Germany and Italy Photos and trip notes
Aug 23rd, 2006, 07:49 AM
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Germany and Italy Photos and trip notes
Hi There,
We just returned this weekend from our Germany/Italy vacation, with our 2 kids, 11(boy) and 13(girl). I should be clearing the monster pile on my desk right now, but this is more fun. However, I'll have to post in increments when I have time.
I have uploaded some of our photos to Yahoo: http://tinyurl.com/gkb7t. I have to apologize in advance for the quality. This is the first time I have travelled with only a digital camera with no viewfinder, just LCD screen. I found it very hard to compose photos in the glare. I think I'll ask Santa for a digital SLR this year
.
Since we were staying mostly with family and friends, I won't bore you with a day by day trip report, but rather notes and observations about our destinations and activities. I'll also be happy to answer any questions.
In Germany, we were in Augsburg and Munich visiting family and friends. In Italy, we spent 8 days at Lago Maggiore, then to Pisa, Lucca, Cinque Terre and Verona before heading back to Germany via the beautiful route through the Dolomites, Innsbruck, Garmisch, etc.
Trip Planning: I was pretty much out of the loop in the planning of this trip, and it was killing me! However, this didn't stop me from buying lots of guidebooks and scouring this board for information. We were guests of my MIL in Germany and guests of our friends at Lago Maggiore, and they really wanted to show us around. Also, DH was born and raised outside of Augsburg, and we have done most of the typical attractions in Southern Germany on previous visits.
Weather: The European heat wave subsided before we arrived. However, in its place we were greeted with rain and temperatures in the 60'sF. This was the theme during most of our trip. Stormy, rainy and cool with brief patches of sunshine. We had to cancel several of our day trips because of this, but we still had a great time.
That's all for now, back to work!
We just returned this weekend from our Germany/Italy vacation, with our 2 kids, 11(boy) and 13(girl). I should be clearing the monster pile on my desk right now, but this is more fun. However, I'll have to post in increments when I have time.
I have uploaded some of our photos to Yahoo: http://tinyurl.com/gkb7t. I have to apologize in advance for the quality. This is the first time I have travelled with only a digital camera with no viewfinder, just LCD screen. I found it very hard to compose photos in the glare. I think I'll ask Santa for a digital SLR this year
.Since we were staying mostly with family and friends, I won't bore you with a day by day trip report, but rather notes and observations about our destinations and activities. I'll also be happy to answer any questions.
In Germany, we were in Augsburg and Munich visiting family and friends. In Italy, we spent 8 days at Lago Maggiore, then to Pisa, Lucca, Cinque Terre and Verona before heading back to Germany via the beautiful route through the Dolomites, Innsbruck, Garmisch, etc.
Trip Planning: I was pretty much out of the loop in the planning of this trip, and it was killing me! However, this didn't stop me from buying lots of guidebooks and scouring this board for information. We were guests of my MIL in Germany and guests of our friends at Lago Maggiore, and they really wanted to show us around. Also, DH was born and raised outside of Augsburg, and we have done most of the typical attractions in Southern Germany on previous visits.
Weather: The European heat wave subsided before we arrived. However, in its place we were greeted with rain and temperatures in the 60'sF. This was the theme during most of our trip. Stormy, rainy and cool with brief patches of sunshine. We had to cancel several of our day trips because of this, but we still had a great time.
That's all for now, back to work!
Aug 30th, 2006, 08:04 AM
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Thanks for you kind words. I started the Augsburg and Munich segment, but when I went to preview, it was gone. I’ll try to eke out a few hurried paragraph’s again.
Augsburg
Perhaps I’m just sentimental, but I really love this little city. I think it is worth a stop for anyone traveling along the Romantic Road, even if it’s just for a “Radler” on Rathausplatz, or some Kaffee und Kuchen at Café Eber . ( www.cafe-eber.de). There is great shopping along the cobblestoned pedestrian zone, from the multi-level Karstadt Department Store, to the many smaller specialty shops. We always stop in the little wine shop (forgot the name) to buy the Augsburg-made Williams mit Bienenhonig – Pear and Honey Schnapps. We were there for the Saturday Farmer’s Market. There is also a very nice Christmas Market during the holiday season.
That’s all from the Augsburg Chamber of Commerce. You can read all about the historical monuments in any German guidebook. On to Munich.
Augsburg
Perhaps I’m just sentimental, but I really love this little city. I think it is worth a stop for anyone traveling along the Romantic Road, even if it’s just for a “Radler” on Rathausplatz, or some Kaffee und Kuchen at Café Eber . ( www.cafe-eber.de). There is great shopping along the cobblestoned pedestrian zone, from the multi-level Karstadt Department Store, to the many smaller specialty shops. We always stop in the little wine shop (forgot the name) to buy the Augsburg-made Williams mit Bienenhonig – Pear and Honey Schnapps. We were there for the Saturday Farmer’s Market. There is also a very nice Christmas Market during the holiday season.
That’s all from the Augsburg Chamber of Commerce.
You can read all about the historical monuments in any German guidebook. On to Munich.
Aug 30th, 2006, 08:26 AM
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Munich
As I have mentioned, we have done most of the typical Munich tourist sites (including Oktoberfest) on previous visits. I would have liked to stop in at Sommerfest, or take the Mike’s Bikes tour, but the miserable weather settled those issues.
Allianz Arena Tour
For those readers whose eyes glaze over at the mention of soccer, you can skip to the next paragraph. However, since most Saturday mornings in our California home start at 6:30 am with a Bundeslinga game on German TV, this was a “must-see” for us. We took the “business tour”, which was about €10 pp, and allowed us to see the club level seats and lounges. There is a short video showing the building of the arena, then the tour which included all 3 levels of seating, the club rooms, the locker and press rooms and players’ entrance. They were getting ready for the opening game the day we were there and it was very interesting. We then spent way too much money in the Bayern München MegaFan Shop.
After the tour, we were off to meet friends for lunch at the Erdinger Weißbrau Gasthaus in the Großhadern section of Munich. This restaurant is another sentimental favorite of ours, serving authentic Bavarian food at really reasonable prices. It is tucked away in a residential neighborhood, and I don’t believe in any guidebook or tourist route.
The rest of our time in Germany was spent visiting with friends and relatives. Next segment--- on to Italy, driving through 5 countries in 4.5 hours.
As I have mentioned, we have done most of the typical Munich tourist sites (including Oktoberfest) on previous visits. I would have liked to stop in at Sommerfest, or take the Mike’s Bikes tour, but the miserable weather settled those issues.
Allianz Arena Tour
For those readers whose eyes glaze over at the mention of soccer, you can skip to the next paragraph. However, since most Saturday mornings in our California home start at 6:30 am with a Bundeslinga game on German TV, this was a “must-see” for us. We took the “business tour”, which was about €10 pp, and allowed us to see the club level seats and lounges. There is a short video showing the building of the arena, then the tour which included all 3 levels of seating, the club rooms, the locker and press rooms and players’ entrance. They were getting ready for the opening game the day we were there and it was very interesting. We then spent way too much money in the Bayern München MegaFan Shop.
After the tour, we were off to meet friends for lunch at the Erdinger Weißbrau Gasthaus in the Großhadern section of Munich. This restaurant is another sentimental favorite of ours, serving authentic Bavarian food at really reasonable prices. It is tucked away in a residential neighborhood, and I don’t believe in any guidebook or tourist route.
The rest of our time in Germany was spent visiting with friends and relatives. Next segment--- on to Italy, driving through 5 countries in 4.5 hours.
Sep 5th, 2006, 11:03 AM
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The kids started school today (yahoo!), so maybe I will have time to finish this report:
Drive from Augsburg to Lago Maggiore.
This was a pleasant drive through some very pretty country. We started in Germany, then drove through Austria, Liechtenstein and the Ticino region of Switzerland before hitting Italy. The kids thought it was neat and wanted to stop in every country, but DH, being a male, was more interested in “making good time”. We did have to stop in Austria to purchase a “Vignette”, a tax sticker for your windshield, necessary when driving in Austria. When we arrived in Lago Maggiore, our hosts told us that we should have purchased one in Switzerland, also. However, we did not see any place to stop in Switzerland to purchase one (Austria has huge signs and arrows as soon as you approach the border), and the Swiss border guards we encountered did not look for one or mention it when we stopped for them. There is supposedly a high fine if you are caught in Switzerland without one. Maybe some experienced Swiss travelers or residents can weigh in on this.
Lago Maggiore
As mentioned before, we were guests of our friends in Lago Maggiore, we’ll call them Host Family (HF for short). Host Husband (HH) and DH have been close friends since about age 14. He and his wife (HW) have 3 boys. They live in Munich and have two “villas” in Cannero Riviera, one for their family and one rental. Cannero Riviera is a lovely, small town on the northwest shore of Lago Maggiore, just about 30 minutes south of the Swiss border. My pictures describe it better than I can in words. Our villa was an, old, stone house beautifully restored by the previous owner, who was an architect.
We spent 8 days here, just soaking in the local color and flavors. At first, I thought that it was too long a time to spend in one place. We’re in Europe, after all, so much to do and to see! However, after a few days, I really changed my mind and definitely now subscribe to the “slow travel” school of thought. Walking to the bakery for fresh ciabatti and foccaccia in the mornings, waiting for the delivery of fresh gnocchi on Saturday, and making our own pomodoro and arrabiata sauces from the fresh ingredients purchased at the local farmers markets – these are all things we would have missed had we been rushing from city to city, checking in and out of hotels, and touring museums all day. We would have also missed the child-arranged, multi-cultural soccer games every day at 4 pm on the beachside field. (more on those later)
I must mention here, that much of the northwest quadrant of Lago Maggiore is populated mostly by German tourists in the summer. The menus in all of the restaurants were written in Italian and in German. Wait staff and clerks in most restaurant and retail establishments spoke German. Even though this area is just over the Swiss border, we saw very few Swiss or Austrian license plates in the parking lots and on the streets – they were 90% German. I mention this, because it could be argued that we did not really soak up an authentic Italian experience, but more of an “Italians-catering - to– Germans- experience”.
Activities: Borromean Islands. We took the boat from Palancia to tour the islands. We had a nice picnic on Isola Madre, toured the Palace on Isola Bella and stopped briefly at Isola Pescatore (a quick-moving thunderstorm sent us back to the boat immediately.) The Palace and gardens are beautiful and the story of the Borromee family is very interesting.
Stresa – this town was the largest that we visited, and probably the best bet for shopping on the Italian portion of the lake. I found the most heavenly grana padano cheese at a cheese shop here.
Locarno, Switzerland. - This is also a beautiful town on the Swiss side of the lake. However, the Locarno International Film Festival was on while we were there, which made it very crowded. The entire main plaza was dominated by a huge movie screen, sound system, and hundreds of chairs. It was here that we also found an internet café, as they are few and far between on the Italian side of the lake. We rode the “Cardada” (www.cardada.ch) cable car to a viewing platform high above the city with a view of the lake to the south and the Alps to the west. There are also hiking trails and a restaurant at the top.
Cannobio – Market Sunday – There is a large farmers’ market and there are swap-meet style vendors selling clothing and accessories by the waterfront. We loved the farmers market and the cheese and salami vendors. However, we were disappointed in the very limited selection of art, ceramics, etc. We always like to purchase at least a small piece of art or a household item to remind us of a place, but did not find anything here.
Alessi Factory Outlet – near Lago d’Orta – Sorry, I don’t remember the name of the town, but along the northeast shore of Lago d’Orta there are a few factory outlets. I have always liked Alessi’s quirky houseware designs, so on (yet another) rainy day, we decided to check out this outlet. There is an actual Alessi factory there. The outlet store sells seconds from this factory at deeply discounted prices and first-quality items at the normal retail prices. They also have some clearance items at special prices.
Our other activities included hanging out at the beach, swimming, Frisbee, boating, paddling, playing table tennis, sipping prosecco, eating gelato, granita , talking, reading and relaxing.
Next – restaurants, and international children’s relations.
Drive from Augsburg to Lago Maggiore.
This was a pleasant drive through some very pretty country. We started in Germany, then drove through Austria, Liechtenstein and the Ticino region of Switzerland before hitting Italy. The kids thought it was neat and wanted to stop in every country, but DH, being a male, was more interested in “making good time”. We did have to stop in Austria to purchase a “Vignette”, a tax sticker for your windshield, necessary when driving in Austria. When we arrived in Lago Maggiore, our hosts told us that we should have purchased one in Switzerland, also. However, we did not see any place to stop in Switzerland to purchase one (Austria has huge signs and arrows as soon as you approach the border), and the Swiss border guards we encountered did not look for one or mention it when we stopped for them. There is supposedly a high fine if you are caught in Switzerland without one. Maybe some experienced Swiss travelers or residents can weigh in on this.
Lago Maggiore
As mentioned before, we were guests of our friends in Lago Maggiore, we’ll call them Host Family (HF for short). Host Husband (HH) and DH have been close friends since about age 14. He and his wife (HW) have 3 boys. They live in Munich and have two “villas” in Cannero Riviera, one for their family and one rental. Cannero Riviera is a lovely, small town on the northwest shore of Lago Maggiore, just about 30 minutes south of the Swiss border. My pictures describe it better than I can in words. Our villa was an, old, stone house beautifully restored by the previous owner, who was an architect.
We spent 8 days here, just soaking in the local color and flavors. At first, I thought that it was too long a time to spend in one place. We’re in Europe, after all, so much to do and to see! However, after a few days, I really changed my mind and definitely now subscribe to the “slow travel” school of thought. Walking to the bakery for fresh ciabatti and foccaccia in the mornings, waiting for the delivery of fresh gnocchi on Saturday, and making our own pomodoro and arrabiata sauces from the fresh ingredients purchased at the local farmers markets – these are all things we would have missed had we been rushing from city to city, checking in and out of hotels, and touring museums all day. We would have also missed the child-arranged, multi-cultural soccer games every day at 4 pm on the beachside field. (more on those later)
I must mention here, that much of the northwest quadrant of Lago Maggiore is populated mostly by German tourists in the summer. The menus in all of the restaurants were written in Italian and in German. Wait staff and clerks in most restaurant and retail establishments spoke German. Even though this area is just over the Swiss border, we saw very few Swiss or Austrian license plates in the parking lots and on the streets – they were 90% German. I mention this, because it could be argued that we did not really soak up an authentic Italian experience, but more of an “Italians-catering - to– Germans- experience”.
Activities: Borromean Islands. We took the boat from Palancia to tour the islands. We had a nice picnic on Isola Madre, toured the Palace on Isola Bella and stopped briefly at Isola Pescatore (a quick-moving thunderstorm sent us back to the boat immediately.) The Palace and gardens are beautiful and the story of the Borromee family is very interesting.
Stresa – this town was the largest that we visited, and probably the best bet for shopping on the Italian portion of the lake. I found the most heavenly grana padano cheese at a cheese shop here.
Locarno, Switzerland. - This is also a beautiful town on the Swiss side of the lake. However, the Locarno International Film Festival was on while we were there, which made it very crowded. The entire main plaza was dominated by a huge movie screen, sound system, and hundreds of chairs. It was here that we also found an internet café, as they are few and far between on the Italian side of the lake. We rode the “Cardada” (www.cardada.ch) cable car to a viewing platform high above the city with a view of the lake to the south and the Alps to the west. There are also hiking trails and a restaurant at the top.
Cannobio – Market Sunday – There is a large farmers’ market and there are swap-meet style vendors selling clothing and accessories by the waterfront. We loved the farmers market and the cheese and salami vendors. However, we were disappointed in the very limited selection of art, ceramics, etc. We always like to purchase at least a small piece of art or a household item to remind us of a place, but did not find anything here.
Alessi Factory Outlet – near Lago d’Orta – Sorry, I don’t remember the name of the town, but along the northeast shore of Lago d’Orta there are a few factory outlets. I have always liked Alessi’s quirky houseware designs, so on (yet another) rainy day, we decided to check out this outlet. There is an actual Alessi factory there. The outlet store sells seconds from this factory at deeply discounted prices and first-quality items at the normal retail prices. They also have some clearance items at special prices.
Our other activities included hanging out at the beach, swimming, Frisbee, boating, paddling, playing table tennis, sipping prosecco, eating gelato, granita , talking, reading and relaxing.
Next – restaurants, and international children’s relations.
