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Sud Tyrol and beyond… part three

Tackling the Leutaschklamm- Geisterklamm and visiting Innsbruck

Leutasch has the great fortune to be located in an area where there are a lot of things to do. Many people go there for hiking, biking, or perhaps whitewater rafting. But it’s very close to Innsbruck and not that far from Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I had been wanting to see the Eibsee, which is at the base of the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain. I had not been there before, but I had read it was a very beautiful lake. Then I got distracted by posts about the Leutaschklamm– the beautiful gorge walk I wrote about in my previous post. I love gorges. Bill and I visited Vintgar Gorge in Slovenia back in 2016 and it was unforgettable– and not just because it was so beautiful and we had fresh trout for lunch, but also because we walked about ten miles to get there. This time, we were smarter and drove to the gorge, although we probably could have hiked there if we were game to do it. It’s not far from the hotel.

It was lucky that we decided to discover the gorge in the morning. Saturday, August 8th, was a beautiful, clear day with mild temperatures. We easily scored a parking spot, but by the time we left, the gorge was very crowded and people were lurking around the lot in their cars like mechanized vultures. The Leutasch and Mittenwald entrances to the gorge are both next to snack bars, where you can also use the restroom. The Leutasch side appears to have more of a selection of food and beverages and doesn’t require walking through a turnstile to access the toilet. I’ll explain more about that later. For now, here are some photos from our walk.

A majestic mountain on the way out of Leutasch.

After we finished visiting Leutasch, we decided to go to Innsbruck for awhile. I went there on a bus tour in 2009, during Bill’s last business trip to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I remembered it to be a charming city and bought Austrian refrigerator magnets and a beer stein there. Since then, I’d been wanting to visit there with Bill. We finally got our chance on August 8th, although we didn’t stay long because it was really hot outside and the city was a bit crowded.

We had lunch at the Augustiner Bräu Stiftskeller, mainly because I really needed to pee. I totally wasn’t planning this, but that turned out to be where I had lunch when I visited in 2009, too. That time, I sat inside in the smoking section and the very annoying tour guide who had a voice like steel wool advised me to move as she lit up a cigarette. This time, we sat outside in the crowded Biergarten, where people were also smoking. However, it was a fun place to people watch.

As we were headed back to our car, which was crammed into a tiny spot in a garage, a guy tried to scam the lady ahead of us by dropping a twenty euro bill. He called out for her attention, but she ignored him. This is a common scheme in Europe. Someone drops cash, and a Good Samaritan tries to return it, but it turns out to be a way to hook hapless victims into parting with their own money. It was good to see this dude wasn’t successful in his bid to rip off someone.

We stopped by a grocery store for some wine and personal items. Everyone in the Austrian grocery store was wearing masks. I took the opportunity to buy a new stash of them for the rare times I go out in Germany. We went back to the hotel and decided to take advantage of the refreshing pool. Hotel Kristall has two of them. One is a rather dated looking pool for doing laps. It’s not very big and the water is a bit chilly. The other is a slightly warmer heart shaped pool that has jets in it. There’s also a rather antiquated hot tub, which was nice after a day of walking. We put in about six miles worth!

One of many mysterious castles. This one is near the Seefeld exit.

After our swim, it was dinner time. Here’s what we had! We also had salad from the buffet and I had a little bit of cream of broccoli soup. I had just wanted to taste it. It was very good.

After dinner, it was off to the room for quiet time. Bill watched an Austrian show about cops while I did some reading. Sunday, the ninth of August, promised to be a busy day too!

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Our first French Christmas, part eight…

Our hosts at Au Miracle du Pain Doré were out in the vineyards when we arrived at their gite the second time, so they left the front gate unlocked and the keys by the front door. Checking in was simple, especially since we’d been there the week prior. Bill was pretty rattled about the car and even worried the people who punctured our tire might have even put something on the car to track it. Fortunately, they were complete amateurs. We found nothing on the car and it was totally safe outside of the gite, under a streetlamp.

Bill went to the supermarket, which was within walking distance of the gite, and picked up essentials for Friday night’s dinner and Saturday’s breakfast. The next morning, he got to work on reporting the crime. First, he called USAA to tell them about the tires, which apparently weren’t covered on our policy. Even if they had been, we have a $500 deductible, and today is New Year’s Eve. USAA took down our info and Bill later got a call from the German USAA liaison working out of Frankfurt, who was sympathetic.

Next, he called ADAC (German auto club) to ask about where to locate tires. He went to two places on Saturday. One couldn’t help at all. The other “fixed” the tire by patching the sidewall and advising us not to go further than 100 kilometers. Germany is, of course, much further than 100 kilometers from Beaune. Still, he made it so we could at least drive around the city if we needed to. The hole in the tire was near the tread, but still in the sidewall. We learned that driving on a patched sidewall, especially at high speeds, is a recipe for disaster. Bill is usually super safety conscious, but I think he was worried about getting home for work. Fortunately, good sense prevailed and he axed the idea of trying to drive on the patched tire.

ADAC was very communicative and helpful. They called us a few times to coordinate where to find tires. Yes, that’s right. We had to buy two of them, because French law dictates that unless you find the exact same brand of tire, you must buy two tires that match per axle. We couldn’t find a single Pirelli brand tire that was damaged on the Volvo, so we had to buy a pair of Bridgestone tires. That was 470 euros yesterday, when we finally found a place that had them in stock.

Bill then went to the local police station in Beaune, where he was told by the one English speaker working there that he’d have to go to the Gendarmerie, since the crime hadn’t happened in Beaune proper. So Bill drove the Volvo to the Gendarmerie office and spoke to two sympathetic but non English speaking ladies who used Google Translate to take his statement. They seemed shocked and relieved that we weren’t robbed and told Bill that there are gangs of people doing this… not just in France, but in places all around Europe. Hell, I think it happens in the States sometimes, too. It’s a well-known crime that probably doesn’t get reported as often as it happens.

Since it was clear we weren’t going to be able to leave Beaune on Sunday, as we’d planned, we asked the owners of the gite if we could extend our reservation. Much to our surprise, they let us stay Sunday night free of charge! That was really nice of them and completely unexpected.

Unfortunately, due to all the time spent running around Beaune trying to get the tire mess sorted out, our plans to shop were thwarted. But France doesn’t totally close down on Sundays the way Germany does, so we were able to get a few bottles on the “Lord’s day”. We walked into downtown Beaune and Bill bought a few nice bottles from one of many wine shops in Beaune. Then we stopped at a cafe and had a glass as the sun went down. Yes, it was cold, but they had outdoor heaters going… and Arran was mostly good until he met a female bulldog in a pink jacket who apparently said something he didn’t like. He raised a little ruckus, but everybody just laughed at him and kept drinking their wine or coffee. It was kind of nice not to be scowled at. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

French “sliders”… they were pretty good. They had ketchup, cheese, and pickles on them.

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Athens… days 2 and 3

I know we should have made a point of visiting all the museums and ancient historical sites in Athens. I think by the time we got to Athens, we were just really exhausted by all we had seen in two weeks. Vacations are supposed to be about relaxing, though, and we’re not at all like Clark W. Griswold when we take trips. We really enjoy just being together, so that’s pretty much what we do when we go on trips. If we feel moved to go to a museum, we go. If we don’t, we don’t. I like to people watch when I travel. I can get just as much out of sitting on a park bench watching people interact as I can moving from exhibit to exhibit in a museum.

On our second day in Athens, we did actually look at a few of the ancient sites… the ones that didn’t involve hill climbing, anyway. We also saw some very entertaining street performers. There was one guy playing jazz saxophone and several young guys dancing on a street corner. We saw yet another one of those performers in heavy costume, sitting as still as a statue. The statue performers don’t interest me that much, with the exception of the guys who do the invisible man acts. But after you’ve seen a couple of those guys, even they become less interesting. I do wonder how they can stand being so still, especially when it’s hot outside.

Dancers near the Acropolis…

Ancient stuff…

Eating

We stopped at lunch at one place and I had an unfortunate vantage point of seeing the woman behind the counter who was preparing the food. I noticed she picked up fries with her hand and caught her eating behind the counter. When my gyros arrived at barely room temperature, I got kind of nervous and remembered all the food handlers’ courses I had to take when I was working in restaurants. Then I remembered the epidemiology course I took when I was studying public health. It occurred to me how much it would suck to have food poisoning while on the plane back to the States, so I ate very sparingly and hoped for the best. Luckily, I didn’t get sick. 😉 The rest of the afternoon, we wandered more around the city, running the gauntlet of aggressive restaurant hawkers looking for customers.

View of the Acropolis from the Peacock Restaurant and a juicy steak!

Later that evening, we had dinner at the hotel’s Peacock restaurant, which offers a great view of the Acropolis. The food was very good and plenty hot, but I got just as big of a kick from the hilarious bartender, who was cracking jokes the whole time. I had the opportunity to play with my camera’s settings and got some interesting shots of the sunset.

Scamming

On day three, I got accosted by an old Romanian woman who was trying to force me to take some roses from her. When I declined to take them, she insisted, telling me they were free. When that didn’t work, she said I looked like Angelina Jolie. Talk about ridiculous. I finally shouted “No!” and moved away from her. I later found out about a common scam some people do in European cities in which they try to give you something, telling you it’s “free”. Then, when you do take whatever it is they’re offering, they claim you robbed them and demand money. No thanks.

Kidding

Day three is also when we picked up most of our souvenirs. I usually like to buy a mug and a magnet when I go places. I’m running out of room for the mugs, but my refrigerator still has plenty of room for more magnets. I went into one very touristy shop when the proprietor beckoned me inside. I found a couple of magnets as well as some very pretty tiles. As we were paying, the proprietor joked about the price, giving us a much higher price than what we actually owed. Then he laughed at my suddenly shocked expression. It was at that point that I noticed that some Greeks apparently like to kid a lot, especially when money is involved. That kidding happened several times when we were in Athens.

Haggling

Another thing I noticed is that Greeks like to haggle. But when we bought stuff, they haggled against themselves. For instance, when I bought my blue opal and silver necklace, the lady named a price, then immediately lowered it by about ten percent. I never said a word about the cost… I just hesitated slightly. The same thing happened when we bought art in Athens. I spotted a really interesting painting and expressed interest in it. The shopkeeper priced the painting at 85 euros, then immediately lowered the price to 75 euros. When I liked another painting, he priced it by itself at 250 euros, but then ended up giving me the first painting and the second for a total of 230 euros. They are keen to cut a deal, but they don’t seem to ask tourists to haggle… they do it for you!

We did sort of get scammed… but not in a really bad way. On our last full day in Athens, we were lured into an outdoor cafe. I was looking at the dorada, which is a tasty but expensive fish prepared in Greece. I was also looking at more pedestrian menu choices. The proprietor came over and took the menus from us before I had actually made up my mind, basically deciding for me that I wanted fish. Bill was also looking at something cheaper, but the guy offered him lamb. He thought he had decided on lamb, but it turned out the proprietor ordered fish for him too. So we both had expensive fish for lunch… and lunch took about two-and-a-half hours!

Yummy fava and salad…

The fabulous fish we were tricked into ordering…

Bill tries to figure out the bill written in Greek…

That night, we came back to the hotel and I heard Kate Bush playing over the sound system. I’m a big fan of Kate Bush’s music and mentioned it. The desk clerk and I shared a moment over that, since she was also a fan. I’m always excited when I run into someone who likes Kate Bush… she can be kind of an acquired taste for some people.