11. bis 17. April: Germany

Still Busy

This week is the middle of a busy time for me. We were in Rome, then back to the apartment for my birthday, and now off to Germany. Next week includes more travel for me, though the kids and Rebecca get a bit of a break. Traveling like this is fun, for me. It's tiring, no doubt, but I enjoy the adventure and seeing new things, so it's all worth it in the end. I still find it amazing to be here and have access to all the wonderful things we've been doing!

Freitag 11. April

Friday was a long day and it started early. Rebecca and I were up early and on the U-bahn around 07:00 to get to the hotel downtown where we'd rented our car from. The Sixt rental desk was just inside the lobby of the Hilton hotel downtown by the Stadtpark. For the most part, the desk interactions were OK, though it seemed like our attendant was a little gruff at times. We'd already looked into what types of insurance we might have here while back in the States (basically minimal through our credit card) and so we opted for the insurance they provided. Then they offered us an extra insurance that would cover the wheels and glass of the vehicle separately. If they were damaged and we didn't have that insurance, the policy we did buy from them had a 500€ deductible, whereas the extra insurance was only 26€, so we opted to take it. 

Since we have no data plan here in Wien, I had pre-cached the city in the Google Maps app on my phone (which we've been using all along) and Rebecca helped navigate me back home (thankfully GPS works just fine). It's amazing how different the city is when you're driving versus sitting on a Straßenbahn or an U-bahn. We managed to get our new little 5-speed manual transmission Lancia Ypsilon ("IP-silon") home without incident. We then loaded our luggage and headed off. Again, knowing we wouldn't have data, we plotted the route via Google Maps on a laptop, then printed off the detailed directions as a PDF directly into Google Drive. I then "pinned" that PDF document locally on both my phone and iPad so we could use it while driving. I'd also put in some time to finally getting the OsmAnd (Open Street Map [OSM] Automated Navigation and Directions) app working on my phone. You have to download special maps depending on where you'll be and I needed to figure out which maps corresponded with the areas we'd be driving through. Also, there was a bug that prevented storing those maps, which can be very large, on an external SD card rather than the phone's storage. The OsmAnd maps proved useful while we were in certain areas, but couldn't plot directions more than about 100 km away! Alas.

I like driving and really don't mind driving in a foreign country. It's interesting to see the different types of road signs and advertisements. What was especially fun was driving on the autobahn! For those that don't know, the autobahn is just like the interstate system in the U.S. except there's no speed limit at all other than "don't be reckless." In order for that to work, drivers must know and obey a simple rule: stay to the right! Even if they're going 150 km/hr, drivers would stay to the right, unless they had to pull over to the left lane to pass slower traffic in front of them. There were some cars that I swear were doing 190-200 km/hr, but they were "permanently" in the left lane. They would absolutely scream by us. 

Our little Lancia Ypsilon had a "feature" that beeped at you and lit up a red indicator light if I got up over 130 km/hr. That speed is reasonable, but there were times when it was nice to go 140 on a downhill or just to get out of and around a clump of traffic. It got annoying to have that little beep and light on, so I did my best to keep our speed at 129.99999 km/hr! There were even signs in Austria, before crossing the border to Germany that read, "Rechts fahren, Stress sparen!" which directly translates as "right drive, stress save" or, "Drive on the right and stay stress free!" It was good advice, though there were times I longed to just slip to the left lane, stay there, and let that little car go as fast as it could! 

Google reported the trip would take us about 8 hours. We got a bit confused at a bigger autobahn interchange and wound up taking a several km detour, one way, and then had to get turned around. We also zipped into Passau in Germany for lunch (pizza again!). Add on some slow traffic around Nurmberg and a couple of construction spots and it took us about 10 hours total to get to where we were going: the Landal resort outside of Winterberg, Germany. Since it was a manual, with no cruise control, my legs were getting pretty stiff and I was glad to be out of the car when we stopped to get some groceries that night at a town just outside of Winterberg. One saving grace about the drive: it was incredibly beautiful! It so much reminded me of home back in southwestern Wisconsin with the rolling hills and beautiful green spaces, trees, rivers, etc!

Samstag 12. April

Beer, liquor, butter, and cheese!

We woke up Saturday morning in our awesome unit in Landal. We were up a "mountain" (not really, but it's certainly bigger than what we'd call a ski hill in the midwest) at a resort that we clearly meant for ski season; it sat in the center of about 10 (or more) different lifts and likely 20+ different runs of varying degree. Rebecca and I walked back down to the main resort building and got properly checked in (we had to get someone at the restaurant that was about to close to open the special safe and pull out our unit key the night we arrived!). I wandered around their little shopping area while Rebecca got some area information and made sure the charges were correct (they weren't and she managed to reduce our bill by eliminating the adults-only service charges that had been inappropriately applied to the kids). It's always interesting to me to see what types of foods are stocked and available. As is common in Germany, beer and liquor proved just as important as butter and cheese!

Mountain walking!

Later that morning we all went for a walk along some of the ski roads, basically heading down into the valley from our unit, past the resort lodge, and then up the mountain on the other side. At the top there was a ski lift that Aaron insisted on going to, so he and I jogged further up to the very top where there was a restaurant and the lift. It drops at a 40º angle for over 100 meters before sloping up at end for the jump. Incredible! I'd never have the nerve to do it. We were also right at the edge of Winterberg there so went into town for lunch at a place that specialized in Pfannkuchen, which is a large thin pancake. The kids got a Smarties Pfannkuchen! The "smarties" ended up being small candy coated chocolate balls, very much like Sixlets but smaller. I had a fantastic mustard soup with bacon. Yummy!

Later that afternoon, I got in my run, which was a hard interval run. I was supposed to run an easy 9 mile warm-up, which is hard to do in the mountains, but I managed. It turns out that run was great reconnaissance for a walk for Rebecca and I. Unfortunately, the mustard soup from lunch wasn't sitting well in my stomach for that run, but I managed to find a loop of 4.5 miles that brought me right back to our unit for a quick break!

Sonntag 13. April

Units on the hills at Landal

Enjoying dinner

Rebecca and I started the day with a nice walk around the loop I'd discovered the day before on my run. We had a great time walking and talking and enjoying all of the incredible nature all around us. The air was fresh and crisp and very calming. That afternoon, Rebecca, Aaron and I went for a swim and had a great time splashing around and playing "shark." That evening, we went to the resort restaurant. I had a fantastic schnitzel with a mushroom gravy and potatoes (in the form of french fries) plus a Weizenbier (white wheat beer). The kids both ordered cheeseburgers, though neither of them was able to finish it -- they were big and came with a slice of sweet pickle, which was a little strange (to us). It didn't matter though, since I finished both their burgers anyway.

Slide acrobatics!

As soon as they were full, the kids wanted to go out and play in the park next to the lodge. Rebecca and I took our time finishing up and paying, so by the time we got outside, they'd been playing for about 15 minutes. In that time they'd figured out a unique and fun way for them to both go down a big slide together. We all had a great time laughing together and watching them try to perfect their "maneuvers." It really was quite fun! We then headed back to the unit and watched a movie to end a fun day.

Montag 14. April

It snowed overnight!

We woke up to cold! Not only that, it was snowing. It didn't really accumulate much, but it still snowed and was cold enough to do so. We hadn't experienced that kind of cold for a while. The coldest I think it got in Wien overnight in March was around 2ºC and that morning it was -3ºC. Later that morning, it started to hail! Our car is the one facing us, on the right of the movie.

Pea-sized hail on our car!

The forecast wasn't much better the rest of the day, so we decided to drive to a water park, the Lagunen-Erlebnisbad, in the little town of Willingen, about a 30 minute drive from our unit. The park advertises themselves as "Badespaß mit Karibikflair" -- "Bathing with Caribbean Flair!" I'm not really sure what that meant, other than they had a bar where it looked like you could get an umbrella drink. They had several slides, multiple indoor and outdoor pools (take a look at the Willingen link I included and zoom in and you can see them), and a hot tub and sauna area. We all had a great time exploring the slides and swimming in the outdoor pools where it would blow cold breezes and alternately snow and rain on you. Quite an experience! Eventually Rebecca and Anson were done and they got out and sat and talked while Aaron and I continued to swim about, mostly underwater. It was really fun! We then stopped in at one of the local restaurants and had dinner. The kids had pizza, again, and I tried another schnitzel, this time the Jagerschnitzel covered in a pepper sauce. I liked it, but think I'll stick to the more "traditional" types.

Dienstag 15. April

Out on another walk!

We all slept in a little bit in the morning after a full and fun day of playing in the water. I did my run about mid-morning, my last hard interval set before Boston. I ran along a lightly rolling crushed gravel biking trail that went to (and beyond) the next little town of Silbach. It was interesting running through that dorf (village) as I was able to see some quite traditional housing and their wee little train station: a platform no bigger than a wooden shipping pallet next to a modern, digital, credit card and cash accepting ticketing machine. It was very interesting. Later that afternoon, Rebecca and I went on another walk. I should let you know that when Rebecca and I go on a walk, we really get out and walk! We both have built-in pedometer apps on our phones (Samsung's S Health Walking Mate on our Galaxy S4s). I always have my phone on me when leaving our unit (though not always in the unit and never on my runs) and that day I recorded 18,112 steps and 9.0 miles, most of that was on the walk we took. We wandered around our mountain and into Winterberg then back. It's a great way to explore, just like my morning runs.

Aaron enjoying the pool

Since it was our last day there, Aaron had to have another swim in the pool. I wasn't up for getting in and neither was Rebecca, so we sat on the deck and watched him play and have fun in the water ... for a good hour or more! He really enjoys the water and has a natural feel for it. I really need to look into getting him on a swim team back in the states.

Night falls on the mountain

As we were walking back to our unit that night, I couldn't help but notice the incredibly fresh air and the clear evening sky. I turned and was able to capture a picture that includes a lot of things. First, you can see the style of the German housing units, very typical for both Germany and Austria with the tiled roof and the white (or yellow) with dark wood sections. If you click on the picture and look directly above the apex of the house's roof, slightly to the right towards the leafless tree, you'll see a light in the sky. That's the planet Mars, which has been making sparkling appearances, along with Jupiter, in the night skies. Wien, unfortunately, isn't much better than most major metropolitan areas in terms of light pollution. However, here, up in the "mountains" in rural western Germany, the skies were like I remember them growing up in a small town in southwestern Wisconsin or down on my father's family farm. Absolutely stunning!

Mittwoch 16. April

Sleeping to the end!

Rebecca and I had another, last, great walk in the morning and then we were all up and packing, well, some of us at least. I had really enjoyed our stay in this unit, though it was remote and there wasn't much in the way of attractions; maybe that's why I liked it so much. Getting out and walking (and running) in the "mountains," swimming, relaxing, reading, and being with each other is what was enjoyable. We left mid-morning and drove to Kassel, Germany where Rebecca had a meeting schedule with some members of the University there.

Happy in Winterberg!

The kids and I had two missions: fix the car and get some lunch. When I pulled up to the resort lodge so Rebecca could drop off the keys, I was a bit too close to the curb. As I was putting the vehicle, a manual, into reverse, it drifted forward just enough that the bottom of der Nummernschildhalter (front license plate holder) scraped on the curb and broke, allowing our license plate to fall out. When we parked in Kassel, there was a gentleman who parked next to us. Rebecca asked him where we could go to replace it. He explained, in German, that it was easy and very close. We had to go back and clarify things with him again, but I thought I had it down, so Rebecca went to her meeting and the kids and I started our mission. Unfortunately, the not-straight-streets that are so common here in Europe, plus the lack of matching landmarks, got us ... well, not where we were supposed to go. Thankfully, I'd pulled out my phone and showed a Google Map of the area to the guy who was able to indicate where it was. So, I started driving in that general direction and finally found a series of car dealerships with service stations. I pulled into the first one, just because it was easiest: a BMW place.

After parking and having the kids wait in the car, I went in and did my best to communicate what I needed, carrying the broken Nummernschildhalter with me. A kind woman escorted me to a desk where she asked for one and a gentleman came right back with one. When I asked about the price, I found it was gratis (free). I asked the woman again for some help, this time asking if she could get me ein Schraubenzieher (a screwdriver). She led me into the service bay and soon I had one. I headed back to the car and attempted to install the unit. They come with 8,947 (exaggeration) different holes and slots so they can fit on almost any vehicle. After figuring out which ones lined up on our car, I mounted the back plate. What's supposed to happen next is I slide the license plate up into the back plate and then secure it by attaching a locking strip of plastic on the bottom. I couldn't get it to lock. It seemed to me the license plate was too big or the holder too small. So, I went back in and asked the guy who gave me the screwdriver for help. He gladly came right out and spent about 5 minutes messing with the plate and the locking strip. Eventually he said, "Es ist zu groß!" (it's too big). He told me to wait a moment and then walked off. When he came back, he had black duct tape in hand and taped the thing in place!

With that "done," we moved on to finding lunch. After wandering a bit, we found a great little restaurant near the University where we were the only customers. The kids had pizza, again, and I had a great chicken schnitzel. We connected with Rebecca on-time (she had lunch with her colleagues) and we proceeded to drive home with a stop in Straubing for dinner. It was a long drive and we didn't get home until after midnight. Aaron was zonked and went straight to bed while Rebecca and I unpacked and got things set for the next day.

Donnerstag 17. April

Rebecca and I were up at a normal time and decided to go and properly replace and repair der Nummernschildhalter. We identified a place that might carry one using Google Maps and then used OsmAnd to navigate there, which worked OK. Unfortunately, they didn't have any in stock, so he directed us to an "easy place to get to" that would have one. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite that easy. I was a bit stressed driving in the city and wasn't the best partner at the time. We got to the ÖAMTC shop and were able to buy a new holder (just 7€) and borrow a screwdriver and I got it properly mounted. We then headed back to turn in the car, but needed to fuel it up first. That turned out to be quite an adventure and we eventually ended using OsmAnd to find the nearest station and wound up pulling into a Hof (courtyard) of one of the myriad buildings where, sure enough, there was a single pump staffed by an attendant who filled the car for us. 

When we got back to the hotel and drove deep down into the parking garage to the Sixt car return area, a guy was there helping another customer. We asked where we should park, as we were in the middle of the driving lane and he said, " ... just leave it there." So we waited briefly until he came over. In the States, turning in a rental car can be done in about 6.7 seconds: they say, "Hi, how was your trip?" You respond with, "Fine," and they print off a receipt, remind you to take all your stuff, and wish you a happy flight (you're usually at an airport). Not in Austria! This guy had a super bright LED flashlight and spent a good 5 minutes looking over every square inch of the car. When he was almost done he said, "Ahh, eine neue Schäden" (a new damage). He was looking at a small scrape on the plastic hub cab that I made earlier that morning as we pulled up to the curb after midnight. He finished, then had my sign, with my finger, on his phone, then directed us upstairs. 

When we got there, we told them which car we returned, the woman worked on the computer a bit, then printed out some sheets, handed them to us, and made it seem like the transaction was done. Rebecca asked about the Schäden and how that would be handled and the woman didn't know. Rebecca then pointed out that we bought the extra wheel and glass insurance and wanted to know if that would cover any costs we might be charged. Again, the woman didn't know so picked up the phone and connected with someone else who didn't know but transferred her to someone who also, it turns out, didn't really know. The only answer we could get is, the company may send us something in the mail. So, we have no idea if we'll be charged or how much it might be. Very interesting cultural difference.

Wandering in Wien by Karlskirche

Rebecca and I walked back from the hotel to the U-bahn, taking our time and wandering through the city. We'd had plans to use the car and go see the Carnuntum "Ruins" that afternoon, but it would have been quite a hassle with the car and I think the kids were happy to have a low-key day. We got back, finished up laundry, had some dinner and then I started packing again for my next adventure, which started the next day!