Week 26 - Heading north

Week beginning June 22nd 2015

Monday saw us heading off to Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Austria.

Four countries, including Italy, in 8 days, is an ambitious plan!

First stop was Lucern. Crossing the Swiss border was easy as I has a highway pass from the Honeycutts. We didn't even get stopped, which I was pleased about, as my drivers licence has expired. I have paid to renew it, but have come across a stumbling block getting it authorised over here. I went to the local Police station as any member of the police are authorised to witness that I am who I say I am. It was a lost in translation experience, as he said the only was to renew the licence was in Australia. Twice I explained that I only required him to witness that I am who I say I am, but there was no getting that message through. I left before things got a bit ugly. Therefore I was driving to Switzerland not illegally, as you can use the receipt as proof of payment until your licence replacement arrives, but a little on edge in case I had need to explain this to anyone not fluent in English. Certainly I would struggle in Italian, and fail dismally speaking German.

Once we arrived, we had to park the car. The van was too tall for the first park, where we tried but back out before damaging the car! We parked on the street, after rushing to a bank to change some Euros for Swiss Francs. We then looked around the town.

Luzern is a beautiful town, featuring the below Mediaeval bridges.

 

The water of the Reuss River flows at a fierce rate through this section.

Here are some examples of the building hereabouts, the old part of the city is too cute to be true.

 

The girls had fun picking out fantasy bedrooms for themselves.

 

We sat here for dessert, and nearly all of us got duck poo on our clothes. Luckily our hotel was just across the river. I finally found raspberry gelato. Cause for celebration!

The next day we moved the car to a paid garage that was a normal height. The van is 1.97m high, a good statistic to remember!

Millie and Phoebe discovered a love for Bircher muesli. Lexie did not. I'm not sure about her DNA, she doesn't like croissants or Danish pastries either. You would think we're not related.

We took a Two hour boat tour on Lake Luzern.

 

It was so relaxing. It was cold on the water, so the girls stayed inside on these seats, heated From underneath by the engine.

After the tour we wandered around the old town a bit more. I thinks we introduced Millie to hot chips with mayonnaise, and found a friend.

Sometimes George really cracks me up.

Day three had us heading for Salzburg via Lichtenstein. None of us had been to Lichtenstein before.

The first town was Balzers, with the obligatory castle on a hill. This one is Gutenberg Castle, I like it's humble style.

With a view. There are lots of grape vines in this region, has anyone come across a Lichtensteinian wine in their drinking travels?

Then a very short trip to the capital, Vaduz. Short because this country is only 160 square kilometres. If you get a chance, look up the history of this principality, it is fascinating how it managed to remain independent over time. It is the second richest country in the world I've read.

We tried to catch a tourist train up to Vaduz Castle, owned and lived in by Prince Hans II.

Again, fairly humble for the 6th richest monarch in the world. This country is a tax haven, so industry is strong.

 

It was onwards and upwards for us, to Salzburg. We had a booking for The Sound of Music tour the following day. Cheesy, but fun. Millie had studied up on the movie before she left Australia. Our digs were very nice, about 2km from the old centre. We all fell into bed exhausted.

The next morning we explored beautiful Salzburg Before our SofM tour at 2pm.

We were unsure of where to get the tour exactly, so it was at about this point in the tour (below), when no mention had been made of the Von Trapp Family I realised we'd boarded the wrong bus.

 

On the boat I spoke to the tour guide, Peter, who assured me it was the Lakes and Mountains tour "ya". I never heard him say it as the bus group was rowdy near us.We discussed that this tour was far more cultural than the one we had intended, he said we might be able to get a discount for a SofM tour tomorrow. Grrrr, I was feeling pretty silly at this stage for not checking as we boarded.

These two lovely girls cheered me up no end by assuming me they were enjoying the Lakes and Mountains tour, ya. So by the time the boat dropped us at St. Wolfgang, I was in a better frame of mind.

The quaint town helped too. Phoebe bought herself a cuckoo clock here.

Then Peter told me he had spoken to his boss and we could go on the Sof M tour tomorrow free of charge! Lexie gave him a huge hug.

We looked around Salzburg again after the tour. We ate street food for dinner in the centre square, then wandered back to the river. Here we found a great busker with a Bob Dylan reportoire. He was born in the USA but has live in QUeensland for 10+ years. We had to dodge a very drunk Austrian man who was the buskers number one fan. Also on my radar was the lady on a bike you can see in this shot filming Lexie on her phone. The drunk man came back near us so we decided to call it a night. We were halfway across the the bridge to walk home when the same lady came up to us and engaged us in conversation. This was all fine until she (Elvira) kept on following us. She was getting so persistant that I decided to catch a taxi back to the hotel. We were all in the taxi but the driver couldn't leave because she had her hand through the window giving up business cards. Finally he got to drive off after accusing Elvira of leaning her bike on his Mercedes taxi. We were happy to get back to the hotel without seeing her out the rear window pedalling hard to catch us.

The next morning was full of laughs. Our tour guide was again called Peter. The first Peter was very kind, as witnessed by the edelweiss money purse he gave Lexie when we saw him again. See below.

This Peter (below) was hysterical! I'm sure he had said the lines well over 1000 times, but I was still laughing.

The BBC were filming for a political show about England's neighbours. They do a lighthearted segment for each country, and as it is 50 years since the movie was made, they chose to feature the tour. I got interviewed, and Phoebe sang Do, a Deer. I hardly think we ranked as die hard fans, but are still hoping to make the cut.

All the indoor scenes were shot in Hollywood, but these are the outdoor scenes. Above is the back of the house scenes and where the kids and Maria fall out of the canoes.

I am sixteen summer house, now relocated to this public park.

And the church where Maria and Georg get married.

Reece came on tour.

There were other scenes of the railway, kids hanging out of the trees and the car escape into Switzerlad, and great views of the Untersberg, all a little hard to capture from the bus. Anyway, we had a great time on the tour largely thanks to Peter 2.

Walking home to go for a drive to Lake Konigsee, Peter 1 spotted us and gave us a lift to our hotel, as he was collecting for the 2pm tour. Lexie almost wouldn't let go of him she was so happy to see him. We grabbed some lunch and headed for Germany, squeezing another country visited into this week! I visited this lake with Justin on our honeymoon. An Austrian couple took us, Monica and Heinz. You go out on and electric boat.

We ate dinner here. I mistook grated horseradish for grated Apple, and had a nasty shock. The girls thought I was going to die, I couldn't breathe properly and was coughing. Very funny as it didn't burn.

The drive home was long as I got my Italian towns mixed up. I now know how to work the GPS much more comprehensively. We had planned to see the Iceman in Bolzano, but ran out of time. We went the next day, Sunday, with Justin as our escort and driver. It was nice to have him along.

 

Two hikers discovered his mummified body near the Austrian border. It took time to establish just how old the body was, turned out to be 5000 years old.

Below is a model of how "Ötzi" the Iceman would have looked.

If you are in he area it is a great story and museum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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