1/9/15

Hello again.
Another week has passed.
After our day at Dachau we had a day trip to Salzburg , nice enough, saw some Sound of Music sites.
The next day Chelsea flew out, I accompanied her to the airport with the extra suitcase we'd bought to get the shopping for Courtney home, plus my winter gear plus the wine she'd got.
Then I went to the central Reisendez Palace which was the grandest palace I've ever seen- even more OTT than Versailles!! 130 rooms to see.

Then it was time to join the new tour group. A smaller group of 32, not a young group!
I have the room mate from hell. I think she may have Aspergers.
There's no other single women so we can't rotate rooms.

We headed south, saw the fairy tale Linderhof Castle then went to Innsbruck which is tiny and touristy.
The weather went downhill and was wet and cold.
We then crossed back into Italy, in the Dolomites, visiting tiny historic towns.
There are apple/apricot and pear orchards everywhere and vineyards. It's very scenic but COLD. And did you note that above I said I'd sent my winter gear home??
So have been freezing.
And to cross mountains we need to drive on tiny winding curvy roads- so I'm getting bus sick day after day! Oh joy.

One great thing other than the perfect scenery and flower adorned Alpine houses that I saw was in a visit to the 'Iceman Museum' where the body of a 5,500 yr old mummy is.
He had a copper axe, shoes with soles, a bow and arrows, a hat, leggings, jewellery. Amazing.

Then into St Moritz which is a rather uninteresting little town on an ordinary lake with classy hotels and shops.
BUT, as part of the deal to get summer clients the hotels provide a card allowing free transport on anything than moves.
So today we all went to a nearby gondola up into the snow at 2,500m.
Perfect day , supposed to be -4oC there but way above that.
Some of us then went on to another mt and up another 102 person gondola to 2,900m. What a view.
Then even fewer of us went to yet another Mt and up 3 cable cars to 3,000m with a view over the town and nearby.
$180 worth of cable car travel!! Unbelievable.
I then walked down from nearly the top, with the sleeves of my blouse rolled up, and sat in the sun admiring the view, including fat cows with bells.
I think today was my best day of the trip. ( free transport helps). And no room mate ALL day.

Lots of coverage here re the refugee problem, bought home more as the crisis points are where Chelsea and I actually were- Budapest, Vienna and Munich railway stations. Luckily people are rallying to help out.

Back into Italy tmw- Lake Como.
11/9
And on we go, thru more and more historic towns, more churches, more Roman city walls etc etc.
Lake Como was pretty ordinary but had many very grand 'villas' along it. We saw where Mussolini came to grief- shot and strung upside down for people to stone him.
Then to Turin which is a lovely town. The shroud is back in storage but we saw a copy in the actual site of display. Many palaces there to see too.
Then to the town next to Zermatt ( another upmarket ski resort) where we went up a cable car to 3000m. Spectacular day so not cold. I walked down between 2 stations, then after a quick look in town ( shut for lunch break - go figure) went back on the train to my town, then took 3-4 hrs to climb 500m+ up the Mt behind the hotel. It was great tho hard work. I came down very fast as was worried about being out late and the weather looked dodgy.
Today we went on another scenic train ride nearly to Lucerne, then up another amazing special cable car with an open roof. The view was spectacular.
We are now in ridiculously overpriced Lucerne. The Lindt chocolate is double the price of home.
Tomorrow we hit Interlaken then Berne, then finish the trip in Zurich. Phew. My room mate has not improved, tho the guide got us separate rooms for the last 2 nights.

13/9
It's 4 yrs today since my Father passed away while I was walking around Mt Blanc, so I was only about 100 Kms away this AM!!

Now in the PM I'm in Frankfurt in Germany ready to start a 2 week tour of Germany after a 4 hr train trip.

Yesterday was great seeing more of Lake Lucerne, then a quick stop at Interlaken to see the Jungfrau and Eiger Mts, and dozens of para gliders.
Then we went to the capital of Switzerland -Berne , and had a guided tour of the historic sites and buildings.
It's a lovely town.

It's drizzling but quite warm.

Hope everyone is well.
Carol.