Every day just gets better!

Friday, November 9, 2018

Garmish-Partenkirchen

Today we rented a car at Vienna and drove to Garmish-Partenkirchen. Along the way we made two stops, (four actually, but more about the other two later.) The first was the Hans-Peter Porche Trainwerks at Anger, and the second was the Round House Antique Train Museum at Freilassing. Because the latter two are such highlights I’m going to treat them in separate blogs.

Today’s blog is about the drive from Vienna to Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

It was a great day for a drive, although much of day we drove in fog. The highway was generally clear but off to the sides in the valley it ranged from light to heavy. Occasionally there would be the glimpse of a castle or church but nothing you could really see with a photo.

The one exception was the Abbey at Melk, which had been part of the ship’s excursions but which I hadn’t seen. It includes an enormous library dating back centuries and was where the saffron grower found his historical documentation of saffron in the Wachau Valley.

As you look at the pictures, you ‘ll see all sorts of interesting vehicles. The first set are of the caravans (Class C RVs in American terms.) They are very different looking than ours, but there are ever bit as many variations. The second set is the antique vehicles. Today’s was a Volkswagen Beetle from somewhere in the 60's. It was beautifully restored and holding it’s on on the autobahn, although the driver was wisely keeping in the slow lane!

We made two other stops. The first was planned. I love the way German signs mis-translate into incorrect English. The picture of the Rest Stop shows this. The top sign in green is the typical highway sign showing that this Rastation (Rest Stop) has fuel and food. There was construction leading up to it so the yellow signs directing you through the cones say, “

Einfahrt

Raststation

Freihalten”

This does not translate to the first thought that enters an American’s mind.

What it correctly translates to is:

Exit (or Driveway)

Rest Stop

And it’s free to stop.

Now that we’ve got that cleared up, my precious readers (some author used to say that but I don’t know who. Just sounded cool)….we pulled in to stretch our legs and get something to drink. As we parked there were two tour busses in front of the restaurant (Germany’s equivalent to the old Howard Johnsons.) Inside the building was packed with Asian tourists of all ages and descriptions.

(Early reflection: The economy must be really good in Asia right now. Everywhere we turned there were bus loads after bus loads. After watching their behavior at several different locations I said to Frank, “Well, there’s one good thing about this...the phrase “ugly American” has now been replaced with “ugly Asians.” Their manners were non-existent. No, that’s not true. Their manners were abominable. I’m trying to be an observer of human behavior, noy racist. I would say the same of any other group that behaved the same way.)

Fighting my way through the checkout line, where I had been shoved out of the way a couple of times, I joined Frank at the car where he was politely telling a hitch hiker that we weren’t going his way, and we headed on toward Garmish.

Yesterday we had crossed the border between Hungary and Austria through a similar checkpoint, but the Polizei were busy examining two other cars so everyone else breezed through. Today, though, I think one of the policemen saw me taking pictures so we were the car being examined. In a polite but brusk way he asked Frank (in German) who we were...American tourists...where were we going...Garmish is our next stop...where were we from in America...Texas...who owned the car...it was rented (a 4 inch sticker on the front windshield proclaimed for all to see that it was rented)...how long were we going to be in Germany...we were leaving Frankfurt on the 23rd. All this time I’m the innocent little church mouse sitting quietly through the whole interrogation which I probably caused. Have a good trip...thanks…and we put “Lubbock in our rear view mirror.”

As I wrote this I remembered we got stopped again by the police just before we reached Garmish. This time it looked like an impromptu Border Patrol stop or a police DWI checkpoint. Cones choked the traffic down to one lane going each direction, and each car was being inspected. On the right were a number of police cars, some with flashing lights, and several cars whose drivers were being “discussed with.” A very attractive Policewoman holding a paddle with a flashing light in the center flagged us to a stop, leaned down to look inside the car far enough to see me and flagged us on with a pleasant “Good day.” Best we could tell they were doing seatbelt checks. Fortunately we both were wearing ours. (I’m a fanatic about this, especially when I’m riding shotgun...except for the aforementioned demolition derby in Vienna when there wasn’t a seat belt in the car...in spite of regulations.

The remainder of the trip to Garmish was uneventful, at least police and tourist-wise. But the icing on the cake came just as we entered the city limits. Suddenly the fog lifted and we were surrounded by mountain peaks! I don’t know anything about the geography of Germany, so I don’t know what I was expecting. I'd seen some hill tops through the fog on the way, but these were huge. So whatever it was I was expecting, this certainly wasn’t it!

And then came the blessing! The sun was just setting behind the mountains (the Bavarian Alps) and God pulled out all the stops with His paintbrush!! Gold! Purple! Orange! The mountain, sky and clouds were ablaze with colorI

Reflection: A very awed and overwhelmed “Thank you, God.” There wasn’t anything more to say, just to soak in His dumbfounding creation.

Pictures: Road trip from Vienna to Garmish-Partenkirchen