girlonthego

Hi everyone! We have returned from our very fun and exhausting European vacation! Thanks to many great fodorites for the valuable advice you gave me before we left. I felt well prepared and ready to enjoy our trip!

Day 1: We flew Richmond VA to Cleveland Oh to CDG in Paris France.
Flight was uneventful and crowded in coach. None of us slept on the plane over so Day 1 was tough to stay awake. We head over to the Hilton Arc De Triomphe where we are staying two nights using points and are paying for one night. (Expensive for the one night by the way..) Our cab ride to the Hilton takes forever and there is a ton of traffic. Our cab ride is expensive and runs about 75 Euros because of all the traffic. We arrive at 10:30am at the hotel and our room will not be ready till noon. We are given free breakfast coupons and head to the dining room. The Hilton gave us free breakfast every day of our trip because of my husband's gold status. We were not on the executive level, but being comped breakfast daily did save us quite a bit of money. Since all four of us received a free (usually 30 euro each) breakfast, we were very happy! Hotel is very nice. It is decorated in more of a modern motif, but is in an older building. Our room's view faces a not so pretty yard with large containers, but it is very quiet and for that I am grateful. On the bright side, if you look straight out, you see the Eiffel Tower which is a very nice view at night.
The bathrooms are very modern and the beds are comfortable. We were happy with the hotel and would return. I must say that the staff was very helpful and friendly.
Our first day was long. We were given free tickets on the boat ride on the Seine. I can't remember the name of the company, but were mostly zoned out zombies just trying our best to stay awake. This was not easy. We walked around a bit, but wound up crashing around 6:30pm. We woke the next day at 7:00 am. I was raring to go!
Day 2 Our adventures really begin today since yesterday we were so dead. We head to the Arc De Triomphe where we walk to the top. It is a tough uphill round and round walk up. It is also very hot and stuffy which adds to the nausea you feel at the top. It offers a great view of the city. From here we take the train over to the Notre Dame Cathedral which we walked around and viewed. It is a pretty cathedral. We decide then to take in the other church which is all stained glass, but it is closed. So, we wander around the St Germain area and then head back to the Eiffel tower area to take the Fat Bike Tour. This was my favorite thing to do as well as my families. We have teens and they liked riding the bikes around town. The tour guide was fun and funny and we were very satisfied and would highly recommend it for anyone at any age.
We then headed back to the Eiffel tower, but the lines are too long to go up. We wander into a cafe a few blocks away and have a very nice meal.
A side note: The tipping is hard for me. As an american, we tip 20% for good service. I know tipping is a lot less, but it is hard to do and we never quite get used to it. Sometimes we tip well and others we tip just lightly.
Day 3: We go back to the eiffel tower and DH and kids go up. They wind up going up to the second floor. All of this takes time and I watch the gypsies try to con the different people walk by. I must say that we did see the ring trip a couple of times as well as the gypsies. We had no problems.
We have a 3:00 fashion show to get to at the Galeries Lafayette Department Store. It is a teenagey type show, but my teenage girls think it is cool. We see the latest fashions and then wander the store and the area. We head back towards the Louvre for a quick over view. We get to see the Mona Lisa, but mostly enjoy the Egptian exhibit. Much to much to see, but we are tiring. We then stop in a cafe for dinner. The food is awful. My daughter's steak is inedible. It is so raw, very raw as in straight from the fridge to the plate. I ask to have it cooked more and it never returns. I tell the manager we want it off the bill and he eventually takes it off. The waitstaff is non existent once they take your order. I did not like this restaurant and wish I had the name. If I get it, I will let you all know, so you can avoid.
We head back to the hotel. Tonight is a game between Portugal vs Germany. We are going to an English Pub (I think it is called Borders?). Anyway, it is fun as Germany wins and there are many Germans cheering in the Pub. We sleepily walk home and head to bed.
Day 4 We head to the airport to go to Munich.
A couple of things, One: We felt very safe and did not ever feel like targets. We did notice some scammers, but unlike what many say, the Parisians were very friendly and helpful. I never felt than anyone tried to be rude. The cab drivers were the only ones that did not know very much English, but they chatted what they could. (mostly about the football matches with my DH).
Next stop Munich!

girlonthego

We arrive at the Munich airport via Luftansa airlines. Very smooth and nice airline. They give beer and wine for free.
We arrive and my mother in law and my DH's two cousins are waiting for us. There is no security checking us into the new country. (As a matter of fact, our only stamp is leaving Paris to go to the US and the US entry stamp, disappointing).
One of the cousins came from the US with my mother in law and the other cousin is to be our driver and tour guide through Austria. He lives in Austria. He has rented a 9 passenger van for our trip. Very comfortable. We head to the Munich Marriott where we are spending two nights. The Marriott is very nice and new like. We are checked in and given big pretzels. (The kids and DH like this feature). Our room is very nice. The one negative is the shower door is a half the length of the shower. So, water just flys out while you are trying to shower. (I really dislike the hand held shower heads. They never stay in place and it is hard to hold and wash hair without wetting the entire room.)
Room has A/C which is a huge plus (The Hilton in Paris did as well). I am amazed that every restaurant, shop, and every other hotel we went to had no A/C. This is hard on us spoiled Americans who live in climate controlled rooms.
The Marriott is a short train ride to the Marienplatz area. This was easy and safe to ride the trains back and forth. We witnessed an elderly woman get on the train with a cane. She spots four teens with their feet on the seats and she yells at them in German and of course we don't speak it, but got the drift "Get your filthy feet off the seats you bums". At least that is what I think she was saying.. The boys immediately pull their feet down and roll their eyes a little. The nice part was to see that the elderly are respected and not beat up for telling the young what they think.
The Marienplatz is quite a busy place and there are a million shops. We shop a little and have dinner on the main drag. Food is okay. We head back to the hotel to watch another Euro match at the hotel bar. It is quite fun and we are enjoying all the soccer mania. (DH coaches the girls on their team and we all live a lot of soccer here).
One more note on Europe...everyone smokes everywhere! I can not get over how many people smoke. Coming from the US where it is not so taboo and I no longer smoke, I find it hard to be around so much of it.
I have emailed my mom who is always trying to quit to go to Europe for a couple of weeks and enjoy smoking your brains out!
Back to Munich: On Sunday everything is closed. The cousin has arranged an English speaking private tour for us. We walk around Munich and get the scoop. We end at the Marienplatz and get to see it operate.
We have lunch at the Marienplatz and then head over to the Hofbrau House for a famous beer. We let DD1 who is almost 16 taste the beer. I offer her a small glass, but she says beer is gross tasting so she would rather have a coke. Well that is good. Reminder, do not offer this one the Strawberry Daquairis with alcohol. She may love those!
We end our night in Munich watching another Match at the hotel. We are heading to Austria in early in the morning...

girlonthego

Our first stop this morning is the Newshwainstein Castle (I know i have spelled this wrong. It is too late and I am too tired to look it up!)
It is quite a sight and the views from the top are quite spectacular. I know why the King picked that spot. Like so many other buildings, I wonder how people made these buildings so long ago.
We head into Austria and go to Innsbruck for the day. We shop and walk around and take a ride up the ski jumper hill. We then head to the Swaroski Crystal Factory for a tour and shop. My MIL loves the crystal. I did not arrange any of the Austria part of my trip. I only told the cousin, I wanted to see Salzburg and Vienna. Everything else, I left up to him. He picks a restaurant on the side of the road as we head to Salzburg to sleep. The food is excellent.
We arrive in Salzburg and it is night....

sarge56

girlonthego- am loving your trip report! Looking forward to next installment.

libssmfamily

Please post names of restaurants and other establishments or touring companies when you remember or have the time. Interested in reading your suggestions of places to avoid.

Quoting you "The one negative is the shower door is a half the length of the shower. So, water just flys out while you are trying to shower. (I really dislike the hand held shower heads. They never stay in place and it is hard to hold and wash hair without wetting the entire room.)"

Don't book a cruise anytime soon... Shower stalls (no bathtubs) are very small (actually the entire bathroom is very small and has a drain in the floor for spillover from showering - it's expected). And what you dislike most; shower heads are adjustable/hand held.

libssmfamily

Also curious as to the names of the restaurants you did enjoy... Please share!

girlonthego

Hi and thanks for the responses! Unfortunately, I don't remember many of the names of the restaurants. When our pictures are downloaded, I will see if we took pics of the names of the restaurants.
We arrive at night in Salzburg to a hotel Vier Jahreszeiten. It is located across the river from the main old city. It is an easy walk to everything.It is a very cute hotel. The keys are huge and must be left at the desk when you go out because they are too bulky to carry. We are given two rooms. One larger room and one very small room for our family of four. The other three in our group have two very small rooms.
My younger daughter did not like the idea of sleeping down the hall. So I bunk in the larger room with the two girls and DH gets his own little room. (He has been snoring like a freight train so we are all happy to have our own room for two nights...don't tell).
The room has two large window seats the girls like sitting on to watch the traffic and cafe sitters below. The room is clean and comfortable. Now, the big negative... NO A/C! This is a huge downer for us girls who like quiet and climate control while sleeping. We open both windows and ask for fans (they give us two). There are no screens on any windows in europe or at least where stayed. It is hard to fall asleeep, but eventually we do. I decide taking showers nightly right before bed cools me down.
We head downstairs in the very cute and small elevator. It is hysterical and my girls enjoy riding up and down the one flight.
Breakfast comes with our room. The man downstairs is there the entire time we are and I ask him "do you ever sleep or go home?" He replies "no". Okay. He is very nice and makes a reservation for us to have dinner at the Sound of Music Dinner Show. It promises air conditioning. We spend the morning shopping in the old city while DH and his cousin (our Austrian guide) go to the Eagle's Nest. We meet after lunch which consisted of a ham sandwich from a deli and a delicious apple struedel (this becomes my daugthers' favorite austrian dish and we plan to learn to make it here.)Our Austrian cousin has arranged for a city tour and we walk and ride for the next few hours. The city tours, he arranged three, were all private tours and he arranged them. The man is not a big Sound of Music fan as we all are but he doesn't deter us. He gives a good overview of the city. Salzburg is a town that I would like to return to. It is very quaint. We walk over to the dinner show and enjoy the show. The food is okay, but the show is very good. The singers are excellent and they tell the true story of Maria Von Trapp including a taped interview she did with the BBC. I would like to see it in it's entirety. It was a very cute story. Not as glamorous as the movie, but still very romantic. All four of my family is used in the show to dance. We all enjoy this and laugh a lot. DH is a Chevy Chase look alike where as he is two steps behind everyone in the german dancing. We have it all on video....
The next morning we check out and drive to the Grossglockner which is the highest mountain in Austria. We drive to the top!....

girlonthego

Our Austrian cousin took us to the top of the Grossglockner by car. It is a magnificant mountain. We stop for lunch at the bottom in a small town. Again, I am not helpful as I don't recall the name!

We head to visit family in Burgenland area of Austria. There is a lot of driving.

We spend two nights in Burgenland with family and have lots of parties and meet many relatives. No airconditioning in their town either...

We drive to Vienna and spend the morning shopping and walking around. We then head toward Melk. We take a Danube river cruise from Kemps to Melk. This is more geared to older people. It was downtime, but I probably would not do this again. I feel that we wasted time sitting on a boat for three hours.
In Melk, we check into the the Hotel Melk. Not at all surprising is there is once again NO Air conditioning! (mental note, make your own hotel plans if you want A/C! don't rely on family that lives with A/C on a daily basis!)
The Hotel is cute and we have dinner at their restaurant on the terrace. Food is very good. I can recommend their restaurant. We wander around the town and there is loud music coming from across the river. We walk across and there was a rock concert for an end of school party. The kids were all drinking and smoking and jammin out to 1980's american rock music, sung in english. Well I would say the average age was between 14 and 20.

Sleeping at the Hotel Melk was difficult. Between the kids from the concert sitting below in cafes till all hours to the Abbey bells which seemed to ring from 5am till midnight every 15 minutes. No A/C so the windows were all open.
I slept in the car to Vienna the next day...

Vienna. It is a beautiful city but overwhelmed by the final of the European Cup being played there the next day. If you don't like soccer or football, then avoid at all costs! Of course, my family is loving all the soccer so it is not a big deal. I would like to see Vienna as it is seen normally. I think too many things were shut out to us because of the set up for the tournament and fan zones.
We toured the Schonbraun Castle in the morning and then had a city tour in the afternoon. We shop some more. The streets are packed and there are many Germans drinking at the Weiner Wald and they are singing and enjoying themselves. Won't they be surprised to have Spain whip their butts the next day!
We have dinner in a small nothing place. I would have liked to have tried something nicer, but everyone wanted simple and quick...
We then head to the top of this (well, it looks like the space needle). It is a restaurant that moves around and has great views of Vienna. We have drinks and more apple strudel there.
Instead of staying in Vienna, we head back to Burgenland to watch the final match in a small town with all the relatives and about 200 locals.
The place we are watching the match has a rock band perform american music and then they tell us there will be a fashion show before the game. I am thinking "what?" Anyway, it was a bikini and lingerie fashion show..very strange. The park is packed with a couple of hundred people. My kids and DH and their cousins have their faces painted and are dressed to root for Germany.
Spain wins! They were clearly the better team and DD1 thinks Torres is hot. So, all is well with Spain winning. It turns out the Austrians were all rooting for Spain as they are not crazy about their German neighbors.

We head back the next day to Paris to sleep by the airport as we have an early morning flight back to US. We flew Air Berlin to Paris.
The Marriott at CDG was very clean and modern and nice and yes...Air conditioned!!! We slept well and were up early to deal with the mess at CDG. Continental was very backed up for Newark. Thank God we were flying through Cleveland. We finally get checked in after about an hour of waiting on line. Security is pretty easy. My older DD gets patted down and wanded. She is cleared. We wait for our very long flight 8 and a half hours to Cleveland and then 4 hours in cleveland before our flight home to Richmond.

All in all a very fun trip mixed with family and sightseeing and experiencing different cultures and traditions. I did miss the A/C,but it wasn't too bad. I ate more pork in the 8 days in Austria than should be alotted to one person in a year. I am shocked that smoking is still so popular and accepted. I am surprised by the freedom of nudity and sexy ads. If you want to buy a magazine, Vogue could be right next to the naked lady magazine. No covers...
I enjoyed the food, but will need to shed at least 20 pounds of pork and pastries off this bod this summer!!
I think the best part was having my kids meet and hang with cousins who could not speak the same language, but could play soccer and sing songs and were willing to break the barriers to communicate with one another.
My report is not as flowing or as informative or as funny as most of the talented travlers here, but I wanted to say thanks for the guidance on even the simplest things about our trip.
My advice to anyone about to travel to a foreign land. Be open to new cultures and foods. Understand that not everywhere will have american stuff. Learn to sleep with the windows open and hope no birds/bugs/ or bats fly in..
Try to be pleasant to others in their language, and you should have a great time. Oh and dress for the weather! If it is hot, they all wear shorts too! Wear sneakers if they are your best walking shoes and most importantly, keep a journal so you can remember places and things to pass on to the rest of us!

girlonthego

Sorry, I tried to edit, but it didn't take. If you want to plan a trip with hotels, than you shouldn't rely on someone who lives withOUT a/c all the time was what I meant to say.

colduphere

girlonthego - thanks for the great report. My daughter and I went to the World Cup in Germany in 2006. I remember the soccer. My daughter, the soccer player, remembers (not fondly) the smoking in the stadiums, especially the Spaniards and their cigars.

LoveItaly

Hello girlonthego! I love your trip report, I really do. It is fun and interesting and since I have "known" you since you and your family came to SF..well I am always interested in how your life is and it is amazing how fast your daughters have grown up.

Don't feel bad about not taking note of the various restaurant names. I never do either. And it is especially hard to do I think when going out with residents of where you are visiting.

A wonderful trip (but understand about not having a/c and having to keep the windows open for some fresh air and consequently all the noise including music, talking, church bells and wondering what little "creature" will fly in the window, lol). Wishing you and your family many more trips..they make for beautiful memories!

MomDDTravel

girlonthego - thank you so much for sharing your time in Europe. One of the downers for us in Europe was the smoking. DD has asthma and it was a constant issue as opposed to living here in smoke free basically southern California.

I applaude you for letting your family make your arrangments - I am way too controlling!

One thing I did a few times and was thankful for was take a picture of the name of the resturant when we were out. No way can I remember all those names etc

Thanks again for sharing!