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Auto
touring to Austria and Italy; Munich; flight home.
Our bike pretty much stayed parked in the B&B's garage
the days we were in Grainau. Thursday featured torrential rain in this
area of Germany, so we decided to head over the Alps into Italy for the
day to visit the beautiful city of Meran in Italy's Sudtirol region. We
had been to Meran once years before for a one-hour visit, and always thought
it would be interesting to visit again. We headed south to Innsbruck in
Austria, then over the Brenner Pass via the free, old road (as opposed
to the modern Autobahn with the high toll) into Italy. At the border we
jumped on the Autostrada to get to Meran faster.
Sudtirol was originally part of Austria, but was lost
to Italy after WWI (indeed, on one of our first trips to Austria an older
Austrian woman in our Innsbruck B&B bitterly remarked that Italy "stole
Sudtirol from us"). German is still widely spoken in the region,
and many highway and shop signs are in both Italian and German. Amazingly,
once we were on the southern side of the Alps the weather was sunny, warm
and beautiful, which more than made up for the long drive and the high
tolls on the Italian Autostrada!
The city of Meran
(also known as Merano) is nestled in the mountain and bisected by a fast-flowing
river popular with white-water kayakers. A spa town, it offers interesting
pedestrian-only shopping streets, flower-bedecked buildings and walkways,
beautiful views, and great gelato ice cream! It's well worth an overnight
stay, and we found ourselves wishing we had more than just an afternoon
to spend there.
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| Meran, Italy, in SudTirol. |
Seeing the beauty of the area, not to mention the beautiful weather, we had second thoughts about our decision to bike in the Czech Republic rather than ride the Via Claudia Augusta bike route to Venice. The bike route goes through Meran and we saw several loaded bike tourists while we were there. On the way back to Germany we took a different route, following the same route the bike route did over several passes. The countryside was beautiful, but the hills were long and steep. We probably would have had a difficult time with them this go-round due to Ginny being pregnant and not having as much energy as usual. But, we definitely have it on “the list” for a future trip!
At breakfast the next day we chatted with some of the other guests at the B&B, who were amazed to hear about our wonderful weather in Sudtirol. They noted that it had poured all day in Germany, and confirmed our choice of going to visit Italy for the day. Friday’s weather was better, and we spent the day sightseeing in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, walking around Grainau, reading on the balcony, and eating some pastries that we had picked up in our absolute-favorite bakery in the entire world, which happens to be on the pedestrian street in Partenkirchen. Bäckerei Josef Krätz makes a “Quark” (cheese)-raspberry-shortcake schnitte (pastry) that is food for the gods. We detour to visit the bakery whenever we are in the general region. We even got a few slices of it and took it home on the plane with us when we left (praying that US Customs would let us bring it into the country)!
Of course on Saturday, the day we had to drive back to Munich, the sky was totally blue, the sun was out, and the mountains were covered in fresh snow. Oh well! We drove back to Munich via the Autobahn, making good time at 160 km/h (almost 100 mph) in spots. Even at those speeds, I usually feel safer driving on the Autobahn than I do at 55 mph in the USA. Drivers are much more disciplined, the roads are well-maintained, and most rules are obeyed.
Our reserved hotel was in the small town of Schwaig near the Munich airport, but since the day was so nice and it wasn’t even noon we decided to detour into the city center and wander around a bit. Unfortunately, it seemed like everyone else had the same idea and the roads and sidewalks were packed. We found a one-hour parking spot on the street and walked over to the main shopping street, which was teeming with people. We wanted to spend more time walking around, so I left Ginny to shop for baby clothes while I went back to move the car to a parking garage. Unfortunately, all the garages were full, and it took me nearly a half hour to find one that was open.
After entering I was confronted with the most tight, narrow passageway
I think I’ve ever navigated in a car. Our Opel Vectra station wagon
rental car was pretty large, and I found myself wishing for the smaller
Ford Focus and VW wagons that we usually rent. The ramp to the upper levels
was extremely tight, and my spirits sagged as I watched the Mercedes sedan
in front of me nearly sideswipe the wall (on which I could see numerous
paint scrapes from previous unlucky drivers). But, there was no way to
go but up, so on I went, wondering why I didn’t get the damage waiver
on the car. A few white-knuckled minutes later and I was on the top deck,
where I nabbed one of the few remaining parking spaces. I made my way
back to where Ginny was, and we walked past the Marienplatz with its famous
Glockenspiel to the adjacent Viktualenmarkt to get something for lunch.
This large outdoor food market features a biergarten, many food vendors,
butcher shops, and other vendor’s stalls. We settled on some Doner
Kebabs and ate our lunch at a small table on the sidewalk outside the
storefront. I was still a bit hungry and got a Leberkaes sandwich (kind
of like spicy meatloaf) from one of the butcher shops a little later,
which was very tasty.
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| A butcher shop (Metzgerei) in Munich's Viktualenmarkt. |
After a few hours in Munich we retrieved our car, drove
down another narrow, stressful ramp to get out of the parking garage,
and headed via the Autobahn to the airport on the outskirts of Munich.
We briefly stopped at the airport and picked up our bike cases from left
luggage, and then drove on to our hotel.
We often stay in the small town of Schwaig, which is literally just over the fence from the airport. This tiny, sleepy town has seen a lot of growth in the seven or so years we've been coming here, with several new hotels going up. It's easily accessed by bike from the airport via a nice dedicated bike path, and is an easy 10-15 minute ride. We had booked one of the newer hotels via Travelocity before we left. The Quality Airport Hotel is a few years old and only recently has joined the Quality Inn chain. On previous trips we've stayed in the NH Hotel, the Arabella Sheraton, and the private Hotel Alte Post in Schwaig. We've also stayed several times at the Best Western Parkhotel in the nearby town of Erding.
All are good, and we generally pick whichever has the
best price. The Alte Post is small and privately run, with nice rooms.
It's a good deal during the week, but you can do better on the weekends
at the business hotels. If you are a light sleeper, beware, as the Alte
Post is right next to the village church and its bells. The Sheraton is
probably the nicest, with a nice Bavarian decor. The NH is nice, too,
but is very sterile and businesslike. These hotels can be very expensive
during the week, but usually have deeply discounted rates (60-70 euros)
on the weekends.
The Quality Hotel was fairly nice, with big rooms and
balconies or patios. We were surprised, however, that an expensive business
hotel had no baggage carts for guests to use (we had a lot of bags and
junk at this point at the end of our trip). Thankfully, our room was on
the first level and we had a patio that had easy access to the parking
lot. This allowed us to easily bring our bike and luggage to the room
and provided a nice, covered area to take the bike apart and pack it in
the cases when the inevitable evening rains came.
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| Packing the tandem up at the end of the trip. It's not as hard as it looks! |
Generally on our last night we have dinner in the nearby
town of Erding,
where there are several excellent German restaurants and an ice cream
cafe that makes the best spaghetti eis ice cream dish to be found in Europe
(well, that we've found at least!). Erding is home to the well-regarded
Erdinger brewery,
known for its wheat beer (weissbier). The brewery has its own restaurant
on the town square, which is quite good. However, on a previous trip we
tried a new place just down the street from the Erdinger restaurant, Gasthaus
Fischer, which was excellent. We chose to eat there this time, too, and
the cuisine again did not disappoint. Although we were stuffed, I insisted
on stopping by the ice cream cafe (Eiscafe Veneto, on a small side street
near the main square) for one last spaghetti eis.
Our late-morning flight on Sunday to Philadelphia allowed
us to get up and eat a leisurely breakfast at the hotel's included breakfast
buffet (breakfast is not always included at the airport hotels -- be sure
to confirm this before you book, as the buffets can cost 12-15 euros per
person!).
We had no problems returning the car, and check-in at US Airways went smoothly. Thankfully, I have Preferred status on US Airways, which allowed us to bypass the long lines and use the first-class check-in lines (despite flying coach). No issues with the S&S bike cases, even though they were fairly heavy since we had thrown pretty much everything in them. It is definitely a lot easier flying with the S&S cases than with a large bike box, even though we've had good luck with them in the past, too. The S&S cases are just much easier to move around and they fit easily in cars and on the luggage carts in the airport.