Strasbourg and Interlarken

Craig Writes;

7/08/13 A travel day that left me scarred.  Thankfully only physically.  The time between train transfers was eight minutes and our train was four minutes late getting in. Adding to that  our next platform was on the other side of the train tracks which required dragging the cases along the platform, down one long flight of stairs, the easy bit, then up another set of stairs, the hard bit. I would normally be fine with one but at this stage the cases are packed to capacity and the time constraint meant getting everything up asap. No time for relays, everything had to go down and up in one go. Thank dog for the adrenaline of missing the train. It was only once we threw our cases through the closing train doors and collapsed on the heap that I realised I had blood flowing down the shin of my left leg. I have no idea how it happened. I may have been shin bit by an angry dwarf for all I know. The train trip was mercifully short and before we knew it we were hauling our bags through the streets of Strasbourg looking for our room. There was a moment of light relief when I noticed a freshly showered "Fabio" wannabe hanging over the railing of his first floor apartment with only a white towel around him talking loudly on his mobile and peering down into the street begging for attention. Look at me everyone, aren't I gorgeous and look, I'm only wearing this flimsy white towel. Hilarious. 

Strasbourg has a long history of human occupation that stretches all the way back to the neolithic ages before being permanently settled by the Celts around 1300 BC. Today it is the official seat of the European Parliament and an important centre of manufacturing, engineering and has the second largest port on the Rhine.

But, the really interesting thing about Strasbourg is what happened here in 1518 when the town was struck with....a Dancing Plague.  Yes, you read that right, a dancing plague. It afflicted about 400 residents who literally danced themselves to death over a period of weeks dropping dead from exhaustion and heart attacks. 

Our apartment is a tiny attic of odd shaped rooms and of course at the top of four flights of narrow step stairs. I tell ya, I may have put on a few kilos over this trip but I am strong as a bloody ox with throwing all these cases from one country to another. 

The view from our balcony

The bottom of these steps was as far as the cases were going

8/08/13 Today we took a short walk to one of the most beautiful Cathedrals I've ever been in.  The Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg.  It was started in 1277 and finished in 1439 and is not only the finest example of Gothic architecture from the medieval period in the world, it was also the tallest building in the world till 1874 when it was surpassed by St Nicholai's Church in Hamburg.

Magnificent

Pure Gothic

The detail was astounding

It really wasn't until Christina and I went for a walk around 7pm tonight to get some milk and just kept on walking that we really discovered just how beautiful this city is.  I'll let the pictures tell the story.

No comment needed here

or here

INTERLAKEN

9/08/13. Another train trip today, the destination is Interlarken, Switzerland.  Farken Interlaken, man, forget about the Parisian street urchins who'll pick your pockets clean or the gypsy street cons of fainting old women who miraculously skip off once you've helped them up to their feet while the contents of your back pack skip of in the other direction in the hands of a partner in crime.  No no, all the real criminals are driving cabs and running their business in Interlarken. $30 freaking dollars for a three minute cab ride from the train station. Seven bucks for two fingers of cask red at the local pizza shop on top of $25 for a round disc of dough with a bit of cheese and a few strips of ham. It seems that everyone here is dedicated to maintaining Switzerland's reputation as the most expensive place in the world to live.

That's better, I feel I can move on now. We are staying right on the edge of Lake Brienz with the light jade glacial waters of the surrounding mountains quickly passing by. It is the picture perfect Switzerland you see in all the brochures. 

The view from our hotel

It was interesting to learn that even the Swiss think it's too expensive to shop here. There are apparently supermarkets and shopping malls lined up along the German and Italian borders specifically for the local Swiss to pop over and do their weekly shopping at literally half the price.  The language is all German and the guests vary from large groups of Taiwanese's and Koreans to herds of Burka clad women in top to bottom black with only mascara clad eyes and fan like eyelashes visible through the gap. Hubby mustering the kids and stroking his long black beard as he walks along in front.

We took the free bus (did someone say free!?) into the city of Interlarken today for a stroll around. What a beautiful, clean and touristy little town it is. We were told the watch shops were very big with the Asian community as there is apparently much prestige to be had by letting it be known your Rolex was bought in Switzerland. We popped into the first store we came across and bugger me if it didn't seem like we'd walked through a portal and ended back in China. 

Welcome to Beijing, Interlaken

This is what $150,000 Swiss Francs of watch looks like

The store was huge and from the store assistants to the customers there wasn't a caucasian to be seen.  I don't mention this as a racial commentary just a really interesting fact that there must be a boat load of bucks floating around Asia these days for Mum and Dad to bring the kids to the most expensive place on earth to shell out five grand plus for a watch.

May as well stay on the Asian theme while I'm on a roll. We walked into Bibbis Restaurant for a spot of lunch and blow me down, same thing. Every single one of the 100 plus crowd were either Taiwanese or Korean, except for four little Aussies.  How did we know their ethnicity? Well it turns out Bibbis had cornered the market in Asian tour groups and today he was playing host to a large group from both countries.  We're sitting there pondering the menu when next thing the Taiwanese national anthem starts to blast through the speakers and the manager runs through the restaurant with a bed sheet size Taiwanese flag wiggling his bum at the girls and high fiving the guys while they've all dropped their forks and are clapping along. 

The Taiwanese getting a taste of Bibbis big horn

It was odd to see one half of the restaurant going off in a patriotic fervour while the Korean half of the restaurant sit politely, heads bowed and eating their fondue. The Taiwanese anthem fades out, bum wiggling boy retreats  behind the bar and the Taiwanese resume eating, chatting and smiling among themselves.  

Next thing the relative calm of the restaurant is shattered when the  Korean anthem explodes through the speakers. As one, they all drop their cutlery and off they go, waving, clapping and high fiving.  Another flag off Olympic proportions comes running through the restaurant, more bum wiggling , more high fives.  It was hilarious. 

The Koreans getting their wind up while the guys enjoy their cheese fondue

I've got to say this guy was good. When he found out the four strangers in the restaurant  were Aussies he unbelievably found an Aussie flag from some where and while we didn't get the bum wiggle, thankfully, or the Anthem, we got a flag wave from behind the bar. Ohh and he threw in some free left over deserts from the Asians set price lunch. It was great fun. Turns out the body building muscle head owner had an Aussie girlfriend and had been to Kununurra of all places.  

Having a Muscle Off with the owner. I came a distant second

So after stocking up on some local supermarket supplies so we don't have to go pay $15 for a hamburger when Callum's ever demanding metabolisms screams out for calories, we headed home.

11/08/13 What does five hours on a train and $600 get you in Switzerland. SNOWBALLS that's what. We made the trek up the Jungfraujoch, at 3454 metres it is the highest railway station in Europe. We came well equipped with one extra pair of socks between the four of us and a pair of gardening gloves  each to keep the cold away as we hammered each other with snow balls. No way was I going to pay $80 a pair for snow gloves when a $8.50 pair of good old rubber gardening gloves would do the trick.

How about those gloves

The trip up is long and there are a couple of changes that you need to be quick on if you want a seat. The Asian tour groups are relentless and seemingly omnipresent. And they move really quick. We did the smart thing and stole rolls from the breakfast buffet to take up for lunch. 

Once again Hughy the god of weather was looking down upon us and we struck gold. A magnificent day.  Baby blue skies and snow as far as the eye could see. We threw snow, we ate snow, we put snow down the front of our pants and we made the worlds quickest and smallest snowman. 

Our very first snowman, we were so proud

The Mexican Stand Off

Quite the arm on this one

We had numerous goes at sledding, but the stiff plastic crates they called a sled were impossible to steer and the ruts of previous sledders were so deep  that no matter where you started you all ended up in the same tracks.  So when, not if, when, the person in front stopped or fell off you had no choice but to bail, hoping no one was behind you, or you slammed into the back of them which wouldn't have been any good for anyone. It was so much fun. 

Gentlemen, start your sleds

Don't see this everyday

Everyones shoes were soaked and feet were freezing by the time we finished but Charlie's feet were the bluest so it was decided that he would get the back up pair of dry socks.  

The best dang hot chocolate ever

So much fun. Did I already say that?  The boys really wanted to see snow this trip and we're so glad  we could make it happen.

It's All Good at Bad Hinderlang

Craig Writes;
31/07/13 ;

I think I could write a book on train travel. We had one change this time in Munich then on to the small city of Ulm where we picked up a nice Skoda and hit the road for a 90 minute drive to our next stop, Bad Hinderlang. Imagine everything you have every seen about small Bavarian towns with rolling hills, big doe eyed heifers with cow bells and enormous udders chewing cud and lolling about. Imagine tall church spires, window boxes spilling over with the most brilliant and colourful displays of petunias and geraniums. All the gardens exploding with the most brilliant pinks, reds, blues and whites.  It's like they are over compensating for the fact that for six months of the year the predominate colour surrounding them is white.

This was our back yard

Oh so very pretty

I wonder where all the bees go for the long winter

We are  the only guests staying in a farmhouse which is a mere five minutes walk from the town centre. There is an 18 hole mini golf course at the end of the driveway and an obstacle course/ playground next to that.

That's not a putter, this is a putter

We have the towering Alps as our backdrop with a cable car snaking up the centre valley only a few hundred metres from our back door. We get our milk delivered to our door at 7am each morning. It's still a little warm  as it was still in the cow at 6.30am. Freshly baked rolls are also left on the doorstep. We have eaten out here the last two nights and the food is unbelievable. And just as unbelievable is the fact that only 5% of the tourist population here is English speaking so practically none of the menus are in English.  Thankfully the German country side folk speak a little English and are happy to translate. The first couple of days we just settled in but today we drove to Oberstdorf and then took a  2224 metre high cable car ride to the top of the famous Nebelhorn from which you can look out over 400 mountain tops and all the way into Austria and Switzerland.

On our way to the top of Nebelhorn

On his way to the bottom of Nebelhorn

Contemplating the long drop off the top of Nebelhorn

Us at the top of the Nebelhorn

4/07/13. Blessed Are The Cheesemakers, apparently. Today we decided to find out for ourselves just how blessed they are so we took off to the mountains of Hinterstein to find some of Bavaria's finest cheesemakers. The walk up the mountain side though steep is made more pleasant by the lungfuls of pure Alpine air we're all sucking in and the shade offered by the towering pines.

Yes, it was as stunning as it looks

It's a popular trek with walkers and bikes going up and down. One guy had a baby carriage on the back with his border collie in it. You could hear the melody of the cow bells way before you see them.  The herds are all quite small here.  I don't think I've seen anything over a dozen or so. The first farm we came across was charming but we thought we'd best see another before we decided on where to spend our cheese dollar. Fifteen minutes down the road we hit the jackpot. Much nicer looking place, high on a hillside, some umbrellas to keep the sun off and someone who spoke good english. Minutes later we were all tucking into meat and cheese platters, beer and softies for the boys. It was another magic moment.  

They say this is a really gouda cheese farm. 

One happy cow

One happy camper

It was a slow amble down the mountain side and a casual drive through this stunning country side. Home for a nap, I've started running again in the mornings you see, and out to another of the brilliant restaurants for a tasty pasta feed.

5/07/13 Today we were off to the famous Neuschwanstein Castle. Made more famous due to being the inspiration for the central Walt Disney Castle in all of his theme parks. Good King Ludwig, who some say was mad while others say he was just misunderstood, was the architect of the castle. While majestic and inspiring he only lived in his fairy tale castle for about six months. He preferred the smaller and more private Linderhof Palace that he had built a few miles down the road. Our good friends at Trip Advisor explained that the wait to buy an entry ticket into Neuschwanstein Castle could be up to three hours and once there you are herded through four rooms in fifteen minutes. The better option seemed to be to take the bus up the hill and go to Mary's Bridge where you get a magnificent view from the outside. And no waiting.  

The famous Neuschwanstein Castle

Living the fairytale

King Ludwigs folks place on the right and their pool in the top left corner

Us, poolside

We opted for the bus ride up the mountain and the stunning views across from Mary's Bridge, we were not disappointed. From here we followed our noses back down the mountain track to the village before heading to Linderhof Palace. It is small by palace standards and the very happy, some would say gay, King Ludwig had the whole place to himself.  Apart from some government business he very rarely had company with the exception of his physician who, at the young age of forty, he was found floating dead next too in his lake.  He was an odd fella who shunned the company of others, even his servants. He had a white marble dining table that was lowered from his eating chamber on the first floor to the kitchens on the ground floor so he didn't have to have contact with servants at meal times.

The not really mad just misunderstood King Ludwigs weekender

Not bad hey

He would put on private concerts in his little grotto and get rowed around by naked cabana boys

6/07/13 A lazy day around the farm. Some mini golf, some reading, some writing and then a huge downpour that turned the bubbling brook that ran past the farmhouse into a raging torrent. A packing day, not my favourite kind of day, as we bid farewell to milk straight from the cow and warm freshly baked rolls delivered to our doorstep and drive to Ulm for a train to Strasbourg

Vienna

Craig Writes;

28/07/13 I am really starting to develop a liking for train travel. Not the crammed in cattle class with five changes in five hours, but the spacious seating and descent foot space of first class train travel. The reality is, that it is not that much more expensive to travel at the pointy end of the train than it is to travel with the baggage. I love the gentle swaying, the click clack click clack, the huge picture windows to look out and feast on the often beautiful passing countryside. It could be sloping velvety green hills with meandering rivers flowing by, cute cottages puffing out thin wisps of smoke from their tiny brick chimneys. Cows grazing in fields or distant snow capped mountains. People riding bikes or tall blocks of city apartments. If they had trains across the oceans I don't think I would ever fly again.

When we arrived in Vienna it was very hot and very sticky. With no obvious taxi rank we joined a young couple of Brazilian girls we had met on the train and proceeded to try and hail a cab. If first impressions count for anything, Vienna's not ringing our bells yet. I'm only judging this by the train station and the cab ride to our apartment and I'm hot, bothered and tired, so no real judgements yet.

Vienna is the capital of Austria and with a population of 1.8 million people, it's quite a reasonable size city. It is commonly know for the naughty Mr Freud and the place where the likes of Mozart and Beethoven used to bump around but we found it to be so much more. Beethoven was such an annoying bastard with his continuous banging on the piano, beating on a drum or clashing of a symbol that his pissed off neighbours made him move 36 times. Now there are 36 nice shiny brass plagues scattered around Vienna saying, Beethoven Lived Here, and they're all true.  

One of Beethoven's last homes

See, it's official

The Celts were the first settlers to get to Vienna about 500BC and a succession of people from one persuasion or another have called it home ever since. In 2001 UNESCO designated the city a World Heritage Site. 

It is a beautiful city

We're looking forward to meeting our friends Nora and Anastas who we had the pleasure of meeting in Krabi Thailand. That seems ooh so long ago now. We're catching up tomorrow and getting to see a bit more of why this the city was deemed to be the 2nd most liveable place in the world, behind Melbourne thank you very much, in 2012. I'm not sure how much credence you can put in some of these surveys, everyone seems to do one, but still. 

29/07/13 We went hunting around this morning for bread, milk, fruit and the main prize, a good coffee.  Mission accomplished. 
We're meeting our new Bulgarian friends today, Nora at 2pm and a later catch up with her fella, Anastas. We had no idea what she had planned for us. We ended up clothes shopping of all things, eating amazing ice cream, drinking more coffee, grabbing a few train rides and a tram ride and ending back at her place in the Grinzing area of Vienna. 
I had to put this in. This is a poster promoting the new Kick  Ass 2 movie hung up in a shopping mall. Can't help but think this might lead to some awkward moments.

Hey mummy, what's a ....?

It was so nice to be shuffled around from one train to another not having to stress with furrowed brow that we were hopping on the right train and hopping off at the right station. We all just followed Nora, taking in the surroundings.    A few tasty local bevvies at their place then, yes you regular readers will have guessed it, lock the kids in with fruit, chocolate, peanut butter sandwiches and a PlayStation and off we headed for a short walk into the little village they call home.

WOW, this is what we were looking for.  That little magical moment that will always remind you of a place. Beautiful narrow streets with houses and restaurants dating back to the early 1600's.

There were so many little alley ways just like this

For centuries now the locals have been allocated small allotments of land where they have been studiously planting vineyards. Most of which now have a restaurant or a guest house attached to them. 

There is an old tradition that when a restaurant/wine house has a vintage ready to drink they hang a small branch out the front with a light above it.

We walked past one restaurant with a framed photo of a grinning Bill Clinton standing next to a wide smiling proprietor. The picture gallery of other guests included Presidents Carter and Kruschev , Telly Savallas, and a host of famous Austrian glitterati.

A tourist trap we are warned so we keep walking down the road to one of Nora and Anastas favorites  where they brew a good local beer, make a mean schnitzel and cook up a local dish of  sirloin steak in a rich gravy with fried onions on top. Very nice.

Beer, meat , good friends and a beautiful girl, could I be any happier!

Len Evans would tear up at the thought of how many bottles these would have opened over the centuries

A couple of beers and a walk past one of the last places that Beethoven stayed in and then back to tear the boys of the Play station. Nora thankfully drove us back home.

30/7/13 What a great day. Started off about 12pm got home about 12am. We met our wonderful new friend Nora and off we went. Firstly up to the heights of Kohlenberg to get the most magnificent view of the Danube and the city proper. 

The magnificent Danube from the heights of Kohlenberg

This is quite a famous hillside, it is where the march of the Turkish Ottoman Empire on Austria was stopped in it's tracks by a coalition of Hungarians, Russians and Austrians. Then we headed back into town for a late lunch then on the road to Kreuzenstein Castle. It's like a mini Hogwarts. 

Just need Hagrid to pop his head in

The outside was a patch work of architectural forms. It's not that new having been rebuilt in the 19th century on top of the ruins of an old medieval castle. Unfortunately the castle is often used as a film location and unfortunately there was a production of a US reality show called The Quest in the process of being filmed so we didn't get to go inside. In fact we almost didn't make it because Nora our Unexplorer took a wrong turn. She's so cute. After the castle it was the boys turn, although they did enjoy catching a glimpse of the castle and having a chat to the carpenters making the set for The Quest. We headed to the Weiner Prater Amusement Park. Fantastic. Open 365 days a year, it has some terrific rides and some great restaurants. 

A very funky slide, the boys loved it

Strapped in and ready to fly

Up up and away

Now that's a good zoom lense

Let the race begin

We could have stayed later, and spent a heap more Euros, but by this time it was approaching about 7.30pm and time to head to the exit and pick up an enormous hunk of roast pork with crispy crackling, coz that's what you do here, and head back to Nora and Anastas place for beers, pizza, salad, archery and of course, hunks of juicy pork and lashings of crispy crackling. 

Have you ever seen a more beautiful picture in all your life?

What we have here is a perfect example of what happens when you take the time to be friendly to strangers. It started on a street in Krabi Thailand with a simple, "gidday" and ended up months later, a blossoming friendship in Austria with two fabulous people, and their daughter Anna, being chauffeured around the magnificent city of Vienna.  

31/07/13. Our last day before leaving and we headed to the Naschmarket to Noras Aunty's Palenchenken restaurant.  We ordered the Topfenpalatschinken.  What's that you ask? It's the best damn crepe you'll ever have, filled with quark cheese topped with vanilla custard and fresh blueberries.  Oh yeh!

Topfenpalatschinkenn, trying saying that after a few beers

After indulging in the best Topfenpalatschinkenn ever we continued walking into the centre of Vienna to see St Stephens church, the most amazing Swarovski store, not that I'm so much into it but they had this stunning crystal block worth about 100k euros, it was quite stunning. 

No change out of a $100,000

Then onto St Nicholas church, compact but very very impressive.

Small but so stunning in it's detail 

We detoured through some rose gardens looking for a taxi and looking across the park saw more stunning gothic towers and spires. We never did get to find out what they were.

The Grand Spires of ...

Finally, we made it home, sushi for dinner and an early night.

Bavaria here we come.