Liz on Austria and Germany

Finally I understood that for some reason no train actually went from Venice to our destination in Austria on May 25, 2015. So we boarded a bus in Venice with second class coach seats which were on top. In lower level seats were laid out like a salon for passengers to socialize, play cards or games. Somehow first class passengers were disinterested in the view. Once in Austria we changed to trains and then took a taxi to our timeshare in Alpenland Sport Hotel in the village of Maria Alm near Sal Felden.



Bus Stop in Venice for Austria

We sat in the top front seat of this bus.

Italian side of the Alps

The Italian side seemed dry as if the Alpine snow melt was inadequate or that the Austrians were hoarding it the way the American southwest hoards water from Mexico. I did not find explanation on the internet other than a blanket statement that glaciers are melting and river levels are down.

Does that river look low?

  

Overpass and a waterfall

 

Very long tunnels go through the Alps.



We had a 2 hour wait for a railroad connection so visited an adjacent railroad museum while waiting.

Train Museum Brochure

My mother's brother Wasti (Sebastian) and her father worked for the railroad. Wasti died childless of complications from a motorbike accident. I owe them appreciation for the inheritance they left my mother. Patriarchs they were and they would not have left their estates to a female but then it was better for us than if they had left their estates to the church. Since they worked for the railroad a plug for their railroads is in order. Grandfather was a station master.    

Uncle Wasti is watching as my mother straightens toddler me out. My grandmother holds my sister Vonnie. My mother's father is on one side and my American father is on the other in Bavaria in 1958.

 

Classic Alpine farmhouse, church and mountains with now melting glaciers.  



View from our hotel on May 26, 2015

Hiking Path through the Alpine meadows.

Typical beds with down covers in our 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom hotel room. Includes a small fridge, eating nook and balcony.

Tyrolean Bathroom 

From my balcony I photographed an Arabic guest photographing her small child.

Checking route for our day hike in the Alps with a hiker from Prague.

After 6 weeks of traveling to a new locale every few days we a timeshare for 7 nights was a vacation. Luxuries included TV stations with a few English channels, Wi-Fi, an indoor swimming pool an a hotel dining room with half board. Bonus was we were surrounded by scenic walking paths. Half board is term for breakfast and dinner in hotel dining room. Our breakfast buffet included local preserves, walnuts, hazelnuts and pumpkin seeds. I brought my soy milk to the dining room until I noticed the waitress bringing other guests soy milk too.       

 

Meadow, Mountain, Glaciers in late May

 

Sharing with an ungulate, the horse.

Cows Save the Planet

 

Hike in summer and ski in winter right to your hotel.

Chairlift to a hiking path with obstacle courses designed to interest families.

The Hills are alive...

Water fountain, not water bottles.



 

One day we took 2 buses and got close to Berchtesgaden in Germany. Tight roads, some one way and only for the bus. Very beautiful.     

Lot of wooden structures and healthy wood products' industry in Austria.

 

Check-out of hotel and a bus to train ride to visit the salt mine in Hallein. We schlepped our bags to visit this mine. Wikipedia says this:

"Long known for the Hallein Salt Mine in the Dürrnberg plateau, settlements in the area have been traced 4000 years back. It was a Celtic community from 600 BCE until the Romans took over their Noricum kingdom in 15 BCE. The name Hallein is one of many Hall-names in the south German language area that may have something to do with salt mining and for which Celtic, Germanic and other origins have been discussed.^{[citation needed]}
In the 11th century the extraction of salt at Hallein became crucial for the economic wealth of the Salzburg Archbishopric, competing with the salt production of Reichenhall in Bavaria. Archbishop Kuenburg had the Protestant miners expelled at the end of the 17th century, after which several hundred of them emigrated to Walcheren and Zeelandic Flanders in the Dutch Republic. "

In 1943 my mother's parents took her to the salt mine.

Dressed to go down into Hallein Salt Mine

 Fellow travelers with a rental car dropped us off at the train. Then we found the Salzburg city bus to  Walter's convenient Airbnb apartment for one night. We rode a lift to the sensational castle in a fortress.

 

Salzburg is pristine especially for tourists.

Hohensalzburg Castle

Salzburg as seen from the fortress castle.

Salzburg from the Fortress

Woodwork. Any wonder why Mike has skill?

Notice the feet on this cabinet/armoire?

Checking out a cannon.

That's a cannon.

Salzburgers could afford Silver thanks to all that salt mining.



Great glass and porcelain in a place where the windows were actually open. Fresh air matters. 

Armor staged for battle.

Setting up Armor in action in an actual fortress with the windows open!
Austrian culture is not only old but it is active and fit.   

Mozart came from Salzburg.

Austrians and Germans like amber.

 

 

Mike likes kitschy war museums like in Danville, Va. Salzburg rocks! 

 

Great marionettes entertained and instructed our forebears.   

Baroque architecture makes Salzburg a UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

 

Every type of weapon fascinates Mike. He loves great machines and was in his glory.

From Salzburg we took a train to Braunau, Austria, a town since 1260. My mom and cousin Elfriede Pichlemeier met our train and we spent three days in Elfriede's town, Simbach, a short drive across the Austrian border from Braunau. Our trip clashed with Elfriede's son Bert (Albert)'s vacation to Ireland. We met his teenage son Thomas. We enjoyed Bertie and Elfriede's adjoining backyards, especially admiring their programed electronic grass cutting machine imported from America. Temperatures were so warm that we were grateful to cool off in their pool. My mom paid for our stay in the very new and ultra modern Motel Inn only 3 doors down from Elfriede's house. Lots of motorcycle riders stay here.

By the time I turned age six I could not pronounce Austria with a German accent. I was forever lost to sounding like a German but I learned to sound Southern if necessary. I visited Germany with my mother and sister when I was 7, then with Oma and sister when I was 12 turning 13 and again when I was 23 after Vonnie died.  In 1999 my mother took us on a great trip for Bertie's wedding. I visited with Mike at age 58.       

Our Simbach Motel Inn

Braunau is surrounded by a wall with a moat. Braunau also has an aluminum factory.

Cousin Elfriede

My mother Irmgard Miller

Braunau

Bridge to Simbach, Germany

 

Bronze Man on Fish Monument in Braunau shows his Ass to Simbach, Germany.   

Monument for a town trying to disassociate with Hitler and never again foster fascism. Too many died for nothing.    

Braunau, Austria is border crossing to Simbach, Germany.

In Braunau proper.

Old and well maintained streets.

Man let his beard grow so long that he tripped over it and broke his neck.

Where doors really had to keep out marauders.

Looking down into the Moat from the medieval wall that surrounds Braunau



Lederhosen and Dirndls are traditional Bavarian/Tyrolean costumes.

Another view of Braunau

 

 

 

Customer waiting room at Pichlemeier Ford in Simbach serves excellent coffee.

Elfriede and dealership employee, a nephew, grandson of Uncle Sepp (Joseph).

In Ford Dealership

Checking out Service with staff mechanic.

Elfriede had to walk away because of insurance and safety reasons. Mike was extended a lot of privilege as a guest.

Pichlemeier family has a private car collection and keeps each vehicle is top shape.

The founder Albert Pichlemeier rode his bike everywhere especially shopping for eggs still warm from the hen.

 

 

After seeing popular 1950's movie, Sissy, my impressionable 23 year old mother called me Lissie after the famous Bavarian Princess Sissy. Lissie translated better into English.   

Princess Sissy introduced indoor plumbing. She rode horses. She is a romantic character in dramas still today.   

My mother Irmgard, cousin Elfriede and me, Liz/Lissie on a Passau, Germany river boat ride.  

 

 

River Cruise View

Passau

Gate/fortress in Passau

Danuabe, Ilz or River Inn? All converge in Passau.

Celebration in church in Passau

Church in Passau, where businesses close on Sunday.

Thursday, June 4, 2015 was a significant Catholic Holiday only in Bavaria. 

Guarding Passau from pirates and charging a toll for passage. Rivers are best way through the Alps.  

Looking down over the 3 rivers that meet in Passau.

 

 

We loved these costumed Catholic celebrants. A perfect Day to be in Passau.

Father "Handsome" must raise a lot of donations.

      

 

Passau was badly flooded in 2013. Germans do not deny Global Warming.

 

Three rivers, the Danube, the Inn and the Ilz converge in Passau. This is a classic river tour stop. Our few hours on a day tour boat makes our trip a bargain and an odyssey thanks to my mother and Elfriede. Mike drove us from Simbach to Passau on the Autobahn in Elfriede's Ford Focus. He managed to get a top speed of 100 mph out of 4 cylinder Focus.

 

Elfriede took us to an upscale restaurant in Braunau where we met her sister and her sister's son, daughter in law and granddaughter. Somehow they recalled meeting me at Bertie's wedding to Andie in April 1999. They arrived relatively late for us because the grand daughter has to tend to her horse. Having recovered from rectal cancer the daughter-in- law follows a whole food, plant based diet like I follow. Regrettably I lost the phone with the photos I took of them. I was certainly anxious about sticking to plant based diet throughout this trip. I feared that Mike's prostate cancer or some other health disaster would hit. I was dismayed that all grocery stores were closed on Thursday, June 4 since I was short on basic whole grain bread and salad. Elfriede shared lettuce with me that she intended for her pet rabbit.

 





Circa 1900. Great grandparents and Their Parents in front of their farmhouse in Machendorf.
Great grandmother Anna was a midwife.

 

My mother Irmgard was her grandmother's darling.

We visited my mother's ancestral farm. The farm fed many during WWII. Widow Rosie Hitzenaur lives there now. Departed sister Vonnie and I spent 5 weeks there in 1969. I turned from age 12 to 13 that summer. Rosie's departed husband Sepp worked in a tractor plant and cared for cows, pigs, machines and fields. Vonnie and I helped them hay a field. Little daughter Engeline laughed at The Flintstones in German. Mother Katie killed and plucked geese, collecting feathers and making soup with dumplings.     

 

Rosie's family farm is for sale. She was hardly a with-it house frau per my grandmother. 

Even when I was 13 that was apparent (me, judgmental? Hah). Layout of house was humans living on the right and animals living on the left with cobblestones down the center and a flush toilet in a closet on the side with the animals. Straight back outside was a huge pile of manure. 

The huge pile of manure is long gone.

Solar Panels even on this old unloved place.

The Barn

Unrecycled Bottles? I asked my mother why and she responded with indifference.  

Side yard grew lots of annual flowers in 1969. 

Back door of great grandparents' farm house. 

My mom, Elfriede, Rosie and me sitting outside.

Front of Great grandparents' farmhouse.

Farmhouse and barn

My Great Grandparents Joseph and Anna Hitzenaur were devastated when their heir, oldest son did not return from the Russian Front.  He escaped from Siberian prison never returned.  Their son's son ran the farm when he grew up.

After Rosie's farm we toured Elfriede's son's wife's architect brother's classic Alpine home.

Note raised beds. Per Austin Ward: Toil don't till. Toil in the soil. The Bible does not say to till the soil.

 

   

 

Who from here went to America? I did.

Lissie, Irmgard and Vonnie in 1958.

Somewhere near Simbach in August 1969 me, Lissie, age 13 and departed sister Vonnie, age 11,
and sisters Christel (Elfriede's mother in law) and Anna, my grandmother.

Elfriede's family and mine in 1980. They lived in an apartment over their Ford Dealership. We visited after Vonnie died.   

 

I am describing the July 1980 photo above from right to left. In photo standing are Elfriede and her dearly departed husband Bert who lived above their car dealership with three children with Andrea and Bertie III seated in front. Third child Martina was not yet born. Next to Bert is his father who has a Henry Ford vibe too. He founded the dealership before WWII. His wife, my great aunt is next to him and next to her are her brother, Franzel and sister-in-law, Inge with dog. My father told me that Franzel was gay. They lived above their barbershop and beauty salon. She permed my hair. I observed photos of topless women in ads in German magazines like Good Housekeeping and Lady's Home Journal in her salon learning that topless is perfectly ordinary and accepted in Germany. By contrast Americans are sexually repressed and backwards. In photo I am 23 years old and seated next to Franzel. My sister Billie, age 14 is on the edge of the frame. David Landsman my first husband set timer to take picture. He had his hair permed too. My sister Lorie, age 16 wears the red shirt and my mother Irmgard, age 46 is behind Lorie. Next to Lorie are Bertie III and sister Andrea. Andrea is a trained Catholic theologian.

   

 

 

 

From Simbach we took train to Munich. We put our luggage in a locker and visited the Deutsches Museum. Mike loved the museum. It is a fantastic museum.

 

 

 We went to an Asian buffet and then spent the day in the museum. I will not recap the museum. 

 

We returned to the train station but could not find our luggage. We looked and looked for our locker until finally we discovered that we were in the wrong station. We were in the central train station and that our locker was in the eastern station. President Obama was to arrive the next day so Munich's security was very tight which added to stress for all. We took the terrific subway system to Keith's apartment. An African-American homosexual from Los Angeles, Keith flew to Munich for a weekend and never left. He teaches English and has an adequate Airbnb in an expensive and enlightened city. When we arrived at 5pm Keith politely offered us coffee as is proper in Germany. I yelled, "No coffee!" fearful of harm to Mike but I scared both Mike and Keith. Then Keith told me that Munich has a culture based on meat. Thankfully he directed me to a terrific bakery and a health food store with seitan.

I could live in Munich except for the weather. Munich is what every other city is striving to become. I was born on an American base near Munich. My father was stationed there when he met my mother. He worked in military intelligence and she finished teacher's college.       

 

We have 100's of photos of great German machines and race cars. Ask Mike if you need more. 



Buy tickets ahead if you feel you must visit.

Mike waiting to see Neuschwanstein.  

Neuschwanstein, Mad King Ludwig's last castle was on Mike's bucket list. I was unsure how we'd get to Neuschwanstein and wished I bought tickets ahead. After Greece and Italy Neuschwanstein was far too new, crowded, took too long to see too little and a really bad place to not bring a bag lunch.



Beer or Ice Crème?

Mike might have had 6 beers during our trip. Most of those were with my mother. He refrained from ice crème in Italy too.

 

 

Marienplatz Glockenspiel

Some beauty survived all those bombing raids.

Modern and cool gathering space.

Something is always under construction. 

 

 

Munich has health food stores and restaurants.

Munich has organic food.

 

 

By the time we arrived in Munich we'd stayed in 28  different places. Keith's queen size bed did not have a headboard. Mike did not sleep well on this bed that was like an island in the center of the room.  

The Marienplatz is the heart of Munich and has been the main square since 1158. It is what I remember best from 1980 visit. Mike and I spent less than an hour in the Marienplatz and the downtown. We had no need to reflect on life in restaurants and we were out of time.

From Munich we took the train to Koblenz. Destination Herresbach. In 1840's or so Thelens emigrated from here. We picked up a rental car, another Ford Focus from an office in the train station. We have a lot to learn about driving in unfamiliar Germany. Mike bought a detailed map but could not drive and navigate. He says his first wife was a great navigator. Not me but we managed to get there.

From Wikipeda  "The Eifel is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate.

Eifel volcanic area[edit]

In the Tertiary and Quaternary geological eras, the Eifel was a site of extensive volcanic activity. Some of the hills are volcanic vents. The peculiar circle-shaped lakes (maars) of the volcanic regions formed in volcanic craters. The last volcanic eruptions in the Laacher See volcanic site took place around 10,000 years ago and generated a huge volume of volcanic ash, now found in thin ash layers in contemporaneous sediments throughout Europe. The volcanism of the Eifel is thought to be partly caused by the Eifel hotspot, a place where hot material from deep in the mantle rises to the surface, and partly by melt-ascent at deep fractures in the Earth's crust.^[3] Research has shown that the volcanism is still active; the Eifel region is rising by 1–2 mm per year."

I quote the geologic history not to annoy Creationists but rather to note that the volcanic rock gave way to skilled stone cutting and carving. Rock also made farming difficult. The Thelens left because they almost starved during a potato famine.    

Map of Germany with Rhineland highlighted in Orange

Nurburgring and Herresbach

Driving to Airbnb in Adenau near Herresbach

 

Poppies in chilly Herresbach.

 

 Herresbach is a village next to the German Grand Prix racetrack, the Nurburgring. The area was delightful. The only thing I did not like was our Airbnb host. I disliked him strongly. He wasn't even German. He was an accountant from Holland. His disease and cheapness were palpable and creeped me out for the two nights we were there. But the Nurburgring and the surroundings were totally interesting.

In Herresbach

   

 

Driving in Nurburgring vicinity.

Church in Herresbach

Someone in Herresbach is raising Llamas



Wheat in Herresbach

 Nurburgring, a.k.a. The Green Hell
 I asked Mike why the roads were so good. He said because they are maintained by Germans. There is a reason their infrastructure stays in tact. I bet civil employment in road repair stay in families for multiple generations.

We took a tour. .



Touring a garage in Nurburgring. 

So chilly that I bought us Nurburgring jackets sold in the grocery store.   

Opel Van

Nurburgring Viewing Stand

 

Test cars at Nurburgring

Test cars in the Green Hell Race Course

Manufacturers including Cadillac test cars. 

Historic Nurburgring

Nurburgring Complex Today

Mike here: Nurburgring is of course a world famous race course and the world's longest. The road race portion is 21 kilometers long and has 4 village and a medieval castle within it. That means there are public roads also and they are similar to the track. Also, they're very lightly traveled with almost no police presence. Since I'm too cheap to rent track time (you can do that but it costs a bunch) and I was driving a rented car (you break it on the track, you pay, big time) the public roads were a fine compromise.

On the return to Koblenz we noted these stone scultures representative of the Eifel  region.

Sculpture in Garden in the Eifel

Another example of sculpture in Garden in the Eifel

 We turned in our Ford in Koblenz and took the train to Cologne. The train route paralleled the Rhine and we passed the Lorelei, a famous rock in the river.


View of the Rhine as seen from the Lorelei

Typical along the Rhine

We visited Cologne June 10-12. Extremely nice Airbnb was a one bedroom apartment. The living room is a Chinese importer's office. The cathedral is the cities centerpiece. However the Archeology Museum is right beside the cathedral. Why an archeology museum in this crowded and popular area? While digging a bomb shelter in 1941 a tiled Roman floor was discovered. Rather than move the 3rd century floor they created the museum over it. Mike often recalls the large quantity of chipped flints many of them Neanderthal! He always looks for chipped flints in museums but rarely finds them. Cologne's collection exceeded any flints anywhere reinforcing Mike's affinity with the region.   

Cathedral and Archeology Museum in Cologne 

Archway in front of our Airbnb.

Beautiful Cologne  

Romans influenced Cologne

Cathedral and museum by night.



The age and large quantity of chipped flints impressed Mike.

Nice Earrings

The Dionysus Floor that the museum was built over protected and preserved.  

 

 

Roman "Wagon Train"

Romans influenced Cologne's creation

Tile Masterpiece

This tiny glass head is perfectly crafted.



Rhine River wedding party on a Thursday in June. 

Cologne has famous modern "Crane Houses".

The three "Crane Houses" are in an upside L shape that resemble cranes for loading and unloading ships. They were begun in 2006 and completed in 2009. 

The five hour train ticket from Cologne to Amsterdam cost $100 per person.

View from our Amsterdam Airbnb

Amsterdam Train Station

Band with Cheerleaders

Street performance in front of train station

We took a canal cruise.

Our favorite.  



1990-1996 Americans built this outstanding minivan in an American Assembly Plant.  

Near Anne Frank's House. 

 

We visited the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam with recently wed friends Audrey and Jorritt.

From Amsterdam we flew to Reykjavik. Details in next blog.

Last note. Rick Steves, the travel show host and travel expert on PBS and NPR says that if you visit Europe and need something that they do not sell ask yourself, "How it is that 450 million people live without the item that you need?" Considering that the electric current is different means that all appliances have different plugs. Small electrical products are  different. A vibrator, nicotine gum and marijuana were our issue items. In Cologne I bought a vibrator in a sex shop.  We brought nicotine gum with us because the socialist governments of Australia and New Zealand provide nicotine gum to their citizens free of charge and we did not want to waste time in Europe looking for a possible government provided product.(Nicotine gum is imported to the US from Denmark.)  Nicotine gum dilates blood vessels elevating blood pressure but it satisfies Mike. Mike managed his nicotine gum so that it lasted 9 weeks. Amsterdam is famous for marijuana. We got a joint in Salzburg but only there and Mike would not travel with it. Mike might have had 6 beers during our trip. Most of those he drank along with my mother. He refrained from ice crème in Italy too. No wonder he is healthy and happily married.    

As budget travelers we avoid taxis.During nine weeks we took 2 cab rides in Athens and 1 to our hotel in Austria. Otherwise mass transit worked very well.