ROAD TRIP!!!!
My inlaws came for a couple weeks recently, so we planned a big trip to show them Europe knowing they likely wonΓÇÖt ever be back.
We rented a van on Thursday, drove it to Frankfurt Airport on Friday, picked up our guests and screamed ΓÇ£HOLD ON!!ΓÇ¥ as we headed down the Autoboahn. Our little van was a late model Ford Transit Custom diesel. Not much power, but it got the job done and returned a trip total 35mpg! Mind you, that is 4 adults, two children and enough gear for two weeks!
We arrive in Prague that evening with enough time to unload all that gear up 102 steps, many times. I needed a shower after all that! We found a nice little restaurant and grabbed some dinner. We began our exploring the next day. The weather wasnΓÇÖt super cooperative, with rain, but we donned our rain gear not allowing that to dampen our spirits.
First stop was the Eifel Tower of Prague. Some amazing sites from here, especially on a clear day, but we still managed some cool shots from the top. This one is of St. Vitus Cathedral inside the Prague Castle grounds.
From there we made our way to that Castle and toured the area, including that beautiful cathedral.
Main Hall:
One of many stained glass windows:
WouldnΓÇÖt ya know it, the Prague Beer Fest happened to be the same weekend. I didnΓÇÖt plan that, I swear! But the girls were kind enough to oblige and we had a great time enjoying Czech beer and food!
The next day we made our way into the old town square. Along the way we found what would be a cool way to tour Prague if the weather were nicer.
We crossed the Charles Bridge.
And saw many other sites in the area.
More of the towering Cathedral
If youΓÇÖre keeping track, weΓÇÖre on day 4 of our trip and headed south to Cesky Krumlov, a cool little Czech village on a winding river. You canΓÇÖt really drive to the downtown area, except to unload, which we did. Then as my FIL and I parked the van, my wife sends me a text saying we just checked into the wrong hotel. She had found a better deal and cancelled this one. UGH! We retrieved the van again and reloaded everything up getting a refund less a cleaning fee. Mind you, these are typical streets not made for cars, so it was some effort for all this, but we did end up in a nicer place. And we had wised up by now too packing a backpack for the following days clothes instead of unloading several hundred pounds of luggage each day. With all that sorted, we strolled towards the downtown area to eat at PapaΓÇÖs and enjoy a well-deserved beer or two. Along the way we stopped at a look-out to view the Castle.
After a wonderful lunch with AMAZING service, we toured the Castle. My son had missed his nap and wasnΓÇÖt too cooperative, so we took the family picture sans the little bugger.
It has been customary to keep bears at this Castle and that has been carried on for several hundred years. They can put on a bit of a show. This one looks like heΓÇÖs stretching his hamstring.
I took this neat little pano of the old town square:
And then the Castle at night:
Day 5 took us further South into Austria and around Salzburg. We are beginning to get into the Alps. We ate lunch in a little town of Hallein, where we had stayed the year prior. From there we made our way to Berchtesgaden, Germany and continued down paths that we had already taken in a past trip. We prepared for this amazing view once again.
We took my inlaws up to Eagles Nest, which as you might recall, was a gift to Hitler before WWII. At the parking lot we spied some really cool FerrariΓÇÖs. Yep, two identical ones aside from color.
You can actually see the Salzburg Castle from up there:
Konigsee (lake) and the valley below:
There was still snow up on top, but it was a warm day and the snow was turning into water very quickly.
Family pic:
The next day we toured the Salt Mines, which was worth a second visit. But in the parking lot we spied this very cool Unimog:
We left Berchtesgaden just before noon and made our way to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. This would be a long trek and I wanted to peek back into Germany to top off the vanΓÇÖs fuel tank before making our dive deeper into the Alps. So we hung along the German/Austrian border and made our way to Garmisch, which is a town where Hitler held the Winter Olympics in 1936. This was a scenic overlook in Austria somewhere East of Innsbruck:
There is an American military resort in Garmisch, but my only goal was to hit the Esso and continue our journey. We did just that, heading West out of Garmisch only to find that the pass leading back into Austria was closed. We tried to reroute but using a GPS map as a paper map is difficult at best. We stopped at another filling station and the helpful and English speaking attendant got us back on track after selling us a Road Atlas. This meant back tracking to Garmisch and negating the whole reason I wanted to go there to start with. not to mention costing several hours of travel time. MurphyΓÇÖs Law.
As we crossed into Liechtenstein, we were stopped by the first European Border patrol that I have seen. After claiming he didnΓÇÖt speak any English he asked what our business was. Once he found out we were just traveling thru, he let us go on our way. Once into Switzerland, we ate a late and very expensive McDonalds meal and settled in for final long push.
It took some convincing for the hotel keeper in Lauterbrunnen to stay up late for us, but we were successful and we finally hit the sack around 2am after 14 hours on the road. Since we were behind, and we knew this was going to be the most beautiful destination of our trip, we changed our plans and stayed two days here instead of one. That would pay dividends for sure.
We stopped at the tourist office to ask what the most cost effective way would be to access the sites we wanted to take my inlaws. In doing so, my wife rolled her ankle on the sidewalk and severely sprained it! Ouch! After quite a few minutes, she gathered her composure. We bought cable car tickets and headed up the Murren side of the valley in hopes to peak at the world famous Schilthorn. HereΓÇÖs a view from the gondola:
After a short train ride up the valley we stopped for a break in Murren, to include a beer in this scenic village.
We recΓÇÖd bad news when we discovered that the higher two gondolas accessing the Schilthorn were closed due to high winds. So we had no choice but to go back down, a little deflated.
HereΓÇÖs my attempt at an artistic photo on the ride down:
Once down on the Valley floor, we made our way up stream to Trummelbach Falls. My MIL wanted to recreate a picture we had taken on our first trip to the area. With my wifeΓÇÖs ankle a bit sketchy, she stayed at the bottom with the baby as I took my son and inlaws to the top and *that* spot. This is from one vantage point looking down the valley:
We grabbed some pizza to-go for dinner and enjoyed that at the hotel along with a couple beers and some card games.
The following day we drove to the top of the valley to see if we could get all the way to the top. The heavy fog was burning off, but we didnΓÇÖt have much hope we could get to the top. But wouldnΓÇÖt ya know, it was indeed open so we quickly got our tickets and headed up. They had a live cam at the ticket booth of the top showing it was above the cloud cover! The fog began to burn off fast allowing this shot of the fresh snow from the overnight storm. The green/white contrast is something my camera couldnΓÇÖt capture in its splendor.
Finally at the top of the Schilthorn, we were blessed with this incredible view of the famous peaks, Eiger, Monch, & Jungfrau (left to right). The Lauterbrunnen Valley still blanketed with fog below.
The 1969 James Bond film ΓÇ£In Her MajestyΓÇÖs Secret ServiceΓÇ¥ was partly filmed on this location and they have added quite a few props. My son is doing his best 007 impersonation.
Another family photo with a spectacular backdrop:
Day 7 of our journey has us leaving this beautiful valley to trek thru the Alps to Chamonix, France. We left midday to allow us to take our time and take in the majestic scenery. We avoided the major highways and took smaller mountain passes hoping none would be closed. Again, we were blessed with clear and open roads as we made our way South-West into the French Alps. Late afternoon we checked into our apartment and just kicked back that evening. The next morning was clear and we were treated to more snowcapped peaks.
HereΓÇÖs is the view from our apartment of Le Glacier des Bossons on the opposite side of the valley.
We spend the next couple days touring the town and seeing the sites. The weather was perfect and made for a nice enjoyable time.
This brings us to the 9th day of our excursion where we began our travels North in the direction of home. But first, we stopped off at Chillon Castle on the banks of the serene Lake Geneva on the Swiss/French border. We were surprised at how much of the Castle you get to see. Often times, you only see a small percentage of a castle, but it seemed like we got to see the majority of this one.
This build site was selected for its natural moat:
Fish-eye view from the top of the tower:
Another artistic photo attempt:
We grabbed a bite of lunch and continued our trek North into Germany for our last vacation stay in the Black Forest. There we toured the WorldΓÇÖs Largest cookoo clock and did some shopping in the town of Triburg before we completed our trip home.
After 2,880km (1,790 miles), I was wiped and glad to be finally sleeping in my own bed! We took one more day-trip to another cool Castle a couple hours from here and did a little touring of the city of Trier where Porta Negra, the Roman Bathes, and a Roman Coliseum exist among many other historical sites.
We celebrated my sonΓÇÖs 4th and my FILΓÇÖs 50-something birthdays Friday night and I took them to the airport Saturday morning. It took a few days for us to catch our breath and get back into the routine, but we enjoyed our trip and I hope my inlaws take back with them memories few people get to make.
for us. Guess I am getting older! I'll dig up some pics! I want to go back to Munich to see the sites tho...
d a hole in the vaulted roof some 25ft up. The pieces came down hitting one of the caretakers in the head. He patched himself up and continued helping the soldiers.
