1991 was an incredibly exciting year, the highlight of which was our 25th anniversary. To celebrate it, we went to Europe for a two week visit, doing it our way, instead of the usual organized tours. All together we visited seven countries, dealt with a variety of languages and currencies and had a wonderful time.
We flew into Munich, Germany, rented a car and drove to Salzburg, Austria the first day. We had made very few reservations for this trip and made the decision to find 'out of town' locations when possible and 'non-American-oriented'. We found a delightful inn just outside Salzburg with help that could speak a little English. Breakfast the next morning suited me - basketful of a wonderful assortment of breads and crusty rolls, served with plenty of butter and a variety of jams and jellies, and an assortment of cheeses. This was the daily breakfast fare for the rest of the trip, which wasn't actually the favorite for Dick, who kept thinking longingly of bacon and eggs!
We spent a delightful day in Salzburg, hiring a horse and carriage to take us around the city, visiting the first of many magnificent cathedrals and eating in local restaurants. I have a fair knowledge of French and it came in handy on this trip when it came to looking at menus. The French, German and Italian words for things like beef, pork, chicken, fish, etc. all have enough similarities that knowing the French word made it possible for me to recognize it on the German and Italian menus. That was about the extent of the help though as we never knew how the particular dish was going to be prepared, with the result we ate some great meals, and a few not so great. Since I did not drink wine, and Dick didn't like it very much, we ordered water with most meals. It was always bottled water and we had to make it clear whether we wanted it 'with gas' or 'no gas'. With my limited language knowledge, we didn't always get what we wanted. Dick actually spent much of his time sitting on benches or outside cafes while I toured the various sights. I went to where Mozart was born and loved that.
The next day we set off south for Northern Italy, driving through the Austrian Alps. I used to joke that one literally drove THROUGH the Alps, for once one reached a certain altitude the autobahn leveled off and you spent most of your time driving through immense tunnels, coming into the daylight and having a brief view of some scenery (usually from a high bridge) before you entered the next tunnel. What we did see was magnificent, but I would have preferred to have seen the countryside more and the inside of a tunnel less. We did pass the small village of Arnsdorf where 'Silent Night' was composed.
We stopped that night in a small 'motel' a few miles outside Venice.
The next day was spent touring Venice. I had done some reading on traveling before we left and followed the advise of some by not doing the conventional things which ended up costing a fortune, but doing things the way a local would. Case in point, was Venice. Instead of hiring someone to take us through the canals, we boarded the public transport (with a day pass) and traveled throughout Venice, getting on and off as we saw things we wanted to see closer.
I had heard that Venice would not be a good experience, people complaining about smells, refuse, etc. but we didn't find it this way. It might have had something to do with traveling in April before the crowds and heat came, but to me it was a magical experience. I toured the Doge's Palace while Dick watched the people go by. The wealth and magnificence of these cathedrals and palaces are beyond belief. Growing up in Britain, I was used to visiting VERY old buildings, but obviously Britain did not have the wealth of Europe.
From Venice, we drove west across Northern Italy to Milan. This was the one time we had a reservation and stayed two nights in a small hotel in downtown Milan. I had done this as I understood that hotels in Milan were incredibly expensive and I had found this one which was more reasonable. The big shock came when we found that it had no parking area, and parking was not allowed on the street. We were required to park the car in a nearby parking facility which ended up costing almost as much as our room. We found things incredibly expensive in Italy, and were thankful to the advice given us by Danielle who had visited us last year. She had explained the difference in how restaurants were referred. There were four levels of restaurants and as she said, the top two were for the rich tourists, the third was for the wealthy locals and the last, known as Pizzerias, were where the locals ate. So that's where we ate. It was still pretty amazing to have to pay $5 for a coke though!!
Highlight of my touring the next day was El Duomo - the Cathedral of Milan. All of Milan is designed to 'radiate' from the cathedral (rather like the layout of Salt Lake City and its Mormon Temple).
Before leaving Milan the next morning I fulfilled a long time ambition to visit the church where the "Last Supper" was painted on its inside wall. It was being renovated when I was there so it was somewhat spoiled with scaffolding in one area, but nevertheless I stood in awe taking it all in (including the door that had been cut into the lower center) and crying. We continued west leaving Italy and driving into France. Another shocker on this trip (money wise) was the cost to drive on the Autobahn (and its equivalent names in Italy and France). The tolls (which pop up frequently along the way) were quite high, and we figured it was costing us as much for the tolls as it was for the gas! The lack of speed limits was a culture shock too - amazing to have cars literally zoom past us as were doing 80mph.
We drove along the Mediterranean coast, a quick visit to the Principality of Monaco, and continued on stopping in Nice. As Dick said, Nice was nice. It reminded me of Llandudno where I grew up with its Victorian old charm, lovely gardens and of course the Sea air.
We had an experience at the motel here which might be difficult to explain, but we parked on the water side of the motel and went into the lobby to register. It was quite a tall motel but we did notice that it had an elevator, so weren't concerned. There appeared to be two check-in places, so I went to one of them and they spoke English so I requested that we would be no higher than the second floor. This was no problem, so we checked in and paid for the night. Two surprizes followed! First, this was actually TWO hotels, one on top of the other. One could access the ground floor of the upper one from the street behind but not by car. We had the second floor alright, on the 'top' hotel.
Second shock came when we found that the elevator didn't work!!! We got our exercise in during that stay, especially lugging our luggage up and down.
The next day we left the coast and started north driving through the Rhone Valley of France - its main agricultural valley. The fields of mustard (drove past Dijon) were in full bloom, and we of course were really interested in seeing the vast acreage of vineyards.
We ended up in Lyons and stayed in a small hotel just outside the city for a couple of nights, touring the ancient city the next day. There is an old Roman ampitheater there and having heard about how great the acoustics were in these arenas, I walked down to the bottom and spoke in a normal voice and Dick heard every word clearly at the top.
Leaving Lyons, we turned east and headed towards Switzerland, but took a side trip along the way to one of the oldest existing villages in Europe called Perouges. It is still inhabited and the locals have to park outside the town and walk into their homes. It dates back to the early 13th century and it was fascinating to walk its streets. I have a vivid imagination on visits like this. Loving history as much as I do and having read so much about the various times, it was easy for me to envision what this must have been like in those times.
We continued on that day and ended up in Montreaux, Switzerland on Lake Geneva. Our Swiss experience deserves a blog of its own, so I'll continue later.....................
