We hadn’t ever been on a real European road trip; not really… We have been on a few 1-2 day road trips, but to do an EU road trip right, you have to see 4-5 countries over a week (Dustin Olson’s opinion).
Our itinerary included (1) Germany’s Black Forest, (2) Switzerland, (3) Liechtenstein, (4) Neuschwanstein (the Cinderella Castle), (5) Salzburg, (6) Berchtesgaden, and (7) the Romantic Road. It was a little ambitious…
So, for a family like ours, we try to maximize our traveling in April and May to take advantage of the free days off.
This week was the big week, kind of like Thanksgiving in the states. We got Wednesday, Thursday, and Monday off for company holidays. So, for one day of vacation, you can take Wednesday through Monday off. Plus, our friend that is currently serving in the Peace Corps in Ghana was visiting, so we wanted to make sure he saw as much as possible, too.
The plan was to leave on Tuesday immediately after work - around 5pm. The problem this time was we had to make a “cat transfer”. It is a long story that should get its own posting, but the bottom line is our cat was getting a new owner. We planned to meet that night at 5:30 and leave by 6pm.
Everything went pretty well so after making the transfer, crying a few tears, and packing up we left around 6:30pm. Our first day was pretty aggressive; we planned to drive all the way to Baden-Baden Germany. Friends at work advised me that the trip would take at least 7hrs, but Google maps advised only 5.5hrs.
We reached Baden-Baden around 12:30 (still really good time). Finding our hotel was a little tricky and probably would not have happened if we had not had a GPS system. I think we woke up the hotel owner. Although you wouldn’t know it by his attitude, he was still extremely friendly and helpful.So we unpacked the car, drove the car to the garage, and settled in for the night. Objective 1 was complete – the longest single-day drive of our trip was over.
Day 2: Black forest and Open air museum
We completely relied on Rick Steve’s to reserve rooms at every stop. He didn’t disappoint. Every hotel was dirt cheap and provided a free breakfast. These are luxuries that you usually live without in Europe.
The late night prevented us from waking up too early. We met for breakfast around 9am and the walked the city for 2 or 3 hours. The town was beautiful. It was like a sleepy and kind of modern town nestled in the woods. It felt a lot like a town you would see in Colorado, but cleaner.
We left Baden-Baden around 11:30 and headed down the Black Forest high road. We did get a little lost leaving town, but we eventually made it. We had plenty of plans for the black forest and it started with a stop at Gutach’s open air museum. 
This place is set up like an authentic 14th century village with original building constructions and people dressed in traditional Germanic garb. We even saw an older lady making yarn with a loom and a ball of wool. For me, it looked a lot like the show Little House on the Prairie. There was a grain mill and lumber yard driven by water wheels and lots of stables for livestock. It was an “ok” place. It probably would have been better on a warm and sunny day, but the weather turned cold and rainy. It just wasn’t fun to walk between the buildings when you were getting soaked.
The highlight of the stop was the food. We ate at a little German “fast-food” joint. They served bratwurst, sauerkraut, and potato noodles. It was really tasty and really cheap: a combination that I love.
We left this area a little early since the weather was so bad and headed back to our scenic drive. Along the way, however, we stopped unexpectedly at “The Original Black Forest CooCoo Clock” shop. After all, one of the trips specific goals was to buy a coocoo clock.
This place didn’t disappoint. There were hundreds of clocks: all shapes, sizes, skills, and prices. All of them coocooed, but some had extra features that played music and danced. Coocoo clocks are hand carved from wood with clock parts placed inside. However, the true beauty of a coocoo clock is it doesn’t require electricity. It runs completely off of the potential energy stored in a couple of weights and the clever mechanical engineering of the gearing inside.
At this store we got to meet the store owners that had run the shop for over 50 years. His wife was kind enough to take us to the shop on the 3rd floor to meet the clock maker. He was especially fond of Jacob and very willing to teach us about the clocks. It was a great experience that none of us will forget.
Leaving the store we really believed that we found “THE” coocoo clock shop and lucky we had the opportunity to purchase our clock. Then we left and headed down the road. About 5 minutes into our drive we found about 15 more shops all with very unique names: “The Worlds Greatest CooCoo Clock Shop”, “The Original CooCoo Clock Shop”, etc. So, the enthusiasm for our shop dropped a little bit when we realized it was one of many, but we still think we did well to find our clock maker. And, in the end, we never found one that we liked better.
The air in the black forest is supposed to be the cleanest in the world. Doctor’s all over recommend walks in this area to cleanse the body of nasty toxins. I suppose it was, but since it was pouring down rain, we didn’t do a lot of hiking.
We left “Coocoo clock land” and headed for Triberg to see their famous waterfall. Unfortunately Jacob fell asleep on the way, so Amanda agreed to stay in the car and watch him while Ern and I checked it out.
I guess it was a tourist trap. I mean they charged 3 euros to see the waterfall and while it was cool, it wasn’t the best we had ever seen. Nonetheless, we got a few good pics and a decent video out of the deal.
It took longer to drive through the Black Forest than we expected, but we made it through to Freiburg by dinner. The hotel at Freiburg was interesting. When I booked the room I had to give them 2-four digit codes so we could retrieve the keys after hours. Crazy, right? So, when we arrived, I typed the codes into a box hanging on the side of the building and the keys dropped out. Very efficient.
Freiburg is famous for the pedestrian walking areas in the city center. Throughout the town there is a small stone ditch with water flowing in it. The legend says that if you fall into the ditch, then you will marry someone from Freiburg. For this trip, no one fell in, so I guess we are safe for now.
We found our restaurant, ate a good meal, and called it a night. Aside from the rain, it was a good start to the trip.
Day 3: Liechtenstein, Routte
Today was all about getting to Austria through the Alps. We didn’t really have a plan for the day which turned out to be good because it was May Day and all of Europe was on vacation. May Day celebrates the last soldier leaving the country after World War II.
We left Freiburg around 9am and headed south toward Zurich. Quite honestly, we over-estimated the time it was going to take to get to Routte, so we made a little lunch detour through Europe’s second smallest country, Liechtenstein.
This was a completely unnecessary stop. It was out of the way and no one really recommends stopping there. But, as a hungry group of “check off the country boxes” we decided to stop, just to say we were there.
It actually turned out to be a pretty cool place. It is nestled in the foothills of the Alps among a really beautiful setting. Lucky for us, Liechtenstein didn’t shutdown like the other cities we passed through. So, there were plenty of restaurants and souvenir shops open - exactly what we needed - proof we had been there.
We ate a good, simple lunch on the terrace and relaxed for about 2.5 hrs. It was a good break from the car for Jacob. We left around 3pm and headed for our stop at Routte.
Today was our first exposure to the beauty of the Alps. It struck us like a scene from a movie. The hills rolled with a color of green that can’t be found in the biggest box of crayons. The mountains jumped into the sky like jagged knives with vanilla ice cream dripping on the top. A brilliantly blue sky replaced the rain from the day before and the road trip was getting really good.
We finally made it to Routte at around 4pm. It was the first Rick Steves’ disappointment. The town was dirty, small, and full of thugs. We couldn’t find anything to do so we jumped back into the car and headed to a nearby castle called Ehrenburg.
Ehrenburg was a castle built in the 1400’s as a boundary castle and used to protect the Bavarians. It was a good place to visit because it required a healthy walk to reach the summit. Jacob, once again, had the easy ride in the back pack carrier. We did get some really good pictures.
We ended the night at a restaurant called the Goldener Hirsh. It was our first exposure to Garlic Cream soup and Ivennersnizel (pan-fried german pork). The night ended a little later than we wanted especially considering the next day had to begin at 6am. 
Hohenschwangau was the residence of crazy King Ludwig. He spent his childhood and most of his adult life here. It’s up on a little hill overlooking a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. The inside wasn’t quite as impressive. From there, Ludwig could watch the construction on his fairytale castle of Neuschwanstein which he dedicated to the composer Wagner.
After touring the first castle, we had time to grab some lunch before our tour started at the next one. Once again, we had traditional German fare – various types of sausage and sauerkraut. At this point, I think Amanda was getting a little sick of all the sausage.
On the way up to the castle (about a 40 minute walk uphill) we detoured over to Mary’s Bridge. We were told that this is where to go to get the best view of the castle. The bridge is over a gorge and overlooks the castle. It really is an amazing view! The pictures don’t do this castle justice. It is just like a fairy tale. Part of what makes this castle so special is the setting of it. It sits on a mountain peak in the middle of the Alps. Ludwig had good taste. We didn’t have time to linger on the bridge because we would lose our tour slot if we were late and would have to go buy more tickets.
So, we ran back from the bridge to the castle for our tour. The interior of this castle was as beautiful as the exterior. There was lots of hand carved wood furniture. The canopy to the bed was particularly impressive and took 4 years to carve. Many of the rooms were painted with scenes from Wagner’s operas. Amanda decided that after seeing this castle, she didn’t need to see any more.It definitely gave us more respect for the real athletes who do this on ice. While we were taking turns riding the luge, Jacob had a blast at the playground. He got to swing, ride on a merry-go-round, and drive a 4-wheeler. After burning off some energy in preparation for the drive, we got back into the car and headed toward Salzburg. On the way, we were blessed with a spectacular show of a double rainbow. We pulled over to try and get some pictures, but of course, they don’t compare to the real sight.
Driving into Salzburg, it seemed like any other city, but as soon as we crossed the river into the old town, it was a different world. We were soon stuck and unable to figure out how to drive to our hotel. The streets were all entirely too narrow and seemed to be marked for pedestrians only. We found a parking spot just on the outskirts of the old town and just walked to the hotel. Unfortunately, when we arrived they didn’t have any record of our reservation. They did have rooms available for that night, but we would have to change hotels the next day. Nevertheless, we settled in and headed out to dinner. We chose a 1000 year old restaurant where Charlemagne apparently frequented (Stiftskeller St. Peters). It turned out to be a little fancier than we expected, so other than feeling underdressed and a little self-conscience about having an 18-month old with us, we had a wonderful dinner – really yummy. We finally ventured away from sausage!
Day 5: SOM
Salzburg is all about the Sound of Music. For the minority of you that are not part of the cult following of the show it may not have been as great, but for those who fanatically follow, it was a dream.
The tour started at 9am, so not so early, but since I had to arrange another hotel for the 2nd night, the morning was a little short. It was a little challenging to find a second hotel because Salzburg was hosting a marathon on Sunday and everything was booked. Lucky for us we did find a couple of rooms nearby and I had us moved in before the SOM bus arrived.Our SOM tour guide was also really good. He was an upbeat Austrian who had spent several years living in the states. He had a good grasp of history and knew the Sound of Music details really well. He started with a general history of 14th century Austria and ended with a good summary of the pre-WWII climate. It was a good addition to our WWII studies as he gave a compelling tale of how it felt to be an Austrian while Nazi Germany encroached.
He quickly diverted the conversation to more SOM specific topics. Our first stop was at the Mirabell gardens. This is where Maria was first teaching the kids how to sing. They run around several areas, including the ivy covered archway in Salzburg singing “Doe, a Deer” and other favorites. It still looked just like the movie.
We then drove a bit to the famous lake to see the mansion. Or actually we saw the back of the mansion. They actually used two houses in the filming: one for the front and another for the back. The lake is the real lake where Maria and the kids were singing in the canoe when Captain Van Trapp comes back from business. They all get too excited and fall out. It still looked like the movie.We drove off again to where the famous gazebo now sits. It has been moved since the movie and now sits locked up. Apparently, one over eager couple were reenacting the dance in the gazebo and fell through the glass. Ever since that accident they have kept the gazebo closed. Still though, the gazebo looked just like the movie.
After those three main attractions, we drove passed a couple more smaller ones like the lane were the kids were hanging from the tree, the hill where Maria is singing in the opening scene, and the convent from a distance.
The final spot for the tour was to see the wedding chapel, but it wasn’t in Salzburg. It was about a 30 minute drive away. Along the way, he took us through a bunch of old back roads. It was an amazing ride and we saw some of the best European landscapes.
We also stopped at a luge track as part of the tour. This time we only had enough time for one ride. They say that when you luge, everyone follows the same routine - the first ride is too slow, the second ride is really fast, and the third ride leaves scars. Since we hit the first two runs yesterday and they followed suit, one could only guess what would happen on this ride. For this ride, the routine followed suit, both Ernest and I flipped our luge cart and burned some skin off our elbows. It was great! If you ever get a chance to luge, take it. It is great fun.
Aside from a few “scars” we made it to the chapel without incident, ran in to take a quick picture and headed down to grab some dessert. Our guide recommended a great place and we had spice cake, apple streusel, and chocolate cream cake. Austrian desserts are very good. That essentially ended the tour around 1:30.
Since it was late and since I didn’t have breakfast, we were starving. So as soon as we made it back to the city center, we found a lunch spot and ate. As always, the Rick Steves recommendation was great. After lunch we had a chance to walk around Salzburg and really see the town. This is where the charm really emerged. Salzburg has hundreds of really cool and unique shops which sold a wide variety of souvenirs. It has one of the better city centers that we have been to. 
For today’s walking tour, we focused more on the shopping than the history. It wasn’t easy for me. Ernest and Amanda did indulge me with a couple of sites; Mozart’s birthplace and his residence. All in all, it was a good relaxing afternoon in Salzburg. We were tired though, so we went back to the hotel and spend about 2 hrs just chilling out before dinner.
Then we met at 6pm and ate a great little Italian place. It was a good switch from the sausage and sauerkraut we had been eating.
During the afternoon, we made a reservation to hear a string ensemble Mozart concert in the castle overlooking the city. Mozart was born and raised in Salzburg, so he actually performed for the King in that same castle when he was 7 years old (and a few times after that as well).
The big trick for this concert was Jacob. The class of people in the room was pretty high and for us to bring in our little guy surely raised the neck hairs of a few people. The last thing they want is for a baby to chime up during a song. To their surprise (not ours) however, Jacob did great. He just sat back and listened. The funny piece was that when, they stopped playing Jacob would sit up straight, start smiling, and clap vigorously. He was really cute and earned the attention of several in the crowd and a couple of the musicians.
That nightcap was a perfect end to the day.
Day 6: Eagle’s Nest, Rothenburg
It just didn’t seem like it was time to start heading home. But, the week was nearly done and we were still 8hrs from home. We had to start making our way toward home today; otherwise, the last day would be unbearable.
Nonetheless, we still had a very ambitious schedule for the day - actually an overly ambitious schedule. Since we were so close to Salzburg we had to see the salt mines, the birthplace of Nazi Germany (i.e Eagles Nest), and Dachau, one of the first Nazi concentration camps near Munich. We started the day with the salt mines.
The salt mines were cool. We arrived around 9am so we could join the first tour. The tour was advertised (and highly recommended) by our SOM tour guide. He said everyone wants to go to the Eagle’s nest, but in the end, it is a little disappointing – the salt mines are more hand’s on.
To start we had to don coveralls – all of us, even Jacob. And, as always, he attracted a lot of attention by the others in the group because he was just so cute. In a nutshell, this tour was built to show how Salzburg became wealthy and famous. Salt was a commodity in high demand in the 13-14th centuries. Salzburg was a key supply point and exported the salt all over the world – it was highly valuable on the silk roads.
We started the tour by taking a train ride to the center of the mountain - one of those situations where if the lights went out it would be pitch black and we never would have found our way out. Jacob was a little nervous at first, but he quickly calmed down.
After the 5 minute ride we walked through several exhibits that taught us how the salt was mined - pretty cool stuff. The highlights were a slide that took us from one level to another and a row boat ride over a salt lake. The slide was really neat, and a little dangerous. All four of us slid down together – it was really steep and it seemed scarier then it actually was. The boat ride was nice – the salt concentration was the same as the Dead Sea. After the ride they let us taste the water – whoa – too salty for me. But, Jacob did seem to like it.
After the salt mines we headed up toward the Eagle’s Nest. I tell you - the Nazi’s knew how to pick the nice spots. This was quite literally, one of the most beautiful places we have seen in Europe. The mountains were perfect and the views were spectacular.
The Eagle’s Nest was a retreat built for Adolf Hitler’s birthday. It was also the expected final standing point for the Nazi elite if the war turned against them. The war did turn, but the Eagle’s nest was never used as the final defense. It was actually captured by the 101st airborne division as shown in Band of Brothers.
The Eagle’s nest took a lot more time than we expected. We pretty quickly realized that Dachau was not going to happen. In fact, we would be lucky if we made it to Rothenburg that night – it was still at least 4 hrs away.
Since we had to amend our schedule we decided to jump start the trip by getting a quick meal at Mickey D’s. The funny part about that stop was Ernest --- as you know he has been in Ghana for almost two years. He makes around 6 USD per day and hadn’t had anything “western” to eat for the entire two years. So, at this stop, he really dug in and made up for lost time. He ate one Big Mac, one 6-piece McNuggets, an Apple Pie, a large box of curly fries, and an ice cream cone… Ernest still only weighs 135, but I think he probably gained 5 pound with that meal alone.
After McDonalds, we got on the road and started toward Rothenburg. While the long drives did get a little old, they were actually some of the best parts of this trip. On this part, we drove through the foothills of the Alps and saw some great fields of flowers. Holland may have the tulip field tourism locked up, but Germany was covered with beautiful fields of yellow wildflowers.
We arrived in Rothenburg around 6pm and checked into our hotel. This one turned out to be the best one of the trip and a great way to end. It was right downtown, the rooms were artfully rustic, and we had a great view of one of the historic watchtowers.
We arrived just in time to grab a quick bite and still get the Night Watchman’s Tour. This tour was recommended by Rick Steves’. He was a perfunctory character with a niche talent. He did tell a couple of cool stories about the town. First, Rothenburg is famous today because it has maintained a medieval atmosphere. It maintained that charisma only because it was sacked during the 1300’s by a bunch of Crusaders and immediately plummeted into a depression that lasted for 500 years. After 500 years, the world realized that there was still an authentic medieval town in Germany and it quickly became a touristy hit.The second story was around the end of WWII. In March or April of 1945, an American company learned of a German company that was held up in the town. The German company would not surrender and America was about to bomb the town until the company surrendered. The bombing was scheduled to start early the next morning, but the assistant secretary of defense stopped the raid because he grew up in a home with a painting of Rothenburg in the living room. He said his mom told him it was one of the most beautiful places she had every visited. The bombing never took place, the Germans surrendered the city (because the war was virtually over), and Rothenburg survived.
The tour ended the last night of our vacation.
Day 7: Going Home
This hotel also had a great breakfast (probably the best of the trip). We took a couple of hours to check out the town, but quite honestly we were tired and ready to get back home. We hit the highway, drove approximately 100 mph on the German autobahn and made our way home.
We stopped for lunch at KFC in Cologne and walked around the cathedral for 30 minutes or so. It was nice to see it again, but after 4-5 times it does begin to tire out. It was still a great stop for Ernest; you just can’t put into words the way the cathedral makes you feel the first time you see it. Absolutely gorgeous.
The trip ended 1685 miles later at 7pm in Voorburg. It was a great trip and a lot of fun. We did drive a lot, but the intervals were small and the scenery was surreal
