May 3 – 9, 2011. Road trip through Croatia and Slovenia to Austria and Germany.
The Alps, sunny side up for us please. Driving through the Alps in Slovenia was beautiful – lots of sun; verdant, fertile land; huge castles; the Alps! and a good highway. The Alps reminded us of the Rocky Mountains in the US: rocky peaks still snow-covered and no trees near the tops of the mountains. Did I mention sunny?
A few very long tunnels as we left Slovenia going into Austria and we hit gray skies, colder temps, and rain. But at least it wasn’t snow! The Slovenians say they live on the sunny side of the Alps. The Austrians don’t like this saying! I guess because it appears to be true…Although when we checked in to our hotel, we were informed the rain would end that day. And it did!
And it only took 2 different GPS’s and a couple of good maps to get here. One GPS covers Croatia and Slovenia and Austria. The other GPS has Germany and other countries on it. Quite tricky but the GPS informed us “We have arrived” so we were happy. Just had to stop often as we approached the Austrian border to see if the second GPS could find us, which it didn’t until we were in Austria and not one kilometer sooner!
Our week was filled with mostly sunny days with a few cool days thrown in for good measure. We spent the week in the Bavaria region of Germany looking at castles, climbing mountains, enjoying the exhilarating views, and also re-examining German history at the Dokumentaion Obersalzberg, Hitler’s country retreat.
We spent the week in 2 different places: Bayerisch Gmain and Bad Hindelang. One of these places is in Berchtesgadener Land in Germany; both were so beautiful!
Highlights of the Week:
Another road trip experience. A mountain road was closed but was the only way to reach our hotel. Not one detour sign to help! So we went on ahead anyway and made it safely – but just barely. This road really was closed!!!
Hornbahn Hindelang: Gondola up the mountain, climb to the summit, then walk down. What gorgeous views and we even heard a cuckoo bird calling.
Dokumentation Obersalzberg and Kehlsteinhaus (The Eagle’s Nest, Hitler’s “Diplomatic House.” Historical look at all aspects of the Nazi period, including the propaganda and the Holocaust. Only one building was left standing along with the Eagle’s Nest at the top of the mountain of Hitler’s second seat of power in Obersalzberg. We spent a very thoughtful day here and was glad the sun was shining.
Mad King Ludwig II’s Castle, Neuschwanstein. He only lived here for about 6 months before his “untimely” death. Building the castle began in the 1860’s and was never completed. The rooms are painted with scenes from Wagner’s operas…
Ehrenberg Castle: what a climb, what a view, what a castle it must have been!
Alpsee Bergwelt: Just for fun, a gondola up the mountain and a very fast toboggan ride down.
To recap: climbed 4 mountains, not every mountain. Found our dream…design for the porch for our house in Texas. Not quite “The Sound of Music,” but pretty close with the cuckoo bird calling to us on top of one of the mountains!
For more photos, click on the link to my web album for Germany
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