Impressions

(I seem to be doing the travelogue in a very random order…but our travel was optimized, the sequence used on the blog is not how we did the trip)

Salzburg
Salzburg was our penultimate day of excursions. By the time we reached Salzburg, we were really tired from all the walking. We had grown tired of the cheese in the food and the sausages. But Salzburg was our last hop. From Munich, we took an ICE going to Salzburg. This was the only train that was delayed by about 20 minutes. And that too because of some track work going on near Munich. But the train never really picked on the lost time and it continued to be late. An old couple in our coach probably missed a connection in Graz because of this delay.

After we got down at Salzburg, we checked at the Information Center on things to do in about three hour walking tour. (See, walking again! Why should I complain of being tired?)

So off we went to Mirabell Gardens. It was a pleasantly landscaped garden. The day was sunny, crisp and beautiful. We spent a lot of time there, strolling on the grass, resting in the shadows and of course, taking pictures. There is a statue of Nicolaus Copernicus in this garden and also statuettes of some fairy tale characters that we did not recognize. From the gardens, we walked across towards the Salzach River. As the day was sunny and beautiful, and that was just the middle of spring, Austrians were out on the road in hordes. Surprisingly in this conservative country, many half-naked youngsters were found on the river banks, smoking and drinking.

We walked towards the old-market place, saw Mozart’s birthplace, visited an antiques shop, ate a hearty Italian meal and walked backed, pretty much taking the same route as going in. It was a nice morning/afternoon spent in this historic town.

Amsterdam
Contrary to the hype, we found this city to be just okay. May be we did not do enough justice to this place…as a lot of time was spent in Keukenhof Tulip Gardens. Some of the things that we did NOT do while here was a visit to the red light district and Anne Frank house. This was possibly also the place that was filled with tourists from all places mixing in the hippie milieu. What struck us most about the Netherlands was that how relaxed everything was. Our room in the hotel was not ready when we checked in. The tourist center was full of patrons waiting to be taken care and only one counter was open. The manager came through, but instead of asking for more counters to be opened, threw her hands up in the air saying she couldn’t do much. After some time, another employee came in and now two counters were open. It took us almost one-and-a-half hour just to buy the combi-tickets to Keukenhof.

Innsbruck/Wattens
Let down would be too strong a word, but if I have to recommend something, I would say, drop Innsbruck and Wattens from your itinerary. Wattens hosts the Swarovski Kristallwelten (Crystal World Museum). The must see grade of the museum is perhaps a hype created by the Indian travel agents. To reach there, we took an ICE to Innsbruck. From there, we took a Verkehrsverbund Tirol bus to Wattens. Or to put it in simpler terms, we travelled in a State Transport bus to Wattens! It was almost half-hour through Austrian countryside. The bus took several stops, went through traffic and narrow roads and finally reached Wattens (to continue its journey to Schwaz), where the good driver told us how to get to the museum and that the museum offers a free bus service back to Innsbruck, should we want to take that.

The museum itself was a bit of let down. Everyone who has seen pictures of the inside of the museum likes it…but perhaps we were expecting something different from it. It has several chambers demonstrating artistic creations out of crystal and then in the end a shopping area, where you can buy (over-priced) crystal jewelry. There were a lot of Indians in this place and I think this place has been made famous by the likes of Kesari and SOTC etc. who bring busloads to the museum. What’s nice is that even many conservative Maharashtrian families were seen contemplating buying crystal jewelry, where the cheapest of the earrings were available at a price of €80 and upwards.

Because of time constraints, we did not get to explore these towns more. But the Alps were a beauty…so even if we did not enjoy the Crystal World as much, the nature was a consolation.

Munich
This was probably the least explored cities in our entire trip. We reserved almost all the evenings to Munich…but after a day trip to some place, there is only so much you can do in the spare time! But nevertheless, Karlsplatz and Marienplatz were a charm. It was nice walking on these fußgängerzone (walking plaza) and even better was sampling a strawberry cake!

Just as all good things come to an end, this trip too ended here. From Munich, we came back to Paris in a TGV (actually ICE from Munich to Stuttgart, and TGV from Stuttgart to Paris). TGV itself was a great experience and we enjoyed the ride through German and French countryside very much.

Bitte, Rauchen Sie Nicht!
Germany in particular and all the places we visited in general has a very high smoking rate. I remember of reading somewhere that in Germany, for the age group above 17, the smoking rate is 44% in males and 37% in females. This seems a shockingly high number. But we can corroborate that based on our unscientific observations! It is not too difficult to inhale the second hand smoke while waiting at the intersections to cross the roads. While many train stations are smoke-free, it is a very common site to see people puffing outside the stations. On many occasions, we saw young parents smoke – especially with a baby in the tow or in the stroller. It is hard to say that the smoke would not impact the baby! For otherwise clean cities, the walkways can be found littered with cigarette butts very easily.