GRAND TOUR EUROPE 2008

Jurgen and Diana, John and Pat, and Kelly and Karen, just completed a great European odyssey. By plane, train, automobile, and yes, riverboat, they spent one week on the Danube and drove 3600 kilometers visiting seven countries.

The whole gig started in Budapest. John and Pat arrived by plane, while Jurgen and Diana, and Karen and Kelly, (who joined us for the boat ride) came in by train. Then, after a great dinner of Hungarian Goulash, no less, and a night in a cheap hotel, everyone piled aboard the riverboat for a seven day cruise on the Blue (actually brown) Danube.

The riverboat operators have not yet become as adept at picking passenger’s pockets as the big cruise lines, but they are learning fast. But unlike the large cruise ships, everybody in the crew speaks English, the management seems to really have the passenger’s interests at heart, and minor (and sometimes major) problems are almost always resolved in favor of the passenger. Passenger service, comfort, and amenities are also a substantial improvement over that found on the big boats.

Between Budapest and Passau Germany, there are only about 50 miles of the river which is really scenic. This is the Wachau valley, which features the old Abbey at Melk, and is crowned by the medieval town of Durnstein, where Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned circa 1100 AD.

We did, though, spend a full day in the grand old city of Vienna, and another day in Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic. Other than that, we pretty much ran a non stop Hearts game in the lounge, but the guys did take time off to hang on the sun deck, soaking up the sun, smoking good Cuban cigars, swilling Czech beer and ogling pretty girls. Doesn’t really get much better than that.

We pretty much shut down the ship every night as well. The lounge would empty out about 10:30. The piano player would tire of performing for an empty house, so around eleven would play Lili Marleen (1) in John’s honor and then disappear, followed shortly by the bartenders. But when the Captain, the last soul awake aboard ship, would put the boat on autopilot and head for his bunk, we figured it was time to turn in as well.

Speaking of the Captain, John and Pat were invited to join him at his table for dinner on the last night. Since the other guys were frequently signing John’s name to their drink chits, John figured he must have the biggest bar bill on the ship, and thus this honor. The real reason, though, turned out to be John and Pat’s back to back birthdays and anniversary. The head steward had never seen this before on a cruise, but decided it was legit, after checking birthdays against our passports.

Diana had her heart set on a bike ride through the country around Durnstein. (John had done this previously and recommended it highly.) But right out of the parking lot, some bozo crowded her into a post, causing a nasty cut on her right arm. This necessitated a visit to the nearest hospital, where after 15 stitches and 140 euros, she was pressed into service as an admitting clerk for awhile, before being sent on her way. (Her computing skills apparently trumped her lack of German.)

But three days later when she went to another hospital to get checked, they put her into a full cast from shoulder to wrist. The way things were going, we expected a full body cast at the next hospital visit, but instead they cut off the arm cast and said that she was fine.. No charge, incidentally for either of the last two visits. Maybe socialized medicine aint so bad.

We celebrated the end of the boat ride by swilling too much beer at those famous old Munich beer halls, the Lowenbrau Keller, and the Hofbrau Haus. We then sent Karen and Kelly on their way, rented a car, and set off on a 3600 kilometer journey through 5 countries in central Europe. And I’ll tell you, from alpine roads at 9000 feet to the shores of the sunny Adriatic, we saw it all.

First off was a three day swing through the back roads of eastern Switzerland, the Austrian Tyrol and Italy’s Sud Tyrol (3). Some of John’s favorite haunts, by the way.

These were remote alpine valleys and quaint villages linked by rudimentary roads over some of the highest passes in Europe (like 2509 meters), where tourists never venture, cowbells tinkle, and farmers get in the hay, by hand, sometimes on near vertical slopes. One could even imagine seeing Heidi shyly peeking out the window of a flower bedecked alpine hut.

While having lunch in one particularly remote village, the waitress inquired (in German), if we were English. When we told her we were Americans she explained that she had been to America once, visiting an aunt. And where might that have been? Tacoma, Washington, of all places. Talk about small world.

Then it was off to Slovenia. That’s right, that new little country, part of the former Yugoslavia, sandwiched between Austria, Italy and Croatia.

Scenery there is fantastic, people are friendly, almost everybody understands some English, crime is low, and prices are CHEAP (2). The country does not feel like third world or Eastern bloc, more like Northern Italy. The place also is also pretty much untouched. There are European visitors, but no mass market tourism, and no Americans or Japanese.

The Julian Alps in the Northwest part of the Country are as scenic as any in Europe. In the center of the country, there is a limestone cave, said to be the largest in the world. The Adriatic coast is beautiful, and basically uncrowded. (Not like Italy next door), And the capital of Ljubljana is a charming old world city with some of the most interesting markets we have seen anywhere.

The freeways and the roads in and around the cities are fine, but in the rest of the country the roads are terrible. Although all of the highways are paved, (or cobblestoned), some of them are almost as difficult as the four wheel drive roads in the Colorado Rockies. That is one reason the rental companies charge you an arm and a leg to take their cars to Slovenia. Actually, one road in the mountains was so bad that we put the car on a railroad flatcar to finish the journey. And we did almost destroy a right side mirror, when we got sandwiched between a bus and a rock wall. We were told, by the way, that a particularly bad stretch of road was last upgraded by Russian POWs during the war. The First World War, that is.

Slovenian is the national language, but everybody under the age of thirty understands enough English to get you by. If you can handle both English and German, you are in great shape. (A number of the people seem to mix both languages together.) And as I said before, the people are almost universally friendly, and seem to delight in talking to and helping foreigners. And the place abounds with good looking girls.

Next destination was Trieste, and then along the Adriatic Coast in cloudless 95 degree weather, almost to Venice, before turning north to Cortina d’ Ampezzo, a fantastic ski resort in the Italian Dolomites.

Around Cortina was probably the best scenery of the trip. The town had changed a bit since John was there for the 1956 Winter Olympics, but the scenery was even better than remembered.

But the trip was drawing to a close, so on to Munich again and the long airplane ride home. And guess what, the two couples were still speaking.

Notwithstanding the dismal dollar/Euro exchange rate ($1.60/E1.00) we found food and lodging prices in Western Europe, (when converted to dollars), to be about the same as the US, for comparable establishments. No, we didn’t stay in four or five star hotels, but we don’t do that in the US either. Gas was more expensive but the car got better mileage, so that was about a push. In Eastern Europe, though, we could stay in four or five star hotels, and dine in fine restaurants, for about the same prices as our more modest accommodations in the West. So, despite the hype about the weak dollar, we found Europe to be eminently affordable.

But I almost forgot to mention. The Euro 2008 soccer finals coincided with our trip schedule. So every game night there were large screen TV’s set up in lobbies, bars, restaurants, and even the streets, all of which were packed with rabid fans watching the games, cheering their favorite, and partying non stop.

Europeans really love their soccer, and can get really wild when their team wins or loses. It’s like the super bowl multiplied by 10, and goes on EVERY game night.

And, of course, this story would not be complete without a mention of Jurgen’s navigation system, which we immediately christened Frau Garman. She kept us on a straight path most of the time, but did lead us a merry chase in Munich, and got pretty much totally confused in Slovenia.

(1) Lili Marleen is a WWII German army song. It was also
translated into English and sung by the British soldiers in North Africa. It was briefly banned in Germany during the occupation. The piano player was a Romanian and really didn’t like to play this German song, but would do it for me.

(2) As for Slovenian prices, we paid around 80 Euros per night for four star hotels, including a great resort on the Adriatic. One could get by for half that, or less, in lesser accommodations in small towns.

Same with food, a four course dinner in a fine restaurant cost about 29 Euros, for two. Compared with $135 for a light lunch in San Moritz. Beer is 1.50 to 2 Euros, and gas is the cheapest in Europe. You can easily get a lunch for two for 10 to 15 Euros.

(3 The Sud Tyrol in Northern Italy is one of my favorite spots in the whole world. I discovered it in 1956, have been back many times since, and it really hasn’t changed that much. In fact, we visited it four times on this trip.

It was part of the old Austria-Hungarian Empire, and was taken over by Italy after the First World War. The people, though, haven’t taken to the Italians, and retain their German language, most of the old Austrian culture, and even the German place names.

THE END

Edmonds WA. July 2008