The Alps are beautiful

Saturday, September 14, 2013

This is an example of the scenery in Garmisch that we got to enjoy on our very first morning in Europe! The snowy peak in this picture is the tallest mountain in Germany, the Zugspitze. The 1936 Winter Olympics were held here, as well as numerous World Cup skiing championships. Garmisch, directly south of Munich near the Austrian border, was our first stop once we picked up our rental car.

The flight on Lufthansa Airlines from Charlotte, NC to Munich was incredible! We felt like we were in Business Class, not Economy, with free luggage check-ins, free wine/beer/liqueurs, two hot meals, warm hand wipes, and free movies and entertainment programs to choose from. The staff was so nice and always bringing by water, juice, and refills. We caught a little bit of sleep, but not much. We chose to watch Gatsby together, and it was too long and dipped into when we should have been sleeping.

Pretty soon it was time to land (prior to 8 am), and we were feeling great. Customs and getting the luggage went smoothly. We then rolled our luggage out and across a wide expanse to the car rental. Getting our car turned out to be a big hassle because they said supplementary insurance was mandatory, and it would more than double our promised cost. The only way we'd be covered, they said, was if we were covered via MasterCard's Platinum credit card. Well, it just so happened I had a MasterCard Platinum! However, the car rental said they needed to see my MC coverage in writing. I called MasterCard, and they confirmed that I was covered, but they could not send the paperwork until Monday because they were open only Mon-Fri.

Therefore, I needed to pay them $900 vs $400 for my rental car. I was fuming at CheapoAir, with whom I booked the flights and car, since they had not made it even slightly clear that insurance in Germany was mandatory. False advertising, in my opinion. At least the guy was friendly. He laughingly said how his annual vacation was during Oktoberfest so that he would be gone when everyone else arrived and made Munich a madhouse.

Anyway, we eventually got our white VW Polo and headed off toward Garmisch. Janet was an excellent navigator and we had no problems getting there. Without a speed limit in some areas on the autobahn, it was quite a shock to watch how fast some cars would fly past us. It was overcast and a bit rainy at times, but overall the weather was good.

We found a city parking lot and took a ticket, and embarked on our vacation. We walked around this charming town with its views of the tall Alps, and surprisingly there weren't very many people yet, before noon. I thought this Olympics Rings carving was pretty cool:

Eventually we stopped at an outdoor cafe for lunch. They had a hand-written board featuring something I knew I liked for not too much money - white wurst (sausage) with red cabbage, and a pretzel. Janet ordered sauerbraten and it came with a "potato ball", which we learned later was a Knödl (dumpling). We shared everything and Janet liked it all, but not so much the wurst. 

During lunch we noticed some parents and kids walking by all dressed up. Janet remarked that they were probably Seventh-Day Adventists leaving church, and I just laughed. Then she noticed another dressed-up kid carrying My Friend, an SDA booklet, so she was correct!! 

After lunch we decided to go back to the car and continue south into Austria and check in at our time share. We were getting pretty tired from lack of sleep. So, we went back to the car the only way we knew - in reverse of how we'd gotten there. Once we arrived, we didn't know how to pay the ticket to get out, so I asked some others headed to their car and luckily they knew English. They said you had to go up the stairs and pay at a machine. When we did that and found the machine, lo and behold it was 20 feet from where we'd been eating lunch!! We could have just walked straight down to the car instead of back through the village. Pretty funny.

Janet especially liked seeing the homes and buildings with the decorated wall paintings (called Lüftlmalerei), like what is on the house behind me above each window. We also enjoyed all the sunflowers that are in these photos.

We took one final photo before leaving town and driving the additional 10 miles to Scharnitz. We thought it was interesting to have such a nice garden, as well as the wall painting on that building behind her.

Interestingly, when we arrived at the Austrian border, the sign for Scharnitz was within 20 yards. Of course, there are no longer any border stops. It's like going from one state in the USA to another - just a road sign. 

We drove through the small town of Scharnitz because we knew our time share was just a few km beyond in the tiny village of Glaßbach. We found Gasthaus Ramona, which is where we needed to check in, but then thought we needed to drive to another building down the road a little ways. The Gasthaus was empty except for a couple working women, and one of them had us sign something and pay a small tax (1.5 €/day). Then she led us off through a door, and only then did we realize our time share was right there, just "attached" to the Gasthaus. Here is a photo of the Gasthaus:

Our time share "resort" is to the far right in the photo. We liked our room! It was small, but had everything we wanted other than wash cloths and a dish rag. Here's a photo of our room.

After unpacking, we drove back into Scharnitz to find a grocery store and look around a bit. We actually had trouble finding anything other than on the main road, and finally discovered that one of the little stores open on the main road WAS a market. We wandered around the tiny store a while trying to figure out what things were and what to buy. I was looking at beer mostly, and thought I found a great price on Budvar beer from Czech Republic (turned out the shelf-tag price did not apply to it, so I paid a lot more than I was expecting). We bought a pasta, what we thought was coffee, a yogurt, muesli, soy milk, OJ, and cheese.

The bathroom. Our showers in the late afternoon felt so good after the long flight and the day so far. With no wash cloths, Janet used a hand towel and then I used it too. It's hanging on the shower.

On our way out of town we saw a Bavarian band playing in front of the church and they looked so cool, but I couldn't find a place to turn around and I was getting tired, so I passed it by. After putting our things away, we went down to the Gasthaus and tried to order beer. No one seemed to want to pay attention to us. So many people seemed to be related to the owners, but none were waiters or waitresses for us. Finally we got to order two draft beers, but she could get anything out of the tapper. so, after consulting with others, they finally just opened two bottles for us. Then they ignored us while we watched all the scurrying around for what Janet guessed correctly as a big 60th birthday party for someone later in the evening. People were setting up sound equipment, etc. We watched a little girl eating ice cream and getting her dirty hands in things, and no one really noticing what she was in to.

Janet made pasta and cheese for dinner in our little kitchen. We tried to stay awake, watching TV or at least trying to see what might be in English, but we finally had to succumb to sleep. We turned out the lights at 7:30, and I woke at 8:30, 11:00, midnight, 2:45, and 5:00. Then at 8 am we felt like "We've done it!" Made it through the first night. One of the difficult times had been at about 11:00, when lots of kids from the birthday party were outside playing loudly. We wanted to go beat 'em silly, but we eventually fell back to sleep.