Autobahnanza

Back to Bavaria

Thursday morning’s arrival meant that it was time for us to depart Italia. After breakfast, we packed up our bags, loaded the car, said goodbye to Margherita, and hit the ricky road. We took a quick car ferry across the lake which saved us a good bit of driving distance. It was on the ferry where I discovered that I accidentally kept the key to our room at the Hotel Aurora. Doh! Guess I’ll be mailing a big heavy key back to Italy when we get home.


This turned out to be a very long driving day, but the driving was incredible! The bimmer carved up the alps with no trouble, and we were treated to many breathtaking mountain vistas along the way. The streams in Switzerland were an amazing bright blue color and were very inviting. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any good pictures of these streams. Dang it!

Our Bavarian destination on this day was the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I had never heard of this place, but my Grandfather highly recommended it so we were eager to check it out. It turns out that Garmisch is picture-perfect Bavaria. From the architecture, to the food, to surrounding alps, it was a great place to spend an evening. We stayed at a quaint gasthof run by the friendly, directionally-impaired, English-speaking Klaus. We took a small hike, explored the town, and had a traditional German dinner, complete with boys in lederhosen dancing. Unfortunately, we arrived too late to take the cable car up the nearby Zugspitze peak.



I’ve got to go, someone is videotaping me in my spaceship.

posted by Chris @ 9:11 AM 0 comments

Milan Parte Due

(NOTE: Sorry for the double Milan posting. We had some trouble posting it and thought that it didn't actually make it up on to the blog. As such, I wrote up this piece on Milan. It's basically a repeat of what I already said, but with more dumb jokes. Enjoy.)

I'm currently acting as passenger on our last official driving day in Europe. Nat is headed from Garmisch-Partenkirchen to the castle Neuschwanstein. It seems to be the perfect opportunity for me to blather on about our day in Milan.

About a month ago, we made reservations to see DaVinci's "La Ultima Cena" (last supper) fresco on Tuesday the 12th, thus this was the appointed "visit Milan" day. More than one guidebook recommended against driving in Milan proper, so we decided to try to drive to a train station, park, and take the public transit into the city. How did we fare you say? Step 1 was a failure. Using low-detail, incomplete maps (a theme for our trip), we couldn't find the station. We did find a clean, well-lit, and free garage near a shopping area on the northern outskirts of town. We left the car there and set out on foot. More than an hour and 4 or 5 miles later, we found a metro stop and took it to the center of the old city - the Milan Duomo.

The façade of the very impressive Duomo is currently entirely covered in scaffolding. (To save money, we contemplated sleeping on said scaffolding but in the end, creature comforts won out). Since our legs were tired from our long walk, and there was surely more walking to be done, we decided against climbing the many stairs to the top of the Duomo. Instead, we checked out the nearby "shopping mall". I think your city is bound to have a shopping addiction when families named Gucci, Prada, Oldnavy, and Armani are natives.

After lots of window-shopping, we made our way to the greatest culinary store I have ever seen. It is called Peck, and it is simply amazing. Olive oils, meats, cheeses, gelato, wine, sausage, meats, cheeses, breads, spices, meats, produce, herbs, meats, and everything you can imagine! Unbelievable. The Peck folks also have a number of restaurants in the area, most notably one called Cracco-Peck. I would have loved to have eaten there, but a full meal con vino would have cost about as much as our car. We had lunch in a lower-scale Peck eatery and had some very nice sandwiches, and of course, wine. The great thing about Italy is that good mozzarella cheese is as common a sight as people wearing ties at UVA football games. Thankfully UVA fans don't come with every sandwich you order in Italy.

We explored a few other areas of town by subway and by foot, but overall, Milan is just a city not unlike any large U.S. city (save for the Vespas and older looking architecture). The La Scala Opera house was interesting, as was the bohemian Navigli district, but it just doesn't have the charm of Venice, or the natural beauty of Como. The one part of Milan that just blew us away was the aforementioned fresco by Leonardo. Due to the material of the wall itself, this painting has been fading almost since the day it was completed. The painting is on a wall of an old monastery, and it actually seems to interact with the room. The painting itself looks like a continuation of the room making it seem as if the last supper were happening in the same room in which the monks would take their meals. The right half of the painting appears to have natural light coming in from the left half of the room. There are actually windows on the left wall of the room. This famous painting was one of the most impressive things we've seen on this trip.

Anyway, we somehow navigated our way back to our car without a map and drove back to the lake where it was raining. We picked the right day to do Milan. See you! (Oh, I think Peck has a website. Check it out if you like food. Did I mention they sell meat?)

posted by Chris @ 8:50 AM 0 comments

Milan is Your lan

I haven't taken the time to compose a proper post on our day in Milan, but as I sit outside dining on Bellagio's finest meats and cheeses, I can't resist the temptation to write a few words.

Quick Recap

We parked the car in a nice (free) garage somewhere in the north end of the city after receiving word that Milan is a terrible city in which to drive. Just how far north of the city center we were we did not know. We now know. We walked, walked, and walked. After about four or five miles, we finally came to a metro station. After finding the center of town, we explored the Milan Duomo. A fabulous cathedral as were all the rage in Europe hundreds of years ago. We did all the touristy things - visited the fashion district, viewed DaVinci's Last Supper fresco, and enjoyed snacks and wine at some trendy bars.

Highlights of Milan

La Ultima Cena (The Last Supper) painting. Dang!


Peck. The greatest culinary store known to modern man. I could have spent a fortnight in this store. More on this in a future post.

The shopping mall (pictured below). I guess you have to have a nice mall when your city is home to Prada, Versace, Armani, Gucci, etc... Natalie didn't feel like shopping.


La Scala - the world famous opera house.


Posing with Leonardo.



More to come on this business later. Milan was not as charming as Venice, or as beautiful as the lakeside villas, but it did have some of it's own special attributes. Where's my hat?

posted by Chris @ 2:16 PM 3 comments

Arrivaderci Venice! Buongiorno Bellagio! A Tale of Drivers Pazzo.

(We have been neglecting our blog duties. Not only have we not gotten online since our last post, but we haven't written anything either. At this point we've spent an afternoon in the Como area and a full day in Milan. The next few posts are the recap.)

In my previous post, I grossly underestimated the insanity of drivers in Italy. The drive from Venice to Bellagio was harrowing. First off, there are far more big rig trucks on the road than I would like to see. These big rigs like to get cramped up close together in the right an middle lanes, and then without much warning, try to pass each other. As we were headed north on some nondescript autostrade, one of these truck pelotons was riding in the center lane. We were riding in the far left lane when gigantor truck starts changing lanes right into us! Five seconds later, Nat located our horn and subsequently honked it. Luckily the driver realized he was about to make a BMW pancake and pulled back into his lane. We escaped unscathed and quite a bit more wary of these trucks.




After exiting the autostrade we found ourselves on some bucolic mountain roads flanking Lake Como, the most beautiful lake we've ever seen. These roads are dotted with quaint villages and of course, crazy drivers. These two-way roads are about 3 meters wide, curve constantly, have no visibility because of the mountains, and people drive like they're on I-95 by themselves at 11pm on a Monday. Our right and left mirrors have been in great peril on numerous occasions. We did make it safely to our bed and breakfast and have enjoyed ourselves here in this beautiful corner of the world.

Oh, and just for you Truffer... (The largest parking garage in Europe isn't all that impressive to those of us accustomed to the mega-malls of the U.S.)

posted by Chris @ 1:31 PM 1 comments

Review di Food di Italia

Well, now that I know Maria is reading eagerly to find out about our opinions on food in Italy, I intend to give spotty updates on our culinary endeavours. The first begins... NOW!

Saturday, July 9

We ate dinner at quaint pizzeria about 3 blocks from San Marco square. We both had pizza and it was terrific. We discovered that when you order a pizza here, the intent is that one pizza feeds one person. Thus we both had a pizza. Zing! Natalie had a pie with mushrooms, artichokes, ham, and tomatoes. I had one with a spicy salami similar to pepperoni and it was great. Nothing terribly special this night, but the location and the atmosphere were unbeatable. The picture below is entitled "Natalie con Pizza Veneziano".


Sunday, July 10

Dinner tonight was at a small trattoria called "Aciugheta" in the sestiere di castello. (They call the different neighborhoods or boroughs here in Venice, sestieres. The most famous is San Marco). Anyway, we started off with antipasto "cichetti", as recommended to us by Epicurious.com. It was a collection of fish and meats in a rather interesting presentation on a single plate. There were about 7 different cichetti on the place. We enjoyed all of them, save for the one whole deep fried fish which we were expected to eat as-is. Bones and all. We gave it the good old college try, but it was ... bad.

The main courses were much better. We both had spaghetti. Mine came with clams, and Nat's came with the far more interesting cuttlefish. Cuttlefish is apparently a squid relative, and the sauce was made from the ink of the cuttlefish. It was very rich, quite tasty, and all black like the New Zealand rugby team. The wine complimented things perfectly (we are in Italy).


Lots of post-dinner walking and gelato rounded out a perfect evening. Now we're blogging with cocktails that cost 10 euros. blach! Of to Como tomorrow, but we hope to stop in some smaller towns along the way. It should be about 3.5 hours driving time... 1 hour if Natalie drives. Love you all...

CC and NC

posted by Chris @ 5:14 PM 5 comments

quick update...

Hey all! This is just a quick update. we've composed some "real" entries with substance on the iBook, but here in Venice we have found no good way to get them online. No wireless, and the one CDR we purchased didn't work!

Tomorrow we head to Como, so we shall try again. Love reading all of your comments!

Peace. Oh yeah, Venice is amazing. Truly unreal.

[EDIT as of July 10, 5pm EST: We found a hotspot! I decided that whenever this happens, I will set the time of the post to the approximate time of writing. Thus, the previous two posts are back-dated. The times that appear are EST times. We are 6 hours ahead. PS... The wireless hotspot that we found happens to be in a discotheque! Hotel!]

posted by Chris @ 12:40 PM 0 comments

160 km/hr on the A4

Buongiorno! After a fun filled first day in Munich, we hit the road to Venice at 9:30am local time. As I write this, we are about 35 kilometers west of Venice on the A4 Autostrade. With leadfoot-Natalie’s driving, this may be a short post as I will be required to help navigate to a suitable garage before too long. Here are some quick thoughts covering my first impressions of driving in each of the three countries we’ve been through this morning. Surprisingly, I noticed these differences very distinctly.

Germany
Fast, courteous drivers. People in the left lane get out of your way and slowpokes know that they belong in the far right. Nobody passes on the right, and no crazy people weaving in an out of traffic. A great driving experience.

Austria
Similar to Germany in that everyone is very courteous. Dissimilar in that it’s generally slower and they have a bunch of weird highway rules. For instance, at the border crossing, we had to purchase a vignette (Austrian highway toll sticker), and a reflective vest to keep in the car in case of emergency. I knew about this before we left home, so it wasn’t just a “let’s rip-off the silly Americans” ploy.

Italy
People are crazy fast! Similar to Germany, but a bit less courtesy with the passing, etc… If you’re cruising along at nice fast pace in the middle lane, someone in Italy may pull out in front of you forcing you to slow down. In Germany, they wait until you pass.

I’m about to get called away to navigator duties, but first some impressions of the car. It drives like a dream! The sport suspension is very tight, so you do feel the road at high speeds, but it handles amazingly well. It’s been fantastic. Driving through the Alps was an thing to behold. Ok, gotta jet. Peace!

posted by Chris @ 11:35 AM 0 comments

In Flight

Greetings from Lufthansa flight 415. At long last we are in the air and headed for Munich. We made it to Dulles about an hour and a half before our scheduled departure time. Absolutely no lines for check in or security. Beautiful. However, there were some pretty nice downpours in the area, so we took off about an hour late. Despite this, we are still scheduled to arrive within 15 minutes of our scheduled arrival time. So far my first flight on Lufthansa has been a pleasant experience. Let’s hope they don’t kick our bags off the back of the plane as we’re crossing the Atlantic (Josh, Denny, cue up the Rhapsody in Blue). Fly the friendly skies!

The in-flight dinner I chose was a palatable pasta dish. It was some kind of rigatoni in a basic red sauce. Orzo salad, chocolate cake, and a roll rounded out the presentation, with the cake being the runaway highlight. Out of a possible 1,239 stars, I give the meal 134 stars. Restricting the scale to airline food only, the rating goes up to 1,038 stars.

And finally, the highlight of the flight so far… Lufthansa has wireless broadband internet access! Opening your browser directs you immediately to their “skynet” – basically an intranet portal with basic news, duty-free shopping, etc. For a price you can connect to the internet or directly to a specific VPN. I could very well be posting this directly to the autobahnanza! Pricing-wise, internet access is $9.95 for the first half hour, and then $.25 per additional minute. If not for my beautiful, and cost-conscious wife, I would be surfing the internet right now and sending all of you boastful emails of my abilities to acquire broadband access at 35,000 feet while burning cash at alarming speeds. Alas, you will receive this message on tape delay and I will put the retained funds toward some of Bavaria’s finest.

Quick poll question. Who thinks the $9.95 price tag is worth it? (Dru, I know you do.)

hotel!

posted by Chris @ 12:08 AM 3 comments

Departure Day

Well, the tragedies in London this morning really make you stop and think. Our prayers go out to that fine city today. I've checked in with my mates there and am relieved to know that they are well. Still, it's a dark cloud ominously juxtaposed against the city's Olympic joy of yesterday. Sad stuff, and sadder still to be taking attention away from good things like tackling poverty, AIDS, climate, etc...

On a lighter note, Denny sent me a picture from our time in Salzburg. It's the 3 amigos and the 2 random Canadian girls that we first met in Vienna. You can check that business out here. Good times.

I'm sure we'll compose an update on the plane this evening, but it won't be posted until Friday afternoon at the earliest. I'm sure you're all keen to know how the food is on Lufthansa.

Arrivederci!

posted by Chris @ 1:43 PM 3 comments

31 hours to go...

Just about 31 hours left before we depart from Dulles! This trip will mark the first time that Natalie and I will have traveled overseas together. (We did run into each other in London once, but that was purely random chance and we were not traveling together.) In my mind, this is an occasion that is long overdue! The romance and road tripping will make this a decidedly different trip than any of my previous European banter-jaunts. I can't wait to get started!

Here's what's left on my list of things to get done before we can get gone:

• Obtain International Driving Permits from AAA.
• Play and win a softball game vs. the Asian Bird Flu to earn a spot in the Charlottesville Co-Rec league playoffs.
• Pack for the trip.
• Sleep.
  
• Work until approximately 3:30 pm Thursday.
• Depart Cville for Dulles.

Now that that's out of the way, I am free to daydream... The last time I was in this part of the world, it was the summer of 1999 and I was traveling with my good friends, Josh and Denny. We spent approximately seven total hours in Munich (1 hour waiting for the Glockenspiel, 1 hour walking, 5 hours Hofbrauhaus). The thought of heading back to this region has made me somewhat nostalgic for that crazy time of six years ago. With that in mind, I thought I'd list a few of my highlights from that leg of our trip (Austria, Munich, Switzerland). In no particular order...

• Attempting to shake hands with a large cow, and subsequently acting offended when my attempts at human-bovine diplomacy fail.
• The Magic Flute performance at the Salzburg Music Festival
  
• Rave train to Zurich and sleeping in the dining car.
• Unsuccessful attempts to find the McDonald's in the Zurich train station.
• Purchasing day passes for the Munich U-Bahn and using them to go precisely one train stop.
• Synchronized swimming in a Salzburg lake.
• Outdoor food/opera festival in Vienna.
• Denny losing his Eurail pass. Doh!
  
• Sitting down at a table in the Hofbrauhaus to discover that everyone at the table was from Maryland.
  

Darn tootin'!

posted by Chris @ 1:02 PM 0 comments