File under: skiing, Alps, torture

Posted on January 18, 2013 by admin

We are beach people. Ever since I can remember, my life has included lovely trips to the beach. Not every summer, but often.

We are not ski people. I’d skied twice before ever in my life, about a decade ago. Dan has skied a few times. For Jo, Benjamin & Liam, this was their first time.

We have no idea what we’re doing. And I mean that in a grand sense — not just on the slopes. We are complete novices, utterly clueless. We know nothing. For instance, we didn’t know that renting skis, getting on a bus and going to a ski lesson is one of the levels of hell. There’s just so much stuff, and it’s all awkward and unwieldy. The boots are horrible to walk in and everywhere you walk is slippery. The kids can’t carry their own stuff and all the skis and boots and things are in addition to all the normal day-out-of-the-house stuff you need. It’s a nightmare. We were all exhausted before we even got to our lesson.

I’m sure there are ways to make it easier. It reminds me of going for a day at the beach . . . only this was our first time, so I think we got everything wrong. With the beach, over the years, we’ve learned. We know what to bring and what to leave, we know how to pick a place that’ll be as convenient as possible, we know what parts are going to be hard and in what ways. We don’t know any of that about skiing. We don’t know how to make it easier or how to prepare ourselves for the hard parts.

Liam never even got on his skis. He fell apart pretty much as soon as we arrived for our lesson and although he recovered, he opted out of participating. He & Dan spent the length of the lesson in the hotel lounge next door, being warm.

Jo, B & I endured two hours of torture known as a “beginner ski lesson”. Although we all learned at least a little something, and watching B experience (and enjoy) skiing for the first time was pretty wonderful, it was a rough two hours. Physically, it’s tough — just standing in ski boots for a few hours is a challenge, and trying to make the skis do what you want is harder and takes muscles I don’t typically use. It was made worse by having an instructor who was unenthusiastic about teaching children and beginners. I starting checking the time about 20 minutes in to the 2 hour lesson. We got through, but it was not a great time. (Except for B, who truly enjoyed himself. He especially liked the “bumps” — little moguls. When Jo & I tried that, we fell over. B has no fear.)

While Dan & Liam warmed up inside, one of the other ski school instructors came in to get one of the other kids warmed up. They all chatted a bit, and Dan ended up asking her, “This is so hard. There’s so much stuff, and managing it with the kids is so hard. How do people do this?” And she said, “You suffer.”

Which answers that.

But also, people here who bring their kids skiing seem to have mostly separate vacations. The parents drop the kids off at the ski school in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon. The school even provides lunch. It’s like daycare, with skiing. The parents go and have grown up skiing time, and the kids have their own thing. That’s really not what I want. I want us to spend the time together, even if it’s not totally exciting for all of us. (Although after today, I certainly understand their choice a little better.)

B seems to like skiing, so I don’t think we’re done. (Talking to him this evening about sone logistics for the next few days, he actually said, “Oh Mommy, NOTHING could stop me from skiing!”) We’ll do some more tomorrow, and we’ll see what else our weekend holds. If we keep this up, we’ll get better at it — and not just at the skiing. It HAS to get easier. Because today was really hard, and we were literally huffing, puffing and groaning as we hiked back up the hill to our hotel this afternoon. The skiing part was kind of fun though, and I certainly get why the sport is attractive — this is a beautiful place, and I do love being outside to enjoy it. I just wish we didn’t have to “suffer” to enjoy it.

Ski time!

Posted on January 17, 2013 by admin

We woke up this morning to several fresh inches of snow in Vienna, and more falling. It was a perfect day for heading to the Alps to go skiing . . . which works out, because that’s exactly what we had planned for this weekend. It was pretty exciting to have plans that agreed so well with the weather.

We finished the packing and trekked snowily off to the train station. (Apparently there was enough snow today to snarl Vienna’s roads, and the mountains were even worse — glad we were taking the train!)

It was a perfect day for an Austrian train adventure. We were all nice & cozy on the train while we watched the snowy world go by. Although there was so much snow falling, on the ground and being kicked up by the train, that certain parts of the trip just looked like white on white.

We’re pretty seasoned in train travel with the kids, but we had never ridden in an enclosed compartment, which we got to try today. It was excellent. The compartment had 6 seats, and unless there was not a single other seat on the train, it was pretty unlikely that anyone was going to choose the empty spot in our compartment. So, we got a whole little room to ourselves for the entire trip. We could talk, the boys got to watch some shows on the iPad and play angry birds (with sound!). We even played catch for a little while. And when Liam fell asleep, we were all quiet so he could rest. It was nearly a 5 hour trip, but it was the best and easiest train trip we’ve had so far.

Until the part at the end, when Dan, who was repacking everything in the suitcases, hit his head on a reading light and cut himself. (Requiring our first task in Alpbach to be finding a doctor to glue Dan’s forehead back together. He really is fine now.)

From what we can tell (in the dark), Alpbach is darling and surrounded by mountains . . . which we will be sliding down tomorrow. I’m a little freaked out. They still have their Christmas lights up here, which is awesome.

It’s certainly been an adventure so far.

Italia with a side of Mina

Posted on January 11, 2013 by admin

Italy is a place I’ve always dreamed of going. Even back when the thought of travelling outside of the US was scarier to me than it was exciting, Italy was on the (very short) list of places I knew I wanted to go . . . someday. I think my enthusiasm grew from my interest in the Renaissance and Reformation eras of history and a fascination with the art in and from Italy (even though I really know nothing about art). That, and pizza. It seemed like if all that good stuff came from one place, it would be worth checking out.

But, after spending our first summer here in Vienna, I was pretty certain I was not going to venture any further south in the summer months, unless it involved sitting on a beach somewhere. The European notions of handling summer heat, largely without air conditioning, don’t work very well for me, and I figured that if I couldn’t handle that at a northern latitude, venturing to Italy during warm weather didn’t make a lot of sense.

Our initial plan had been to see Italy this past December, so we could enjoy the festivity of Rome and the Vatican once everything was done up for Christmas. Though when I sat down to plan that trip, back in the fall, I realized that December is one of my favorite months of the whole year HERE, so why would I want to leave?

But now, we’re really going. The trip to Italy has been planned. We’re going in February (cool weather, few crowds). We started off (as we often do) with an overly ambitious wish list of destinations: Rome, Florence, Siena, the Cinque Terre, Venice. From experience, I’ve learned that trying to manage that in a week, with the kids, would be miserable for all of us. So, we narrowed it down to three, and then decided to limit ourselves to just two, so we can really enjoy them, slow down, relax and have a great time, with no pressure.

So, we’re going to Rome, and then to Venice. Because I can’t imagine a trip to Italy that didn’t include Rome, and Venice seems so beautiful, and so romantic that I didn’t want to miss it (not to mention we literally have to travel through it to get anywhere else in Italy). We’re taking the train the entire way — the overnight train (our first) from Vienna to Rome, a train from Rome to Venice and then the overnight home to Vienna. We have plans to see a lot of the sights in Rome, to ride on a gondola in Venice, and to eat a ton of Italian food. (Benjamin is overjoyed that we are going to the country that invented pizza. We’ve promised him pizza and gelato every day.) I am super excited.

And, we get to bring Jo along with us on this adventure. And then, to make it all even more exciting, my sister, Amanda (or “Mina”, to the kids) is coming over to join us for our trip. We are all so excited. The kids did a happy dance (quite literally) when I told them she was coming. Seeing Italy is a dream come true, and being able to do it with my family makes it even better. Looking forward to Italy!

Salzburg, Bavaria and Tirol highlights

Posted on October 23, 2012 by admin

I wanted to share a list of some of our favorite, not-to-be-missed sights and places that we enjoyed on our trip last week. We travelled to Salzburg, including some of the mountains south of the city, then north and west to the Munich area, and finally south again to the area near Füssen (in Germany) and Reutte (in Austria).

Grubsteighof and the surrounding area We had a fantastic time staying at this little guest house/organic farm. The kids loved visiting with the cats, bunnies, goats and chickens, and we were invited to watch the cows get milked. There was a nice play area for the kids, and the apartment we had was lovely with amazing views for daytime and for stargazing at night. We also got to enjoy fresh eggs and milk from the farm anytime we wanted, and the farm was close to everything we wanted to see, as well as being a perfect jumping off place for wandering and exploration. (As a note, we found them through booking.com and I can’t find a website that directly contacts the farm, so I’ll just provide that one.) Our hosts did not speak a lot of English. We managed to get by with their little bit of English and our “bisschen” Deutsch, but without ANY German, it might have been a challenge.

Salzburg We had a really nice time visiting Salzburg. We went for the Rick Steves’ walking tour one day which wore us out nicely, but I wish we’d had a second day to see even more. (I particularly wish we’d had the time to go up Monchsberg.) It was pretty touristy, but very pleasant and beautiful (we especially liked the fountain in Residenzplatz and the Salzburg Cathedral). Like Vienna, many people speak English well, and our German was a bonus rather than a requirement.

The Audi Factory tour at the Audi Forum For me, this was the unexpected highlight of our trip. It was a little out of our way, but well worth the time, effort, and relatively minimal expense. It was pretty fantastic to watch the process of making a car from blank sheets of metal through to the finished product, and amazing to see the innovations along the assembly line. It was interesting enough to the kids, without being too long. We all enjoyed it and learned a lot. They do tours once a week in English (make a reservation ahead of time — ours was at maximum capacity). No German is needed for the tour or the rest of the visitor portion of the facility.

Neuschwanstein Castle This is absolutely not to be missed for anyone traveling in Bavaria. The castle is fantastically picturesque, with an interesting history and gorgeous surroundings. However, I wouldn’t recommend the actual tour to anyone with small kids. The tour is short, but not good for anyone who won’t be captivated by a handheld audio tour. We also enjoyed Linderhof, which was nearby, but if you only had the time or inclination to see one castle in Bavaria, I’d recommend Neuschwanstein. It was also very tourist-friendly, with signs in both English and German. If you decide to do a tour, you can also book your tickets ahead of time which substantially reduces your waiting time. I had read several places that you could only book your tickets 24 hours in advance, but I reserved about a week ahead without any problem.

Tom Tom vs. Garmin Nuvi

Posted on October 22, 2012 by admin

For each of our last two trips, we rented cars, and both times, we rented a GPS to take along. It added to the cost, but we were glad to have had them. It was less expensive than turning on data roaming every time we would have needed it, and having one provided a massive peace of mind when traveling as a family — we knew we wouldn’t get hopelessly lost, we knew we could always find a gas station or something to eat nearby. It was well worth the cost.

On our trip in Scotland, we used it to find a hotel when we were having to pull over every 20 minutes so B could be sick. We used it to find our way to interesting looking places, and to get us home again, when we decided to get lost on purpose. And it was super helpful in estimating how long a trip will take. Before we went, we had heard several cautionary tales about how long it took to get everywhere in England and Ireland and about how much it was going to mess up our plans to constantly underestimate travel times — we ended up having no trouble with that at all, even when we decided, on a whim, to turn off on the scenic route to Edinburgh, when we chose to skip one of our planned destinations in the Cotswolds, or when we had to detour due to a closed motorway driving from York to London.

On our UK/Ireland trip, we had a Tom Tom, and certain things about it drove me crazy — the touch screen wasn’t sensitive enough and it was hard to get the volume right (it was always waking the kids up). But, after our recent Austrian/German trip, I regretted every word I’d ever said against it. The Garmin Nuvi we had on this most recent trip was terrible for our purposes, and it really made me appreciate the Tom Tom.

With the Tom Tom, finding and using the features was pretty easy. The day/night setting was easy to find, zooming out and/or switching to an overview north/south geographic map view happened the way I thought it should and gave me the results I wanted. The verbal directions it gave were clear and well-timed. It warned us about speed cameras (which was kind of cool but not needed, since we were traveling on unfamiliar roads — and I’m also unsure about whether the Garmin would have provided the same information if we’d been using it in England). When it came time to take an exit, it would zoom in and also show us which lanes we could use to exit, or stay straight, as we needed — it was so helpful, and much safer, to know ahead of time how many lanes we had to move over BEFORE we actually had to do it.

By contrast, the Garmin was incredibly frustrating. The touch screen was more sensitive (which saved my fingers a bit) but every time I touched it, even accidentally, it would shut off our navigation to our desired destination, which was particularly uncool when I hadn’t realized I’d touched it. The German city and street name pronunciations were terrible — it was absolutely impossible to understand, since it was neither correct in German nor an American-English bastardization of the word. Rather, it used some kind of hybrid not quite German with poor pseudo-German pronunciation that left us laughing, but meant we couldn’t use the audio cues to help us find our streets or exits. (I don’t know whether the Tom Tom would have had the same issue because we used it in only English speaking countries.) Everything felt unintuitive. Figuring out how to switch in and out of night mode felt complicated each time, and I have to wonder if it didn’t have more features than I was able to discover.

Those were small frustrations, though. Of bigger concern was the fact that the display only showed the roads you were actually going to use, most of the time, rather than displaying an entire area map. That meant that we couldn’t see our other options as we went along, and I also couldn’t say helpful things like, “It’ll be the third left” because the only left it would show was the one you actually wanted to turn on. The voice commands were ill-timed (they came at the last minute, most of the time) and the image display updated slowly. We missed our turns, several times, because we thought our turn was still coming up as we were driving past it. Also, perhaps the most inconvenient, was the fact that you couldn’t see your map on a normal, geographic, north/south map. Most of the time, having directions relative to our direction of travel was fine, but in one case, there was some confusion about which Ingolstadt we were heading towards. Although we knew we wanted to go north of Munich, and looking at a map of Germany would have told us which one was located there, all we had to choose from were distances and relative direction from where we were. We ended up guessing and double-checking with the maps on our cell phones, but it was kind of silly that we couldn’t just look at a map and say, “Hey, there it is! That’s the one we want to go to.” In fact, we often couldn’t even zoom far enough out to see our destination on our directions, so we were left knowing nothing more than our next direction and the time or distance or direction of our destination. We managed, but it was frustrating.

They’re both better than Apple Maps, though. Every time we tried to use that, it took us on a route that was twice as long (or more) than it should have been (in one case, a trip that ended up taking 18 minutes was predicted to take over an hour with Apple Maps) and it kept warning us about tolls that didn’t exist. The times we needed to confirm the GPS directions, we actually pulled Google Maps up on our phone’s browser and used that instead. Other than being able to remind us that Germany is north of Austria, Apple Maps didn’t do us any good.

What this vacation needs is more cowbell

Posted on October 20, 2012 by admin

We’re home. As always happens, a week away simultaneously feels too long to be away and not long enough. We loved our time in Salzburg and Reutte (near Neuschwanstein Castle). We had some great experiences, made some fun memories, and saw some amazing sights. (And this trip gets bonus points because nobody puked.) B is already talking about the next car factory he wants to tour (Opel/Vauxhall, because that’s what we were driving on this trip) and I already have my own list of things and places for our next trip to these areas.

There are some pieces of this trip that really stuck with me — some things I’m going to miss the most and which I know will always come to mind when I think of this trip.

From our arrival outside of Salzburg, each moment included a soft, sometimes distant clanging of cowbells. The cows there actually wear them as they wander up and down their mountain fields. (It seems that not all of the cows, but just the one in charge, wear the bells.) The most striking piece of that memory for me was waking up on out last morning to a mountainside covered in snow and fog. It was like every other mountain had been erased overnight. The stunning views were gone, and all the usual sounds of wind and water were muffled or absent. But still, we heard the cow’s bells, chiming in the fog.

Just having snow at all was a favorite piece of this trip. Watching my boys giggle and throw snowballs in an unexpected October storm was pretty special.

Gazing at the stars, which we did in both parts of our trip, was wonderful. I hadn’t seen a night sky like that for a very long time, and I’d missed it more than I realized. My kids had never been able to see the Milky Way before.

This trip was mountains, snow, autumn, castles and sunshine, all wrapped up together. It was wonderful, and all so close to home. (Which also means that we might actually get to go back.) But still, it’s good to be back. I love the feeling of coming home after being away.

Zugspitze

Posted on October 19, 2012 by admin

Today we visited the Zugspitze — the highest point in Germany and also, at its peak, a border crossing into Austria (but not the highest point in Austria — not by more than half a mile). It was wild, it was beautiful, it was kind of scary.

We rode in a big cable car up to the top (over 9700 ft above sea level and about 6500 ft above the valley floor). We rode over towering pine trees, sheer cliff faces and a fair bit of snow. I’ve ridden in very similar cable cars several times before, and it’s never bothered me. I know that they’re very safe, they’ve made these trips thousands of times without incident, and that, regardless of what were to happen, it’s completely out of my hands. Typically, all of that knowledge, along with the fact that I usually truly enjoy the ride, means that I have a pleasant and uneventful trip.

Today, though, about 3/4 of the way up the mountain, I started to get anxious. It started to feel like everywhere I looked was down and that we were never going to get to the top. I was overcome with an almost irrepressible urge to drastically lower my center of gravity (like by sitting on the floor) and I clung to the handrail harder than was necessary. (How would the handrail help me anyway? I’m pretty sure that in the case of a massive structural failure, the handrail would suffer the same fate as the rest of us.) I didn’t completely panic, but I was more unsettled than I have ever been at this kind of altitude. During the ascent, we came up over the edge of the mountain and saw the jagged ridges of the Alps layered, one after the other, like rows of shark teeth, to the horizon. That was spectacular and awesome enough to shock me into appreciating my surroundings for the last bit of the climb. The kids did great the entire ride and seemed unfazed by the height and by my worry.

Getting to the top only helped a little, though. Having solid ground beneath my feet was nice, but everywhere we went and everywhere we looked, I was reminded by how high up we were. We went out onto the sun terrace where we looked down on a massive glacier where tiny-looking people were skiing. The winds were strong, but not awful, and we were surrounded by a sturdy fence. I couldn’t bring myself to let go of B’s hand, even for a second, even though we were safe, to take a picture. I wasn’t miserable, or freaking out, but I did NOT want my kids to be out there without being anchored to one of us.

The kids were hungry, so we ate some lunch (nothing scary there, and a really nice view). Afterwards, I wanted to explore some more, to see what we had come to see, and to walk across the border. So, we went up onto another terrace to see some more. The views were stunning — white, snowy mountain and glacier just below us, brown and green peaks fading to golden valleys spotted with vividly blue lakes. I guess my time sitting and having lunch had calmed me down, because I was truly able to enjoy it. The whipping and howling wind was a bit intimidating, though.

Then we walked over to the German side and I was right back to almost-panic. The terrace on that side was icy in places, and the fence was much more minimalistic. I tried, but I could not convince myself to walk towards the fence even to read the maps and signs describing the area. I was done.

So, we went down. The kids hadn’t been freaked out at all, but they were tired. I was worried about having a hard time with the descent, but I didn’t. The trip down was fantastic — it felt like flying, and I was able to enjoy the views and marvel at the ride (it was pretty darn cool). I was actually disappointed when it was over.

It was a beautiful mountain with amazing views. But, I liked the ride down better than my time at the top. Being at the base was like being in a different world — it was warm with a little breeze. We played at a playground with the boys and had some ice cream together. Today, at least, I liked the view from the bottom better than the view from the top.

Getting lost on purpose

Posted on October 18, 2012 by admin

When we travel, I try to remember to plan in some free time. I’ve found that two “on” days (days with fixed plans and schedules and activities for which the kids have to “behave”, or travel days) followed by one “off” day is about right.

An off day doesn’t have to be a lazy day or a sit-around-and-do-nothing day, though. It just means we won’t make any concrete plans, we’ll sleep as late as we like, we’ll rest for at least part of the day and we don’t have anything we’re trying to accomplish. Today was an “off” day, so we slept in, had a leisurely morning, and then went for a drive with no particular purpose.

We drove back to a beautiful lake, called Plansee, that we saw the other day on our way in to town, and B and I got out to explore (Liam was napping so we let him rest). After that, we got in the car and just started to drive. We have a GPS, so we know we can always get home, so we just drove and let ourselves get lost.

Along the way, Liam woke up, we drove to Germany, and we started seeing signs for Schloss Linderhof, another of King Ludwig’s castles. We decided to go check it out.

It was beautiful, very elegant, very wooded, and very Bavarian looking. After tormenting the boys (and ourselves) yesterday with the tour of Neuschwanstein, we opted to skip the tour, and just wandered around the grounds. We didn’t last long, but that’s ok — that’s part of having a quiet day.

We finished our visit with lunch and ice cream. The boys had their ice cream popsicles while Dan & I finished our lunch, and then we had our own cones. This was a bad idea. Not only did our kids eat half our ice cream (after having their own) but we looked like the worst parents EVER — eating our ice cream cones while our children pathetically asked for “just a bite”. Ah, well. It was a good day anyway.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Posted on October 17, 2012 by admin

When we decided to move to Europe, we made a wish list of places we wanted to visit while we were here. At the top of my list was Neuschwanstein Castle in the Bavarian Alps. It was “Mad King Ludwig’s” castle, and the inspiration for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle. It was a large part of our motivation for planning this trip to Bavaria and Tirol in the first place.

We went to see it today! And it was truly beautiful. It fits with its surroundings so perfectly, and is absolutely a romantic inspiration. It is nestled high on the mountainside and surrounded by golden-green foliage. The air was cool and crisp today, and perfect for a walk in the woods. It was exactly what I’d imagined it would be.

We had reserved our tickets for an English tour ahead of time. When we arrived, the signs weren’t particularly clear, but we figured it out (parking lot 3 is closest to the ticket office, but that isn’t where we parked). I’d heard that they’re very strict about arrival times for the tour, so we were feeling a bit rushed as we made our way up the mountain. Strollers aren’t allowed in the castle, so we left ours in the car, but since we didn’t want to exhaust the boys by hiking up the mountain before the tour, we opted to take the bus up the hill. (The buses only run every 20 minutes, but we were lucky and got one at just the right time.)

I’d heard that the views from Marienbrücke (Mary’s Bridge) are fantastic, but the bridge was closed, so we had to skip that. That turned out to be for the best, though, because even though the bus dropped us off with 25 minutes to spare, after stopping for a few pictures, we almost didn’t make it — it was a surprisingly long walk from the bus stop.

The tour itself was pretty unsatisfying. The castle is beautiful, and very interesting, but the tour is rushed, done by audio guide, and the tour guide (more like a chaperone) was completely disinterested and uninvolved. Trying to do the tour, with the audio guide in one hand and a child in the other, while climbing tons of stairs and trying to keep the kids from touching anything was a disaster. It wasn’t worth the effort.

The views from the castle grounds, and of the castle itself, though, were fantastic. The boys were mostly bored (a little post-tour ice cream helped) but we all enjoyed the walk back down the mountain through the lovely autumn woods.

We had a good day, and we got to experience a beautiful castle. I’m very glad we went, but next time I’d certainly skip the tour.

Audi Factory tour

Posted on October 16, 2012 by admin

Mostly, I plan our vacations. Generally, Dan helps me pick where in the world we go, but once the destination is selected, I pretty much decide which towns we’re going to go to, which sights we’re going to see, and how long we’ll stay in each place.

There’s usually one thing Dan wants to see on each trip — when we went to Paris, it was the Eiffel Tower; in England he wanted to “see a castle”. For this trip, our barely-Germany trip, Dan requested a stop at the Audi Factory in Ingolstadt.

Today, that’s what we did. We had to hustle to get out of snow-covered St. Koloman in order to get into Germany (yay!) and up past Munich in time for the once-weekly English language tours.

I went into this mostly to indulge Dan — it was not expensive and only about an hour out of our way — but I really enjoyed it. We saw the press shop (where they use massive machines to stamp metal sheets into parts of cars), the assembly line (which is partly automated with cool robots and partly run by people with a lot of well thought out mechanical assistance) and watched a video on the painting process (the cars get flipped — albeit very slowly — through the paint to ensure that no bubbles form).

It was really cool.

The entire process of manufacturing the cars is incredibly precise and yet completely flexible. They make different types of cars on a single assembly line, and a computer system ensures that the right parts and tools are available when and where they’re needed. Efficiency and ergonomics are the priority, and every little detail has been well thought out. Where heavy lifting is required, robots do or assist in the work. Where a human eye or touch is needed, that’s who they use, and no one has to bend or stretch or lift very far. The cars are lifted up and transported overhead to allow the floor to be open for people and machines to move the parts. The facility is massive (larger than the country of Monaco) and they employ over 30,000 people. It was impressive.

The part of my mind that loves order, organization and efficiency was thrilled, and the part of me that likes to see cool engineering was very satisfied. I’d love to see a more detailed tour of another part of the factory (I’d also love to see how a different company, like Honda, addresses the same processes.)

The kids did great. Audi provides strollers for the tour (it was a long walk, and also not the kind of place that kids should run around). The boys loved it — the robots were fascinating and seeing a car come from a stack of metal sheets was pretty neat.

Also, to get there, we drove on the autobahn, which was an interesting experience. Most cars drive at pretty normal speeds, but every so often we had a car (or a short line of cars) blow past us like we were standing still. There really is no speed limit, except where the electronic sign slows everyone down to 120 or 130 km/h (75 or 80 mph). It works because everyone strictly follows the rules. We finished our day with a drive south, back to Austria. We had a great day. It was a pleasantly unexpected surprise.

A Mommy Abroad

Our big adventure, as a family of three.

Category Archives: Destinations