Das Is Alles -- That Is All

I always write a summary post at the end of the trip, so I shall keep that tradition alive.

It was the first trip for Carol and I to Hungary, and the first one that counts to Germany.  We'd flown through both Munich and Frankfurt before, but had never stepped foot out of the airport, much less had a meal off-airport (the two conditions that must happen for a country to be considered visited).

Overall impressions:

• We really enjoyed the combination of Christmas markets and sight-seeing.  If you haven't been, save the markets for dark (it gets dark early there in December, of course).
• Nine days was enough, you do reach a point where the markets are overdone.
• Also great was hitting some small towns -- St Wolfgang, Mondsee (on The Sound of Music tour), and Regensburg.  It's going take me a little time to get over the mistakes in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, so I will set that aside for now.
• Budapest, Vienna, and Salzburg were the highlights of the trip for me (I don't speak for Carol or Torie, which you probably instinctively knew!). 
• It was great having Torie along -- she had been to all four cities back in January of this year on a J-term trip, so she could give us some advice on each, including both sights and food.  She enjoyed the markets as well.
• We did come home with a bunch of Christmas food.
• It's not fair to compare central European food with Spanish food, so I won't.
• It's not fair to compare central European wine with Spanish wine, so I won't.
• I did like the trading off of eating "street food" from the food stalls at the markets with sitting down at restaurants to eat.  I would not have wanted every meal from a market stall, but doing it twice every two or three days was pretty good.
• Don't get me wrong, I liked the food at the restaurants, and German/Austrian food is better than its' reputation, but there is a certain repetitive nature to the food.  
• I know I said this early in the trip, but if I had to do it again, I would have done one more day in Budapest and one less in Munich. 
• Beyond that, however, it was a great way to get introduced to the Christmas markets and those cities we had not been to (we were in Vienna in 2011, and were enthralled then too).
• The St Wolfgang (there is no period in St for this town, btw) market was pretty amazing.
• Ranking the cities, Salzburg was my favorite city, with Budapest second, Vienna third, and Munich in fourth.  
• One observation that struck me about the markets is that they are as much a social gathering place for locals to eat and drink as it is for tourists to shop and wander.  I wish American cities had a draw like this.
• You don't see many lights on individual houses, etc, but the city buildings often have beautiful displays.
• They do the non-religious parts of Christmas very well in Central Europe.

Final note -- I probably have not seen The Sound of Music since my youth (maybe once or twice as an adult).  Loved it then (thanks mom!).  The tour in Salzburg was great fun, even if we aren't tour bus people.  I regretted that we had not carved out time to watch it before going to Salzburg.  

However, I watched the movie on the flight back, and it was more fun to see it AFTER taking the tour rather than before.  It was thrilling to see the scenes at locations we had been to just a few days earlier.  The movie is funnier than I remember, the songs are fabulous, and the story, even though embellished, is beautiful.

Oh, and it's true -- the hills ARE alive with the sound of music.

So, have yourself a merry little Christmas, now.

Our Story Ends Not With A Bang, But With A Thud

I didn't think our last day through very well, but a failure to communicate put an early end to it anyhow.  I've often quoted John Passacantando's famous aphorism, "it's not an adventure till the first thing goes wrong."

Sunday afternoon went wrong, but it is not an adventure.  Besides the palace, my plan had been to take the cog railway from Garmisch-Partenkirchen to the Cable Car and go up the Zugspitze, which, at 9.718 feet, is the highest mountain in Germany.

My goal was to be able to post stunning photos of snow-capped mountains all around.  

By now my dear readers, because you are smart, you have figured out that my plan didn't work.  The only reason to continue reading it to learn WHY it didn't work!

After Linderhof Palace, we drove the 15 kilometers into town and grabbed lunch at Hofbraustrubel.  At 2:20 pm, I declared it was time to go to the train station, or else we would literally be stuck out in the dark.  

We struggled for a bit after arriving at the train station, but Torie alertly spotted a sign that included Zugspitze, and once again, we went through a tunnel, under the tracks (remember our fun leaving Budapest? -- this was simpler) and to the ticket window.  The ticket seller didn't seem to think it was a great idea going that late, but I had my mind set on snow capped peaks as the sun went down.  

It's pretty pricey, but I wanted to get up that mountain, even if it was about 25 minutes from the time we reached the top to the last cable car down.  The ticket seller showed us that we take the train to the bottom of the cable car, then take the cable car up.  

You are thinking to yourself. . .hey, that seems simple!  Thinking was our first mistake.  The ticket seller forgot to mention an important point.

We waited 25 minutes for the train, and were three of just nine who hopped on.  Upon arrival at the Garmisch-P station a whole mess of skiers got off.  Ah, it takes skiers as well as sightseers.  

There were multiple stops as we chugged through the valley, although that late in the day, few, if any, got on.  Suddenly, as we pull into one station, there is a lengthy announcement all in German.  The skiers from the train on the track next to us flood off that train and onto ours.  The three of us looked at each other, wondering if we should get off this train and go to the other one.  That one read "Garmisch-Partenkirchen" still, so we were quite uncertain.  

Then, the train across the way flipped the sign to "Eibsee" and took off in the direction opposite of G-P.  You know, the direction we wanted to go in.  It dawned on us that we were supposed to switch trains.  And yet, the ticket seller never mentioned it, despite his good English.  The conductor may have mentioned it, but there was no English.  No signs that said, "switch trains here."

As we rolled back on a three-car train full of skiers, I fumed, thinking we had been totally ripped off.  Making it worse was that the new conductor for the trip back did speak English, announcing the next stop in both German and English.  Yea!  Missed it by THAT much.

I felt scammed out of a lot of Euros.  Carol agreed to be our advocate to the ticket seller that we should get some money back.  The ticket seller had switched to a new guy. The new guy scanned our tickets, and declared that they had messed up.  He instantly refunded our money, all in cash Euros.  So at least when we learned our lesson, it wasn't an expensive one.  Carol didn't even have to go all New York on him, as he admitted they messed up.  If only American companies were this accommodating when they muck it up.

Yes, we had views of the mountains, but not from the top of Germany.  I felt chastened as we walked back through town to our car.

I know what you are thinking -- "some Iron Tourist you are!"  I don't even have a rejoinder to that.  Well, maybe I do -- big picture, it was a great trip.

The drive home was pretty quick once we got through one post-town traffic back-up.  The ease of the Sunday late afternoon drive from the ski town to the big city would be the envy of EVERY PERSON WHO HAS EVER DRIVEN FROM VAIL TO DENVER ON A SUNDAY!  

We went into Munich, wandered through the market one last time, when Carol suggested we go to Augustiner Klosterwirt for a beer, and maybe dinner.  

Sweet -- I wouldn't be the only red-blooded American male to ever go to Munich and not have a beer at a beer hall!  A liter mug of beer later, and I felt better.  We had dinner, which was solid Bavarian food (I went with the half duck, and ate exactly zero of the boiled red cabbage).  

Back through the Christmas market at Rathausplatz, to the car, and back to the apartment.  The trip was essentially over, except for the packing, the trip to the airport, and the flight back to Dulles.  Nobody wants to read about that, so I won't write about it.  Rest be assured, all were uneventful.

Going For Baroque

Sunday, December 15th was our final full day on this trip.  We decided to head down to Garmisch -Partenkirchen, a Bavarian ski town in the Alps.

Our first stop was Linderhof Palace, the smallest of three palaces built by crazy King Ludwig II.  It was the only one of the three palaces that was finished before he died.  Built between 1863 and 1886, it was small and very, very Baroque.

Back in the day, it was a six hour journey from Munich, which the King did once a month for either ten days or 14 days at a time.  He much preferred this small country palace to the big city life in Munich.  The palace was an homage to Louis XIV of France, who then had the real power over Bavaria.

We had an hour to kill before the next English tour, so we traipsed through the snow, and I climbed up the ice-covered stairs of a grotto. 

Alas, no pictures are allowed inside (I took two in the front room before the "no pictures" policy was allowed.  The palace is striking -- my favorite room was the mirror hall, but it's all pretty stunning.

The way the mirrors are aligned in that room, it looks like the room goes on forever, as the reflections of the reflections go on for ever.  

The tour guide was funny, interesting, and not much of a leader.  Of course, it's a small palace, so moving the group around wasn't easy, especially as the "English" was full of people for whom English is, at best, a second language, so people didn't really know what she was saying, ignored admonitions to be quiet, and took pictures with their phones.

Walking in a winter wonderland.

This was taken from the same spot as

the photo above it -- and with the

same lens.  Best travel camera

ever -- thanks Pierre for the rec!

Roughly translated, the Latin means,

"I'm King, and I'm better than you are."

Last Slate of Selfies -- Salzburg Und Munchen

Technically, this is not a selfie.  Okay,

it's not a selfie -- technically has nothing

to do with it.  But Carol's shot of the church

in Mondsee where The Sound of Music

wedding was filmed is fabulous!

Above St. Gilgen, with the Alps and

Wolfgangsee in the background.

Yes, that's the small lake from the Sound of Music.

Ditto.

Above Salzburg, with

Hohensalzburg Fortress

Regensburg, from the 800+ year old bridge

In The Residenz.

The Antiquarium in Munich.

Do-Ri-Me Bridge!

From the bridge, to the Abbey that the choir

was heard singing in an early movie scene.

Sight Hopping In Munich

After seeing the surfers, Carol got a second wind, so we wandered around Munich, stopping at various sites, including the Hofbrauhaus, St. Peter's Church (we didn't climb the tower -- there was a long line), the go-for-Baroque Asamkirche, and the small Christkindlmarkt (Christmas market) at Sendlinger Tor, which is one of the few bits of the original  city walls that still survive.  

We had mixed reactions to Hofbrauhaus, which bills itself as the world's most famous tavern for three reasons -- it is a huge beer  hall built in 1529 by Bavarian Duke Maximillian I, is famous as Mozart's place to quaff his thirst, and because it is absolutely packed with a crush of tourists drawn by the fame, the oompah band, especially during Oktoberfest.

I wanted a beer, but the others saw it as too packed and loud, so we split.  I did hit a proper Munich beer hall Sunday night, so my goal did not go unrequited.

From there we went to St.Peter's Cathedral, which was pretty cool.

Our next stop was possibly my favorite church on the entire trip, because it was so narrow and every inch was packed with over-the-top Baroque decorations.  Asamkirche.  Alas, the light outside was fading by the time we got there, so I couldn't take many pictures.

(Editor's Note: Is there such a thing as "not over-the-top Baroque?"  I don't think so.  Blogger: Hangs head downward in writing shame.)

A little further on this pedestrian street was the Christkindmarkt at Sendlinger Tor.  It's a cool gate and towers dating from the early 1300s.  It served as the jumping off point to Italy and the rest of the south.  It was badly damaged in WWII, but some modest amount of the original tower/wall remain.

First we hit a cafe for coffee/sparkling water and some cake.  It's a pretty good tradition, and when you are walking seven to twelve miles a day, you don't feel guilty for the rest stop.

We eventually wandered over to the Winter Magic market on Viktualienmarkt on our way to dinner at Restaurant Blauer Bock, which came highly recommended by our neighbors Kon and Deborah.  The food was fabulous, and we quaffed a great St. Emilion and then a Rioja (the food was slow to come out).  It was undoubtedly the nicest restaurant we ate at on the trip, which of course was coming to a close.

Back to the parking garage where we parked, and then back to the apartment.  We haven't exactly been the "out late party types" on this trip, but it does seem like the sidewalks roll up incredibly early in Central Europe.

Ceiling at St. Peter's.

Ditto

The amazing Asamkirche.

It's a small, narrow church, but it seems every

inch is covered in Baroque ornamentation.

Carol and Torie met a friend at the Christmas market

The city wall and gate.

I would like to have this.

Oom-pah band at Hofbrauhaus.  It was break time.

Residenz Inn

We had been on the move quite a bit, so Saturday morning, Carol and Torie slept in.  You gotta know when to drive them and when to tap on the brakes.  We made it to Munich city center by 11 am, and headed straight for the Residenz, which had been the palace of Bavarian dukes, electors, and kings from 1508 to 1918.  

Built beginning in 1385, the palace grew and grew.  Much of it was destroyed during World War II, but it has been rebuilt in much of the original style, including artwork that was hidden for safekeeping and furniture.  Even if the furniture isn't from the original palace, it dates back to those days.

The three Ludwigs are probably the most famous kings of Bavaria.  When Ludwig III helped lead the peaceful transition from a monarchy to a parliamentary system right at the end of WWI, that ended 738 years of rule by the Wittelsbach family.  Somewhere, there are some jealous American Presidents.

It's unclear from the several sources I checked just how much of the Residenz had been rebuilt (mostly by the 1980s), but it appears the three most stunning rooms were NOT damaged (if anyone has source material saying the opposite, I'm happy to revise this post).  

The Italian Renaissance Grotto Courthyard, the Antiquarium banquet hall, and the Baroque Ancestral Gallery are all stunning.  Three of the most beautiful rooms I've ever seen.

The redone imperial rooms are like those in any other palace -- clearly the monarchs of Europe had competitions among themselves to outdo each other -- a sort of "Palacing With The Stars" of its time.  I took tons of pictures but tried not to overdo it below -- but I might have:

A sunny look at the clock

tower of the Rathaus.

Mary in Marianplatz.

On a building.

Art in a courtyard of the Residenz.

The Italian Renaissance Grotto

Mercury looks like the inspiration

for Frozone in The Incredibles, amirite?

The Antiquarium banquet hall is jaw-dropping.

Part of the ceiling of the Antiquarium.

Mind.  Blown.

Clock tower.

Part of a tapestry.  So I learned on this trip

not to take pictures of the full tapestry or

painting, but just to focus on a main part of it.

Seems like it works, no?

Part of another tapestry.

Close-up in a painting.

Typical palace door.

Part of the wall in the throne room.

Where's Harpo when you need him.

As LT would say, "Like a bunch of crazed dogs."

Just a random hallway.

The dragon is on the wrong

end of this battle.

The red room.

Above the throne.

Wall fresco telling the story of, well,

I'm not sure.  If you know, let me know.

The Baroque Ancestral Gallery.

Gilded moldings in the Ancestral Galleries.

The pictures themselves are of dead

Bavarian royalty no one cares about. 

Campaigning in the courtyard.

The foot belongs to Neptune.

I suppose the fish does as well.