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Many people have ideas of how they would like to commemorate a milestone birthday. I had no such plans for my 50th and was feeling a bit blue because I was going nowhere special or doing anything out of the ordinary for my birthday in April 2009. Imagine my surprise, when my birthday rolled around and I received an email from my old friend, Renate, who lives in Germany, not only inviting me over but gifting the whole trip to me for my birthday! I had to read the e-mail a few times before it sunk in.
I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany around 10:15 AM on September 19th. I breezed through Customs and found Renate waiting for me. We spent the next two hours on the road heading to our first destination – Heidelberg, Germany. We toured the Heidelberg Castle where we saw the biggest barrel ever made to contain beer or wine; strolled thru the town and had lunch in a beautiful garden restaurant and stopped for Italian ice cream. It was a lovely place. In one of the squares, Andre Riel, a violinist I’ve seen a few times on PBS, was setting up for a concert. Then it was time to head back to Renate’s home in Winnenden near Stuttgart. We spent the evening relaxing and having a barbecue with her family, which includes her husband Dr. Frank Marschall and her three lovely children.
Our real first day on the road took us to the Oktoberfest in Munich (spelled Munchen in Germany). Renate bought herself a beautiful traditional Bavarian dress and she bought me a traditional red checked blouse to wear for the event. We spent a few hours in Munich so I could get the full picture of an authentic German Oktoberfest. In addition to the specialty brewed beer, traditional German food and lots of happy singing people, there was also a big carnival going on. One day, I hope to go back to see the beautiful Schloss Nymphenburg Palace and some other interesting historic sites.Our next stop would be an overnight stay in Fussen, Germany. The next day we had scheduled a tour of the Castle of Neuschwanstein, a famous castle built by King Ludwig II.
After the tour of the castle, we hit the road and headed for Austria. We stopped at one of the mountain top cafes for espresso and cake; a practice we would continue throughout the week during our lunch stops. We didn’t want to pass up the chance to take in the areas’ specialty desserts or coffee. After our quick stop in Austria we continued on to Italy, arriving later the same day. The weather was in the 70s so we traveled with the top of her convertible BMW down as much as possible during our drive on the autobahn during the week.
The scenery was not disappointing in any of the countries but especially going thru Italy. The view for miles and miles were of vineyards and several times I could see an old dilapidated castle, possibly centuries old, sitting at the top of a mountain or hill. After spending one night at the Villa Marcello, we took a train to Venice where we purchased an all day Canal pass which enabled us to explore the city via boat taxi. We made several stops up and down the Canal but our main destination was the San Marco Square where the Piazza and St. Mark’s Cathedral were located.
After a few hours in Venice, we headed to Lake Lugano, Switzerland where we would be spending the night, but not before a short stop at Lake Como that evening for ice cream sitting by the Lake at a Café. We had small hopes of having a peek at George Clooney strolling around before going over the border to Switzerland. George owns a villa in the area.
I will mention here that at every hotel we stayed at, no matter what floor we were on, the windows were opened for fresh air every night. I was a bit apprehensive at first but went along with this.
The next morning we left Switzerland and headed to France. During the drive, we came to a fork in our path as we neared exits for Lucerne and Zurich. We had the choice of driving through the longest tunnel built in a mountain or driving over the mountain. We chose driving over the mountain and I am so glad we did. I felt so close to the sky, I could have touched the clouds. We saw numerous farms of milking cows and goats along the way. I could certainly understand why Switzerland is famous for Swiss cheese and chocolate.
By this time in our trip, I had become very acclimated to the European lifestyle. I was downing cups of espresso and cappuccinos every day; along with glass after glass of mineral water. The one thing I refused to try was horsemeat even though it was on many of the menus in Italy. The last leg of our journey took us to Strasbourg, France. We left Renate’s car in the hotel garage and took the fast train into Paris at 7:00 pm, a near 300 mile trip, in just over two hours. We took the underground train system to our hotel where we decided to rest for the evening.
The next morning after breakfast, we made our way to Notre Dame and bought souvenirs before arriving at the beginning of our bus tour. The tour was scheduled to take us all over the city. The really interesting part was that everyone had earplugs to wear on the ride. All I had to do was tune in the English speaking channel and I got a play by play of every stop we made. The tours final stop was at the Eiffel Tower. We made it up as far as the 2nd level. Afterwards, Renate and I decided to tour the Rodin Museum, where in addition to seeing the famous statue “The Thinker,” we also ate in one of the outdoor cafes before making our way back to the train station. We took the fast train back to Strasbourg where we spent the night.
Strasbourg was our last full day and the most relaxing. We strolled through this idyllic, very clean, charming village, went through shops and had lunch at another outdoor cafe. The people and the town were such a wholesome lot, especially after being in dirty Paris. We toured the Norte Dame of Strasbourg and noticed a message in the cathedral that read, “In memory of the American Officers, Non-commissioned Officers and soldiers who gave their life to free Alsace.”
Later that evening, we went to Frankfurt and stayed in a hotel across from the airport. The next day, was one of the longest days of my life. I was up at 7:00 AM Frankfurt time to get ready for my plane flight and finally got in my car at the Tampa Airport and headed home around 11:00 PM. Doesn’t sound too bad until you factor in that my body was still on German time which meant for me it was 5:00 AM.
Posted by Julia Spalding
Julia, who recently celebrated her fifth anniversary with Hennessy Construction, spends her days multi-tasking her admistrative duties on multiple projects and usually for multiple project managers at a time. Despite the constant pressure of her work load, Julia takes everything in stride with her gentle Southern manner (despite the rumor and similarity of voice, she did not do the voiceover for the Geico Pothole). When not traveling around Europe, Julia enjoys spending her free time with her church small group, her friends and most importantly her twin teenage sons.
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