Part 12 - Switzerland and Vicinity

The next portion of our trip included 2 nights in Salzburg, Austria, 2 nights near Ravensburg, Germany visiting a friend of Karen’s and her  family, a quick stop in Lichtenstein, and 3 nights in Switzerland.  I realize that Salzburg is ~ 200 miles east of Switzerland, but have grouped these three destinations as they all are similar in character, and it also helps to make the sections of the blog roughly equivalent in duration.

Day 61– Friday, August 16. Salzburg, Austria.  From the Czech/Austrian border we headed southwest to the small town of Hallstatt.  This small town (population ~1000) is in the Lake District about an hour from Salzburg.  Hallstatt is a very old city, and was prosperous before the time of Rome due to its salt mines.  The salt mined here was traded throughout most of the area of present day Europe.  It was so important that an epoch, the Hallstatt Era (800 to 400 BC), is named after this spot.   The current town is very cute, hugging the mountainside slope next to the Hallstätter See.  The main road to/from the area was routed above town and through a pair of tunnels back in the 1960s, so today the single road going through the medieval town center is restricted to local traffic and the old part of town is almost car free.   We parked in the new section of town, and walked the ~10 minutes along the lake to the old part of town.  The views of the old town from across the corner of the lake are almost as worthwhile as walking through the old town itself – it is extremely picturesque.    We spent about 2 hours in Hallstatt before heading on to our final destination of Salzburg. 

Hallstadtt

Main street in Hallstatt

Main Square in Hallstatt

I apparently cursed myself Friday afternoon by remarking that it had been more than 24 hours since Matthew had finished throwing up in Prague and that the rest of us were likely safe as none of us caught whatever bug he had gotten.  I started to feel ill in the evening after arriving in Salzburg, and started throwing up about 10 PM.  I spent the entire night throwing up about once an hour.  LLL

Day 62– Saturday, August 17. Salzburg.  Today our plan was to spend the day in Salzburg.  There was a bus stop was right in front of our hotel, and a 10 minute ride led to the center of the city.  We had booked afternoon tickets for a Sound of Music Tour (Karen’s favorite all-time movie) the previous day when we were in Hallstatt, and our plan was to do a walking tour of Salzburg in the morning, followed by the organized tour in the afternoon.  The rest of the family headed off into town in the morning and I told them if I was still alive I would meet them prior to the departure of the Sound of Music Tour.  They did a ~ 4 hour self-guided walking tour, including lunch.  They started at Mozartplatz, a square with statue of Mozart in the middle.  Next was Residenzplatz where a lot of famous historical Salzburg figures have lived.  Residenzplatz has a large Italian fountain in the middle.  They then went to Neue Residenz which was formerly a palace, but is currently a group of museums.  On the top of the Neue Residenz is a glockenspiel which plays three times a day.  In Neue Residenz they went into the Salzburg Panorama Museum which houses a panoramic painting of Salzburg created in 1829.  This painting toured around the world for 10 years to show how beautiful the city was.  There was also a Sound of Music exhibit in the museum that contained artifacts from the movie.  After going to the Salzburg Cathedral they went to Kapitelplatz which has some modern sculptures and an old horse bath.  They then walked through St. Peters Cemetery which inspired the scene from the Sound of Music where the von Trapp family hid out from the Nazis.  There are a lot of interesting renaissance style tombstones lining the cemetery from former graves.  From the cemetery you can see up on the cliff caves where medieval hermit monks lived.  After going by St. Peter’s Church they strolled through Universitätsplatz, a large open air produce market.  They wrapped up there tour of the city center by going to Getreidegasse which was the center of trade since Roman times and Alter Markt, the old market place.  Getreidegasse has a lot of old wrought iron signs showing what the stores used to sell.  Mozart’s birthplace is also located there.

Musical Bread

Mozart Statue

St Peter’s Cemetery

Cheese seller at Universitätsplatz

Getreidegasse

After the walking tour they crossed over the river to go on the Sound of Music Tour.  I was feeling marginally better by 1 PM having slept for a couple of hours in the morning, so I decided too go into toen to join them for the tour.  We met about 15 minutes before the scheduled departure, and after checking in headed across the street to Mirabell Gardens.  Some of the outdoor scenes of the movie were filmed in these gardens by the fountain and stairs, so we took some photos there before heading back to get on the bus.  The Sound of Music Tour was 4 hours long, and included many sites in and around Salzburg related to the movie.  This included the two houses that served as the von Trapp house in the movie (the yard was used from one of the houses, and the actual house was used from the other), the gazebo, and the church in Mondsee where the wedding scene took place.  The tour was well done, with a good guide.  However, I should have skipped it.  About 30 minutes in I started counting the minutes until it was over, hoping to get through it without throwing up again.  I was successful, and partially saved by the fact that there was a ~30 minute break in Mondsee to explore the town on our own.  I found a bench in the shade near the bus, laid down, and even dozed off for part of the time.    After the tour I headed back to the hotel along with Matthew.  Karen and Elizabeth did a little more exploring in town, had dinner, and caught the bus back to the hotel a couple of hours after we did.

Mirabell Gardens

Church in Mondsee

von Trapp lake house

Gazebo (no longer in original location)

Road to second von Trapp house

Day 63– Sunday, August 18. Wiengarten, Germany.  Salzburg is located right next to the border with Germany, so it was a short drive from our hotel to cross into Germany.  Total distance driven in our second time in Austria, 170 miles (270 km). Total distance driven to date, 6940 miles (11170 km).  Our favorite things in the Austria (including our previous stay in Vienna) were:  Karen –Sound of Music Tour, Elizabeth – all the musical things, Matthew – Haus der Musik in Vienna, Mike – Hallstatt.

Our next stop was to visit a friend of Karen’s who lives in southern Germany, near the town of Wiengarten.  Karen met Barbara in college when Barbara spent a year as an exchange student at Lewis and Clark College in Oregon.  We would spend two nights staying with Barbara, her husband Volker, and their daughter Elisabeth.  Barbara and Volker have a second daughter, Rebecca, but she had just left a few days before we arrived to spend a year as an exchange student in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Instead of taking the most direct route on the autobahn, decided to take a more scenic route through Berchtesgaden and Inzell before joining up with the autobahn.  Our plan was to make short stops in Köningssee and some other small towns along the way, but traffic was horrible (the worst we have experienced on the whole trip), so we just enjoyed the scenery through the car windows and only made essential stops.  The traffic woes continued on and off for most of the day, with too many people enjoying the beautiful weather in the mountain towns, and too much construction on the autobahn.  We ended up arriving at Barbara and Volker’s house about an hour later than we had planned despite not making our planned stops.  We were welcomed by an American flag flying from their flag pole. 

Bavarian scenery

Unique German road sign (no – it is not a speed limit for tanks)

Mike, Karen, Barbara, & Volker

Barbara had bought tickets for both families to see Motzart’s The Magic Flute, in Bregenz Austria that evening.  Bregenz is about a 45 minute drive from their house.  The Bergenz festival is in its 67^th year, and the stage is located on Lake Constance.  The performance was wonderful, and the set was AMAZING.  The only bad thing is that it rained for ~ 1.5 hours of the 2+ hour performance, and at times it poured very hard.  We were soaked by the end, but we still enjoyed the opera.

Set for The Magic Flute

Day 64– Monday, August 19.  Wiengarten.  We slept in since we didn’t get to bed until close to 4 AM after getting back very late from the opera and then spending time visiting.   After brunch, we went with Barbara’s family to see some of the local sites.  We started at the Weingarten Basilica.  It has very beautiful fresco paintings on the ceilings.   We then went to Affenberg, or “Monkey Hill”, which is located by the town of Salem.  While there are deer, waterfowl, and lots of storks (dozens or more roosting on top the buildings), the featured attraction is 200 endangered Barbary Macaque monkeys that live in a 50 acre heavily wooded enclosure at the top of the hill.  You can stroll through the paths in the enclosure, and feed the monkeys popcorn.  If you hold the popcorn in the palm of your hand the monkeys will come and take it out of your hand and eat it.  We especially enjoyed watching the cute 6 week old baby riding around on her mother’s back or clinging underneath her mother as she walked around.  The whole family enjoyed watching the monkeys interact, and being able to get so close to them.  We finished our day in Meersburg, a small town on the shore of Lake Constance.  This charming medieval city and its castle were built in the 7^th century by Merovingian king Dagobert I. We walked around town for a while, had dinner, and then walked some more around town, looking at the sites and doing some window shopping.  We then went back to Barbara and Volker’s house for the rest of the evening.

Weingarten Basilica

Storks at Affenberg

Elizabeth feeding monkey

Baby Macaque and mother

Sunset at Meersburg

Day 65– Tuesday, August 20. Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.  We said goodbye to Barbara, Volker, and Elisabeth and headed off mid-morning.  We would have had a 3-3.5 hour drive to Lauterbrunnen if we had taken the most direct route, but we decided to go through Lichtenstein and also take a more scenic route through the mountains in Switzerland.  Within about an hour we had left Germany, driven through the corner of Austria, entered Switzerland, and arrived in Vaduz, Liechtenstein.  Total distance driven since leaving Salzburg, 410 miles (655 km).  The vast majority of this was in Germany.  Total distance driven to date:  7350 miles (11825 km).  We a little over an hour in Vaduz, walking through town, getting some Swiss Francs (Lichtenstein uses the Swiss Franc along with Switzerland) and buying a couple of souvenirs.  

After leaving Lichtenstein we reentered Switzerland, dropped down to Chur, and then cut diagonally down to Andermatt, crossing Oberalppass (2044 m, 6706 feet).  The mountain passes in Switzerland are very scenic, and we had mostly sunny weather.  The roads are narrow and very windy, with many switchbacks.   Since the passes are above timberline, you can see the road ahead (or behind) zig zagging up or down the mountain slope.   We then drove northwest, crossing over Sustenpass (2259 m, 7411 feet).  At this pass there was a group of cows off to the side of the road, and a farmer had a portable milking machine set up to milk the cows.  All over Switzerland the dairy cows are grazing in these alpine meadows during summer, and the farmers need to go up to milk them.  At least in this case they were setup right by the road.   It was very cold at the passes – a shock getting out of the car in shorts and a short sleeved shirt.  Once we arrived in Lauterbrunnen we checked into our hotel, got dinner, and planned our next couple of days.  We had a corner room in the hotel, with the view out the front looking east across the valley, and the view from the side looking at Staubbach Falls, one of many waterfalls in the valley.  These falls, which are illuminated at night, are about 850 feet high (~260 m).

Swiss mountain road

View from near the pass

Roadside waterfall

View from our hotel in Lauterbrunnen

Our hotel in Lauterbrunnen

Day 66– Wednesday, August 21. Lauterbrunnen.  We woke to a totally clear sky.  We were very fortunate that we had beautiful weather both days we were in Lauterbrunnen – clear blue sky and high in the low 70’s (low 20’s in Celsius) during the day.  Lauterbrunnen is a very picturesque town in a deep valley about a 30 minute drive south of Interlaken.  There are trains and cable cars that can take you to other small car free towns above the cliffs on both the west and east side of the valley.   We decided to spend one day on each side of the valley.  For Wednesday, we choose the west side.  We started by taking the cable car to Grütschalp, and then the train to Mürren, a total of ~20 minutes.  In Mürren we bought some groceries for lunch, and headed off for our hike.  We decided to do the North Face Trail, a ~ 4 mile loop.  This trail is named after the north face of the mountain Eiger, which is considered one of the most difficult mountaineering feats to climb.   The trail has great views of the climbing routes on the Eiger, as well as other mountains in the area.  Along the trail there are informational plaques describing the routes, and providing information on the climbing history.  This information was interesting, but we took the trail because it was so beautiful.  We started by taking the funicular from Mürren up to Allmendhubel.   This made our starting elevation for the hike 6250 feet (1905 meters), and made the overall hike a net elevation loss, but there were still lots of uphill sections.  We had gained over 3600 feet (1100 meters) from our starting point in Lauterbrunnen to the top of the funicular where we started the hike.  We then hiked a counterclockwise loop back to Mürren.  The “trail” was a combination of unpaved farm roads, and walking paths.  It passed through some small summer farms, or “alps”, and there were a number of dairy cows grazing in the meadows with their distinct Swiss cow bells clanking as they moved around.  After completing the hike we did some shopping in Mürren before catching the train and cable car back to Lauterbrunnen where we had dinner.  

The views on the hike - cows and mountains

This cow really liked Matthew - she thought he tasted good

Mike, Elizabeth, & Matthew on hike

Cow bell on barn wall

Paraglider above Murren

Day 67– Thursday, August 22. Lauterbrunnen.  Our primary plan for the day was to take the train up to Jungfraujoch.   Jungfraujoch is the highest train station in Europe, at 11300 feet (3444 meters).  For those of you in Oregon, this train station is higher than the top of Mount Hood, the highest mountain in Oregon.  Getting to Junfraujoch involves taking two trains, both cog railways due to the steep grades.  First there is a train from Lauterbrunnen to Klein Scheidegg (elevation 6762 feet, 2061 meters).  Then you transfer to a different train to reach Jungfraujoch.  This last train actually goes through part of the Eiger, and there are two stops where you can peer out of the side of the mountain.  Building this railway was a major engineering feat when it was completed in 1912.  The final stop is in the saddle between the Eiger and Jungfrau.  There are a number of things to do once you get there.  There is an observation building with an elevator that takes you several hundred feet higher than the station, historical displays on the building of the railway, a gallery of ice sculptures (the floor is also polished ice), and several restaurants.  We spent most of our time outside on the snow.  Karen did a zip line that was suspended over the snow which you stopped yourself by sliding across the snow.  The kids did sledding on a hill that had a moving walkway to bring you back up to the top.  I took a mike about a mile up the hill to another viewpoint with better views to the west. The crutches actually worked pretty well on the packed snow, sort of like trekking poles, and the snow was soft enough that walking on it wasn’t too bad on my foot.   We spent a lot longer than we had originally planned at Jungfraujoch, and didn’t do a hike that we had planned in Klein Scheidegg on the way back down.   We returned to Lauterbrunnen just in time for dinner.  The train ride to Jungfraujoch was very expensive, (except for Matthew who was considered a “child” and cost 1/7 of the adult price), but it was one of those once in a lifetime things that you “have to do”.  I am glad we did it, but if we go back to the area again I would rather spend the day hiking or take one of the other train rides than go back to Jungfraujoch again.

View from lower elevations on train ride

View from one of the tops inside the Eiger

Matthew and Elizabeth inside train station

Sled run

Mike and Karen above train station

Matthew and Elizabeth taking a break

View of the glaciers and mountains

Day 68– Friday, August 23.   We started the day by heading about one hour west of Lauterbrunnen to the town of Adelboden.  We had reservations for a tour of Our Chalet, one of four world centers of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.   Our Chalet was founded in 1932 and offers a variety of programs year round for Girl Scouts and Girl Guides.  Since Elizabeth is actively involved as a Girl Scout (she is in process of finishing up her gold award, equivalent to Boy Scout Eagle award) and Karen has been actively involved as a leader they were interested in seeing this site.  The 90 minute tour provided a lot of history on Our Chalet as well as Girl Scouts worldwide.  The site is also beautiful, situated in a rural setting with views of the mountains and the town of Adelboden below in the valley.

Elizabeth on steps of Our Chalet

Mike pinning Our Chalet pin on Elizabeth

After leaving Our Chalet we headed off to Germany, passing through Bern and Basel.  We crossed the Swiss border early afternoon, heading back into Germany.    Total distance driven in Switzerland, 280 miles (450 km). Total distance driven to date, 7630 miles (12270 km).  Our favorite things in the Switzerland were:  Karen –cows with bells, Elizabeth – scenery, Matthew – Jungfraujoch, Mike – hiking above Mürren.