Breakfast, check out and we hit the road. We notice that many people looked at the car when parked. I don’t think it’s because they are admiring the Q5 – it’s probably because the car has IN plates in the US form factor and that’s unusual. No clouds in the sky. We decide to skip the castles and drive instead towards the monastery at Ettal. At check out, we are told to try a different route than the one we are planning. Instead of staying in Germany, we are told to drive south to Reutte, Austria and then drive by the Plansee into Ettal. From there, we catch the autobahn into Salzburg. We decide to do just that. After the customary mis-steps getting out of town we find the road to Reutte. I know we have to buy a 10-day toll vignette to be able to drive in Austria. Fuessen is only 3 km from the border, and I am on the lookout for border signs. Next thing I know we pass a sign saying Republik Osterreich. That’s it. That’s the border. Just like the US-Canada or the US-Mexico crossing. Not. We hoof the 200 m back into the Bundesrepublik Deutschland and find a gas station that sells us the vignette. We affix it to the top left part of the windscreen and approach Austria more confidently.The border - European style!
Reutte is easily found and we follow the signs to Plansee, which is back in Germany. A breeze when there’s not that many roads. From there we hook towards Ettal. The monastery in Ettal is wonderful. The basilica, for once, has tons of natural sunlight and photography is allowed. There is no one praying and I have fun taking pictures. We have some espresso and leave Ettal towards the A8 into Salzburg.
Plansee
Ettal
The monastery at Ettal
Leaving Ettal
Enjoying the sound
On the way, we come across a herd of cows in a meadow right off the two-lane road. We pull over and I step closer to them to take some pictures. The two cows closest to me scamper away in fright. That’s unusual. Up until now all the cows I have come across have been oblivious to humans. These are jumpy. Then the bull in the herd comes right over, pokes his head over the fence and gives us the once over. Apparently we have his approval, and the whole herd comes over to check us out. I click away. The wife says it’d be great if we could get a shot of the car and the cows. But it’s a hundred feet ahead. Nevertheless, I walk towards the car to see what I can get. Suddenly the cows start following us towards the car in single file. This is hilarious. I have never seen cows so responsive to humans. I manage to get a few shots in and wave the cows good bye.
Cows!
Who do we have here?
You talking to me?
These guys are OK! Come check them out.
Can we get a picture of the car & the cows? The car is too far away....
No problem, we'll follow you!
We catch the autobahn towards Salzburg. It is very tempting to speed and I set the car to set off a speed alarm at 65 mph, which generally keeps the tach around 2000 rpm. I had tried the manual shift mode the previous day, but the tach jumped over 4000 rpm when I down shifted. Once in Austria, there are speed limits on the autobahn (60-130 kmph) and every one follows them religiously.
Road to Salzburg
We make it to the hotel without too much difficulty. Salzburg is crowded and the signs don’t make much sense unless you understand German or are really good at converting inscrutable symbols into perfectly clear driving instructions. In general, following the same principle that we do in Boston, i.e., drive at 20 mph and you can do just about anything without getting into an accident, seems to work.
Entering Salzburg
We check in to our hotel, which is lovely. It’s a modernized 19th century villa, but the folks who modernized it must have been gadget freaks. There’s the large flat screen TV, a Blu-ray DVD player, a Tivoli CD and FM player with cables for your iPod, free WiFi and a Nespresso machine! We are in heaven. There are some books and CDs too, along with the obligatory Sound of Music DVD.
This hotel room is heaven!
We spend the evening in old town, which is 10 minute walk through Linzer Gasse. Salzburg closes early and most stores start shuttering down between 6-7pm. We find the Nespresso store and stock up on some espresso capsules. It’s a little hard to determine the culinary influences here. Not too many bakeries, and tons of restaurants that offer weird combinations of foreign or ethnic cuisines. One sign says Australian-British-Indian and has a full menu for each. The sausage stands have all closed. By far, the highest density of restaurants that we see are the Turkish kebap places and that’s what we have for dinner. I don’t think we could have handled another schnitzel. We check some movies out from the hotel reception and turn in for the night.
Random Salzburg pics
It's all about Mozart here
That museum tour sure was tiring!
Neat!
Mozart was born here (so they say....)
The Old Residenz
Salzburg at dusk
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