Family Trip - Day 4

Friday June 28

This one could be labeled "what a day". Sunshine again. We had decided the evening before to have breakfast after we got the car. Not knowing really how it all would go when I booked the rental car, I had put down 8:30 am at the time. The place (Sixt) was at a car dealership. To get the car at Singen when we needed it and returned it there when we didn't need it any longer saved us quite some money.

For example: The rates per day were exactly the same for our rental and for the second rental but since the second was picked up and returned to Munich Airport it cost more the $200 more. Isn't that interesting?

Anyway, we were back soon and we were quite happy with the car. It's a Volvo X60 with all the latest thrills. 

After breakfast we quickly loaded the car with our luggage. 

That is a man's job (ha-ha) so I had a little time to take some of the photos I didn't take the day before. Of course the table and the extra chairs had been put away again but it is such a nice place. And those yellow flowers were slowly closing up again.

I must admit that I was quite a bit anxious about driving in Germany again but I got comfortable very soon. The first part was more or less over country roads. Some were very narrow and all were very curvy. 

At one point we decided it was time to check on Helen and William's arrival situation. At the same time we got aware that our power on our phones was running out. Yippie! We could not find the USB connection in the car. Finally, when we needed a break, we stopped at a highway rest area. It took us a while to figure out which plug adapters, cables, etc would work and then got the sad news that Helen and William's lay-over was suddenly large. They missed their scheduled flight and were stuck in London Heathrow for a while.

We found were we could get plugged in.

When there was a bit of charge and the phone still plugged in I "asked" google where to connect the gadgets in the car to charge them. And while I was at it I also asked about the cruise control etc etc of this car. It was so easy to find out all I needed to know.

When we got closer to Munich the traffic got heavier too. Don't you find it awesome when your program tells you that you will be x# minute later but you are still on the fastest route? 

I also got the suspicion that this car might be a hybrid. I had never received info about that. I would be very pleased though.

Finally we arrived at our destination and I made sure I knew where the car was. 

I was wondering how we should handle this situation. Helen and William comming on a later flight really changed things. And we tried to guess what they might need when they finally arrived because we had planned to right away drive to Salzburg. 

We did grab something light for us to eat though.

When it got closer to the time for them to arrive we figured out where they were coming out. Right next to it was a stand with some food. They selected a piece of apple strudel which they sad was just perfect. 

I had retrieved the car from the parking garage since it had been quite far away and had to drive around the terminal twice since I had missed the right place to pull into the first time. That part worked out pretty well at the end because we could just walk across the street to the parked car.

Most of the part to Salzburg was still day light and very nice to drive. It got dark when we came closer to the border of Austria. The rental car person had asked me whether I would drive in a different than Germany country and I had told him. He said that I needed to buy a "vignette" before driving over the border and explained it to us. Corry also said that it could be very costly if you don't have that even for just 3 days. But I saw the sign at the last rest area that there were those available to buy and it wasn't very expensive. When we stopped for that I also put the complete address of the airbnb into the GPS. 

The most part we drove on Autobahn (highway) but the rest was just country lanes and curvy. Promptly I took a wrong turn and the GPS recalculated. Then we came into the city and that was even more "left turn, right turn, etc". To find the street itself was quite easy because it is the Getreidegasse and quite famous but then finding parking.... It was late now but the town was buzzing with people and cars. Friday evening! We circled and circled until we did find a park house. This was the most extra-ordinary thing ever. 

This underground carpark is directly built into a mountain, the Mönchsberg. It was midnight now but we were happy. I try to never forget to take a photo where I parked the car.

And we found the way out.

On the otherside we were not quite so lucky. The GPS found the way for pedestrians but we kept finding dead-ends. Salzburg streets are connected with passages. "Holes" which go through houses to the paralel streets. But at the time of our arrival most all were closed. (We didn't really understand what we were supposed to be doing but next day we saw the passages.) So, it did take us longer. It was a bit like the wandering in the wilderness.

The next obstacle: No code for the key box. We tried a pin which was in the papers but that was not it. We ended up using What'sUp (doesn't cost us anything) to call the host. She was extremely nice and with the code we finally could get in. We were very tired though to "schlepp" our luggage 2 flights of stairs up. What an adventure. No elevator. The house (if I remember right) was originally from 1450 or so.

The apartment is quite nice. It was hot because it had been a hot day. When I found there was actually an air-conditioner everybody was happy. 

After an good-night's sleep the Salzburg adventure can begin!

Family Trip - Day 3

Thursday June 27

Corry loves swimming. It doesn’t matter whether air and water are hot or cold. She tries to go every day. The city Böhring has a place for families at a lake. They have lockers you can rent for the whole year and showers you can use after a lovely time in sun and water. You can bring your own picnic or enjoy something from the “rustic” restaurant. 

Unfortunately they had a lot of rain lately and some areas are rather flooded. 

We left the house about noon because we looked forward to lunch there. But first Corry did her swim with a friend we met there. 

They really like the new owner of the eating place. Weekly he is posting a menu of daily specials and this day it was “Kartoffelpuffer mit Apfelmus”. I really liked the paper napkins he got made especially for his place.

After Corry's swimming (with some rain inbetween) and the lunch Werner continued to drive us to Radolfzell. It is one of the cities close by they know well. They decided parking in the parkhaus of the Kaufhall, a supermarket chain, because they could return their empty crate with water bottles. Germany is very back on recycling. A lot of bottles have a "Pfand" on it, a deposit you get back when you give the empty bottle back. Corry was putting the whole box with 12 into this machine and got a coupon with the amount which got deducted when she bought something.

I only went to Radolfzell ones when we were invited to friends house there. But I was surprised how nice this town was too.

It is situated at the edge of the Bodensee, which is a very large body of water. This allee of trees was very beautiful which the pictures do not show. The trees were majestic.

The water level is rather high. They had rather an awful lot of rain too lately and even floods. When I saw this I had to take a photo.

I had spied this sign right away. "Selbstbedienung" means self-service. I rather think that nobody wants to sit on those chairs at the moment and swim through the tables balancing their tray.

We sat a while at the edge of the lake. People watching and enjoying the peaceful atmosphere. 

This picture of course was taken by Corry and shared with me.

A little shopping where the car was parked (which is free when you get the parket ticket stamped when you buy something) and then it was time to go back home. Florian (their son) was cooking tonight and we ate dinner outside on the terrace. 

I was terrible today taking photos. Didn't take any photos of the dinner event or the lovely terrace but I did take some of the lovely photos. 

This yellow one was identified by my phone as "Evening Primrose" or "in the family of Onagraceae". After finding the first one somewhere to bring home they are self-seeded in his garden. They are about waist-high and live about 2 or 3 years. The strange thing is that the flowers open in the evening for several days but close in the mornings again. I don't have a day-time-bush photo.

But I took this photo before I went to bed. Just lovely.

Another lovely day with a lovely evening. Oh, how lucky we are.

The day has come

All the planning, the researching, the discussing. James and I are the first to fly over. 

Tuesday June 25 we had all morning to pack. And we had already started the day before which is unusual for us. At 12 noon we left the house. A friend drove us to the airport. Checking in took no time at all. Security at RIC always goes fast. Time to relax.

We decided a bit of lunch would be good. We shared a sandwich which was plenty. It came with french fries. The mayo on the side came for the sandwich but I laughed. I did it the German way: mayo instead of ketchup to dip the fries  Much better. James tried but then decided “to be American”.

The obligatory selfie!

RIC to IAD. A short layover. Time to call James’ sister Jane to wish her a happy birthday. 

IAD to ZUR. 

We had told Jane we would raise the glasses for a toast in the plane. Here is to Jane and Stephen, the younger brother who has a birthday the same day. 

It’s an 8-hour night flight. Lots of time to play solitaire on the phone. I watched two movies. And then we were there. We were delighted when we saw our luggage had made it too to Zürich. 

Wednesday Julie 26 short after 8 am. 

Grab the luggage. Walk across the street to the train station. How to get train tickets? There were vending machines, but we were told those would work only for tickets inside Switzerland. We had to stand in line. Take a number. It took half an hour to exit but then the young man was very efficient. From the airport to Singen there would always be one stop-over. The young man said that would be best in Schaffhausen instead of Zurich Hauptbahnhof. He could not sell us the tickets though. Instead we got something to say “because of technical difficulty” we had to buy the tickets in the train when they were coming around. Since we had it officially in writing…

All went very well. Schaffhausen! Another word which brings up lots of memories. We had a quick glimpse of the waterfall from the train. 

It was close to 12 am when Corry picked us am from the train station. Btw nobody ever came to sell us tickets. 62.95 Euros saved. 

Welcome to Friedingen for two nights. 

It had rained in the morning. But after lunch the sun was shining and we decided that we needed a little walk. Corry and Werner live in a little village which is perfect for that. 

Just around the corner a stork’s nest. 

The “Corona Kreuz” in the Church’s wildflower garden. The recent cross was in honor of Saint Corona, patron saint of pandemics. You can read something about her HERE!

After a little more settling in the house Corry suggested to see the Aach Quelle (sping). After all the recent rain it must be more active.  

It’s a nice place. The river Danube disappears in the ground and bubbles up out of the ground on the other side of a hill starting the river Aach. It is very interesting. And it definitely bubbles!

It’s a nice little walk around. 

And there is also a little place were Corry treated us to an ice cream. It was very nice in the sun. We hope that the weather will stay this nice for our vacation. 

It was too nice to already go back to the house so Werner drove up to the little old town of Aach which is on top of a little mountain. One could easily walk around the little town probably in 20 minutes but it was very charming and so peaceful.

There were signs to explain important buildings and monuments. This fountain/statue is called "Stadtbrunnen Spritzenhäuschen" and this last version is from 1989 created by Friedhelm Zilly. The first well was built 1756 to have water for households, animals and to extinguish fires. 

The little church was open and we just could walk in. It was a catholic church which had started as a chapel in the castle 1150.  I liked this tree, obviously handmade with photos of children and bands with messages. Unfortunately we could not find out what the meaning/purpose of it was. 

Outside the church was a beautiful overlook over the country side. On a clear day you probably can see the alps. Corry told us though that if that happens the weather the next day is not nice.

I took a screen shot of the map on my phone. It shows nicely where we were, the few streets in the little village, and top right where we were just before at the Aachtopf or Aach spring. 

Well, it was time to go back to their house. We all decided that we were not very hungry. Corry had two different salads and some charcuterie. Afterwards we played "our" card game twice (which we rarely do) with a "wine break" in the middle and chatted and laughed about our "old times" until it was really time for us to go to bed. 

What a great day! Thank you Corry and Werner.