| Julius, Andrea and Margaret in Zürich |
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| Dominik and Julius |
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We arrived in Vienna,
Westbahnhof at 8:10 am. Having sat in the airplane and train for so
long, we were most happy that my friend Dominik was there to greet us
and drive us and our luggage to the hostel where I had made reservation.
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Checking in required some money which I was able to get from a nearby ATM. I wanted to take out 1000 Euros but was only allowed 400 Euros per day. Anyway, we were able to rest up till 2 pm when Dominik came to take us for a drive through Vienna's neighborhoods. We got to the Kahlenberg and had a good dinner at the Leopold's Inn. The view over Vienna was beautiful although dimmed a bit by haze. Later we arrived at the Stephan's Platz near the dome.
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| St. Stephan |
Some Palestinians were demonstrating, but Dominik said such things happen all the time and few Austrians paid any attention.
Next we wanted to see the Esterhazy cellar and taste a local wine. For that we had to go down 40 or 50 steps. The ambiance was nice, but my wife Margaret and daughter Andrea did not like it and felt claustrophobic. So we went to a cafe (or Kaffeehaus). Coffee was good as well as the cakes. We found the Sacher Torte rather dry and preferred the Mozart Torte. Taking the U3 underground train we got back to our hostel.
Saturday and Sunday we toured Schönbrunn, the Schatzkammer (treasure), Hofburg and the old Library. In front of the Opera were some young men selling tickets to a concert. I bought 3 of them and in the evening, after some location troubles we found the place. Seven young people played Viennese music with dance and singing. We really enjoyed it.
Andrea, our Viola-playing daughter, was anxious to visit some music stores to find specific pieces. We met each other at Margaret's friends place in Hütteldorf, where we had a pleasant dinner.
Moving about in Vienna was easy. We used the Underground and the trams, and the stations were well marked.
Salzburg was our next destination, and the train took around 3 hours. Again we located a hostel then went for a walk. But the weather started to turn on us and it rained the whole time we were in Salzburg. The inner town is mostly dedicated to Mozart. The tasty Mozart Kugeln can be found most everywhere. Daffodils and pansies were in full bloom and graced the parks and green areas. Andrea was able to buy some more music books and mail them home. The train up to the Salzburg castle
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was in repair so we could not go up there.... we sure did not like to walk the steep slope! We meant to eat at the Till Eulenspiegel, but it was too early and we made reservation for 6 pm. But after we found another restaurant that was serving dinner earlier we canceled the Till Eulenspiegel. I ate a very good fish and had some Veltliner white wine. |
| Salzburg |
Next day we went to the toy museum to see dolls, mechanical contraption for the boys and such. Andrea also liked to see old music instruments on display. At 3 pm we watched a children's show with puppet-show with an Easter theme.
Me and Andrea |
I should say now that by searching the Internet we procured low-priced plane tickets and an Eurail Pass good for 5 day trips. These train trips really pay off for long full-day trips with the disadvantage that you may have to skip many interesting places..... just to be cost-efficient. We could see Innnsbruck and then the very busy Brenner Pass out of the windows. First we meant to change train and go to Venice, but when we found out that the terminal was Rome, we decided to just sit there and saving to move the heavy luggage. We passed through the South Tyrol where I was most impressed by very large plantings of apples, pears in addition to wine grapes. The weather changed from rain to sunshine as we came across the south side of the Alps. |
We bought 3 day-cards which allowed us to use the very crowded underground and trams. The things we saw during our 2 days in Rome were the most impressive
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| Sistine Chapel | the Trevi fountain |
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| and the Coliseum. | |
We also wanted to visit the Gallery Villa Borghese, but were not allowed to enter at 3 pm due to too many visitors. So we took a tram to the Trevi fountain and had some food. We also found an Internet Cafe and read friendly mail but could not delete hundreds of Spam messages.The connection was very slow.
Leaving Rome, we took the train
again but had to pay extra for making obligatory reservations as far
as Milano.
Again the train ride in 1st class was very pleasant. Outside
were low mountains, some flatland in succession. Spring was on its
way and we saw lots of flowering fruit trees, especially near Bologna. In
Milano we got out to see the impressive train station and have a bit
to eat. I chose risotto which was good.
Soon we were back in the train north into Switzerland. In Lugano we got out and got directions to a local Youth Hostel. The "family room" we got was very nice. we wanted to stay longer, but were told "our" room has been reserved. We could have taken another room on the 3rd floor but did not want to climb with our luggage the "chicken" stairs. So, after a visit of the town of Lugano we moved on. I paid cash for this stage of our travel to Locarno where we made reservation. Again we could not stay as long as we wanted because of other reservation, this being Easter time. During the 2 days we stayed there we enjoyed visiting
| Ascona, | Camellia Fest in Locarno |
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with all its beautiful surroundings. Once we got on a bus which took us up the mountains via hairpin curves and back to Locarno again. We enjoyed it a lot.
Our last Eurail trip was from Locarno to Basel on the Rhine. Since we had all day on the train we decided to take the very indirect route via St. Gallen, Romanshorn and Zurich. St. Gall was very impressive with its old town, dome etc.
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| "bay window" in St. Gallen |
Margaret bought golden cow earrings for our youngest daughter back home. It was rather cold on this 27th of March. Back in the train we got to Romanshorn on the Boden See (Lake Constance). It was about 3 pm, and one cannot get a regular meal at that time in Switzerland. So we got coffee and prune pies.
Having made reservations we were not too concerned about finding a bed in Basel.
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We arrived there around 9 pm and took tram 2 close to St. Alban. We got the family room which was adequate but not fancy. (The women did not like it!) We stayed there 3 nights and again were told that the family room has been reserved. We did not like the 8-bed unit so we moved on to a hotel in Liestal costing 200 Franks per night! We really were unaware how difficult it was during Easter to find food and board. On Easter day and Easter Monday just about all restaurants were closed. Luckily we found a convenience store adjacent to a filling station to buy "munchies". |
| Rathaus in Basel |
| After visiting friends and relatives in Baselland we moved on. | 
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| Sissach in Baselland |
BTW I should add that one dinner was most memorable for the excellent white asparagus that our hostess, Carla, served.
I thought we could spend 2 days in Luzern, but our plane was scheduled to leave from Zürich one day earlier. We stayed in a nice hostel for 130 Franks. We walked along the lake and from a bench admired the beautiful Alps. Next day the view was less good due to some haze. Luzern really is a beautiful town. We would have liked to visit the Transportation museum and take the train up the Pilatus, but did not have 2 extra day.
The flight to Atlanta was long, about 9 hours, and the seats crowded. But we got there. Getting the luggage, going through customs took some time. Then to my surprise we were screened and frisked again on leaving the airport. This is usually only done before boarding (but not leaving) the airplane. To our great luck Andrea's husband, Ted, was there to receive us and drive us for another 5 hours to our home in Tallahassee, Florida.
For other travel stories, please click: http://www.freenet.tlh.fl.us/~heinisj
you may e-mail me at: jheinis@nettally.com