What better way to spend the Thanksgiving holiday week then in Munich, Salzburg and Innsbruck. A 'side' of Germany and Austria with our turkey please:)
A flight from Naples to Munich is only about 2 hours, so we arrived in Munich fresh and ready to see the city. I lucked out again with a great apartment that I found on Booking.com, situated right by the "Rodeo Drive" of Munich, and within easy walking distance to lots of shops, restaurants, and the famous Hofbrauhaus--a huge beer hall/beer garden where you have to stake out seats in hopes of getting the chance to sample their huge, tall beers, and even bigger pretzels..yum! This time of year in Bavaria is cold but perfect for those wanting to experience the various Christmas markets (Kindermarkt) which you seem to stumble across as you walk around the various cobblestone back streets of the city, plus some of the main, more modern, thoroughfares. If you don't seem to just 'stumble' across them, than just follow your nose as the scents of roasting chestnuts, sizzling bratwursts and other 'wursts', plus gluewein (a local spiced wine served hot to take the chill away) lead you in the proper direction.
In addition to experiencing the local markets, food, and people, we took a serious dive into WWII history and rememberence when we toured the Dachau Concentration camp, located just 1/2 hour outside of Munich. The Dachau site is an unbelievably moving memorial. As you stroll through the camp listening to the audio guide with narratives by survivors and others who had been at the camp during the days that it was in 'operation' it is hard to believe that the atrocities that happened there actually happened...especially since it wasn't that long ago in our history. The tour takes you through a museam showing various memorabilia of captives...items that were confiscated as they entered into the camp, family pictures that they had in their wallets..before and after pictures..folks who were happy, family people reduced to starving shells of their true selves after years of being belittled, tortured and deprived of all the self respect they had at first entered the camp with. It was just amazing to see how these folks who were just like you and me, once they entered the gates of this camp, were stripped of everything they knew and believed..even about themselves. They were immediately called basically 'animals' and treated as such from their time of arrival, until their death or day of liberation. When you see how close this camp is to the normal 'neighborhoods' it is hard to believe that folks really didn't know what was going on on the other side of the barbed wire. If you ever have the chance to go there, I think it is a place not to be missed. It's depressing and hard to digest, but such an important place to visit in my opinion.
After a couple nights in Munich, lots of history and learning, and more than a couple bratwursts and super human size pretzels, we took a 2 hour train ride through the gorgeous, snow covered land of the German/Austrian countryside to Salzburg, the home of the Von Trapp family and the birthplace of Mozart. Our hotel was on one of the most popular little streets (the street Mozart was born on), full of quaint shops, restaurants, and little Christmas markets. An outdoor ice skating rink was set up within Mozart Square,and Christmas carols and other tunes bellowed from the speakers as kids skated and parents stayed warm with gluewein, scarves and mittens. Salzburg also had lots of outdoor holiday markets set up so we had fun strolling through them, tasting the apple strudel, chocolate covered pretzels, austrian goulash, and of course, more wursts. There is a huge castle that sits up on the hill, offering a great backdrop to Salzburg, so we toured that on foot, instead of opting for the touristy "Sound of Music tour"...although I had considered staying one night in the Von Trapp house which has been converted to an Inn, but then decided not to give into my 'inner tourist' and stayed instead in our historical hotel in the city center.
After a few days soaking in the beauty and chill of Salzburg, we hopped on the train again, for a another 2 hour ridet, but this time to Innsbruck. Once again, Booking.com was a success, and we ended up with a hotel right smack in the middle of Innsbrucks main,historical square. There was a Kindermarkt going on right below our hotel room's 'nook' area, so we were able to sit there all warm and cozy and people watch down below. Our view was so good that Josh literally watched one of the market vendors grilling some bratwursts, saw the one on the grill he wanted, told me he'd "be right back" and within 5 minutes had gone down into the market, bought the wurst he had been eyeing from our room, and came back up to eat it with us. There were also delicious frozen dough treats with mixed berries or sauerkraut poured over them, and also fresh and warm pretzels and 'bavarian cream donuts'...where else to get a bavarian donut then in bavaria!!
Innsbruck was like a winter wonderland, with the view from our hotel window including the snow covered Alps and a huge fir tree all lit up for Christmas. To get a better look of the mountains, we took the gondola up to the skiers lodge, but due to white out conditions, we weren't able to see much of the scenery, but could easily imagine it and it's splendor.
We also spent one day taking a field trip to Haldstatt, a 'can't miss' town that we had read about in a Rick Steve's book. We had to take a train ride and then a boat to access this postcard perfect town, but unfortunalely, we went on a day (actually within a month) that the whole town shuts down due to the weather. Upon our initial arrival, we were surprised to find it empty. Thinking the town was maybe full of late-risers, we enjoyed the empty streets until our suspicion kicked in, and we stopped in the tourist office to see what the deal was. Well, the town basically is shut down for the winter, with only one option for lunch, a small restaurant/cafe that stays open for some of the locals. We saw a Hallstadt Schmuck sign..not sure what the sign really was intended to mean, but that description fit the bill to describe us, as after a 1/2 day commuting to this, yes, picturesque little town, we truly did feel like schmucks to arrive when it was shut down. Who knew? Rick Steves surely didn't!
