Our First European Holiday Trip

It is Spring Break for the kids and they were off school from 11-April thru 26- April. From 18-April to 25-April we took our first real European Holiday.

Pam did all of the planning for the trip while Alex and Austin each took a city and it was their job to provide the 'tours' for that day. They did the research - picked the spots we would visit and provided details as to the historic or local significance of each spot. I have to tell you that it was one of the best vacations we have been on as a family. Pam worked really hard on the details and the trip could not have been better. I have been lucky enough to have traveled to many locations in the world - and up to this point - I think this trip proved to be at the top of my list. The Austrian Alps are beautiful and this time of year was perfect. Everything was turning green yet the mountains were still covered with snow. The weather was perfect. Crisp and cool in the mornings and evenings and ~ 18 C during the day.

I'll attempt to recap our journey below. We also have TONS of photos. They can be found on our photo archive site. Click here to view the entire set of Photos.

For starters - we drove. It's simply the best way to experience this part of the world. Our trip took us thru 6 countries. Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, and a small part of the Netherlands on the way home. I created a Google Map, that you can view, with the entire trip included .Or You can view the Map here.


View 2009 Spring Break to Germany/Austria in a larger map

DAY 1
THE DRIVE OUT (Brussels to Austria)

Early Saturday morning we departed Brussels bound for Schladming, Austria. The drive is nearly 10 hours. We had planned to stop over in Dachau and visit the concentration camp memorial but we knew early on that we were not going to have enough time. So we decided that we would stop in Munich for dinner. Munich is one of our favorite cities in Germany and Pam particularly enjoys the Hofbrauhaus! So that is where we stopped for dinner and stretched our legs. After dinner we headed out for Schladming, Austria. The drive took us into the Apls and the views were fantastic. The day also provided us our first real experience on the Autobahn too. The Germans love their cars and they love to drive them - fast! If you get yourself into the fast lane you better be doing 200 Km/Hr or better or you're best advised to pass quickly and get back into the old mans lane. The other game we had to win was the toll road situation. In Austria you need to have a "sticker" on your car, to be legal. The "sticker" is a nice way of saying you had to pay a toll tax to be on the roads. It was easy enough though. We just stopped at a gas station before the border and voila - our tolls were paid.
We arrived in Schladming late that evening. It was dark and raining so we really had no idea just what to expect when we saw daylight... But it was fantastic. Schladming was our "base camp" and we stayed at a place called the Alpine Club. You can check out the resort and some of their photos from this link. It was a great place to stay. The staff was great and the view was killer. It sits on a hill side high above the actual city. It had a nice pool, nice rooms and great views.

DAY 2
BERCHTESGADEN - Germany (The Salt Mine)

Berchtesgaden was ~ 1 hour drive from Schladming. It was a beautiful drive too. The path given to us by the GPS NAV system took us through a few small Austrian and German towns. Our destination was a fairly well known salt mine there. If you find yourself in the area - I highly recommend the tour. You can see more about it here: THE SALT MINE TOUR. I really was not aware of the significance that the 'white gold' played through out the history of the area. It was quite interesting. The mine tour takes you deep into an actual working mine and they cover the history, the process and the technology behind the mining of salt. This mine has been in operation since 1517. That fact alone boggles the mind. It is a show that is really well put together. Everyone has to get dressed in miners clothing and the tour begins with a mine car ride deep into the mountain. The tour gets you deeper into the mine via a set of 2-3 'slides' that you wiz down from one level to the next. During the end of the tour you get on a small floating deck and cross a section of the mine that is filled with water. It's unbelievable. You are meters and meters deep under ground and you come across this small cave filled with water. As you are crossing nearly 200 meters you are informed that the water below you is almost 560 meters deep. It's dark - cold and very fun. The kids, Pam and I had a blast (ha ha) in the mine.

Our itinerary had us returning to Berchtesgaden on Day 5 so we just spent the afternoon looking around. I must say - for me - this is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. It is a small little village, tucked away in the mass of the Alps, with a great little mountain river flowing through it. Unbelievable, really... I could not wait to return.

DAY 3
BLED - Slovenia (The Bled Castle)

Bled was a fairly long drive. Almost 2.5 hours from base camp. But we had heard a lot about Slovenia and in particular Bled. There is a famous castle in Bled - one of the oldest around, so we were off early that AM to make our way south to a country we hardly new existed.

It was well worth the drive. The Bled Castle was quite fun. Like almost all are, it was perched high on a hill top overlooking the city. Bled is a fantastic little city. Spectacular views and friendly people. You can read more about the Bled Castle and its' history here. Pam took some great photos from there too. Alex and Austin got to bottle some "Castle" wine that we took away as souvenirs. The monk running the wine cellar was really good at his job. He made the event well worth while. His opening line was "a good castle always has 2 things... its own good wine and ... a ghost..." We also received a good history lesson on Slovenia too.

We had lunch in the city center and then were off for the long drive back. The drive was quite interesting. We traveled through some of the longest tunnels I have seen in my life. In two of them, we were so deep under the mountain that you could feel the pressure build up as you passed through.

DAY 4
INNSBRUCK - Austria (Several Spots)

Innsbruck was the town that Austin chose for his research project. So it was his duty to provide for all of the stops and to guide us all through town. His favorite was stop #1. The Olympic ski jump. It was quite a location. Visitors can see the entire complex from the ground and are free to climb the tower and view the venue from the beginning of the jump. Watching ski jumping on TV I have always marveled at the site - but I must say that it is something spectacular when you get to view it from the perspective of the athlete. WOW. Innsbruck is full of history as you can imagine and you can read much more at this link. Pam has a lot of great pictures posted in the album link above too. The day also consisted of visits to... The Bell Museum , The Golden Roof and of St. Jacobs Cathedral. The Cathedral was fantastic. What a site! The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around town, a short break at a cafe in the center of the old town and a visit to the Olympic Bobsled venue.

The evening closing event was dinner and a show. It was a classic Tyrolean yodel fest :). It was good food and good fun. You can see the event at this link. We also ran into Billy - a tour guide from Holland here. He was guiding a Heart of Europe tour and this show is one of his usual stops. You could tell too. The staff all knew him well. Billy wound up sitting with Pam and the kids and I for a few minutes before the show. He was a wealth of information and a very nice guy. If you ever want to take a 10-14 day Europe tour I think he would be a good place to look too. His group seemed to think so. You can look him up @ billybieleveld@wanadoo.nl

Innsbruck was a long drive - but the day was great. Good work by Austin! It was a very productive day!

DAY 5
BERCHTESGADEN - Germany (WWII Eagles Nest and Bunker tour)

This was the highlight of my trip. I've already covered off what a beautiful place this is but the tour we took here made it even more memorable. If you ever find yourself in the area you need to look up David and Christine who give English tours of the area. David was fantastic. He has a great historical perspective on the era and gave a fantastic tour. All 4 of us loved it. You can find David and Christine here. WWII Tours of Berchtesgaden. Thank you David for a great tour!!!

Like many - I was not clear on the specifics of 'The Eagles Nest". Generally we think of this as "Hitlers home in the Alps" and a place visited by many powerful people of the era. In fact - the real Eagles Nest was really just a Tea House - built as a 50th birthday present for Hitler. His home, Berghof, frankly was a much more significant historical location. Hitler rarely went to the Eagles Nest. He was claustrophobic, and afraid of heights - both of which made the journey to the Eagles Next less than comfortable for him. It is thought that he may have visited it only 10-12 times. What was more astounding were the underground bunker system that we toured. If you are an engineer or even close to wanting to be one - these bunkers will blow your mind. Obersalzberg, in general, was a Nazi haven. Many of Hitlers staff had homes there and, as many of us know,- it was really a potential "last stand" location from which to continue the war. I'm actually ashamed to state that I probably learned more about the reality of WWII and specifically the Nazis, in a 3 hour tour than I did throughout all of my studies. Some consider, and now I would agree, Obersalzberg to be really the cradle of the NSDAP and the beginning of Hitlers rise to power. The Germans, it seems, still don't like to talk much about the era. Many of the most historic sites were torn down after the Americans left in ~ 1995. The Berghof, the Platerhof Hotel, and several other buildings we all destroyed - and done so by the Germans. I found it hard to believe that such historic locations would be swept away - but alas - they were.

I could go on for days - but suffice it to say there is so much I don't understand about this time - that I thought I did understand - that I have a new found interest in the rise and fall of Nazi Germany and the history behind it. The impact WWII had on all of us started, in many ways, on the mountain we visited - and it left all of us (even the children) at a loss for words.

Day 5 was my favorite. Thank you Pam for setting it up!

DAY 6
SALZBURG -Austria (The Hills are alive....)

Salzburg was Alex's chosen city. She did the research and set up a great tour for all of us. We saw everything from Mozart's birthplace, the Salzburg Museum, and the Fortress, to the oldest street in the city, an amazing cathedral and much much more. The weather started out crummy - but it quickly turned sunny and we spent most of the day here. The amount of history packed into one small city is quite amazing. If you want to learn more you can start by reading about the city at this link. Alex followed a famous tour from a Rick Stevens book. She had all the spots picked out and did a professional job at taking us through all of it. Thanks to Aunt Kathey and Uncle Keith for the book. It is a great reference. I suspect that we could have stayed there for 2 days. It was a lot of fun.

DAY 7
Dachau - Germany (Concentration Camp)

I think it goes without saying that this is a must see if you are in or around Munich. I don't have a lot of commentary here because there is no way I could do this historic site justice. We spent nearly 3 hours here and it was something else. Take a minute and you can check out the web site for the camp. Dachau Concentration Camp. The memorial is very well done and there is a wealth of information here. A year ago, we had visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. It is a very well done memorial - but being in Dachau is something that cannot be replicated in DC. It's worth stating that while the Jewish loss was enormous - you learn quickly, while visiting the camp, that the impact was much further reaching than just that. People from all over Europe were impacted, Germans included... Dachau was camp number 1 of what became a massive infrastructure of the Nazi attempt to rule by fear. It was quite a place.

DAY 8
The Trip Home

The final day was a long drive home from Munich to Brussels. It was a great trip home, actually. The kids were good and we had a lot of fun playing the "My father owns a grocery store..." to pass the time. We arrived back home at about 17:30 and everyone was ready to relax.....