Welcome to Lago de Como, June 29,2010

Our apartment is located about 50 meters from the waters of Lake Como in a small hamlet called Fiumelatte, a 20 a minute walk to the town of Varenna.

Lake Como is 50 km long and is the deepest lake in Europe (410 meters). The lake is famous for its mild climate (it's the most northern point where olive groves are commercially grown). The first human settlement can be traced back to 4500BC but it was not until 1000BC that civilization truly took hold in the area. By 59BC is was a major trade and tourism area. In more recent times, international nobility have been building villas along these shores since the 15th century. The rest of us discovered Lake Como in the early 1900's and now most of the villages and towns along the shoreline depend totally on tourism for their existence.

After reading up on Lake Como we decided to focus our limited time here on three villages (Varenna, Menaggio and Bellagio). Lake Como has a very efficient and effective ferry boat system that runs like a bus service between all the villages.

Today its hot (32c), humid and hazy as we head out to explore Varenna. The 20 minute walk from our apartment is flat and runs along the lake but I was drenched by the time we arrived so we headed for a shady, waterfront cafe to cool down before we started exploring.

The ancient town of Varenna is on a point jutting into Lake Como with Mt. San Defendente at its back and has steep, narrow streets which fan out from the central piazza down to the waterfront. Although its origins are older, Varonna became firmly established as a viable town in 1169 and continues to flourish as one of the most popular destinations on Lake Como. We spent most of our time exploring the waterfront as it was more interesting and much cooler.

To be continued....

Looking at Varenna as we take the lakefront walk from Fiumelatte

Rita checking out the Varenna guide book in the shade at a waterfront cafe

Part of the waterfront walkway with its many shops and cafes

One of the many narrow, steep streets leading from the waterfront to the central piazza

The town of Varenna from the waters of Lake Como

Three Countries, One Alps, June 28, 2010

Left Innsbruck for the 5 hour drive to Lake Como in Northern Italy via Switzerland. It was an amazing trip as we traveled through the mountains and valleys of the Alps. From Innsbruck we claimed to the top of the pass in Switzerland and dropped into an incredible low valley into Italy. We stopped at a few places along the way to enjoy the view of Lakes, mountains, meadows, valleys and waterfalls. Arrived in Lake Como and had an interesting time getting into our apartment. TomTom guided us to our apartment but we could not open the lock box that had our keys. We finally called the company we booked with and they had given us the wrong code. Ahhhhhhh!!!! Once into our apartment we unpacked and went looking for a grocery store. The temperature is 31c and humid with a heavy heat haze over Lake Como and the surrounding mountains. We are still in the Alps and tomorrow we will start to explore this beautiful place.



Alpine meadow with wildflowers just outside of Innsbruck, Austria



Rita and Geoff besides a beautiful lake just outside St. Moritz, Switzerland

Looking down from the top of a Pass in Switzerland into a valley in Italy

Driving past a very small village in Italy and saw this waterfall and had to stop

Wonderful view from the deck of our apartment at Lake Como

Innsbruck, June 26, 2010

Rita had booked a hotel that was in the old town which proved problematic when trying to drive to it as there is limited vehicle access. We found a parking spot just outside the old town walls and reprogrammed our TomTom to take us to the hotel by walking route. It was only about a five minute walk. The 14 room hotel and award winning restaurant is called Zum Weissen Roessl (The White Horse) and it has been in the hands of the same family for four generations. The building itself is 600 years old and the restaurant is located where the original horse stables were. The restaurant is lovely and is where Rita had taken me for my 63rd birthday dinner.

Innsbruck can trace its heritage back to the 4th century when it was a Roman army station protecting the economically important commercial Verona-Brenner-Ausgburg road that linked the north to the south. Innsbruck officially became a town in 1267, the capital of all Tirol in 1429 and an important political center in the 1490's when Emperor Maximilian resided here. The old town has remained virtually intact from this time with exterior rennovations taking place up to the 1700's.

Innsbruck and Salzburg have a love/hate relationship that is very similar to Edmonton and Calgary. Many consider Innsbruck a blue collar town where the factories are located and Salzburg is the white collar town where the head offices are located. But as far as old towns are concerned, I definitely prefer Innsburck.

Rita and I had really enjoyed walking around the old town and checking out all the sites, including a trip up the 148 steps of the city hall tower. But the best time we had was by accident. We went for a walk along the Inn River but the walkway stopped after about 15 minutes so we turned up a hill and ended on a steep forest trail that took us to a Vanicular station and so we bought a ticket to take us up to the mid point of the mountain. We got off and hiked through high alpine forest for another hour that took us to a Scherzalm (a summer farm on the mountain). This one had a restaurant attached to it. After a break we hiked back down to the Vanicular station and rode it back into Innsbruck, took a shower and went for a lovely dinner in one of the outdoor cafes. A great way to end our time in Innsbruck.

The Inn River with Old Town in the background

City Hall Tower built in 1440 located in Old Town

Helblinghaus built in the 15th century with late Baroque stucco added in 1730 in main street of Old Town

Rita drinking mountain fresh water at the Scherzalm on our hike to mid station of Nordkette Mountain

View of Old Town rooftops, St. James Cathedral and the Alps from the City Hall Tower Lookout

Rita sampling the goodies at the Speckeria which was established in 1909. We ended up having staying for lunch and had a delicious sample plate of cold cuts (salami, ham and cheese) washed down with a fine Innsbruck beer.

Birthday Boy, June 26, 2006

What a lucky young lad I am. For the first time I celebrated my birthday in two towns on the same day. Woke up in Kitzbuhel and Rita had a champagne breakfast organized for us. It was a great way to start the day. We then traveled to Innsbruck and had a nice walk around the old town as it was very warm (24c) and sunny. Had a wonderful traditional Tirolean dinner on a outdoor rooftop restaurant. We ended the day with Mozart Kugeln (dark chocolate balls) and pear schnapps. Thank you Rita for putting together such a memorable day for my 63rd birthday. And thanks to everyone who sent me emails on my birthday, they helped make my day special.

Geoff with some of his birthday swag (pink shirt and two flavors of schnapps) in the early hours of his 63rd year

High on Kitzbuhel, June 25, 2010

Rita had checked with our hotel in Innsbruck to see if we could arrive a day earlier than planned due to our schedule still being out of whack from our cancelation of Munich. They were full and so we looked at the map to see what was on the way to Innsbruck. We settled on Kitzbuhel as it would be nice to go and explore an alpine resort since the weather was so nice. Rita programmed TomTom for Kitzbuhel town center and we started out on the 90 minutes drive.

Kitzbuhel was colonized by the Bavarians in the late 6th century and was granted the status of a town in 1271. It belonged to the duchy of Bavaria until the early 1600's when Emperor Maximilian conquered the area for Tirol. It went back and forth for several centuries until the Congress of Vienna in 1809 formerly granted the region to Tirol. Mining was an inportant factor in the regional economy for centuries and the way Kitzbuhel's old town looks today dates back to the mining boom of the 16th century. In 1875 the railway arrived and summer tourism took off. But Kitzbuhel's tourism claim to fame is to be the home of Franz Reisch, the founder of skiing, who took his first run down Kitzbuhel Horn mountain in 1893. For those of us who love to ski, thank you Franz

Arrived in Kitzbuhel without any problems and parked the car just outside the old town walls. We walked around and Rita checked out a couple of hotels before finding one that suited our tastes and budget. We checked-in and immediately headed out to explore the town. After a nice lunch in one of the many outdoor cafes, we headed for the Hahnenkamm Gondola and took it to the top and hiked around the many trails for a couple of hours. It was truly spectacular to be at 1700 meters on such a hot, sunny day and hike around in the alpine meadows enjoying all the panoramic views of the mountains and valleys. After coming back to town, we showered and went for dinner at a very nice outdoor restaurant for a traditional tirolian dinner with a very nice Austrian white wine. We were both definitely ready for a good nights sleep.

Old Town Kitzbuhel's main street

Top of Hahnenkamm looking down at Kitzbuhel and across at Kitzbuheler Horn Mountain

St. Maria Church on top of Hahnenkamm Mountain

Rita and Geoff in the Alpine meadows on top of Hahnenkamm Mountain

Salzburg - Yodle-ah-eh-ho, June 24, 2010

The morning started off overcast, but it cleared up in the early afternoon and turned out to be a beautiful day.


Old Town Salzburg is located adjacent to the milky, green Salzach River and can trace its start as an independent city to 700 AD when Bavaria gave it to Bishop Rupert in return for his promise to Christianize the area. Thanks in part to its formidable fortress, Salzburg managed to avoid the ravages of war for 1,200 years...until World War two, but the historic old town survived. Now 8 million tourists a year make there way through the cobbled streets to check out Mozart, The Sound of Music locations and the historic sites.

Our hotel is about a 10 minute walk from the 0ld town in a nice quiet neighborhood. We headed out after a hearty breakfast with our first stop being the info centre to get a local walking tour map of the old town and fortress. Salzburg not only has some beautiful historic buildings but also boasts some amazing shopping along the Getreidegasse (wheat street). It became a retail shopping street in the early 1700's and is famous for its old wrought iron signs which are in evidence today (no electric signs anywhere). After Rita had her fill of retail therepy we ended our walking tour at the wonderfully old Cafe Tomaselli for coffee and cake (the women come around with a tray of cakes and the men take the orders for beverages. You pay each of them seperately) before heading up to the Hohensalburg Fortress on the cliffs above the old town.


You can take a funicular to the fortress entrance but we decided to hike up and burn off some of the cake calories. The fortress was built on a rock 400 feet above Salburg and has never really been used. It was so foreboding that nobody attacked the town for a thousand years. The fortress is very stark and the interior rooms have survived in their original condition due to the fact that no one wanted to live here after 1500 and so the place was never modernized.


After the fortress tour we took the Monchsberg Walk back to town. The walk is longer but goes through a forest and parts of the medieval wall before heading down into the old town again.


Walked across the bridge and into "New Town" and along Steingasse which was the only road in the Middle Ages going south over the Alps to Venice. Today its a wonderful street full of cafes and shops. One of the houses on this street was where Joseph More lived and wrote Silent Night in 1792. From the street a set of stairs lead up to a 17th century Capuchin Monestary that was a bit of a dissapointment but the views of Old Town Salzburg and the Fortress made up for it.


Climbed down the steps and headed home for a much needed shower and then out to a local biergarten for a great Schnitzel dinner with Salzburg beer. Another wonderful day.

Getreidegasse with its wonderful wrought iron signs

Mozartplatz with the Pink Church of St. Michelle of the left dates from 800 AD.



Hohensalburg Fortress on top of the cliffs overlooking Salzburg

Rita checking our bearings during our Monchsberg walk

The view of the Salzach River, Old Town and Fortress from the Capuchin Monestary lookout

Geoff and Rita enjoying a well earned beer at the end of the day

Back on Track to Salzburg, June 23, 2010

We are heading for Salzburg a day earlier than planned due to our cancelation of Munich. Rita was able to change our booking at the hotel to allow us to arrive tonight. The weather has broken and its hot and sunny today. Because of the fine weather and no deadlines, we have chosen to take the secondary roads to Salzburg. The scenery is stunning as we pass through lush, green valleys with lots of small farms, villages and alpine lakes all surrounded by mountains. Before arriving in Salzburg we stopped and toured the alpine ski town of Berchtesgaden and its fjord-like lake Koenigssee (Kings Lake).


Berchtesgaden has been in existance for over 900 years but is most famous for its mountaintop Nazi retreat (Hitler's Eagles Nest). The oldtown is not that large and is full of sidewalk cafes as the area is a very popular bus tour lunch stop. We roamed around the town and had a lovely traditional lunch (Rita had a Leberkaese sandwich and I settled for a more sedate pork roast sandwich). We then got back into our car and headed for Koenigssee (Kings Lake) a few minutes drive away. Its a beautiful emerald green colored lake surrounded by mountains. Again, a lot of bus tours come here to drop off their clients who take a 35 minute boat ride on one of the silent, electronically propelled boats around the lake. As you can imagine, where there is bus tours there are souvineer shops and Koenigssee has them in abudance situated on the only street coming and going to the lake. It cerrtainly takes away from the beautiful, natural setting.

As we had chosen to take the slower but very scenic secondary highway route, we only took a walk around part of the lake before heading back to our car as we wanted to be in Salzburg for dinner. Had no problem finding our lovely boutique hotel, checked in and walked to a nearby Biergarten for some local specialties and there in-house brewed beer . Again Rita was more adventurous and had the special called "die gescnittene Gaertnerin" (a large cold sausage sliced in half with a mustard/relish sauce inside) that came with the local white raddish. I again wimped out and went for the pork ribs with cabbage salad. Mine was definitely delicious.

Tomorrow we tour Salzburg


The Abbey Church built by Augustine monks sits next to the Kings Palace in the huge Schlossplatz (Castle Square). Both were built in the 12th century

The sightseeing boat cruising the emeral green Koenigssee

Rita speaks ... My German Emotions, June 22, 2010

Guten Tag, this is Rita speaking…..

The last weeks in Germany have been very interesting, exciting and fun for me – but also emotional. I use to travel to Berlin many times for example, but for professional reasons only. Never took the time to tour the sites and of course, much has changed over the last 20 years after Germanys reunification. We were able to walk along the “left over” of the Wall, passing names of people who lost their lives when trying to climb over during the 29 years of the separation of East and West. We were standing on the “no man land zone” between the former East and West, but what hit me emotionally was when we entered the Museum of Hitler’s Gestapo and SS called “Topography of Terror”. It illustrates the horrible things planned and carried out by the officials in power before and during WW II and is documented by pictures. WOW, difficult to take and not show emotions. Mostly because both my parents had to flee their homes, where separated from family, displaced and lost their belongings. Seeing those pictures turned their “stories” into reality for me. Walking through this documentation, seeing the unimaginable and horrible things reminded me why Germans aren’t much loved around the world – and I understand it and feel ashamed! I am glad to see that there is a lot of interest in this documentation and hope from the bottom of my heart there will never be a repeat.

On a lighter note – I am a tourist in my own country and I am happy to experience it together with Geoff. He gets so excited about old buildings, cobblestone streets and is very eager to learn about when a building was built and “oh my God, it’s been here since “1498”….can you believe it”? Well, that’s the other side of “my” Germany and I am happy and proud we can share this trip together, especially when we discuss it over coffee and cake. On this trip, besides touring, walking and exploring we are enjoying a lot of good meals .....hmmm, I am in heaven, this is “my” Germany and I am “loving it”.

On the Trail of "Mad King Ludwig", June 22, 2010

It’s cool (13c) and overcast today. We would be happy if it would be November but this is the first day of summer!!!!

Today we are going to visit the most popular tourist attractions in Bavaria, the Kings Castles, which are 5km from our hotel. So we will walk to the Castles as there is a very good trail from Fuessen. We made it to the ticket center in about 35 minutes and bought the English tours for both Castles. The first tour is of the older castle; Hohenschwangau (High Swan Land) which was built in the 12th century, ruined by Napoleon and rebuilt in 1830 by King Maximilian 11 (King Ludwig's father) who used it as a summer hunting lodge. However, the most popular castle is Neuschwanstein (New Swan Stone) which looks like a fairytale palace and was the inspiration for Walt Disney. It looks medieval but its built with modern iron & brick construction techniques. Constructed from 1869 to 1886 with only a third of the interior rooms decorated due to the sudden death of King Ludwig its cost in todays currency is about 15 million Euros ($21 million Can), which seems rather inexpensive to me.

King Ludwig became King of Bavaria at the age of 18 and ruled for 22 years until his death at age 40 in 1886. He did not want to govern his country and prefered to design castles, read and hold parties for his friends. He was a romantic who's best friends were artists, poets and composers. In fact he dedicated Neuschwanstein to the composer Richard Wagner and many of the murals and paintings in the castle depict scenes from his Operas. Eventuallyt he was declared mentally unfit to rule Bavaria and removed from his beloved castle. Two days later he was found dead in a lake. To this day people debate whether he was murdered or committed suicide.

King Ludwig spent 17 years building his castle and lived in it for only 172 days. Within 6 weeks of his death it was turned into a museum and tourists were paying to see it. Today an average of 8,000 tourists visit King Ludwig's castle every day.

After touring the castles we took a steep 15 minute hike to Mary's Bridge to get the best view of Neuschwanstein. The bridge was built by Ludwig 100 years ago and was quite the engineering marvel for its time as the steel bridge is suspended between the deep Pollat Gorge and its waterfall. After decending from the bridge we took the hike down to the bottom of the Gorge and followed the trail back to the ticket center and stopped for a well deserved coffee and cake break before walking back to our hotel.

As we were leaving Bavaria tomorrow and being very hungry we decided to have a traditional dinner of Schweinshaxe (pork knuckle), sauerkraut and dumplings washed down with a pils beer and followed by a local marillen (plum) Schnapps. It was a wonderful and satisfying way to end our time in Bavaria.

Rita on the trail to Mad King Ludwig's Castles with Hohenschwangau Castle in the background

Neuschwanstein Castle as seen from the trail

Mary's Bridge suspended over Pollat Gorge and Waterfall as seen from Neuschwanstein

Rita munching on emergency rations outside Neuschwanstein Castle

View of Hohenschwangau Castle, village and Alp Lake from the Mary's Bridge trail

Neuschwanstein Castle as seen from Mary's Bridge

Plan B, June 20, 2010

It's 6:00pm and Rita and I are inside our car with the rain pounding down parked next to the apartment we refused to stay at wondering where we are going to stay in Munich. Rita decides to call her very good friend Andrea, who lives in Frankfurt, to see if she has any hotel connections in Munich. Andrea frantically worked the Internet looking for suitable hotels but found nothing that we were willing to pay for as there is a huge Doctors convention in town. We decide to go and find an internet cafe and look for ourselves. We also find hotels but at very expensive rates and make the decision that we should abandon Munich. One of the places we wanted to go visit on a day trip from Munich was the Kings Castles and we decide to see if we could stay at a place that would be close by. We consulted our Rick Steves book on Germany and located the historic resort town of Fuessen. Rita calls one of the hotels recommended in the book and makes a reservation. We grab a couple of sandwiches to go, input the address in the TomTom and start out on the two hour drive. The rain stays with us and it seems the further south we go the colder it gets. We arrive in Fuessen at 10:00 pm and its 7c!!!

June 21st, it's still cold (11c) but at least its not raining so we bundle up and explore the town. Fuessen is on the Lech River in the Bavarian Alps and has been a popular stopping point since Roman times. Today tourists come here in the thousands as its the closest stop for Bavaria's most popular tourist destinations, the Kings Castles. But that's tomorrow's story.

Main Square in Fuessen with Hohes Schloss (High Castle) watchtower in the background

View of Old Town Fuessen and High Castle from Lech Riverbank

Inner courtyard of High Castle which was the summer residence of the Bishop of Augsburg

Romantic Road to a Munich Surprise, June 20, 2010

Today the plan is to travel the "Romantic Road" from Rothenburg to Munich, a 235 km drive into Germany's medieval heartland. The name was created in the 1950's by the dozens of towns in the region to promote themselves. The Romantic Road is the oldest and most famous of Germany's two dozen signposted scenic routes. After going over the maps from the Travel Info Centre and recommendations from Rick Steves "Germany" travel book we are planning on stopping at Dinkelsbuhl, Noerdlingen and the Walled Fortress of Harburg before reaching Munich.

We left Rothenburg under sunny skies but storm clouds were forming on the horizon. Dinkelsbuhl is a smaller version of Rothenburg with a beautifully restored Old Town surrounded by a medieval wall with 18 watchtowers including four entry gates. We arrived in the middle of their Sunday Flea Market that takes over the main square and it seemed the whole town and there neighbors were there so we spent our time following the tourist walking tour route which included walking part of the ramparts of the old wall. It was definitely worth the stop.

Noerdlingen is the only town in Germany with walls and battlements that you can walk all the way around. So, we had to do the 2.6 km walk. The other big attraction in town is St. George's Church which was completed in 1505. You can climb up the 350 steps inside its bell tower and so we had to do that as well. Its a steep climb climb but you are rewarded with incredible views. After the climb we stopped for coffee and cake before departing for Harburg.

The walled fortress of Harburg is one of Germany's best preserved castles. The Castle is on a high hill overlooking the town and river valley below. There is a steep trail down to the town and the Woernitz River, so off course we had to take the walk down and back up again. We had definitely got a workout today.

Heavy rainfall started as we made our way into Munich but our TomTom guided us to our apartment without any problems. Rita found the keys and we entered the apartment. After about 30 seconds we both looked at each and knew we could not stay here. We put the keys back, got into the car and had to come up with another plan.

To Be Continued......


Dinkelsbuhl's Sunday Flea Market along its main street
The Baroque Style Segringer Gate along the Dinkelsbuhl medieval wall

Rita at the door of a Nordlingen medieval home in need of a complete rennovation

Rita stopping on the St. George tower stairs to look at a medieval pully used for hauling up timbers and stones. Prisoners were put inside the wheel to create the manpower required to lift the timbers and stones, similar to a hampster wheel. The wheel moved up the tower as it got higher. They left it in place at the top in case reparis where required.

Geoff at the top of St. Georges Tower with Nordlingen 90 meters below.

The inner courtyard of Harburg Catstle

Road to Rothenburg, June 18-20, 2010

Left Nuernberg for the 2.5 hour drive to Rothenburg on the very efficient and quick moving autobahn (highway) system. We were traveling at an average speed of 130 kph and the only vehicles we passed were trucks and busses. Everything else passed us. Just outside of Rothenburg the cloudy skies cleared and we entered Germany’s largest medieval walled town in glorious sunshine. Our TomTom guided us to the front door of our hotel, checked in, parked our car at the back of the hotel against the medieval wall and started touring.

Rothenburg is Germany’s best preserved medieval walled town. Its heyday was from 1150 to 1400 when it was one of Germany's most important and largest cities with a population of about 6,000. Most of the buildings were built by 1400 and have been lovingly restored to keep the medieval feel to the walled city. You can walk most of the city wall (about 3km) which we did and it gives excellent views of the city. The Town Hall was built in the 13th century and is still the tallest building with a 200 foot tower. Part of the Town Hall was destroyed by fire and replaced with a Renaissance style structure in 1570. Rita and I climbed the 214 narrow and steep steps to the top of the tower for some great views.

Rothenburg receives about 2.5 millions visitors a year with only 500,000 staying overnight so the best time to walk around the town is after 5:00pm when all the tour busses and day trippers leave. We were very happy that we decided to overnight here as the town is very quiet at night.

Looking back after entering the Old Town gate

Market Square with Town Hall and Tower

Rita at top of 200 ft Town Hall Tower with Market Square below

One of the many outdoor cafe in Rothenburg

One of 6 entry gates into Old Town Rothenburg

Geoff and Rita with Old Town Rothenburg in the background

Wurstzigarren (sausage cigars) in wooden boxes with the Rothenburg city logo. Specialty salami that are sold six to a box

Rita walking the ramparts that go around the Old Town Rothenburg wall