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Eurotrip V

September 2015
A 15-day adventure by Postcards to Boston Read more
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  • Postcards to BostonEurotrip V
    Day 15

    Munich, Germany

    September 24, 2015 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 54 °F

    Breakfast was at Ida's again for more yummy home cooking. We finished up with packing and wandered around Munich to kill time. There were lots of people in trachten and we were very jealous that we couldn't go to Oktoberfest for more fun. Unfortunately our poor planning meant we really only got to experience one day of the fest, but we learned our lessons and will hopefully not waste our time in Munich when we come back in the future!

    We checked out of the hotel at noon and got a normal donor kebab in the train station. We took the S-bahn to the airport (10.30 euro each), which took around 40min. It was quick and easy. Our flight was at 3:40pm and arrive in Boston at 6:20pm local time. The flight was almost 9 hours long but it was nice to be able to fly direct Munich to Boston.    Read more

  • Postcards to BostonEurotrip V
    Day 14

    Munich, Germany

    September 23, 2015 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 50 °F

    Lessons learned, our first stop was breakfast at Ida's Milchladen. Ida's restaurant was like a warm hug and she was so hospitable to us in our weakened states. We had eggs, muesli, coffee and fruit. The food was very cheap and service was wonderful. We walked around Marienplatz, Glockenspiel, Frauenkirch (which still had scaffolding just like it did in 2009 when we came to Munich) and Karlsplatz.

    We came back to the hotel to change into our trachten and went over to Oktoberfest at noon. We met up with a group from "Oktoberfest in Munich" Facebook group: Alex (Ukraine), Tracey and Tom (UK), Tom (Scotland), Eric (Michigan) and Ken (Kansas). We were in the Schutzen tent. We had a great time, stayed from 12 to 3:30 when we were rudely asked to leave :) We both drank 2 radlers and ate plenty: 1/2 chicken with potato salad for me and venison with butter spaetzle for Myron. By the end of the day we were standing on the benches and singing and dancing. However because of the food and radlers, we were not drunk at all! After security booted us from our table, we bought some warm nuts from a vendor and poked our heads in a few other tents to see the decorations.

    Next, we sat down in the Fischer Vroni tent which serves Augustiner beer and smoked fish. We found two new friends: Sani and Alex from Germany who both were excited to practice their English and we were excited to make German friends! This was a much quieter tent but still a lot of fun and started to get rowdy around 7pm. We shared a fish dish since we were still full from lunch, and each had a liter of Augustiner beer (not a radler this time...Augustiner is too good to water down!). By the end, we were getting too full to consume much more so we decided to leave around 7pm and say goodbye to our new friends. We also didn't want to be hungover for our flight home.

    Back at the hotel, we quickly packed and went to Royal Kebabhaus for dinner, which was actually a vegan donor kebab. It was pretty tasty!    Read more

  • Postcards to BostonEurotrip V
    Day 13

    Munich, Germany

    September 22, 2015 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 63 °F

    We woke up late-ish and got dressed in our trachten (traditional dress: lederhosen and dirndl). We went to Theriesenweise and walked around. The first Tuesday of the fest is family day so there were lots of children and even a lot of school trips around. We made the terrible mistake of not eating much and only had a cheese sausage. We would come to regret not eating more. We took many outdoor photos of each of the tents but stopped into the Hacker Festzelt tent which is known for it's beautiful cloud ceiling. We sat at a table being used for filming a German TV show but they allowed us to sit down until they arrived, which ended up being from 10am to noon. We moved to a table with some Munich locals who were very kind but we didn't have much room to sit down. In total we each had 3 liters of beer and were feeling quite drunk when we left around 12:30 or 1.

    We somehow made our way back to the hotel, which was luckily by the Munich Hbf we we could follow signs. We both passed out and stayed there until 9pm. We ordered room service of a pasta dish which we barely ate because we were so hungover and still a little drunk.

    Lessons learned: not enough food/water prior to going into the tents, too fast consumption of beer. Regular beer is too strong for such long-term drinking but tents do sell railer (half beer, half lemonade) or non-alcoholic beer for the same price. Prices in the tents: 10.30 euro/beer, 4.90-5.10 euro/huge pretzel, 12.00-20.00 euro/ average dinner.    Read more

  • Postcards to BostonEurotrip V
    Day 12

    Berchtesgaden, Germany

    September 21, 2015 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 57 °F

    I woke up hungover from the fun at Augustiner Brau! We ordered room service breakfast which was very nice and 50% off with Myron's hotel discount. We purchased a Bayern ticket (an all-day unlimited use of Germany's public transportation for up to 6 people) and found our way to Bus 840 from Salzburg Hbf to Berchtesgaden Hbf. It was a small station but (as I researched in advance) had luggage lockers! We chose a large one that easily fit our small rolling suitcase and 2 large backpacks, costing us 2 euro for 24 hours. We barely missed the bus but caught the next one: Bus 841 to Konigsee. There was a short line for tickets and we boarded the ferry which took us across Lake Konigsee. We stopped at St. Bartholomew's Church and Salet. There were a ton of options for hiking and other outdoor activities. I wish we didn't have such limited time there because it was an absolutely gorgeous day for hiking with breathtaking views of the mountains and water. We hiked to lake Obersee in about 15 minutes for more gorgeous views. The ferry back to the parking lot was 55 min from Salet.

    For lunch, we got street food: bratwurst and currywurst. We went up the Jennerbahn next, which has similar views to the Eagle's Nest but is very close to Lake Konigsee. Since we are not much into WW2 history, we chose to go up the Jennerbahn. We went up at 2:45pm on the dot because there is a 20% discount for "last minute". It was a 30 min ride in an enclosed ski-lift type of chair lift. This mountain is a ski resort in the winter. The lift topped out at 1800m above sea level and we hiked to the summit at 1874m. There were incredible views of Berchtesgaden all the way to Salzburg, Lake Konigsee and we even saw the Eagle's Nest! We had ice-cream on the mountaintop at their restaurant (Schmeckerfatz (pear sorbet, strawberry ice-cream and vanilla) and Erdbeere (strawberry)).

    We got to the train station in time for a 5:30pm train to Munich, but it was cancelled at the last minute. We didn't understand the announcement because it was in German, but a train attendant came by and told us the train wouldn't be leaving until 6:30 :( Unfortunately we would've loved more time in Berchtesgaden but by that time we already had unloaded our luggage and didn't want to go out for such a short period of time. We changed trains in Freilassing and our Bayern Ticket worked out great!

    We arrived in Munich at 9:20pm. Oktoberfest closes at 10, so we decided to call it a night. There were tons of drunk revelers between the train station and our hotel, which was rather annoying as a sober tired person but would be fun in future nights. We had dinner at a small restaurant next to our hotel, and Myron got a donor kebab while I got a falafel sandwich. Our hotel in Munich was the Maritim Hotel Munchen which is very close to Munich Hbf.    Read more

  • Postcards to BostonEurotrip V
    Day 11

    Werfen, Austria

    September 20, 2015 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 55 °F

    Breakfast at Le Crobag in the train station. The train ride was uneventful. The arrival was confusing as there was no signs directing us to where we needed to go, but we eventually found the parking lot where the shuttle to ice caves were going. So first a shuttle up to the Eisriesenwelt Ice Caves, then a long uphill walk to the ticket booth and another long uphill walk to the entrance to the ice caves. Once there, we were treated to another 1400 steps inside the ice caves (that's twice as many as we climbed while climbing up the Eiffel Tower!). It was quite challenging but I still wish I dressed warmer. My hands were freezing inside my thin gloves. It was 0 degrees inside and very dark, lit only by handheld lamps. The ice caves were cool (literally and figuratively) but it was a little disappointing to not be able to take photos, and it was so physically challenging that it was hard to focus on enjoying the scenery. We had beautiful views of Werfen and Hohenwerfen Fortress once we left. We had lunch at Dr. Oedl-haus, an alpine ski lodge with noodle soup to warm our bellies, followed by weiner schnitzel and apple strudel. We took the cable car and long downhill walk back to the shuttle bus and got dropped off in the parking lot where we began.

    We had another confusing journey to Hohenwerfen Fortress. The signage is quite poor and not really tourist-friendly. We even had to walk down a two-lane highway to get to the entrance to the fortress which was kind of strange. We took the cable car up to Hohenwerfen Fortress at 2:30pm and walked around the weapons exhibit and saw a Birds of Prey show at 3:15pm. This was awesome and I am so happy we planned our visit to include this special show. The commentary was entirely in German but it was still awesome. We then took a guided tour with audio guide at 4pm throughout the Fortress. This was probably the best guided tour we went on in our entire trip. It was much more in depth and interesting than Hohensalzburg. The tour took us into many interior castle rooms, up in the bell tower and we even got to see where the birds of prey "live"!

    We took the train back to Salzburg and had dinner at Augustiner Brau along with many beers. This was very much like buying food at a sporting event, where there are lots of little storefronts selling things and you can go from one to another to get exactly what you want. The beer was super fresh and served up to order. We got a little bit of everything and met a couple visiting from NYC whose itinerary was very similar to ours. We got a little too drunk after drinking 1.5 liters of beer in 2 hours!    Read more

  • Postcards to BostonEurotrip V
    Day 10

    Hallstatt, Austria

    September 19, 2015 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F

    We took a very early train at 6:12am to Hallstatt via Attnang-Puchheim. We had breakfast of coffee rolls in the Attnang-Puchheim train station. The train was very user-friendly and easy to navigate. Upon arriving in Hallstatt, the ferry dock was a stone's throw from the train station and departs shortly after each scheduled train arrival. We had purchased the Kombiticket from OBB which included the train journeys x2, ferry rides x2 and visit to the salt mines. It took 5 minutes to get to the dock in Hallstatt and we arrived around 9am. There were barely any tourists there yet and it was lovely to explore the quiet narrow streets in peace. We walked around the upper streets towards the salt mines. The whole city is built into the mountain sides which was so interesting to see.

    The salt mine tour with cable car was great. It was a tad foggy/drizzly but it cleared up and stayed cool and dry. At the salt mine, we had to put on protective clothing. We took two slides down and it was super fun! At the second slide, a photo was taken of us on the slide down and we purchased it for 5 euro! Some of the light shows on the tour were kind of cheesy but overall it was a lot of fun. We bought some flavored salts as souvenirs for many people at home.

    Back on solid ground, we took more photos through the lower part of Hallstatt's streets and had lunch at Bacht's Polreich where we both had beer-battered pike perch which was caught in Lake Hallstatt. We were lucky enough to get outdoor seating looking out over Lake Hallstatt! We then rented a boat for 16 euro and got two beers to enjoy out on the water. It was very fun even though it was cool and cloudy.

    We took the ferry back and caught a 4:32pm train back to Salzburg. Dinner was at Barewirt again. Myron was jealous of my pumpkin cordon bleu so he got that and I got fried chicken and potato salad. We were both very tired and I wasn't feeling well after eating so much fried food!    Read more

  • Postcards to BostonEurotrip V
    Day 9

    Salzburg, Austria

    September 18, 2015 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F

    We got breakfast at Heart of Joy, a vegetarian/vegan restaurant. Myron got scrambled eggs and I got a boiled egg and croissant. We took the Bus 25 to Hellbrunn Palace trick fountains (incl in Salzburg card). It was a neat experience, definitely funny but I wish I wore quick-dry clothes because we did get wet! We toured the palace after the trick fountains tour and had an audio guide. It was a short visit. We took a 20 minute bus ride back to the city.

    Back in Salzburg, we went to Franziskaner Kirche, the largest cathedral in Europe. We walked through the farmer's market and bought steigl beers and pretzel sandwiches. We happened upon a trdelnik (the first one we've seen since Prague!) but it wasn't as good as in Prague because it was served cold.

    We took a local bus to Steigl brewery for a beer tour at 3pm (incl. in Salzburg card). This was a great value and included the tour, tasting of 3 beers, a free gift and lots of information! We have been on a lot of beer tours and found the information really useful. The 3pm tour is the only one in English. After the tour, we had more beers and ice-cream with some new friends from Toronto, Troy and Lisa.

    We headed back to downtown Salzburg for dinner at Zirkelwirt which was delicious. I got cheese spaezle (basically macaroni and cheese!) with salad and Myron got "mystery dumplings". Soon after we returned to the hotel for early mornings ahead!    Read more

  • Postcards to BostonEurotrip V
    Day 8

    Salzburg, Austria

    September 17, 2015 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 81 °F

    We checked out of the hotel in Vienna at 7:15am. We grabbed a free croissant from the front desk (why didn't we see those before?!) and took the metro to Westbanhof station for the train to Salzburg. If we were doing this trip again, I would look into the Westbahn train service which is much cheaper than the OBB service and both use the same tracks and take the same amount of time. We got an espresso and breakfast in the train station and our train was off to Salzburg at 8:30am!

    We arrived in Salzburg just before 11am which was too early to check in to the Sheraton. The train station in Salzburg was full of police due to the heightened border checks in the migrant crisis. It was a 15 minute walk to the Sheraton, who kindly secured our bags so we could go explore. We bought a Salzburg card from the front desk for 36 euro (48hr option). Our first stop was a walking tour at 12:15 which met in Mozartplatz. We didn't know the name of the guide but he was wonderful and the tour lasted 1 hour, going through Old Town and past many churches and sights. We had lunch at Zwettler's Wirsthaus for a delicious platter of meat, rice and vegetables. I had seen it offered at several places with outdoor seating so I'm not sure if it's a Salzburg thing.

    We walked around a bit in Old Town, Peter and Paul's Cathedral, Cemetery, and up the cable car to HohenSalzburg Fortress. We took a guided tour with an audio guide which was just OK but had nice views of the city. We took the footpath back to the city and hotel. We walked through Mirabell Gardens where much of the Sound of Music was filmed. We checked into the hotel and found out we were upgraded to a Junior Suite...our room was HUGE!

    We walked to the Green and Clean laundry since we had no luck the previous day. It worked well and was a little cheaper than Vienna...8 euro for both wash & dry, 48min cycle total. It was a little rainy on the way back but we had put all the clean clothes in our rolling suitcase so they stayed dry. After putting away all of our clean laundry, we had dinner at Barenwirt which was delicious. I got pumpkin cordon bleu (pumpkin stuffed with an herb cheese and ham then deep fried and served with balsamic reduction and cranberry sauce), and Myron got Styrian beef. We both got delicious Augustiner beer. Very good food, prices and service!    Read more

  • Postcards to BostonEurotrip V
    Day 7

    Bratislava, Slovakia

    September 16, 2015 in Slovakia ⋅ ⛅ 77 °F

    We made an impromptu trip to Slovakia today. This is something we had considered prior to leaving for Europe but didn't do any research until we were frantically trying to arrange transportation and things to do on the tablet the night before. Not an ideal situation and our lack of planning would become apparent. We walked to the pier and bought tickets for the Danube River Catamaran with Twin City Liner. They had advertised departures at 8:30 and 9:00 and we were shooting for the earlier time. They had us take the metro to another location and luckily we found the second pier. Cost was 35 euro each for the reserved seating (all that was remaining last minute). The air was foggy at first but burned off quickly and by the time we were really moving, we could actually see our surroundings. The trip to Bratislava was advertised as 75 minutes (which we had planned our day around), but actually took an hour longer than that (with no explanation). The sailing was comfortable and included a trip through a lock. The delay caused us to miss a walking tour we had planned.

    Anyway, we arrived in Old Town and walked to lunch at Bratislavsky Mestiansky Pivovar. We got a sausage appetizer, followed by goulash for me and Chrenovka (beef with horseradish) for Myron. The food was very tasty. The waitress spoke limited English but enough to communicate. The prices were very good.

    We walked to St. Margaret's Blue Church which was gorgeous. It was closed but we could still view inside and take photos. The church was one of the most beautiful we have seen. We wandered around the city, viewing statues, souvenir shopping, seeing the old city walls, castle, UFO bridge and views of Bratislava. We stopped for gelato at Koun which was very good. The graffiti and street art were very diverse and interesting.

    To return to Vienna, we decided on the Blaguss bus at 4:15, which was cheap at 7.50 euro per person and should have taken 1 hr. We had read good things about this bus but it arrived 20 minutes late and took 3 hr to make the 1 hr journey to Vienna due to border traffic from the Syrian migrant crisis. The police were doing random vehicle checks and traffic was backed up for miles! We ended up arriving back in Vienna at 7:25. We attempted to do laundry at Green & Clean but the machine was not accepting bills and was located in a residential neighborhood so we had nowhere to break our bills.

    Frustrated and annoyed, we headed back to the hotel where we got room service for dinner. We both got tomato & mozzarella sandwiches and french fries. We packed and went to bed at 11pm.    Read more

  • Postcards to BostonEurotrip V
    Day 6

    Vienna, Austria

    September 15, 2015 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F

    Our day started early and we had breakfast at Aida Cafe near our hotel for pastries: apricot danish and apple strudel. We took the metro to Schonbrunn Palace to enter at 8:30 when it opened. We got a 48hr metro pass which was a great value. The Vienna metro system was extensive and we definitely got our money's worth. Schonbrunn Palace was not very busy so early and was a beautiful palace. The audio guide was one of the best I've ever had and I usually hate audio guides. The experience was infinitely better than we had at Versailles simply because it wasn't nearly as crowded. The palace also offered a guided tour in English at 11 but we didn't want to wait around for that. After a 40min tour of the palace, we walked around the gardens for about 2 hours.

    We made our way to the Naschmarkt to buy another picnic lunch. We ended up with falafel, talagio cheese, pita, strum (wine/juice hybrid), grapes, hummus w/couscous and chocolates. Total of 15euro spent for a wonderful lunch! We stopped at Resselpark near Karlskirche for our picnic and were very full by the time we finished. We loved the Naschmarkt but many vendors were selling the same things for the same prices. They did have a great variety of items but it wouldn't really make sense to shop around there. Just find a vendor you like and go with it. Most of the people spoke great English.

    We took a short walk to Belvedere Palace since we had some time to kill and walked around the grounds a bit. We did not pay to go inside. The gardens were a bit in disrepair but our baseline for comparison was rather high with our knowledge of Schonbrunn and Versailles! We had a 2:30pm PolaWalk tour with Thomas scheduled and met him at Karlskirche. We ended up being the only two people on this tour. We went to Karlskirche, State Opera House, Albertina, Butterfly House, Winterpalais, Volksgarten, Rathaus, Parliament and Votiv Church. We each took 8 polaroid photos and returned the PolaWalk office so Thomas could scan our photos to send us the digital versions.

    Again, we had some time to kill after our tour so we got hot chocolate at an Italian coffeehouse nearby. Dinner reservations at 7pm at Appiano Das Gasthaus, which was spectacular. Definitely our best meal in Vienna, and potentially the entire trip! Unfortunately the restaurant was closed due to medical issues over the summer and it seemed like they were struggling to get people back in the door after recently reopening. The food certainly didn't suffer! We started with a variety of breads with egg spreads and olive oil. Sweet potato soup with basil pesto was first. Appetizers: Spanish octopus with chive sauce and wild herb salad; and watermelon caprese salad (grilled watermelon with buffalo mozzarella and basil pesto). For entrees we got: Tuna Steak (special), and Boiled beef (with potato strudel, apple horseradish and chive sauce). Both were simply amazing. For dessert we got strawberry panna cotta with lemon sorbet. Even though it was an expensive meal, we would feel fine going to the restaurant in jeans and the service was excellent. We would definitely go back if we came back to Vienna!

    Walking back to the hotel, we got a little lost but eventually found it!    Read more

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