Blog catch up for October

Sunday, Oct. 3 – Went to Innsbruck, Austria for the day.  It was about a 2 hour drive.  As we were driving you could see some of the fall colors.  We didn’t have a plan, other than to go away for the day.  We went to the Schloss Ambras castle by Innsbruck. 

Schloss Ambras Castle

It was a cool, windy and a bright day.  We rode a couple of cable cars up to Hafelekar, which is a ski mountain next to Innsbruck.  We then hiked to the peak of Hafelekarspitze, which was about 100 meters above the top of the cable car.  The incline was 70% to the top.  This was a very steep mountain.  Don’t think we’ll be skiing down that one this winter!!   From the top of the mountain you could see the city of Innsbruck and you could see some of the Olympic venues from 1976.  Sunday was not a good day to go to Innsbruck, since most of the shops and cafés were closed.  They have less open there than we have open in Munich on Sundays.

Innsbruck

The peak of Hafelekarspitze

As we were dropping of the car at Central Station (Hauptbahnhof) in Munich, there was another shocking sight, something you don’t see every day.  Two young girls, in their 20’s, had dropped their pants and were relieving themselves right on the sidewalk outside the entrance to the garage.  Unbelievable!!!  Maybe one of these days I won’t be shocked at what I see, but I doubt that!!   We guessed that they had just left the Oktoberfest and were on their way to the train station.

Monday, Oct. 4 – Jay and I went to Oktoberfest one more time since it was the last night.  We went about 9:00 p.m. so we could go into the tents and hear the bands. The crowd wasn’t too bad considering what they were like earlier.  Jay and I decided that it was much more fun when you have a table and you are with a group. 



U Bahn station during Oktoberfest



U Bahn Station after Oktoberfest



We are still waiting for our things from the US.  We understand that they are in Germany and due in Munich on Friday.  Who knows how long it will take for them to deliver.  They will probably deliver our shipment next week, since Jay will be out of town.  Once again he will miss all the fun of unpacking!!

Tuesday, Oct. 5 – Monday, Oct. 11 –  Jay has been busy at work and I’ve been exploring the city and trying not to get too lost.  We don’t have our internet connected up yet, so one of our neighbors is letting us use theirs. 

Our US shipment arrived in Munich on Friday and we were scheduled for delivery on Monday, which didn’t happen, so we hoped for Tuesday.  Our US shipment did arrive and it is really great to have our things.  Our home internet and phone are also scheduled for Tuesday, we’ll see what happens.

 

Jay is in Italy so he gets out of unpacking once again.  He seems to always be away for that part of the move.  He was at a chemical plant located near Siracusa, Sicily.  Jay’s trip to Italy was a busy one for him.  He didn’t have much time to do any site seeing.  The town of Siracusa was nice and the group he was with ate at some nice restaurants.  One was a small mom and pop restaurant.  The house wine was in a large crock with a spigot in the corner of the restaurant.  If you needed more wine the owner with fill a pitcher from the crock and put it on your table.  The food was great and inexpensive.



Siracusa Restaurant

We continue our search of Mexican restaurants and we went to a place called Pappasito’s.  The chips were not the best since they have some kind of salty mixture on them, but the salsa was hot.  Even Jay said the salsa was hot.  The fajitas were good and Jay said the margarita was OK.  Jay and I think that they have salty chips to make you thirsty so you buy more drinks.

We went for a bike tour around Munich.  The tour lasted about 3 hours and we learned a little bit more about Munich.  The tour stopped at a beer garden for a snack.  We had a beer and half a chicken.  Now we really can’t wait for our bikes.  It was so much nicer riding bikes than walking.

After living in the apartment for a few weeks, I now know I should have packed different.  The “furnished apartment” doesn’t have much in the kitchen for cooking, serving or baking.  There are no casseroles and only one frying pan.

The end of October Jay and I traveled by train to Zurich Switzerland for a long weekend.  It was about a 3.5 hour ride.  Zurich is located on the end of Lake Zurich with a great view of the Alps.  It is an expensive place.  We found a small non-tourist local restaurant.  We knew it was a local place because the same 6 or 7 people we saw the previous evening were there the next night in their same chairs.  The prices were reasonable at this restaurant compared to some of the tourist places.

Local Zurich restaurant

We took the Classic Trolley tour around the city.  We stopped at the Fraumunster church that has Marc Chagall windows in it. The St Peters church was located nearby, which has the largest clock face in Europe.   The Bahnhofstrasse is the main shopping zone situated in the center of the city, which has many high end fashion stores and boutiques.  The Swiss National Museum is located in Zurich.  They had a whole section on the Swiss army knife.



Trolly Tour

 

St Peter's Church

 

Fraumunster Church with Chagall windows



 

Swiss Army Knife

We took an inclined train, Uetliberg, to the top of a hill outside of Zurich.  Then we climbed to the top of Uto Kulm, a three legged tower, for a great view of the city, lake and the Alps.  We went on a boat ride on the lake.

View of Zurich from Uto Kulm

We went to the Lindt Chocolate factory outlet and you could smell the chocolate as soon as you got off the bus.  Jay bought chocolate for the PLC support staff in TN and NJ.  This is a Christmas tradition for him to send them chocolates.  We also bought some for ourselves and to send to our relatives in the US.  The chocolate in Europe tastes very different from what we get in the US.  It’s creamy and not as sweet.



Lindt Chocolate Factory from the boat ride



On one of the days we took a train to the Rhine Falls, which is in northern Switzerland near the German border.  The falls are the largest in Europe.  The falls are 150 meters wide and 23 meters tall.  (You will have to start learning the metric units like we are.)  There is a 16^th century fortress above the falls.  As we started climbing to the top, we started counting the stairs, which were over 400.  It was a definite work out getting to the top.



Rhine Falls with fortress overlooking the falls