Europe June 2011 -- Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse

After a good night's rest and a typically good German breakfast, we were ready to find a laundry in town and wash our clothes before we left Berchtesgaden for Austria and our drive to the Edelweiss Hutte for the next night.  Our hosts at the Hotel Bavaria insisted on doing our laundry for us using their big machines.  They did charge us but it was easily 1/3 of what we would have to pay at a public facility and we got to sit in the dining room and read, snack and look at the mountains while things washed and dried.

We got all packed up and headed out.  The "normal" route to go to the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse is to go on the autobahn in Austria.  We chose to take a back road.  In either case, we had to get a special Austria driving sticker for the car or risk being tagged by cameras and paying a big fine.  We were able to fill up our gas tank and get the sticker in Berchtesgaden before we left.

The road we took was still a major one, even though it wasn't the autobahn.  I was looking forward to the scenery along a major lake that was on the way, but it turned out that we actually went through a tunnel all along that lake.  It was then that I realized that if a major road is shown like a dotted line, it means a tunnel in most of the places we drove.

For half of this trip, we planned to drive through the Alps and go over some high passes.  The first was the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse.  If you go to the link, you can see more about this twisty, touristy road, including its history.

I grabbed this illustration off the website.  Remember, these numbers are meters, not feet.

This is a panoramic view of the road, also from the website.

When we paid our toll at the bottom of the mountains, we asked about the weather.  We were told that it was just a little rainy.  This was the way the cobblestone road up to our hotel, the Edelweiss Hutte, is supposed to look.

We arrived at the turn off to it off the main road and the wind was blowing the rain sideways.  We had reservations, but we hadn't paid anything yet or guaranteed them with a credit card, so we seriously considered going on over the pass and finding somewhere else to stay, but it was about 3:00 in the afternoon and we were tired, so we decided to go on up.  The cobblestones were wet, but cars and motorcycles were coming and going, so it seemed like it would be okay.

We got to the top, struggled in the wind and rain to get our stuff out of the car and checked into the hotel.  It is a tiny place.  We had a light lunch and went back to the room to rest before going down to dinner around 7:00. 

When we arrived we couldn't see much because we were in the clouds, but we did see a marmot on the rocks outside our windows.  Marmots are a big thing there and the hotel had many products make with marmot fat.

While we were having dinner, it started to snow.  Everyone there started getting a little anxious -- but especially the folks who had come on motorcycles.

It was very cold in our room, but we had down comforters so that helped when the hotel did their heat control thing.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture of the marmot, but I did get some good pictures of what it looked like outside our window the next morning.

Yeah, we were snowed in.  Big time.

We were still in the clouds.  The little parking area for the hotel was down a steep incline.  A couple of cars and an older Toyota 4-wheel drive were parked there.  The motocycles were stored in some garages the hotel had for that purpose.

The staff spent a couple of hours clearing the snow there and on the incline down to there.  Fortunately, we had parked up on the major parking lot where the gift shop is.  At one point the Toyota folks took off and we thought they had left.  When we went up exploring, we discovered that they were in the upper parking lot.  They had tried to leave, but the road hadn't been plowed yet and they only got to the edge of the road when they realized that it was too slippery even for them.

So we all waited...and waited...and waited.  We went up to the car again and discovered that the parking lot had been plowed.  Our car was somewhat surrounded by snow and the Toyota folks were still there.  Finally, while we were chatting with them with my poor German and their better English, the woman who ran the gift shop arrived in her old Toyota front wheel drive station wagon.

She said that the road was okay, just a little snow close to the edges, and that we should be able to make it down fine.  So we followed the Toyota folks down.  I was most concerned about getting onto the asphalt and off the cobblestones after what we learned about the road up to the Eagle's Nest.  I was also intent upon getting out of the clouds and down to a level where we could actually see the edge of the road.

It didn't take too long for us to see that even if we hadn't been at the highest point on the road, we still would have been snowed in.  Trout did a great job of driving on the wet and still slippery road.  We loved these "barriers".  They were just wide enough apart that most of today's cars would sail right through them.

The farther down we got the better the weather conditions were and the more we could see.  So much for us seeing the mountains from our hotel.

Ahhhh, finally something green.

And is that some blue sky?

Now we're talking.  No snow.  No rain.  This is the way it's supposed to be the 3rd week of June.

A twisty road for Trout to drive and scenery for both of us.

And we caught up with the Toyota folks.  They were heading over to the glacier for their next night.

This looks like some kind of postcard, but I did take this picture.

There were waterfalls along the ground.

We did get below the timberline.

And down into the valley with some charming villages.

Where we could see waterfalls higher up.

 I'm not really a flatlander, but it did feel good to be on lower ground.

This day we were heading into Italy to drive another high pass in the Dolomites.  We passed on that pass.  The weather continued to be iffy at the tops of the mountains.  Trout said he really didn't need to drive the high passes.  My knuckles were still white, so we varied our route to Merano a little bit.

 Before we left Austria, we stopped in the little town of Lienz for lunch.  We drove through town looking for a likely place and decided upon the Dolomiten Hotel.  They had a conservatory on the side and that's where we ate.  If you click on the link and then on the 1st picture, you'll see that it's very 70s.  They were featuring fresh "spargel".  That's asparagus and it is white, so both of us got pasta dishes with it in them.  We were almost to Italy.

Europe June 2011 -- Lisbon: a Walk Downtown

On Thursday, June 2nd, our 2nd day in Lisbon, we were rested and ready to hit the streets. We walked all the way downtown by following our noses. We started at the little Rua dos Remedios of bollard and cleaning fame in my first post. It was an easy walk because it was literally all down hill.

The first order of business was to cross the Commercio Square and find the tourist information office. There we bought passes for all the forms of transportation, entry into museums, etc.

En route to the tourist office, I spotted the restaurant I wanted to visit for lunch. It is the Cafe Restaurante Martinho da Arcada. Although some dispute it, it is supposed to be the oldest restaurant in town, dating back to 1782 in its present form. According to its website (the English version doesn't seem to work), it actually started in 1778 as a tavern.

The Baixa or downtown center of Lisbon is "new". It was rebuilt after an earthquake in 1755. The Alfama, the largely Moorish area where we stayed, is much older and was not heavily damaged by the earthquake.

The inside is beautiful and formal, although you can stop here and purchase some pastries to go.

We chose to sit outside under the arcade to have lunch. We always seem to be in places at odd hours, so when we sat down, it looked a lot like this, but by the time we left, more people were stopping for coffee and cake.

Trout had a chef's salad and I had a tuna salad. His salad was great, but about what you would expect. Much to my surprise, my tuna was served over black-eyed peas with onions, tomatoes and celery, along with some other good stuff. The Portuguese were explorers and navigators, and their food is heavily influenced by where they went. I don't know if the black-eyed peas made their way to Portugal because of that or if they came with the Moors, but I was glad to see and eat them. They were cooked perfectly and yes, it was a cold salad.

Since Lisbon is known as THE place for coffee and dessert, we had to have some. Trout got an ice cream thing, but I chose the Alentejano coffee cake. It was made with pumpkin and it was absolutely delicious. For me it was the best dessert of the whole trip. Alentejo is an area south of the Tagus River and stretching to the Algarve. It is famous for its cooking.

I do need to mention that Trout noticed someone dealing drugs right by where we were eating which was less than a block from the police station. Portugal decriminalized the personal use and possession of all drugs and started emphasizing treatment over punishement in 2001. Reports since then have indicated that the change in policy has been a big success. For more on that, take a look at the Economist article from 2009.

Now back to our walk. This is where the Commercio Square opens onto the Tagus. It reminds me of Venice.

This is looking back from there to the square.

Many people visit this place to rest for awhile and look at the river.

The square is big. Note the hill rising behind it.

The river is picturesque.

It was hard for me to decide where to look and snap.

Trout helped with the decision.

This is King Jose I (1714-1777). He was the king when the earthquake happened.

This is the primary shopping street down town. Note the tiled street and the beggar to the left.

This is looking back at the clock in the arched entry to the shopping area. As per usual, we were there late in the day.

Here's Trout walking along the patterned "sidewalk" area. No cars were allowed, but these side designs seem to mark a path for people to stroll and window shop.

The center was more for moving faster or hanging out and for street entertainers.

We rarely see women doing this, but here is one.

According to his sign, this guy is in the Guiness Book of World Records. I didn't try to verify that. He must have some kind of apparatus that comes from the cane and goes around him to hold him up.

He also paints his eyelids so he can keep his eyes closed. Could he be napping?

Standing around an attraction like him is a good place to get your pocket picked if you aren't careful. Lisbon was the only place where we saw evidence of that this trip.

As we were walking along, I was ahead of Trout taking pictures. I saw a young kid coming toward me pass something that looked like a wallet to a guy in front of me heading in my direction. I dropped back and pointed them out to Trout. Later he saw the two of them talking together, but in the initial pass, they only brushed up against each other.

Men in particular seem to hate wearing a money belt, but if you carry a typical wallet in any of the normal pants locations, you are likely to get it lifted in many places in the world. Lisbon is no exception.

One of the sites of Lisbon is the Santa Justa Elevator. Remember those hills? This is a way to get up to the top without walking up lots and lots and lots of stairs. It was completed in 1902. Needless to say it's a major tourist attraction -- too major for us to wait in line to get on it.

We continued walking and Trout wanted me to be sure and shoot this vehicle. He thinks it was a bookmobile appropriately sized for serving the castle area in the Alfama.

This is the tile pattern at the Rossio Square. It really is flat although it doesn't look like it.

I'll finish this off with the ship in the sidewalk across the street from Rossio Square. I thought it was great.

We both really like these square cobblestones. One nice thing about cobblestones in general is that if they need repair, it's easy to pull them up, straighten things out and replace them. They are not cemented in. The especially cool thing about them in Lisbon and that they are beautifully used as art as well as practically used for addresses and paving. All it takes to make things pleasant is to take a deep breath and think creatively. It's just not that much more expensive to do, so why not build it in instead of arguing about adding it on later?