The Jimmies + Laina Euro Roadtrip

9/4/2011

Venice!

This awesome trip is told in the perspective of Laina:

(I had to stay behind to work, however I'll have a cameo appearance later, you'll see)

Leaving Vienna on a gray, rainy day, I took the train westwards towards Germany, my first destination for this epic road trip is Munich, I left a day early so that I could couchsurf there one night with a really fun Bulgarian living a cute apartment, with a cool dog. The next morning, I left her place and made my way to the other side of the city to the Marriott hotel, where I waited for my dad and brother. We had a great time as the fought their jet lag at a local beer garden, and fueling up both physically and with the car before the beginning of our 1000+ kilometer trip.

On our way to Switzerland, we passed Lichtenstein (in less then twenty minutes) It is comprised on exactly one single pretty mountain. We drove through hundreds of tunnels, and we actually decided that we were either driving through tunnels, or over bridges, barely any normal roads. The landscape was beautiful. turquoise lakes with sailboats and people fishing, lush green farms, scattered cabins, and small villages dotted the road as we traveled further into Switzerland. We finally made it to Lauterbrunnen, before sunset. Lauterbrunnen is a really small village at the base of a long, narrow valley. This valley is supposed to be one of the most spectacular valley in the world with glistening waterfalls, spiky mountain peaks, and many hiking paths. 

Lauterbrunnen Valley

That evening, after checking into our hotel, we set off to explore the waterfalls before it was dark. Heading back to town, we got some beers, and relaxed together before heading back to sleep. We met a fun Spanish couple, which I was actually able to have a conversation! Yay, go me! All of our time learning Spanish and living in Spanish speaking countries actually paid off! Though the conversation I was able to figure out all the cool things to do in this area. We went back to the hotel and caught up on some much needed rest.

The next morning, we took the train and the gondola into the spiky, misty mountains. They were spectacular. Halfway up we stopped at a small village, it was unbelievable how you were unable to see the bottom of the mountain, or the town we came from, Dad was really impressed that there was a whole village up here that ou could not see from Lauterbrunnen. We continued on, up into the gondola to the highest reaches of the mountains. Jimmy unexpected let out a bust of sound, a yodel that was as loud as he could, and even though he startled me, I could not prevent myself from yodeling as well. Dad laughed and walked away, slightly embarrassed as we were both now yodeling so loud that it could possibly be heard miles away.

Yodeling

 We found a beautiful trail, and hiked up further towards the peaks. We found countless Holstein cows with huge Swiss brass bells dangling from their necks. 

Moo!

I immediately started craving cheese, ice cream, and milkshakes. The atmosphere was incredible, since it was pretty foggy, you could not always see the mountains, but when they fog cleared for short intervals, it added even more to the feeling of being in the Swiss alps. Heading down the mountain right as it started raining, we settled into a cozy coffee shop in the ski resort town halfway down, and caught up on old stories, and sipped hot coffee.

Later that evening, once we got back into we decided to explore the most amazing cave waterfalls. We sped like crazy to get there, but once we got there it was and incredible sight to see. We took the cave elevator and walked down the slippery cave steps towards the opening in the rocks. Peering into to waterfall, we saw a corkscrewing massive wave of water charging through the cave, flowing through age-old tubes and cutaways from hundreds of years of erosion. The water pounded and bounced off the sides of the walls and spun, thundering through the mountain. Jimmy and I each through sticks into the flow. Each stick ceased to exist the instant it touched the water. The water was flowing so fast that We did not get to see the sticks flow downstream, they just merely seemed to disappear. The waterfall was one of the coolest things we saw on the whole trip. Getting back to our hotel that evening, we cozied up to some sweet-smelling Swiss fondue, and some delicious local white wine.

Waterfall above Lauterbrunnen!

We drove out of the valley, and heading southwards, we left Switzerland and entered the beautiful old rolling hill country, France. Our first stop was Lyon, the food capitol of France, if there is a food capitol of France... That night, I had the goal to eat the most French, most exotic food I could possibly find. We finally found a crazy outdoor cafe/restaurant on the cobblestone walkways of a small side street, filled with people. It was a beautiful night, and the temperature was perfect. I ordered snails and frog legs! They were delicious, the snails were by far the best thing I ate in France.

Snails!

 Jimmy and Dad got some delicious roasted meat thing, and spectacular french wine. The next day, the road brought us to Cote D'Azur. After a slight delay by a minor car issue, we explored a variety of vineyards, and ate some sun-sweetened grapes, straight off the vine.

Vineyard Grapes

 In the evening, we made it to the coast and finally found a room at the last hotel. The city was booked solid. We met up with an old friend, Tomas, who we hosted as an exchange student when we were in high school. He lives in La Seyne, in between Marseilles and Nice. We had a great time, he showed us his town, and his house and property, as well as sharing a delicious lunch, with amazing french cheeses. 

Amazing French cheese

We spent our days swimming n the Mediterranean, sunning on the beach, and in the evenings going to beach restaurants and sipping tropical cocktails as the sun drops below the hills. In the night, we went to a bustling night market, full of excited shopper, local vendors, and nice music. The atmosphere was very market like, with the added exoticism of being at night. I thoroughly enjoyed walking through it in the moonlight, and helping Dad and Jimmy both buy presents for their respective girlfriends.

Beach with Tomas

We left the next morning and drove into Italy. We dove a lot that day. We found a great town, Celle, right on the beach, where we stopped for the night. The beaches were packed, but the water was warm and it was very pleasant to spend time at the cute side cafes on the beach with cocktails. The next day we headed onto the highway for another long day of driving. Today, we will drive longitudinally across the whole of Italy, from one coast to the other. Arriving in Venice, we parked the car and took a ferry out to the island. Venice is super old, and ridiculously bustling. 

Gondola in Venice

The architecture is absolutely amazing everywhere you go. It is much bigger then I expected. We spent our time here exploring the different streets, eating pizza, seeing the beautiful buildings. The food was amazing. We visited another island and watched a very interesting glass-blowing demonstration. We didn't have much time to spend total in Venice, since we needed to head to our last country, Austria. The next we left Venice, and drove north, across the alps, and into the Austrian state of Tirol, and then Salzburg, where we will stay in a small mountain ski town.

Nicky!

After a 6 hour drive through the Alps, we finally arrived into the town of Zell am See, where Nicky was there waiting for us! The town was really quaint, and was also full of excited tourists and locals wanting to spend time in the pretty cobblestone streets. After a late night out checking out the local clubs and bars, we headed back to the hotel. We woke up early, looking forward to the breakfast the hotel was lying out for us. Four different cheeses, a variety of sliced meats, granola, fresh baked bread, coffee, and other delicious treats were all in abundance as we got ready for the day's adventure. 

We were going to head up to one of only three disc golf courses in Austria. Disc golf is a game which is very similar to normal golf, but played with frisbees that are thrown into large metal baskets. After an hour hike along the top of the mountains surrounding Zell am See, we found huckleberries! One may call them blueberries, but we were excited none the less. We managed to pick a few handfuls while trying to keep up with the family as we hiked along the ridge. 

Disc golf in the Alps

We eventually made it to the first hole of the course. The course was in an amazing setting, right in the middle of a huge mountain range with blue alpine lakes, startlingly white clouds, and snowy peaks. It turned out that the first half of the course was really poorly designed, and we lost a disc, but found another in exchange! The final 9 holes were so beautiful that we had to stop a few times just to take in the scenery. Once we finished disc golf, and had a swim in the lake, we headed back to Vienna, where Nick and I are currently living. 

The last few days of the trip flew by in a blur of walking around the city, eating street food, and going out until late. Jimmy and Dad headed out their last morning, and started their long journey back to Idaho.

Rummy in Vienna

Blog told by Laina, Written by Nick!