84 - Europe Part 5 - Road Trip Continued

We left Vienna but stayed in Austria as we headed to the wonderful town of Graz.  We were not aware beforehand, but we'd arrived on the first day of their Oktoberfest.  As we were driving into town, everywhere we looked pedestrians were dressed up in traditional garb.  We found a parking spot and followed the revelers to the impeccably preserved medieval old town's main square (we later found out that this is one of the largest in Europe) called the Hauptplatz.  Here we found an adorable town and a huge rocking party.  Graz is the capital of the Styria region of Austria (I think that's what a somewhat inebriated but delightful young man was trying to tell me over the noise from the crowds and the band) and I'm pretty sure it was a requirement for every household in the region to be represented at the festival.  It was definitely a party.  As we couldn't find a place to stay in town, we spent several hours hanging out with the locals (and yes, drinking a little bit of beer) and then found a great rooming house in the mountains with amazing views just outside of nearby Wolfsberg.  This too was a great stop and, the next morning, we got to visit the adorable town of Wolfsberg on our way out of town.

Finally, our time (for now) in Austria was over as we drove into Slovenia.  Our first stop in Slovenia was gorgeous Lake Bled.  WOW!  This again goes on the list of our favorite places.  The town surrounding the lake is so quaint and the glacier crystal clear lake is breathtaking.  Since we'd planned to stay a couple of days, we were able to do most of the available activities.  We hiked the 6K perimeter of the lake, rented a row boat to take us to the Bled Island - home of the Assumption of Mary Church (a friend later told us that Pedro was supposed to serenade me as he rowed the boat - I guess we'll have to go back there too), hiked up the mountain for even prettier views of the Lake and even took the chairlift up for a ride down the Straza Bled toboggan. We rented a place a little outside of town in a more rural setting which was great as we found hiking trails for our morning walks right outside our front door.  Again, with the broken record but this place was magical and a must visit if you find yourself anywhere near this area!

Staying in Slovenia, we left Lake Bled and drove towards the capital city of Ljubljana.  Ljubljana is again an adorable and very walkable city that's maintained its old-world charm while offering great waterfront bistro's, quaint shopping districts, a great central market full of wonderful produce, a castle on the hill and a really cool dragon bridge.  The city was much smaller and less crowded than many of the others we'd visited but just as charming.  After exploring for several hours, we decided to again find a place to stay outside of town.  As we'd planned to head to Italy next, we drove about 30 minutes south and found another favorite place to stay.  The house was an apartment located next door to the host's house on a very small but beautiful farm.  Besides offering us fresh vegetables from the farm and the use of their grill, the host also arranged a massage for me (she has her massage studio next to her house also).  They were such a nice family and treated us like royalty.  I would definitely go back.

The next morning (completely revived by my massage), we took advice from our hosts and made a stop to visit nearby Postojna Caves.   The caves were spectacular and we enjoyed a great hike.  The hike  was a total of about 5K between the underground section and the gorgeous gorge that was just outside the exit of the cave.

 

Next, we left Slovenia and headed for Italy and the town of Trieste which is located on the Adriatic Sea in the northeastern corner of Italy (almost due east of Venice).  Trieste is very much a port city and while a bit commercial, it has also maintained its charming Italian nature.   The waterfront is full of great restaurants and wonderful architecture. We loved being on the sea, wandering the city and enjoying Italian dishes of fresh seafood.  

As we'd finally gone far enough south to reach the sea, we started heading back north.  We stopped for the night in the small Italian ski village of Sutrio. As it was obviously not ski season, there wasn't much going on but the town was still cute and we found a great little chateau to rent for the night.  The next morning, we continued north towards Austria. Telling the map to avoid highways, we found ourselves on an about 20 mile stretch of the most windy and beautiful mountain roads we'd seen so far.  Later, when we were telling a friend about it, he knew exactly what we were talking about as he'd intentionally taken that route on a motorcycle trip once.   Along the way, we even happened upon a "Kasefest / Cheese Festival" (yes, it was also written in English) that was definitely worth the stop!

Our next stop was the city of Salzburg.  Another charming city with a gorgeous river running right through it.  As we'd found a place to stay near downtown, we parked the car and walked everywhere.  Old town (Altstadt) Salzburg is made up of mostly pedestrian streets lined with various shops and restaurants housed in amazing architectural gems.  Sitting high atop a hill and overlooking the city, sits the 11th century Hohensalzburg Castle.  The views of the city were definitely worth the steep hike.  This was yet another absolutely adorable city.

While we loved the cities, we next opted again for a more rural setting and headed back into Germany (it was less than an hour's drive) to visit Chiemsee.  This lake - the largest in Bavaria (its name translates to Bavarian Sea) - is surrounded by mountains but has wonderful hiking/biking trails around the shore.  Our first day there, we rented bikes and made our way almost halfway around the lake - the entire trail is 60 KM long - when we found Fischhutte Reiter and ate the best fresh fish we'd had in a long while!!! This little lakeside restaurant's specialty was trout (caught fresh from the lake) charcoal grilled on a stick served alongside a cold draft beer.  I know our obsession was partly due to the exhaustion from the bike ride but I can still taste that meal!!!  

Our second day there, we took a boat ride to visit the lake's 2 inhabited islands.  The largest is Herreninsel (gentlemen's island) was home to a gorgeous castle that, while never completed, is still quite impressive.  There were also several hiking trails.   As you can guess, the smaller island is called Frauenchiemsee (ladies island).  This island was so quaint and houses a Benedictine Nunnery that is still operational today surrounded by an adorable little fishing village.

At this point we were eternally grateful that the countries' borders are all so easy to traverse as we once again traversed back into Austria.  We were slowly making our way to Munich to spend the weekend with friends we'd met 4 years ago in Portugal (they had their boat in the same marina as ours) but hadn't seen since.  As they were not available until the weekend, we still had a few days so we stopped to visit Innsbruck.  The city was a cute as you would expect and full of wonderful history. 

Since we still had time before we were scheduled to meet our friends, we left the city and decided to again head for a more rural setting in the Austrian Alps.  We drove through several adorable but mostly closed for the season ski towns and past some huge ski jumps many of which were home to past Olympic games.  We found an apartment that was centrally located amongst many of these towns and again enjoyed the nature surrounding us as we hiked several of the surrounding mountains as well as the lake near our house.

  

At last, it was time to head towards Munich.  Our friends, Michael and Sissy live in the quaint city of Freising (about 20 miles from Munich).  They not only put us up for the weekend but showed us the most amazing time.  We arrived just as Michael was making us a traditional German lunch consisting of bratwurst and all the accoutrements plus a fabulous (it became one of my favorites) local beer.  It was amazing!  Next, to work off the lunch, we went for a walking tour of Freising admiring the architecture and public gardens.

The next day, we took the train into Munich where we first toured the old section of town and I especially loved the city hall with its life-sized clock figurines!   Next, we made our way to the largest folk festival in the world - Oktoberfest!!!  Holy cow!  There was a huge carnival with rides, horse drawn wagons, dozens of beer tents as well as food stalls and people everywhere!   We walked through almost everything and visited several beer tents.  The atmosphere is very much like you'd expect.  With communal seating, you couldn't help but talk to all your neighbors. Everyone we met (most were again thankfully fluent in English) was amazingly friendly (yes, the beer may have helped but I think they were naturally fun) and simply out for a good time.  While a bit overwhelming, Oktoberfest is definitely an event that must be experienced to be appreciated.

After a bit of imbibing, we left the crowds and headed to the English Garden to explore the more natural side of Munich.  One of the biggest public parks in the world (even bigger than New York's Central Park), this gorgeous park has trails to walk both through the woods and open spaces full of people playing games.  The Isar River runs through the park. The river has a very strong current and we were surprised to see people floating down it but were even more surprised to come upon locals and tourists alike surfing in the river.  What a fabulous day for contradictions! 

The next day, we took a drive into the countryside near Freising where Michael and Sissy took us to their favorite (and it was amazing) restaurant as well as showing us the many hops (used for making beer) fields that were growing all around the area.  It's amazing how life works sometimes.  We had such a great time reuniting with our friends that we'd not seen for years and even made plans to meet Michael in a few weeks in Barcelona on his way back to see his boat.

As we left our dear friends, we also left Germany and headed back to The Czech Republic and the adorable spa city of Karlovy Vary.  The city is home to numerous hot springs and one of the popular things to do is buy a souvenir cup and visit the various colonnades sampling the hot spring waters from each.  We enjoyed imbibing in the waters and loved wandering around admiring the architecture of this truly picturesque city.

The next morning, we left this beautiful town but still had a few hours before we could check-in to our next house.  A quick search of the map revealed a few nearby hikes.  Our first stop was a beautiful preserved medieval castle/town that we were able to tour.  The castle and attached cathedral (to Pedro's disappointment, we weren't able to go inside the cathedral) were not fancy but nonetheless fascinating.  Our next stop was a bit longer but much more rustic hike to an abandoned castle. 

At last, we started making our way back to Prague for our flight out of the Schengen area.   As non-EU citizens, we are only allowed to stay in Schengen countries for 90 out of 180 days.  As we were quickly approaching our allotted time limit but not yet ready to go home, we decided to visit Romania and Bulgaria (I've wanted to see Bulgaria ever since I met Polya - she's originally from there - over 20 years ago).  We found a place to stay for our last night just outside of the city in a quaint a friendly area.  A funny story about the friendliness of the Czech people.  So, I was in a store looking for a bag of ice (I know, I'm a silly American).  As I obviously didn't speak the language, a gentleman approached me and asked what I was looking for.  When I said ice, he (politely) rolled his eyes and dismissed me with "It will soon be winter, just wait!".  While, we had to enjoy our Hugo cocktails (we were flying out and had to use up the bottle of champagne we'd bought) without ice, we had a great story to laugh about. 

The next morning, we boarded a plane to Bucharest, Romania.  But I'll fill you in on that next time.

Until next post!