Printed from Brian Wasson's Czech/Austrian bike trip report. © 2005 by Brian Wasson.
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.
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
as the bike route 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 trip 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 main
pedestrian street in Partenkirchen (near the church). Backerei
Josef Kratz 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 the garage 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 a Leberkas sandwich (despite the name, it
usually is made of pork rather than liver, kind of like meatloaf) from one of
the butcher shops a little later, which was very tasty.
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.
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.