Nabbed

It was when I walked to the railway station today that it reminded me, as the environment looked very familiar, that I hadn’t put in my post yesterday that we had a run-in with the Police when we were getting to our accommodation yesterday.

There were roadworks on the route which the GPS obviously didn’t know about so not unsurprisingly she (our GPS voice is female) gave us a misdirection which had us driving headlong towards the railway station but on a road restricted for buses.

As soon as we entered this road I knew we shouldn’t be there so stopped and contemplated reversing back but feared reversing into a bus entering the station so took the only other option of driving into the station but in doing so was confronted by a police car who was checking that everything was in order at the station.

I stopped and the patrol car turned across our front and the officer 👮 put his hand out the window, wagged his finger at us and made signs that we should not be there (which we knew) and drove off - I think what saved us from something more than a finger wag was he could see from our number plate that we were definitely not locals.

He drove across a parking lot and out into the street so we just followed along behind and once away from the station he went one way and we went another!

After giving our clothes a refresh this morning we walked into the city, lunched and while Sherry was looking around the shops on the “Golden Mile” I went to the railway station to get some train tickets as tomorrow we are taking the train to Lake Garda and hopefully have a swim.

Looking at Google Maps it indicated a half hour walk so allowing for the walk both ways and another half an hour getting some tickets we agreed that we would meet back in Piazza Erbe in 90 minutes.

When I arrived at the station there was a queue of at least 50 people outside the Information & ticket office and only one staff behind one of seven counters. I didn’t need to be Einstein to realise that this was going to take far longer than the time I had allowed and a little (alright a reasonable amount) panic set in as I thought that Sherry might start worrying about me if I didn’t get back around our meeting time so I reverted to searching on the internet on my phone as I stood in the queue to see if I could buy them online. I found a site Omio which allowed me to do so easily and I was out of the queue in about 5 minutes and on my way back to our meeting place arriving 10 minutes before the agreed time. I still can’t understand why I didn’t think to do it online in the first place and save myself a reasonable walk in the hot sun!

While our impressions of Verona haven’t changed we have to confess that there are some nice areas in the city no more so than Piazza Bra which is directly in front of the Roman Arena

and near Porta Nouva part of the old city walls

The Golden Mile (but only around 400m) is a shopping strip running from Piazza Bra to Piazza Erbe and as we sat in a cafe at afternoon tea time we could look down the Mile and see the throngs doing what Sherry had done earlier in the day

An interesting day in Italy

Kms driven to date 2691

Kms walked to date 389.0

Spent on Diesel €129.66

Highest price paid to date for diesel €1.579 Würzburg 

Lowest price paid to date for diesel €1.479 Freiburg

Spent on tolls €27.60

As far as the eye could see

We relocated from Andriano to Verona today via the A22 - for 129 kms we travelled along the valley floor with towering hills/mountains/cliffs on either side and for not one kilometre of that 129 kms were we travelling on anything but level road (or so it seemed)

For most of the journey Sherry was at the wheel so that allowed me to take a video as we went along the highway and it can be seen here

 Unfortunately for our driver there was plenty of traffic which caused queueing quite regularly and for some distance before, miraculously, the jam unjammed and normal movement resumed.

Having arrived here in Verona and unpacking we then walked into the city, a walk of around 30 minutes but in high temperatures- it was very draining.

First impressions of Verona aren’t especially good - while the old town is much as you would expect, bustling, lots of eating places around the piazzas creating a good vibe- the walk into town was through some “scrubby” areas and the city itself appears anything but clean.

We did enough to get the basic layout of the city and after a meal on the Piazza Erbe as we left to come back to our residence we along with many others stopped off and looked up to a famous balcony in Casa Di Giulietta

The same balcony where Romeo Montague meets his lover Juliet Capulet and inspired Shakespeare to write Romeo and Juliet. There is also a statue of Juliet in the courtyard 

We will see whether our impressions of Verona change after we have spent more time here.

Kms driven to date 2691

Kms walked to date 377.4

Spent on Diesel €129.66

Highest price paid to date for diesel €1.579 Würzburg 

Lowest price paid to date for diesel €1.479 Freiburg

Spent on tolls €27.60

Naturalists …

…but with clothes on!

This morning I shot a video of the orchard/s around the accommodation and that can be seen here

Our plan today was to get away from the city and out into the countryside and we did so by taking a trip in the Funivia del Renon (a funicular) up to the Renon area. The “ride” is at least 15 minutes long and took us to Soprabolzano 1221m above the city.

It was a very step climb initially then flattening out all across either rugged rocky slopes, vineyards or lush paddocks with housing dotted across the slopes.

It was a good value & scenic ride (€10 return per person).

Once at the top we then went walkabouts firstly to Wald-Wild-Wunder-Weg which was touted as “a nature adventure trail…introducing wild animals living in Renon” but which turned out to be not a lot more that a forest walk, though as we climbed up to it (128m above the level of Soprabolzano ) we did see some animals sheltering from the sun under a building

 

We then set Google Maps for Wolfsgruben which took us past some delightful buildings

and also provided some grand views across the countryside with Bolzano down in the valley floor

At Wolfsgruben there is a lake and while it might have been possible to walk around it we choose not to for fear that we might not have the energy to get back to the funicular 

Once we got back to Soprabolzano we had a reviver in the cafe before taking the funicular back down town again enjoying the views that were presented to us.

A rockslide against the back of a house

If you enjoy the outdoors then this, and most other stops we have had, are the places to be.

Fun fact: German speakers make up 66% of the population in the greater Bolzano area, Italians 25% and Ladins 4%, others 5%.

Ladins are people of the Dolomites

Kms driven to date 2527

Kms walked to date 369.7

Spent on Diesel €129.66

Highest price paid to date for diesel €1.579 Würzburg 

Lowest price paid to date for diesel €1.479 Freiburg

Spent on tolls €17.50

Wet & dry

After having spoken with Jodi and her family following their holiday in Japan and finally letting one’s breath out after the Warriors nail biter against Canberra (can’t wait to view Sticky’s post match press conference as I bet he is blaming someone outside of his team for the loss) we took the car into Bolzano Centro to have a look around the city - apart from missing one turn the drive was uneventful!

As we exited the carpark building it started to drizzle, then rain then thunder and as luck would have it we had left the umbrellas in the apartment. As it was around midday we decided to take refuge in a pizzeria in the hope that by the time we had finished lunch it would have passed but it hadn’t.

Not to be thwarted we found a street with covered walkways which allowed us to kept out of the rain while still being able to window shop.

Whether it was due to the inclement weather or the fact that The Ice Man (Özti) was on display there was quite a queue to enter the Museum of Archaeology

Özti is the natural mummy of a man who lived between 3350 and 3105 BC and was discovered in the Ötzal Alps on the Austria Italy border in 1991.

The weather changed quickly from wet to dry in about 15 minutes and the sun beat down and the city transformed from dull to very lively in short order.

The Duomo

.

Statue in Piazza Walther Platz

A building with an ornament in every window 

NZ Kiwifruit @ €6.80 per kg

As it was getting late in the afternoon we took another deep breathe uplifted the car and returned to the sanctuary of the orchards, on this occasion (we think) not getting up the nose of any volatile Italian.

As I write the blog thunder rolls across The Valley 

Kms driven to date 2488

Kms walked to date 359.1

Spent on Diesel €129.66

Highest price paid to date for diesel €1.579 Würzburg 

Lowest price paid to date for diesel €1.479 Freiburg

Spent on tolls €17.50

But we paid for it

As indicated yesterday we moved out of Germany ending up in Andriano an Italian commune 10kms north of Bolzano.

To get here we crossed through Austria but we paid for it as to use their motorways you need to purchase a vignette which we did near the Lech falls that we saw yesterday. For the pleasure of using their roads for approximately an hour it cost €9.90 which would have been the same cost had we used them for 10 days.

Our mid morning stop was at Zugspitzblick which is a cafe in the Alps and gives a panoramic view of the Zugspitz and the emerald green Blindsee below.

The Zugspitz at 2962m above sea level is the highest peak in the Wetterstein Mountains and also in Germany

I have upload a video of the view here.

It was a great view but we paid for it! Anyone who knows Sherry knows that she usually drinks just hot water instead of coffee so we ordered a cup of hot water which we paid the princely sum of €4.90 (approximately $NZ8.75) for.

It wasn’t long before we came to our first tollgate, tolls are charged on almost all Italian motorways, and we got ourselves into one of the many lanes. As we inched forward there must have been some issue at the tollgate so we had to manoeuvre ourselves “politely” out of that lane into another.

The trip through to Bolzano was relatively uneventful but we did drive through some majestic scenery - high hills on either side dotted with villages. One thing that did stand out was the fact that we drove downhill continuously for at least 25kms or it seemed like that as it went on and on and …by the time I realised we were always going downhill we drove another 10kms before we got to the valley floor.

Parked in a carpark in Bolzano as there was an hour to kill before we could book in.  The old area of Bolzano challenged our senses a little as it seemed rather chaotic but hopefully won’t seem like that when we explore it properly.

Drove very cautiously out of Bolzano to Andriano as the GPS was having difficulty giving us precise directions, so cautiously I pissed off an Italian driver behind me. Just as we entered the motorway I slowed to ensure there was no traffic coming from my left and he gave an almighty blast on the horn so much so that I thought I hadn’t seen a vehicle coming down the motorway so I gave the brakes a very solid jab and as I looked in the rear view mirror I saw the nose of his car disappear below the rear windscreen- on this occasion he nearly paid for it!!!

Our accommodation is in a nice apartment in a large apple orchard, an orchard that appears to have numerous varieties of apples.

Views across the orchard

Kms driven to date 2459

Kms walked to date 354.1

Spent on Diesel €129.66

Highest price paid to date for diesel €1.579 Würzburg 

Lowest price paid to date for diesel €1.479 Freiburg

Spent on tolls €17.50

A day of surprises

During the night there were two significant hailstorms, the hail sounding like it was going to come through the roof, and then steady rain early morning which cleared mid morning to give us another fine day, a day that came with many surprises. 

Surprise #1 was talking to Sam and his family on Skype to hear about their holiday in Bali during the recent school holidays. They had an epic time.

Our accommodation is on the third floor of the building in the photo below

It has two slanted windows with mechanical openers in the roof and surprise #2 was that they closed automatically when it rained!

We started a walk around the town to have a look at the highlights that the city has to offer

Inner courtyard of Füssen‘s castle

Beside the castle is the cathedral and we went in to have a look but it looked to us that a service was going to start so went to go out but surprise #3 was that the doors were now shut and we couldn’t get them open. We interpreted, using Google Translate, a notice pinned to the board and realised that every Wednesday there was an organ recital for 30 minutes at this time so we stood in the foyer waiting for that time to pass, trying the door from time to time. Luckily a guy who was in the church got a bout of the coughs and he came to the foyer and casually opened the door (we weren’t pushing on the heavy door hard enough) to go out and we sidled out behind him.

While making a purchase in a store we were lucky enough (surprise #4) to be able to communicate with person who designed the item we were intending to buy and so we were able to get the full background on how he came to design the product and also an understanding on where all the components were sourced from.

We started to walk along the banks of the Lech river and came across the Lech waterfalls (surprise #5)

Due to the heavy rain overnight the water was very brown unlike the beautiful blue water that was flowing yesterday.

As we crossed the bridge to the other side of the Lech we saw a sign which indicated that Austria to our surprise (#6) was 700m down the road so we were able to walk from one country to another and then walk back across the border again - given our island nation it seemed a strange thing to be able to do

As we walked back to the city we noticed a statue that had been inserted into the side of the river walls, many meters above the river

Some days never turn out the way one imagined at the start of the day.

Tomorrow we leave Germany, drive through Austria and end up in Italy to start the next stage of our trip. It is a reasonably long drive through the Alps (we think).

Danka schon becomes grazie mille 

Bitte becomes per favore 

Hallo becomes buongiorno 

Tschüss becomes ciao

Tut mir leid becomes scusi 

Kms driven to date 2206

Kms walked to date 347

Spent on Diesel €129.66

Highest price paid to date for diesel €1.579 Würzburg 

Lowest price paid to date for diesel €1.479 Freiburg

Spent on tolls €0

Oh my Gawd (Part2)

Many tourists travel to Fussen with one prime objective, those who go to movies a lot will have seen it numerous times -think Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Spaceballs, or even The Great Escape.

There are 3 of them in the area, one in Fussen town itself and the other two 4kms away at Schwangau, of those two one is privately owned, the other is the property of the Bavarian Government.

The Duke of Bavaria owns that which is known as Hohenschwangau Castle which makes a majestic sight as it sits between two lakes with the Bavarian Alps as a backdrop

However the more well known one is Neuschwanstein Castle, constructed from 1869 it was commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria who paid for it out of his own personal fortune. Ludwig died in 1886 and so the castle remained unfinished and it was then opened to the public.

It is a 40 minute walk up to the castle, or you can be lazy and take a horse drawn carriage. When we were walking up some carriages went passed and I swear you could hear the two draught horses breathing heavily and why wouldn’t you with the steepness of the slope and the weight of the carriage and occupants (without being disrespectful it tended to be the overweight and unfit who choose this way up the hill).

We made our way straight to Marienbrucke which was a further 20 minute walk up the hill but standing on the bridge looking down the valley gave a great view of the castle so that climb was well worth while

If you have been in royal castles previously you are no longer overawed by the decor, frescos, chandeliers etc. and while photos were not permitted in the main tour area we took some of the kitchen - there is a fair bit of € in those copper pots at the scrap yard!

A kind tourist took our photo from just below the castle…

…in fact she liked what she saw through the lenses so much that she actually took 8.

The following is a photo of the castle taken from the air and gives a better view of its beauty.

The view back to a Fussen is also not to be sneezed at

Note the small church sitting in the middle of the photo and effectively in the middle of nowhere!

A worthwhile visit.

Something that is starting to rankle are restaurants (not so) subtle requests for tips. As an example tonight when paying for our meal the waitress while keying in the amount of our bill into the eftpos machine casually said “do you wish to tip in cash or on the card” so when I replied on the card she nominated a figure, entered it into the machine and said “that ok?”!!!  We will have to develop a strategy to handle this approach.

Kms driven to date 2206

Kms walked to date 339.1

Spent on Diesel €129.66

Highest price paid to date for diesel €1.579 Würzburg 

Lowest price paid to date for diesel €1.479 Freiburg

Spent on tolls €0