Europe Day 09 – Our Slightly Disastrous Day (Munich to Innsbruck to Verona (Not!) to Venice)

No easy access
Once again, it was yet another early morning. We managed to get the Internet working in just enough time to check email, write home, quickly blog about why I haven’t been blogging, and find out that H-Rabbit had passed her Bar exams. She was super excited. We were leaving really early this morning because we had a ton of stops to do before arriving at our next hotel in Venice.

Left behind (Disaster One)
Crazy thing from this morning: we left a person behind! Throughout the trip, Leona (our tour guide) has been telling us quite stringently that we have to be on time for departures because the bus simply cannot wait. Between a combination of drivers’ driving rules in Europe, appointments in different places and simply the physical time it takes to drive to each location – the schedule had to be adhered to. Well – this morning we figured out that one of our group had never come back from the partying of the night before. Her stuff was still strewn around the room and her roommate said she never saw or heard her arrive back. We were told there really was nothing that we could do. Leona left word with the hotel staff about our plans and contact information in case the person came back, she also called her head office to let them know what we were doing, as well as touched base with the local police about when she needs to file a missing person’s report. In my books – a girl alone in a strange country, in strange company – was pretty bad news, but – there was nothing else to be done.

Beauty of the Alps
Driving through the mountainous areas and ranges was quite beautiful. Just as in the UK, there are a ton of castles along the way – but it was too hard to catch them on film due to the speed of the bus and how so many of the European roads are lined with massive trees, bushes and walls.


Innsbruck
Our first stop of the day was in Innsbruck, Austria – we got there at about 11am. We saw the famed “Golden Roof” – has something to do with some rich Hansberger family thing – but I kind of missed the story for some reason. Will have to look that up when I get back. I do love the look of the town. The streets are once again cobblestoned, and the buildings really do have a specific architectural nature that simple rings ethnicity, culture an flavour. I also adore that European culture loves to "colour" their buildings rather than paint them. You can tell that the colour of the walls it either created with the natural colours of the materials used, or added to the actual building materials that create the structures rather than painted on afterwards in coverage.

Leona took us to the large Swarovski headquarters store where we were given vouchers for a free gift and a small historical lecture. We then got time to shop. The prices were okay – but not awesome. Some of the prices of the actual Swarovski pieces are actually higher than they are at home, for the exact same pieces, so I stayed away from the original stuff for sure. Instead – I picked up pieces from the secondary Swarovski line that I really haven’t seen as being available in Canada. The pieces are all by international jewelry artists that have used Swarovski crystals in their pieces, rather than pieces made actually by Swarovski. In my opinion – this secondary line is actually quite a bit more creative and unique. I ended up finding both a ring and a pendant for myself, as well as a pendant for my mom for her birthday.

Off to Verona
Besides the Swarovski store – there really wasn’t much time given to us to do anything else. Another Contiki store push I believe – but at least I enjoyed it. We just had time to pick up some fresh fruit from a stand for “lunch” and then we got back on the bus. I definitely want to come back to Austria – but probably to a few other cities. Heck – I might even be cheesy and do a Sound of Music tour – who wants to join me?

Disaster Two!
So here we are, off to Verona, which Liz is anxious for us to see because that’s where her family is from and where she spent the week before the tour at a family wedding, when what happens? Our bus has broken down only about 30 minutes into our drive. More to come…

Well we’ve been here for an hour – and the mechanics they’ve called have finally come, however apparently it’s too dangerous to do anything here at the side of the road, and we also need another guy who knows how to work with the bus’ computer system, so we’re headed to a service station. Thing is… I am confused as to how the bus is okay to drive to a service station – but not to just continue driving to the next town… I’m also confused as to why a mechanic who doesn’t know what they need to do for the bus was sent, and not the guy who does… but c’est ca.

So yeah… we have now been sitting at this service station for… four hours!!!!!!
OMG – so not impressed. I think Contiki seriously needs to revaluate their procedure for when something like this happens. We’ve been told this “happens all the time” which kind of begs the question why a back-up plan for these types of situations has NOT already been developed. Making your tour guests sit for four hours in a service station is definitely not something that should be simply swept under the rug as “something that happens”. My suggestion is that if a delay of this nature hits the two-hour mark – then Contiki should provide for some sort of transportation for the tour members to be taken to the nearest town (not the nearest service station) where they could at least enjoy the local culture, maybe find a park to sit in, and have somewhere more to be than a 10x20 room and a parking lot that looks onto a highway.

No Verona
Well – we’re finally on our way again and due to the impromptu “hostage taking” (yeah, I’m pretty bitter about this whole thing), we aren’t going to be going to Verona. We’ve been told it shouldn’t matter since stopping at Verona was “just an option and not actually part of the tour”. Let’s just say I’m ignoring that such a thing was said… because flat out – paired with “this happens all the time – just deal with it” – it’s basically put me on edge… While I actually appreciate when people are direct, concise and don’t bother to wander on rolling tangents when trying to explain things – when you’re dealing with a tour group of people, that maybe, perhaps, has members that took over a year and a half to be able to save to be on this trip, and went the “cheap” route because that’s all they could afford, and not because “they’re trying to be cheap”… there is a still a line at which some things are better left un-said all together, rather than trying to say it … bluntly.

Straight to Venice
Well – we’ve just finished our drive to mainland Venice and pulled into our pretty nice hotel. I’m less angry now, but I think more because I’m just tired and worn out and really want to just forget about it all so I can really enjoy Venice tomorrow. The “Venice” that everyone knows and hears about elsewhere in the world is actually only one part. Our hotel is actually quite far inland on the mainland and we’ll need to take a train and ferry tomorrow to get to the core of the city “islands” where all the waterways are.

Funny enough – Pride has followed us yet again. There’s a Gay Pride party going on up the road. We were tempted to check it out, but our bodies told our brains to check in early for the night instead. We had a pretty good meal of lasagna, salad and chocolate pizza, and Elie sprung for wine for our “little” table. Joop joined us as well and kept us in absolute stitches. I would kill to have had him on video that night.

Wrap up to Disaster 1: Leona came to tell us at dinner that she got word the missing person had actually gone home to the States – or so says her Contiki main office who apparently got in contact with her family members. Conflicting info is that apparently the Munich Hotel still has all of her stuff. I have a feeling there’s more to this story. (Addendum from later – Leona got a call from said missing person and said she was all right – she needed to go home – HOWEVER – the call was coming from a German number… crazy!)

Europe Day 08: Munich? More like a Bier Gaarten…

The hills are alive… at 6am
We got a really early start this morning seeing as we had a bit more to do in Switzerland before heading to Munich, Germany.


Lucerne in the day
First – we got to go back into Lucerne to see everything by day. We visited the famous covered wooden bridge, the Chapel Bridge, under which there are tons of no smoking signs since once upon a time the original version of the bridge was burned down because someone stubbed their cigarette out on it – it didn’t go out – and the bridge burned down. The town is actually very picturesque and is probably exactly what you would think a Swiss town should look like. It’s right out of the movies and picture books.

Shopping!
As per what we are realizing is probably the Contiki way of earning added money, we were ushered into a few “suggested” shops for buying Swiss Army knives, Swiss watches, jewelry, chocolate and more. H-Rabbit and I stocked up on a few gifts for the folks back home as well as a ton of chocolate! I went in search of the magnet I just had to have (of the Swiss Guard monument) and it almost made me miss the bus!

Mount Stanserhorn
From Lucerne we drove a ways out to Mount Stanserhorn – one of the Alpine mountains that we were going to have the opportunity to go up to the top of. First, we rode a funicular trolley up the first part of the mountain that was more rolling than mountainous, and then our entire tour group was mashed into a cable car to go up the rest of the way. Let’s just say that ride tested a lot of people’s fear of heights.

Fantastic views from the top of the world
Once we reached the top we were privy to some incredibly fantastic views of the Alps. Once again – it was breathtaking (I really need to find a synonym for that word or you are all going to get incredibly tired of it). The air had to be the cleanest I have ever come into contact with. Funny thing though – asthmatics and fresh air apparently don’t go too well together. Or perhaps it was more that it must have been much thinner with less oxygen – cause I definitely had some trouble breathing. I think the air was just too thin for my lungs!

More driving
After getting our fill of Heidi-like vistas, and feeling queasy overlooking ridges and cliffs with absolutely no guard railings – we headed back down. Once again – the entire group of 45 people smashed into one lowly cable car. From Mount Stanserhorn we were then driving straight on to Munich. We hit a ton of bad traffic and it took hours longer than we were expecting.

Liechtenstein
For lunch we stopped off in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. This is one of the tiniest countries in the world, stuck between the borders of Switzerland and Germany. To be honest – there really wasn’t much to look at – and there definitely wasn’t anything much in Vaduz. For a Euro you can get your passport stamped with the country stamp – however we passed up this opportunity. I’m probably being really lax in saying this – but a lot of us felt – okay – we’ve seen Liechtenstein… and there’s really no reason to ever come back.

Munich?
By the time we arrived in Munich, Germany, it was fairly late at night, and the weather was extremely bad. Pouring rain had found us again. We just had time to check into our rooms (really nice hotel this time – extremely modern!), change, and then we were off to the Hofbrauhaus – the largest beer hall in Munich.

Hofbrauhaus
Because of the weather – we didn’t actually get to see anything of Munich BUT the beer hall – which was extremely aggravating and unfortunate but there was nothing to be done. The Hofbrauhaus is an authentic Bavarian beer hall with a Bier Gaarten in its centre. Because of the weather – the hall was packed to the rafters, as all the Gaarten seats were too wet to occupy.

After a lot of running around (because Contiki hadn’t reserved us seating – we were told it wasn’t possible – but we saw a ton of other non-Contiki groups that DID have reserved seating so we weren’t exactly impressed) – we finally found some tables in the upstairs portion of the building where Chris, Liz, H-Rabbit and I were able to join Peter, Megan, Valeria and Theo for dinner.

The big thing at the Hofbrauhaus is ordering their 1-Litre beer steins, which is an absolutely crazy thing to do for H-Rabbit and I when we don’t drink beer at all. But – when in “Munich” – we obviously had to order one. We decided on a Radler – which is like a beer shandy – and others at the table ordered regular beers as well. Let’s just say that 1-litre beer steins are massive… I don’t think I made it even halfway through my Radler through the night – and we even shared with Gnomie!

For dinner I ordered a Pork Knuckle, which turned out to be one hell of a chunk of meat. With it came these really weird potato dumplings – and for note – they do not taste or feel like potatoes at all. Everyone else at the table ordered a variety of things. Once we were done – we all went and picked up some souvenirs of the night – including – dum-da-da-da… our very own 1-litre steins!! While yes – I know – I’ll never drink beer in them – can you just imagine a 1-litre Mudslide! Oh yeah, baby!

A tiny-weenie bit of Munich at night
After stuffing our faces and guts with pork and beer, we staggered out into the alleyways of Munich to try and find a cab that would take us back to our hotel. However – once out – we noticed it had finally stopped raining and quickly decided that we just HAD to see something of Munich besides the beer hall. Chris, Liz, H-Rabbit and I took out our maps and tried to figure out the walk that would take us the famous Glockenspiel.

Glockenspiel?
After taking a few wayward turns – we finally got figured out and made our way to the area marked at the Glockenspiel on our maps. Our biggest problem? None of us had ever seen a picture of the thing before so we had no idea what we were looking for. We knew it was a church of some sort, and that it had a beautiful tower with moving parts – however in our walk we passed almost 10 different church towers and obviously in the middle of the night – none of the moving parts of the clock tower would be moving. Finally we asked a nearby citizen who told us we were standing right in front of it. Let’s just say it looked nothing like I thought it would. I think I had some random Disney images stuck in my head as to what it should look like and was looking for that instead of the real thing. So we took a few pictures – and because we didn’t know about anything else we should be looking for – and didn’t want to head out to the nightclub area that the others were going to go to – we headed home.

Laundry Escapades
Our hotel was pretty amazing and finally we were at one that had laundry services. H-Rabbit and I gathered everything that was necessary to wash and Liz and Chris bundled up a few things. Good thing we went when we did – there were only two machines – and the others would be back soon trying to use the laundry as well.

Disaster struck a bit for Chris and Liz – their washing machine totally went on the fritz and locked their clothes in the machine. It took them hours to get done and I think in the end they just pulled their wet clothes out of the dryer (that wasn’t drying them) and shoved them in their suitcase.

Chris and I spent the hours watching the machines, him reading and me blogging. At one point we were bombarded by the drunken masses arriving from the clubs – but when they saw there was only two machines – and we already had them stuffed with our things – they decided to give up since even our stuff wouldn’t be done until 2 or 3am.

To note – it was a bit disappointing that really, all of Germany we saw was a beer hall. Once again – another thing we have to come back and see properly. Contiki is proving to be very much a “postcard” tour where you get to see something for a split second – but then that’s it and that’s all.