. Some of these things are very hard to find out unless you know a very helpful local person.
