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!