Germany and Switzerland 2006

TRIP REPORT

SWITZERLAND & GERMANY 2006

A little background: Nineteen years ago, we hired a young woman named Elvira from Stuttgart to take care of our one year old daughter. We introduced her to an American friend of ours who she ended up marrying. They still live in the Bay Area and have two children of their own now. We have often talked about taking a trip to Europe together but the timing has always been wrong. This summer, finally, we arranged to meet in Zermatt, Switzerland with another family friend, to do some hiking together and then travel to Stuttgart where we would take day trips and see the Swabian sights.

Before meeting our friends, our family of four (2 girls aged 16 and 19) had four days in Munich on our own. After a very hot July, it started raining in Germany as soon as we arrived on August 2^nd. We had reservations at a small hotel near the Viktualienmarkt called the Hotel Blauer Bock. We had 2 double rooms for 93 euro each which seemed to be a good price. One room was quite a bit bigger than the other and had a much larger bathroom but had no TV. The small room had a TV but it had no CNN – Germany stations only. Nonetheless, the rooms were very comfortable and the breakfast was quite good. They served a variety of rolls, cereal, fruit, yogurt and soft-boiled eggs. The location of this hotel is fabulous with one exception: there is currently a 24-hour bar-restaurant directly across the street and we were awakened more than once each night by the sounds of folks leaving the place. We always travel with earplugs and they came in handy!

Our first night in town, we explored the Marienplatz area, eating dinner at an outside table at Danisl near the Rathaus. It was excellent, with good sausage, salads & beer. It was a Wednesday night but the platz was filled with people, both locals and tourists.

Our first full day in Munich, we were able to see a large number of the sights that were on our list. First, the Marienplatz again so we could visit the Glockenspiel. Then on to the Residenz, where we saw the Treasury, the Grotto and the amazing Antiquarium. We were ready for a little lunch and wandered into the Luigi Tambosi Café & had a very nice meal in a beautiful environment. Later, after I reviewed my Munich travel book, I realized that Tambosi is a 200-year old café that is quite famous for its coffee history.

In the afternoon, we visited the Asamkircke, which we all just loved. The church is very unassuming from the outside but will knock your socks off. Don’t miss it! We took some pictures but it’s hard to do it justice.

That night, we had Italian food at a restaurant recommended in one of the travel books that I had read. It was called Buon Gusto and was located at Hochbrückenstrasse 3 near the Marienplatz. This restaurant is very good but crowded, so either go early or make a reservation. We had wonderful lasagna, gnocchi and veal. It was also very affordable, considering that we had salads, entrees, dessert and wine (90 euro for 4 people).

We had planned to visit Neuschanstein the following day, and even though it was raining when we started out, it was a very nice trip. We took the train to Fussen, which took approx. 2 hours and was quite scenic. We had reservations for a tour at the castle and we were glad we did because the place was a mob scene when we got there. You cannot visit the inside of the castle without going on a 30 minute tour. The tour itself was nothing special but the castle is really great to see and we were all very glad that we had gone. Especially nice is the walk up to the bridge where you get a beautiful view of the castle and the surrounding countryside.

Back in Munich for dinner, we found ourselves at the Schneiderhaus, which had been recommended to us by a beer making friend of ours at home. He was right – the food is great, in particular the jaggerschnitzle, salads, and wurst. The restaurant is huge and very traditional. However, we had the nastiest waitress ever that night. She acted like she couldn’t wait to get us out of there. It didn’t ruin the meal for us though because we were in a good mood after a nice day of sightseeing. We just didn’t “linger” too long after eating! Schneider is very affordable (57 euro total for large meals for 4 with beer).

We took a walk around the Marienplatz neighborhood and ended up having a nightcap at a brew pub near our hotel called Der Pschorr. We really liked their beer and the environment was very nice and friendly.

The next morning, we got an early start and visited the Rathaus in order to get a city view from the tower. This tower has an elevator (2 euro) and is well worth the visit. I was a bit surprised that there was no line and there was only one other group of people there when we arrived.

For the afternoon, we took the train to Dachau. I felt that it was an important site for us to visit and I was glad that the rest of the family agreed with me. It took 30 mins on the train and was easy to find. The audio tour is 2 euro and it does a good job of explaining the history of the camp and the organization of the space. The museum is excellent and very thorough. We spent 3 hours at the camp and found it to be extremely moving and worthwhile. The town of Dachau seemed like a nice place and I found myself wishing that we could explore a bit before returning to Munich. Everyone was hungry so we stopped for pizza and beer before getting on the train.

When we returned to Munich, the Viktualienmarkt was in full swing with music, lots of beer drinking and shopping. We had a great time walking around the stalls and people watching.

The next day, we had train reservations to head to Zurich for the first part of our trip to meet our friends in Zermatt. It’s approx. 4 ½ hours to Zurich with several changes. We showed our German & Swiss Flexi-Pass train passes when the ticket taker came by, but we also had to pay a few euros more for the Austrian portion of the trip, which was, literally, about 15 mins of the journey. It’s a nice, scenic trip but we were glad that we had reservations since it was quite crowded on the train and we never would have been able to sit together otherwise.

We had reservations at the Hotel St. Josef (room for 4/200 CHF) just across the river from the train station. We were easily able to walk there with our rolling suitcases. We spent the afternoon exploring the “old town” but it was Sunday so there was very little open. We did ride the Ferris wheel, which gave us a beautiful view of the city. The first thing we were struck with in Zurich was how clean it was – and the huge number of watch and jewelry stores! I’m a lifelong Timex buyer, but even I was eyeing the beautiful timepieces. We had dinner at one of the few places that was open called Rheinfelder Bierhalle (on Niederdorfstrasse). It’s a very casual, traditional place and we had good rosti and beer.

We really enjoyed the St. Josef. It was very quiet and comfortable and the breakfast was terrific. The building is quite old but the rooms themselves are very well designed and modern.

In the morning, my husband and I got up very early and hopped on a tram to see some of the surrounding area. I’m glad we made an effort to do that because it’s a beautiful area with a wide variety of different neighborhoods and architecture. We got off the tram after a while and walked through some very nice, quiet residential streets. At once point, I needed to make a “pit-stop” and we were near a small train station. The public bathroom there was so clean, you could have eaten off the floor! How do they do it? Everywhere you look, there are gleaming windows and tidy window boxes.

At noon, we met the girls and headed off to the train station again to finish the trip to Zermatt. What a beautiful train trip that was, with one scenic little village after another. The weather was holding and the prediction was that the weather would be better the further south we went – good news after so much rain. At Brig, we decided against taking the Glacier Express, as it costs $30 more per person & the regular train was free with our Swiss Flexi-Pass. The only difference between the Glacier Express and the regular train is that the top of the train car is all glass for a better view. The view was excellent without the roof windows, and the extra $120 didn’t seem worth it.

We met our friends and checked into the “Style Hotel” a “bio hotel” (I guess, in the U.S., you would call it “green”) which was on a side street quite close to the train station. (220 CHF for quad. rm) We were sharing a room with our kids again, due to the high Swiss prices. The room was a bit small for us but very modern with a nice big closet & comfortable beds. However, there was one oddity. There was a large bathtub in the middle of the room. Go figure. I’m sure that it’s fine for couples or even families with small kids, but for us, it was a nuisance. Anyway, we had a nice (but expensive) dinner at the hotel that night since we were tired and we were too lazy to go hunt up something else – not an easy chore considering we were now 13 people total.

The breakfast at the Style Hotel was awesome. They had everything you could want and it was all organic and delicious. For our first hike, we all headed up the mountain on the train to Blauherd Then we split up into two groups with the hardy hikers going up a bit further on a gondola to Rothorn (3103m) for a hike straight up to Oberrothorn (3415m). Unfortunately, the fabulous view was not possible that day, as the clouds were heavy on that side of the mountain. They hiked down for lunch at the hut at Blauherd, which they gave high marks, and then hiked to the Riffelalp train station (as we were planning to spend the night at the Riffelberg hotel, just up from there. Younger kids and some of the other hikers, including myself, hiked from Blauherd to Riffelalp and had a picnic lunch halfway with sandwiches we had bought down in Zermatt. This is a very nice, easy hike that is perfect for kids. We had two 6-year olds with us who enjoyed themselves quite a bit.

We all took the train up from Riffelalp to the Riffelberg Hotel and were completely in love with the hotel right away. The rooms are very traditional and comfortable. The staff went out of their way to make sure that our accommodations were right for us. They even had one room with bunk beds for our friends & their kids. We did full-board and dinner was a lovely beef roast with polenta and potato soup. Breakfast was even better with amazing hot chocolate, various breads, fruit and cereal. The manager, Herr Foster, came out and offered to make eggs for anyone who wanted them. When he heard that we were going to cross the glacier to go the Monte Rosa Hut for lunch, he offered to call the hut to find out what the weather was like, as it was a bit cloudy. He told us that it was unwise to attempt the hike if visibility was not good as the glacier could be dangerous if you couldn’t see the trail markings. He also confirmed what we already knew, that the youngest children would not be able to make it.

Once we confirmed that the weather was suitable, we took off for the climb with the youngest children staying behind with one of the moms who volunteered for the assignment. We took the train to Gornergrat (3089m) and started down the hill to the glaciers, which you cross to get to the hut. One of our friends had done the research on this hike and I really had no idea what to expect. I can tell you without hesitation that this hike is amazing, although at times challenging. I think that it was about 7 miles all together which didn’t seem like a lot but you had to take care in places where the rocks were unsteady and/or steep. There are some fixed steps and ropes to assist you, and the trail is well marked across the glacier. I’m so glad that we did this hike – it was really an experience of a lifetime. The views of the glacier and the surrounding mountains were completely amazing. A bonus was eating lunch at the hut. The place was full of climbers and other hikers and we sat outside on the picnic benches. At this point, I had decided that rosti was my new favorite food and the Monte Rosa Hut did not disappoint! I think we took about 3 hours up to the hut and 2 ½ hours back down to Gornergrat. I had a big blister on my foot to prove that I had done the climb but it was all worth it!

The next day, several of the folks (who did not have blisters) took the gondola up to Gletschen Palast in order to hike as far up the Breithorn as they could without cramp-ons. However, that day the weather failed to cooperate and the clouds were too heavy for visibility to be very good. They also got the evil eye from the hiking guides who do not like to see unaccompanied hikers on the more challenging routes. I think it must make them look bad to their paying customers or something! They also checked out the Glacier Palace, which is cut into the ice. They thought it was “OK” but not worth a special trip.

It’s probably good to mention that all of the trains and gondolas, etc in the Zermatt area give Flexi-Pass holders a 50% discount, which is sizeable. If you are planning to do this type of trip, I think you would be crazy not to get the pass because the transportation is very expensive.

We spent our last 2 days in Zermatt visiting the town’s sights: the churches, cemetery, alpine museum and small streets of old huts. We had a good fondue at Café Du Pont, just past the big church on the main drag. We also had a very nice traditional meal at the Café Rose, at the far end of town near the Matterhorn cable-car station.

The kids & a couple of the adults also spent an afternoon at a newish ropes course that was fairly new in town. They had a wonderful time and I’m sure this attraction is going to be a big hit, especially when the weather isn’t great for hiking.

We had a wonderful time in Zermatt & I would go back for more hiking anytime. The only drawback was the cost. Zermatt food & drink cost us dearly – even a pizza dinner for the four of us was $80. The McDonalds (not that we ate there, mind you) charges $11 for a meal. If there is a bargain in Zermatt, we somehow missed it, except for buying picnic supplies at the Coop supermarket instead of lunch in a restaurant. Even so, the proximity to all types of outdoor sports, the scenery and Swiss hospitality was a big hit with our family and friends.

We left Zermatt in the pouring rain on a train to Germany. It was a long day (7 ½ hours, via Bern and Karlsruhe) but we were able to sit together since we had reservations. We had said good-bye to one family of friends in Brig and continued on with our other friends, to visit their family in Stuttgart. Elvira’s Dad arranged to rent a Mercedes van so we could get off the beaten track a bit, and that was a wonderful advantage. In our previous European trips, we have depended on the trains, which although convenient, don’t allow you to see the countryside quite as much as a private car. Elvira didn’t mind doing the driving, so we were all set. We made Asperg our home base, as Elvira’s mom insisted that we stay at her large apartment. That was a great benefit to us and was a nice, central location for our tourist activities.

We spent the first day visiting Elvira’s immediate family in Markgroeningen, Bietigheim, Ludwigsburg and Asperg. Markgroeningen is a wonderful little town just 20 km from Stuttgart known for a summer “Shepard’s Festival”. It has a picturesque town square with a preserved Rathaus and other beautiful buildings. Elvira’s wonderful family kept us happy -- feeding us wonderful traditional Swabian food and giving us useful information about the local sights.

We spent a terrific afternoon at the palace in Ludwigsburg. It was built in the early 18^th century and, in addition to the palace, there is a huge garden area. The tour is one of the best – 90 mins long with a look at many palace rooms, the servant’s quarters and the unusual theater, which is still in use today.

The next day we went to the new Mercedes Benz Museum. There was a long, long line, but we decided to brave it anyway. It took almost 2 hours to get in (8 euro for adults) but we spent 2 hours inside and we were glad that we got to see it. It’s 6 stories in a fabulous building with great car displays and excellent audiotape and written commentary. They even have an audiotape for kids that was quite good. The museum isn’t just limited to the development of Mercedes but actually details the industrialization of the Western world. The museum is a little outside of Stuttgart, but on the S-Bahn and easy to get to. I would recommend it, even to folks who aren’t huge car enthusiasts like me.

After the museum, we headed to the Schlossplatz in downtown Stuttgart for lunch at Café Konigsbau. Good food and great people watching. Stuttgart is a very modern city since so much of it was damaged in WWII, but the area around the palace is quite beautiful, and since the weather was fairly nice, everyone was out shopping, eating and enjoying the day. We went back another day to visit the relatively new Kunstmuseum, also in this area. It’s a smallish modern art museum that focuses on European art. They have a large collection of paintings by an interesting German painter named Otto Dix and lots of other terrific stuff – plus a good bookstore. The building, which is a glass cube, gives you a great view of the platz from the top floor.

The Staatsgalerie, another museum nearby, was having a Monet show. They have a solid modern collection, but we really thought that the architecture looked dated and didn’t use the space very well. It’s a very nice place to stop into though if you are in the area and haven’t had your fill of museums. Stuttgart also has a terrific indoor town market nearby there where we bought wonderful produce, bread and cheese for a nice dinner at home. There are lots of cafes and restaurants to relax in if you need a break from shopping.

Since we had rented the van, we decided to do some day trips. First, we went to Heidelberg to see the castle and historic university town. We zipped there on the autobahn, staying in the middle lane, thankfully. Elvira told us that drivers have slowed down a lot in the past 20 years, but traffic seemed to be flying by us at around 100 mph. We saw lots of castles along the Neckar, and it was a very nice ride. Once we found a place to park (not easy in this town) we headed up the Philosopher’s Walk for a spectacular view of the river, old town and castle. That was really wonderful and not at all difficult to find. Supposedly, Hegel, Goethe and all the great German philosophers/writers walked, talked and worked their brilliant minds on this lane. The university dates from 1387 and is one of the oldest in Europe.

We crossed the river and headed through the old town to find a meal before going to the castle. We stopped and asked a guy who was probably a student what he would suggest and he gave us a great suggestion. The restaurant is called “Sudpfanne” and it is at 223 Haupstrasse, a very prominent street right near the center of town before you turn to go up the hill to the castle. It was really wonderful and, since it was past the lunch hour, not at all crowded. We enjoyed maultaschen (Germany ravioli), kasspatzle, wurst and beer, of course. I highly recommend this place for a traditional and affordable meal in a great location.

I have to say, at this point, that I think German food gets an undeserved bad rap from Americans. We had terrific food the entire time we were there, especially in Swabia. Yes, it is heavy on the pork products, but we had very good salads and fruit was offered for breakfast everywhere we went. It was also less expensive to eat in restaurants in Germany than in many other countries in Europe. To this end, we ate a lot of food – thank God we walked a lot too!

The Heidelberg castle was really tremendous and afforded a fabulous view of the area. (Entrance 3 euro) It’s quite dramatic and very large so you can wander around for hours if you have the interest and stamina. I could definitely see myself going back for a couple of days to explore the town further, but we had a “family” commitment that night back in Asperg so we needed to get on the road to return home.

Our next day trip was to Schwabisch Hall, Rothenburg and a visit down the Romantic Road. We had originally intended to spend the night in Rothenburg but when our first hotel choice was fully booked, we decided to just make it a one (long) day and return to Asperg that night. In hindsight, we probably should have done an overnight because we didn’t get home until nearly midnight and we all would have enjoyed having more time to visit some of the smaller towns in the area.

Schwabisch Hall is a jewel where we certainly could have spent more time. It was a Wednesday and the local market in the town square was in full swing, even though it was drizzling. The prominent feature in the square is St. Michael’s Protestant church, built in 1156. The architecture is very interesting (sort of gothic/Romanesque with multiple additions & remodeling over the years) and it has various chapels, altars, etc. It sits high up on a hill, with about 100 steps to traverse to reach the main entrance. The steps provide the town with a “theater” of sorts and they have much musical performance there during the summer. They also have an Elizabethan theater on the other side of town (the Haller Globe Theater). The town is also a magnet for the visual arts with a large art museum and many art classes offered. We watched an outdoor sculpting class for a bit that looked interesting.

On to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, for a visit to see the medieval wall, etc. What can you say about Rothenburg, except that it’s touristy and worth seeing! We actually lucked out because the rainy weather seemed to have kept a lot of the tourists away that day. Parking was easy (there are all-day pay lots just outside the wall) and everywhere you turn, there is something else to see. We were, once again, looking for food late in the afternoon and asked a local for a suggestion. She pointed us to a lovely restaurant in the Flair Hotel Rechs-Kuchenmeister on Kirchplatz. We tried some more maultaschen and also ordered the flammekuchen, a very thin (almost like a cracker), rectangular pizza that was topped with a thin layer of sour cream, caramelized onions and bacon. Fabulous!

We made the obligatory trek to Kathe Wohlfahrt’s Christmas store, which you have to see just once. It’s very overpriced but I love Christmas, so it was fun. We popped inside St. Jakobs Lutheran church briefly to check out the famous carved altar, which was very impressive. We found an entrance up to the wall and began a short walk part of the way around. We ended up at the large green park at the end of town, which gives you a great view and provides benches for hanging out and people-watching.

We needed to start driving home before it got too dark and decided that we wanted to eat dinner on the Romantic Road in a smaller town. This is the quintessential tourist drive with scenic vistas, picture book villages and interesting stops along the way. We meandered slowly, making our way to Dinkelsbuhl, where the road to Stuttgart intersects. We drove into town, parked the car and ate at the first interesting place that we noticed, sitting outside on a long family table. The restaurant was called Eisenkrug Gastromomie. My husband was able to order schweineshaxe, (a traditional Swabian dish of “pigs leg”) which he thought was great. My kids had the nockerln suppen which is a clear broth with semolina dumplings – wonderful! The restaurant is just next to the Rathaus and we noticed a very large nest of some type on top of the building. We got our binoculars from the van and decided it must be storks or something similar. Suddenly, two giant birds swooped into it! It completely made our evening to witness this event, on top of a great meal and perfect visit to the Romantic Road. The waiter told us that there was a webcam set up to watch the storks and we check it now and then from home to remind us of this great day.

On the way home, as we entered one of the small towns, Elvira failed to slow down fast enough and got “blitzed”. They have cameras to catch speeders coming into many of the towns and we were caught red-handed. Oh, well. I figure, if that only happens to you once on a long vacation in Germany, you can consider yourself lucky

Our last night in Stuttgart, we were lucky enough to attend an organ concert at the Stiftskirche downtown, with our friends and new “extended” family. This church was pretty much destroyed in 1944 during WWII bombing raids, and has since been rebuilt. The new organ was installed in 2004, and is not to be believed. The sound is amazing and, if you are in Stuttgart, I highly recommend making the effort to enjoy one of the concerts. It was a very special end to a memorable trip!