Trip Summary:
Here's a quick synopsis of what we did throughout our two weeks in Europe, as we traveled by RV for 9.5 days through Austria, Switzerland, Germany & Liechtenstein and then finished up in Munich, Germany at Oktoberfest. We traveled at the end of September and the weather was absolutely gorgeous; other than a few rain showers.
Day 1 - Arrival into Munich
We didn't wait long to start drinking German beer! About 2 hours after our plane landed and we had checked into hotel, we headed to the Hofbrauhaus for our first steins of beer (1 litre).
Day 2 - Innsbruck, Austria
Picked up our RV and drove to Innsbruck, Austria
Explored the Innsbruck Old Town, took the cable train up the mountain & visited the Alpenzoo.
Day 3 - Liechtenstein & Rapperswil, Switzerland
Hiked and explored the Triesenberg area of Liechtenstein.
In an effort to find some coffee to get us through the mid afternoon drag, we discovered Rapperswil, Switzerland. It was a quaint town on Lake Zurich with a large church monastery as its focal point.
Day 4 - Jungfrau Region & Interlaken
An Amazing Day! Took the Jungfraujoch train to The Top of Europe! Explored the top station and got views of the glacier and then took the train part way down and then hiked part way as well.
The hike had great views of the mountains, villages and traditional Swiss scenery, as well as heard and saw several ice falls on the side of the mountains.
Day 5 - Zermatt & the Matterhorn
Another Amazing Day! We took the train into Zermatt because they don't allow motorized vehicles in the village.
Zermatt is like a ski town so we spent some time walking around and exploring the town; then we took the chairlift up toward the top of the Matterhorn. Then we took a hike up closer to the Matterhorn to have lunch, before hiking about 3 hours down the mountain. There were some pretty magnificent views!
After the long hike, we enjoyed a delicious broth fondue dinner.
Day 6 - Montreaux, Broc, Gruyere & Bern, Switzerland
There was a lot of driving this day, but it was all really scenic. We drove from the mountains through the vineyards, and into the French speaking parts of Switzerland. We checked out Montreaux which is located right on Lake Geneva and has the picturesque Montreaux Castle.
We then we went to Cailler Chocolate Factory where we took a tour through the factory!! At the end they had a tasting room full of chocolate!
We went to a cheese factory where the local specialty Gruyere cheese is made - it has a very distinct cheese taste with nutty undertones. They provided samples of the cheese aged at 6 months, 8 months and 10 months to allow you to taste the difference in the aging process.
We headed to Bern, named one of the most livable cities in the world, for the late afternoon and evening. We walked around the Old Town, which had folk characters adorning the fountains that dated back to the 15th century. We were able to enjoy dinner on a sidewalk café.
Day 7 - Freiburg, Germany (Black Forest Region)
We spent time in Freiburg, Germany, which also has a very cute Old Town. We spent some time walking around and checking out the area, especially the Munster (a cathedral church) which had origins back to the 1200's. There was also a cute little market right outside that had some traditional German snacks.
The most interesting part that I found within the old village were the pebble mosaics on the sidewalk in front of the old shops. For instance, if the shop was a bakery it might have had a pretzel, or the shoe store had a shoe or boot, and the pub had a stein of beer.
There is also a lookout tower called the Aussichsturm Schlossberg ('Castle Tower') in Freiburg that we hiked to and got great views of the city and into the surrounding Black Forest area.
We drove through the beautiful Black Forest countryside with the never-ending green rolling hills, dotted with traditional Black Forest homes and the herds of cattle. We spent the night in Triberg where we went to the local pub to get a few drinks. There it was basically the two of us and some locals chatting it up with the pub staff and cook.
Day 8 - Triberg, Titisee & Feldberg, Germany (Black Forest Region)
We spent all day in the Black Forest. In Triberg, we went to the Vogtsbauernhof Museum, which was a living history museum that had a few different traditional Black Forest houses for you to learn about and explore. One interesting thing is that many of the traditional Black Forest houses combined the house the family lived in and the barn for the animals.
Triberg is also the home of the cuckoo clock. We went to the House of 1000 Clocks, and not only purchased a cuckoo clock (which now freaks our cat out), but learned a little bit about it and the tradition.
We enjoyed some Black Forest Cake from its birthplace - Delicious!
We hiked up to the Triberg Waterfalls, which were quite beautiful.
We then continued our drive through the Black Forest to Titisee, a lake resort village, and to Feldberg, where you can climb up part of the ski hill there and also get some great views of the surrounding Black Forest area.
Day 9 - Lake Constance
We rented bicycles and rode our bikes around the Constance area. We rode our bikes to the island of Riechenau, which was a cute little island. It was full of vineyards, vegetable gardens and greenhouses, as well as beautiful flower gardens.
After our bike ride, we walked around the Old Town of Konstanz and started our own beer tour by going to four different pubs throughout the night to try the different beers on tap. The last pub we stopped was showing a football (soccer) game, so it provided a really good European pub atmosphere. One thing we found a little funny was that after the game was over, they turned off the TV and put a cute little cover over it to cover the screen.
Day 10 - Neuschwanstein Castle
We drove to near Fussen, Germany to visit Neuschwanstein Castle. Even though I have already been there a couple of times, it's always pretty magnificent, as it's the castle that Disney used as a model. The castle was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, but he actually only lived in the castle for less than a year. After the king died of mysterious circumstances, about 6 months later the government opened the castle to the public - makes it a little fishy. However, not only is the castle breathtaking, but the surrounding landscape is as well with the Alps as a backdrop.
Day 11 & 12 - Oktoberfest & Munich, Germany
We returned our RV on Saturday morning. We did try to go check out Oktoberfest, but it was raining, so we went to the Augustiner Restaurant and had lunch, several beers and apple strudel, all while meeting and chatting with some people from Italy and Britain.
On our second day, we watched the parade then checked out Oktoberfest again before deciding to go to the BMW Museum and Welt to allow time for some of the parade crowd to go home and clear part of the Oktoberfest grounds.
We went back to Oktoberfest and went to the Franzkaner Biergarten with the moving bar carousel to have a drink.
It was still pretty crowded and expensive so we went back to the Hofbrauhaus for dinner and beers.
Day 13 - Salzburg, Austria Drive
Alex rented an Audi A6 and we took the scenic drive to Salzburg while stopping at Lake Chiemsee and then having lunch in Salzburg.
We then continued our drive to Berchtesgaden right at the base of the Alps.
We enjoyed our last night in a small town and dinner at a traditional German restaurant where we enjoyed weinerschnitzel, a traditional Bavarian meal, and of course, some beers!
To hear more about some of the other aspects we found interesting and some additional highlights from our trip, check out the other post - 'Journey Through a Postcard.'
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