Travel Log: Disneyland and Dinkelsbühl

It is with great relief that I begin to write this entry. It will the last post about our fantastic trip to Europe. About time! The trip was in May and here it is the 30th of October. I feel I've documented it pretty well. Thanks for the memories....

Several months before we began our adventure, the MAAWB swarmed in our living room. We set up a high tech command centre. Multiple laptops were humming. An overhead projector (borrowed from work) was attached to one laptop and beamed the desktop onto the wall so we could all see. We pulled the blinds and stayed sober. This was our planning day.

We discussed and debated our options; determined our route; and then compared, selected, and booked our hotels. Everything was pretty straight forward until we got to this last day. One last day. Where would it be?

Rootsey was the only member of the MAAWB who had traversed these parts before. He was bouncing back and forth from leg to leg (like an 8 year old who needs to pee) with his suggestion to see a castle. "Not just a castle," he said, "the castle to end all castles." So we looked at the map, found the castle, determined that we would be headed in the right direction (toward Frankfurt), and said, "Right-o."

But where would we spend the night?

We looked at the map and ran our eyes between the castle and Frankfurt. And that's when we found it: Dinkelsbühl.

According to the mayor of Dinkelsbühl, "[it] is simply enchanting! Every day of every year, guests from all over the world are overwhelmed by the charms of one of Germany’s most beautiful medieval towns.

So, because we liked the name, because it was so beautifully described, and, most importantly, because it was on the way, we booked our rooms and made that the last stop.

Between the castle that inspired Cindarella's castle at Disneyland - the reference makes sense now - (Neuschwanstein Castle, royal palace in the Bavarian Alps of Germany, the royal palace built for Mad King Ludwig) and Dinkelsbühl, I think we hit the motherload in beauty on the way out. The pictures will speak for themselves.

The Last Word

A few things I can think of to say before I let you go are these:

1. I love the Autobahn.
2. I actually looked forward to the 13 hour leg of our flight home because of the free foot massage machines at the Singapore Airport.
3. We all love the cans of 10% alcohol Jack & Cokes in Germany.
4. We enjoyed planning for this trip almost as much as going on it.
5. Alan is a great hotel selector.
6. Villa la Noce was AMAZING.
   
7. Two weeks was plenty of time.
8. Qantas in-flight entertainment made the 21 hours of flight time very bearable.
9. The 18 people who went on this trip are all fantastic!
10. I can't wait for the next big adventure!

Travel Log: The Hills Are Alive

Photos in this post by Ben and Michael.

We woke up to a beautiful day. I'm not sure if I've mentioned that breakfasts have been included in every hotel we've booked. And they are very good breakfasts. Just simple things like breads, meats, cheeses, yoghurts, fruit, and cereals, but it's all fresh and pretty tasty. And it was a great way to start each day. We usually met in the breakfast area at about 8:30 and then hit the road at about 9:30. Leaving our hotel outside of Venice was no different.

We drove out of Venice and went west first and then north. The trip today would take us to Austria. Our destination: Innsbruck - host of the 1964 and the 1976 Winter Olympics.

Even before we hit the border, scenically and architecturally, we could tell we were leaving Italy. The plains turned into hills which turned into mountains. We were back in the Alps and the views were breathtaking. This part of the Alps had more green than what we had experienced on our trip through Switzerland. It really looked like the scenery from The Sound of Music. As we moved north, architecturally, the buildings changed. I've not got the vocabulary to explain the difference, but as we went north, the buildings began to look different.

Once we made it to the border, we paid our Italian exit fee (road toll) and drove through Austria to Innsbruck.

Once again, our sat nav took us exactly where we wanted to go and as we arrived at the hotel, we were happy to find that we could actually park nearby. The drive was only a few hours, so when we arrived it was lunchtime. We were hungry and Alan wanted a beer - shoot we all wanted a drink. So we set out to find weiner schnitzel and lager - and we got exactly what we were looking for. I hope I can find the picture of Alan drinking a litre of beer - he was a happy man.

The lunch was spectacular. Veal schnitzel, chicken schnitzel, and the best salad I've had. It was 3-4 salads all in one bowl. The cucumber salad stands out for me and so does the potato salad. If you can remember salads 5 months later, you know they were good.

Cranberry Sauce - The schnitzel was served with a little tiny jar of cranberry sauce. I asked if I could buy a few jars (I wanted a case), but the waitress said that they didn't sell it (what a shame). She told me I could probably find some in the stores around town. Thank goodness, I did. I brought a big jar home and was very happy when AQIS let it into Australia. I plan to bring it to the US for Thanksgiving dinner.

We could see that there was a chairlift that goes to the top of the mountain and we inquired about that. It seemed like a great way to spend the afternoon. Besides, it was really warm (dare I say, hot?) in the city, so we wanted to get some elevation and cool down. Angela decided to give this part a miss so that she could rest her leg (which was pretty swollen and sore, I must say - she surely did the right thing by not going).

So Alan, Michael, Ben and I made our way to the train/gondola ride up. It was two stages. The new train was beautiful and well run. It took us up to a nice skiing village. Then we walked around to the gondola to go more than halfway up the mountain. Unfortunately, we were too late to do the third leg which gets you to the very top.

Snow and skiing. That's what we saw when we got to our highest point. Oh, and a bar. We found a bar, got a drink, and made our way outside to soak up the sun and the view. I'll let the pictures do the talking....

OK - We went back down and walked around a bit. After meeting up with Angela again, we decided to look for a place to eat. I don't think we asked anyone; we just walked around and explored. In the end, we had Japanese for dinner. It was relaxing and nice. We walked slowly in the warm evening and, of course, made our way back to the place where the gelato was being sold. :)

I do believe we were uncannily sober when we made our way back to the hotel that night.

Innsbruck was beautiful. It was clean, pretty, warm, relaxed, and we had a good time there.
We could hardly believe that we only had one stop left. We hoped that we hadn't made a mistake in selecting our next destination. It was the only real wild card in our itinerary.