3-4 December 2024
We left the Miami airport hotel just before 2:00 and were at the airport terminal a few minutes later. After walking among concourses D through G, we decided on Margaritaville Grill for a late lunch (we shared a burger). By the time we finished our meal and made our way back to Condor, the check-in had just opened. We were third in line for premium economy, and we got rid of our bags within five minutes. After clearing security – very fast with TSA pre-check – we made our way to the Turkish Airline Lounge, which is a Priority Pass lounge. It was super busy, but we enjoyed a couple of glasses of white wine while we waited.
Boarding for our flight to Frankfurt was supposed to commence at 6:30, 45 minutes prior to scheduled departure. That didn’t even come close to happening! There was no communication from Condor as to the reason for the delay, but after standing around at the gate for nearly an hour and a half, we were finally on board at 8:00 and pushed back from the gate at 8:30. Service on board was okay – the food was surprisingly good, and the flight attendants came through the cabin regularly with water. We were able to make up most of the delay in the air, and arrived in Frankfurt at 10:45 am on Wednesday, December 4. The temperature was about 37* when we arrived, so not horribly cold and there was no snow!
We cleared customs and immigration without a problem and after standing in line for 45 minutes, we finally got our Alamo rental car (never forget the Alamo!) and were able to get on the road around 1:15 pm for a “supposedly” 4 ½ hour drive to Switzerland. Needless to say, the drive was much longer than projected by Apple Maps. We hit a few traffic delays and rain (and even some sleet right before Zurich); the sun setting at around 5:00 didn’t help either since Markus had to drive the last two hours in the dark. After 6 hours, and with much relief, we pulled into the Aldi parking lot at Brunnen – about 35 kilometres from Lucerne. We quickly picked up a few basic supplies and headed to the apartment, which thankfully was less than a kilometre away. The instructions to access the apartment were spot on. We loaded our bags and meager groceries into the elevator and were lounging with a glass of wine in about 15 minutes. We figured out the WiFi, thought we had killed the pizza oven (see December 5th), had dinner and collapsed into bed at 10:00.
Miles Walked: 1.0 (at the airport)
Accommodation: Luna Mountainview (booking.com)
5 December 2024
It probably goes without saying, but we were feeling horribly jet lagged today, and didn’t get fully going until after noon. We walked across the street to the Lidl market to stock up on food for the next couple of days, and then we went for a 2+ mile walk down to Lake Lucerne and back. The temperature was 42*, so fairly warm for Switzerland in December. The day started out really sunny and beautiful, but the clouds set in at 3:00 and when the sun started to set at 5:00, the temperature declined as well. We stopped at the CoOp Supermarket on the way back and bought a bottle of Bailey’s to have with coffee after dinner.
A few notes about this unique apartment in Brunnen. First, is the pizza oven; we have never stayed at a property with such an appliance! It’s amazing once you learn to use it. But we had a bit of trial and error. Last night, we tried to use it for a frozen pizza but didn’t realize that the temperature was in centigrade, so we converted 225* C to 450* F and set the oven to preheat. Twenty minutes later, the oven was “smoking” and moisture was pouring out the sides of the door. We immediately turned it off, mopped up the countertop, and let it cool. It occurred to us today that 1) the temperature was probably in centigrade (confirmed by looking at the manual – duh); and 2) that someone had put the pizza stone in the dishwasher, and it was saturated, which led to the steam coming from the oven as it heated. This brought back memories, some might even say nightmares of the last time we were just outside of Rome. We tried to go to a pizzeria, but we were told that something or someone had died and there was no pizza. With our limited Italian, we couldn’t determine if the pizza oven had died or the pizza man! It haunts us to this day!!
So, today, we ran the oven for 30 minutes at 150* C and there was very little condensation as the pizza stone dried. Sometimes we are smart and other times not so much! 😊
Second, the apartment has a dry sauna in the bedroom. We didn’t have a chance to use it, but it was really tempting to stay up late tonight to try it out. Anyway, getting back to our regularly scheduled program, this evening, we did some laundry – never miss an opportunity! – and started to repack for departure in the morning, all while enjoying Prosecco during happy hour. All in all, a really nice and uneventful day!
Miles Walked: 2.2
6 December 2024
This morning, we enjoyed our Nespresso coffee once again before checking out of the apartment at 10:00. We drove to Lucerne and after a few wrong turns and driving through a pedestrian zone that no pedestrians were on it because it was really a new construction access way – all the while following Apple Maps – we found a parking spot (thankfully, we didn’t get caught since driving in a pedestrian area is a real no-no!). Then, came the challenge of trying to pay for parking; we didn’t have any Swiss Franc coins. Fortunately, we had the foresight to get 50 CHF from an ATM yesterday, and we broke the fifty Franc note at the grocery store, so we had two twenty bills. There was a kiosk across the street from the car park selling snacks and drinks, so we bought a coke and got 17 Francs in change, including a 2 Franc coin (in Europe coin is king and we don’t mean Bitcoin!). We were able to feed the parking meter and had 40 minutes to explore the city. Incidentally, and just for the record, you were supposed to be able to pay for parking by scanning the QR code, but the page could not be found, so we had to revert to the old-fashioned way of paying cash. Can you imagine?!
We were really close to the Lion Monument, so that is where we started. It is one of the most famous monuments in Switzerland – visited by more than 1.4 million people each year. Hewn in 1820-21, it commemorates the Swiss Guards who were killed in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris. For perspective, the lion is 30 feet long inside a lair of 19 feet high. After the monument, we walked down Lowenstrasse (Lion Street) to the lake. The sun was shining and the lake looked like it was speckled with glitter. As we were on the way back to our vehicle, we stopped to admire the twin belltowers of Hofkirche St. Leodegar. There was a star hung between the two towers for the Christmas season – very pretty! And, of course, tourist shops selling Swiss watches and knifes, etc. abound!
We left Lucerne and drove on to Liechtenstein; we filled up with gas at a rest area / pull off (think small turnpike plaza) on route 14. So far, we have been pleasantly surprised by how inexpensive food and wine have been, but we got snapped out of that way of thinking with purchasing gas. It’s not quite as expensive as Iceland, but it is definitely close at $7.45 a gallon. Not surprisingly, Markus felt the need to research this. Of 168 listed countries, Iceland ranks 166 and Switzerland ranks 160 – it’s probably obvious, but the higher the ranking, the pricier the fuel.
Our accommodation for the night is in Sevelen, Switzerland, 5 kilometres from Vaduz, Liechtenstein. We stopped briefly at Aldi and Lidl to get dinner – we went to both, which are about 100 yards across the round-about from each other, because Aldi didn’t have any fresh pasta. After another miscalculation by Apple Maps, in which SIRI literally had us hiking the last 900 feet to our hotel, we finally arrived at the Almgasthaus Gemsli. The road to get here is beyond description – for all intents and purposes, it is one-way, made into a two-way road up / down the mountain. There are a few places to pull over to let a car coming the other direction pass, but those pull offs seem few and far between. This was a honk your horn as you round the blind corner kind of road. Fortunately we met only two cars, so were able to get to our destination with only a few white-knuckle moments!
We got settled in for the evening, had wine and cheese for happy hour, and planned tomorrow’s itinerary. We are the only guests tonight, so it is very quiet on the mountainside this evening!
Miles Walked: 1.2
Accommodation: Almgasthaus Gemsli
Footnote: When we say coin is king, we mean it! One must have coins for 1) the WC; 2) parking; and 3) the trolley at the grocery store. Everyone we saw carried coin purses to feed the various machines!!
7 December 2024
We started the day with a proper European breakfast at the gasthaus – meat, cheese, choice of rolls / croissants, and a soft-boiled egg. It was delicious! After breakfast, we loaded the car and headed down the mountain. We hadn’t gone 200 meters when we met the first car coming the other way. Markus had to reverse back up the mountain to the closest pull off – the rental has a manual transmission, so this was not exactly an easy feat for someone that drives an automatic on a daily basis! We only encountered one other car on the rest of the descent, but we did pass at least a dozen hunters with rifles and several with dogs. We couldn’t tell from a quick glance what they might have been hunting. And we didn’t see any game to provide clues. With the dogs, we assumed that the prey was not deer – maybe rabbits, pheasant, partridge, or quail? (We ruled out geese and duck since there were no nearby lakes.)
Also, on our way down, we got a message from the vehicle that the pressure in the right front tire was low. Lucky for us, there was a BP gas station at the bottom of the mountain and free air was offered! Markus got the problem fixed and we were on the road again to Vaduz, Liechtenstein. We were approaching the pedestrian area – really the center of town – and noticed several open parking places on the right side of the road. We proceeded to the nearest round-about, made a u-turn, and snagged one of the primo spots! It took us about 10 minutes to figure out the payment system, only to find out that parking on the weekend is free!! Thank you to the lady who informed us of that (in German) as she passed by our confused selves. We were so proud of ourselves for understanding and thanking her in German in response and we saved our coins (coins are king!) for another day.
Vaduz was holding a Christmas Market this weekend, and it was just starting as we arrived at 11:00. We browsed the stalls and made our way to our first scheduled stop for the day, which was the tourist office to get our passports stamped. We had our (super) old passports stamped in 1994 when we first visited the country with our friends, David, Denise, and Alex. In those days, the General Store issued the souvenir stamps! Also, at the tourist office, we bought a postcard and stamp for the US to send a special anniversary greeting to our friends John and Nancy (celebrating 42 years this week!). We continued along the Fußgänger to the Postal Museum (our second scheduled stop), where we spent a pleasant half hour looking at postal memorabilia for this tiny country. It was really interesting – particularly the commemoration of the women’s vote in 1984. We walked to the end of the pedestrian area, stopping to watch the ice skaters. We love the “fish” that inexperienced skaters use to help keep their balance. It reminds us of what our friend, Mathieu (from Canada), told us about learning to skate for hockey – children use straight backed chairs that easily glide across the ice, until they are comfortable with their balance.
Our last scheduled stop of the day was St. Florin cathedral. There has been a chapel in the area dedicated to St. Florin since the middle ages. However, in 1868, it was determined that the chapel could no longer accommodate the needs of the Principality of Liechtenstein, and the decision was made to build a new church. German architect, Friedrick von Schmidt, who completed Cologne Cathedral and also designed and built the Vienna City Hall designed the church. The foundation stone was laid on August 17, 1869, and the church was consecrated in October 1873. The church was raised to the status of cathedral in 1973.
We left Liechtenstein and got on the autobahn to München. Other than a few short back-up delays (staus auf Deutsche) when we were less than 10 kilometers away, the drive through Liechtenstein, Austria and into Germany was uneventful. A brief note about the border crossings – two out of the three border crossings that we have made still retain the old customs structures. For the most part, the crossings are unmanned and private vehicles don’t have to stop. However, tour buses, etc. do have to stop; we’re not sure if passports have to be produced for all on board or if there is another purpose.
We arrived at the hotel just after 3:00 and were in our apartment at 3:15 on the dot. Then, we had to sort out the parking. There was no parking available at the hotel (I booked the parking too late), so we had to try to find parking on the street. We were immediately successful in finding a spot in the same block as the hotel, on the opposite side of the street, but we had serious issues trying to pay through the app, because everything was in German. Between Google Translate, our limited German, and help from the hotel staff (when all else failed), we managed to pay €11 for 24 hours. We were so proud of ourselves, even though it took us 40+ minutes!
After getting the parking figured out, we made a quick trip to the Netto for dinner (chicken and vegetables), which took only 10 minutes, and then spent the rest of the night catching up on email, etc. It is going to feel really luxurious to sleep in tomorrow. – so looking forward to it!
Miles Walked: 1.1
Accommodation: Citadines Arnulfpark
Footnote: We are remembering Pearl Harbor today and the sacrifices of our fellow countrymen and women on that day. God bless the USA.
8 December 2024
We said yesterday that we were looking forward to sleeping in this morning, and we made good on that prediction! Off to a slow start in the morning, we dawdled over coffee and breakfast and didn’t get fully moving until mid-afternoon. We caught an Uber to the Marienplatz; traffic was heavy, so the short 1-mile ride took more than 15 minutes. Not surprisingly for a Sunday, there were thousands of people at the Christkindlmarkt this afternoon. We made our way through the crowds and enjoyed browsing the various wares for sale. I had my first Gluhwein of the festive season, and it was deliciously warm – even better than I remembered from 25 years ago! It started to rain after about an hour, just a drizzle, but a downer, nonetheless. We continued to walk in the rain along Neuhauser Strasse, stopping to buy a bratwurst with onions and mustard, which we shared. So yummy!
Given how drawn we are to eclectic museums, our next stop was the German Fishing and Hunting Museum. Their display of old weaponry (from 1500’s to 1700’s) was impressive and it was particularly interesting to see how intricately carved and decorated the rifles, powder horns, and swords were – 300 to 500 years ago. Truly works of art and well worth the hour that we spent there!
After the museum, we stopped at the Church of St. Michael. The church was completely destroyed in 1944 and the newly designed Marienkappele (chapel) was recently inaugurated 80 years after the destruction (see picture at the right below).
We rambled around the market for a while longer, but after 2 ½ hours, we were ready to get out of the cold and rain. We booked an Uber and were back in our nice warm, dry room by 5:30 – with coffee and Bailey’s to take the chill off!
Miles Walked: 3.0
9 December 2024
We checked out of the hotel in Munich at 11:00 this morning and had to stop once again to put air in the tire. We tried to find the Alamo rental office at the train station but didn’t have any luck, so we got on the road to Nürnberg. Two hours later, we parked the car near the apartment we are staying at (we were too early to check in) and made our way to the Christkindlmarkt to find Sarah and Will. It took us a little while, but we eventually found them about a mile from the apartment. We all enjoyed walking through the market and stopped to get a rotewurst at one of the many stalls.
We eventually made our way back to the apartment, got the keys from the lock box, and after a short break, we set out for dinner at a restaurant by the castle (recommended by a colleague of Will’s). Unfortunately, they were fully booked, so we went a little further up the road and found Zum Albrecht Dürer Haüs, serving Franconian cuisine. Markus and I had the chef’s special of Schäufele (pulled pork shoulder), which was absolutely delicious! After dinner, Sarah and Will returned to their car and we returned to the apartment. It was after 7:00 when we got back and we settled in with WiFi to catch up on email, etc.
Accommodation: Alstadt Nürnberg (booking.com)
Miles Walked: 5.3
10 December 2024
We left the apartment in Nürnberg this morning at 11:00 and schlepped our bags the ½ mile in the rain to the garage where the car was parked. When we tried to exit, we kept getting an error that our ticket was invalid. Finally, after numerous attempts (too many to count), Markus pushed the button for information, the gate opened, and we were out of the garage with €0 charge! The tire pressure was still reasonably good, so we didn’t have to stop for air, but we did head to the airport to (hopefully) exchange the car. Well, of course that plan didn’t work out since they had no cars available. The agent suggested that we try two other locations in Nürnberg. I asked him to call the locations to check if vehicles were available before we wasted time going there. He went to the back room and emerged a few minutes later to tell me that they weren’t answering – that they were busy with work. Honestly, I think he just wanted to pass me and my car issue off to somebody else.
We found the in-town Enterprise location about 20 minutes later and the agent was super helpful! He actually had a car that we could exchange for, but it was fully electric and since we are going to Salzburg, Garmisch, and Heidelberg in the next few days, we didn’t want to chance having to find recharging stations. But he also told us that there is “Fix a Flat” (or something similar) in with our spare tire as well as an air pump that runs off of the cigarette lighter. This made us feel much better since our biggest worry was that the problem would worsen and that we would end up with a flat tire and have to call for roadside assistance.
So, without further ado, we hit the road to Regensburg, arriving at about 2:00. It took some time to find parking, to get out of the parking garage, and to find the walking route to the Altes Rathaus, where we were meeting Will and Sarah. Once we were all together, we walked to see St. Peter’s and then down to the Stone Bridge.
A bit of history about Dom St. Peter: The original church, called Niedermünster, was built around the year 700 and burned down in 1293, at which time a new cathedral was constructed. By 1320, the three choirs of the cathedral were ready for use, and between 1385 and 1415 the main entrance to the west was completed. Most of edifice that still stands today, was finished around the year 1520, which was also the opening year for the cathedral.
The Steinerne Brücke (Stone Bridge) is a 12th-century bridge across the Danube, linking the Old Town with Stadtamhof. For more than 800 years, until the 1930s, it was the city’s only bridge across the river. It is a masterwork of medieval construction and an emblem of the city.
Following the bridge, we made our way back to the pedestrian area around the Altes Rathaus and the Christmas Market. I enjoyed my second glühwein of the season and it really helped to warm me up! We were scheduled to meet the property host at 5:00 so after the wine, we meandered back to the parking garage, said goodbye to Will and Sarah (until Thursday), put the property address in Apple Maps, and arrived 8 minutes later. It is unusual for booking.com, but we actually had to meet the host to get the keys. This typically only happens with hotel bookings. That said, our host, was out front at 5:00 and we got into the apartment in short order. We also had reserved a parking spot for the night, so she walked Markus down the street to show him the location. Incidentally, she spoke no English and since we speak very little German, we had to pantomime communications. But we got through it and enjoyed the apartment – with laundry! – very much.
Miles Walked: 5.0
Accommodation: The Room Regensburg (booking.com)