Travel

We arrived this afternoon after visiting the memorial chapel for Ludwig II on the Starnbergersee.

It was a nightmare getting to the hotel, because several of the main roads were closed for an ecological/pedestrian friendly thing called Street Life — yes, in English.

It was amazing to see this grand boulevard — Ludwigstrasse — free of cars:

OK, it’s not totally free of cars in the picture, but that’s people cleaning up and an ambulance.

The second of the two castles visible from our balcony was lit tonight for the first time. There were fireworks, which sounded like guns being fired as they echoed through the valley. We had dinner at the Hotel Maximilian, run by a dynamic woman named Gabi with perfect English. A group of Americans (probably a church group) got together in the next room and sang after they had dinner. An older man and a hunky young blond man with rosy cheeks arrived near the beginning of our meal, both wearing traditional loden jackets and green wool hats.

After dinner we went for a couple of drinks to the Braue Keller, a cool place in the center of Reutte. It’s basically a stone cellar that is now surrounded by a modern wooden building. The crowd was attractive people of college/graduate school age, some gay, some not. The 3 bartenders were fabulous women in their 20s and 30s that would not be out of place in a cool East Village bar. One of them was dressed in early 17th century attire as she ran about filling drinks, talking with patrons, etc. She had a friend sitting at one end of the bar who was dressed like Marie Antoinette, drinking Sekt and smoking cigarettes.

The high altitude and relatively dry air here are kicking my ass. I’m getting a sore throat, but I think it’s just dryness. It’s not as if I’m going to stop having coffee and alcohol to compensate.

We spent the day driving along several high-altitude routes in the Alps.

We had lunch in Bielerhoehe (2000 meters above sea level), with a view of the big lake at the top of the Silvettrastrasse , a high-altitude mountain road in the Alps. There are a lot of people in the area riding bicycles or hiking, even elderly people. As we left our progress was slowed by a young, small, dark-haired cowherd (very Alpine) with his herd of cows crossing the road.

I’m amazed by the amount of public transportation available here. At this remote location, 2000 meters up, there is a bus stop, and there are more along the way, to allow people to ride a bus up into the mountains, walk until they’re tired, and then take a bus home.

At breakfast, writing some notes. The people in this area (Reutte/Tirol) are very friendly. I’ve never been anywhere in the world where surly teenagers working at convenience stores were likely to smile and say hello while serving you. The men are generally pretty handsome, and teenage boys on bicycles are likely to smile at you as they ride by. A teenage boy with his hair dyed red giggled and smiled at me as he walked by me on the main street of Reutte yesterday, and then ducked into a cafe to join his friends.

Our pension (Pension Waldrast just outside of Reutte) has a big friendly and slow-moving dog named Bari. We have a view of two different castle ruins from the balcony of our suite, for all of $55/night.

Another table at breakfast was a group of Americans, who seemed to be veterinarians. They happily talked about things like delivering calves and difficult births as they ate breakfast. I was impressed when all four of them got into a Ford Ka to go somewhere.

Yesterday was basically a blur. Yes, I got to fly business class, and sit in a barca-lounger seat, but we had turbulence over the middle of the Atlanctic (?) and I didn’t sleep much.

One thing I do remember from the flight was having a plastic knife but a real metal fork. What’s the point of that? Americans and their government are stupid.

At the airport in Frankfurt I was surprised to find the baggage claim area had signs that said “Smoke Free Terminal”, although I had seen people smoking in other areas before we got to that place. They have their priorities in order: no smoking, but the airport has a branch of the Beate Uhse chain where you can buy porn and dildos.

We had a rather mediocre lunch at an atmospheric little place in Eberbach, a town most famous for being the place where Queen Victoria was conceived. Let’s not think about proof on that one. The most distinctive thing about lunch was the fact the the preisel berry sauce served with my Hirschbraten (venison) was topped with whipped cream.

We spent the night in Gundelsheim, a very beautiful little city on the Neckar, at the Hotel Restaurant Zum Lamm. The owner/chef, Fritz Schmid, is a good cook and a total wacko. There are a lot of pictures scattered about of him at his various hobbies — cooking, antique cars, etc. There’s a sort of vanity zine about him and his adventures on the table when you sit down for a meal. We were totally worn out, and managed to stay up until 10pm before we went to bed. Unfortunately, we seemed to be staying in the loudest town in Germany. There had been a festival the previous weekend, and people were tearing down the kiosk on our street when we tried to take a nap earlier in the afternoon. At midnight, the bells of the Catholic church down the street rang about 25 times, and then at 6am the bells rang for a good 5 minutes to get people up for mass. Similar, shorter peals o’ bells occured every 15 or 30 minutes after that.

At breakfast we sat under a relief of a 16th century noble, probably to the Wars of Religion, inscribed with the phrase “As he said to him, you can lick my ass.” I just love history.

We then hopped on the Authobahn (normally we prefer smaller, slower roads for the scenery) to head towards the Tirol (Austria). At Sindfeldingen there was an awesome rest stop with several restaurants and fake metal sunflowers at the entrance. We had a quick lunch of sandwiches at another one near Ulm. It was spotless and well-designed, with tables outside for people to bring food they had
brought, or purchased at the cafe.

I’m struck by the amount of activity and maintenance one sees, even on smaller roads and in smaller towns. My immediate response was “this is a nation of busy bees.” Everywhere you look someone’s sweeping up leaves, or fixing the perfect roads, or taking a brush and scrubbing the street in front of a house. (I’m not kidding — I’ve seen the street scrubbing more than once since I arrived.) In the Alps, the roads are immaculate, and it’s obvious even in pretty remote areas that people trim the grass near the roads and prune the trees.

Another thing that strikes me is how active people are here, at all ages. I saw a woman today who must have been in her 70s at least, wearing lipstick and riding her bicycle along the bike path near a highway. Another thing I’ve noticed is how intensely land is used. I’ve seen plowed fields in the cloverleaf formed by the intersection of two Authobahns, plowed right up the to edge of the road.

We’re spending the next four nights at the Pension Waldrast outside of Reutte in the Tirol. When the woman proprietor explained how the radiator worked, James said we’re not usually cold. She asked, “Oh, are you from the mountains?” He replied, no we’re from New York. Given the date, I was glad to see that she didn’t really have a reaction to that bit of information.

We had an awesome dinner tonight at the Hotel Zum Mohren (Hotel Moorish Woman, yes — nice caricature on the menu). They had great wines by the glass, and a fabulous large woman, built like a 19th century diva, waiting on us. We drank red wines from the area around Krems, and had game and plenty of starches. There was a local crowd at the bar, and it became obvious after a while, giving the cruising views aimed at our table, that a number of the attractive men at the bar were playing for my team. Nothing came of it, and we left for a little walk around the town before heading home. There are bike racks everywhere on the main street of the town (which is part of the Via Claudia), and I haven’t seen a chain or lock on any of the bikes. People just ride up and drop them off. Ruette is a beautiful town. A lot of the building are from the 16th century, and there are many Baroque buildings with elaborate wall paintings on the front.

A lot of working class men in Germany and Austria seem to wear earrings these days, generally gold or silver hoops on the left ear.

In honor of 9/11 and NYC, we listened to Copland’s “Music for a Great City” in the car — we brought the CD with us. Pictures of the attack on the WTC, including some pretty disturbing ones of people jumping, are in all the the German/Austrian papers and magazines today. I sort of shivered when I saw the first one at a newstand today, of the fireball from the second plane hitting the tower.

I’m writing notes in the business class lounge at JFK while we’re waiting for our flight to board. Business class is much better than coach! The lounge has free drinks — I’m drinking a very strong vodka tonic — and snacks. It’s a weird crowd. A lot of people are reading that screeching conservative rag pretending to be a newspaper — the New York Post. There is a TV loudly playing some ESPN show with highlights from previous NFL games, and there are cute German and Russian businessmen hooking up their laptops to the phones. There is a certain amount of “privilege” in the attitude of the people in business class. A lot of them have no qualms about talking as loudly as possible in their cell phones, even with strangers sitting right next to them. These aren’t generally the people travelling on business — they’re people with enough miles or money to travel
business class for pleasure trips.

Flyers seem to be dressing better. Is it because summer is over? Or are the tacky people more likely to be afraid to fly now? I haven’t seen a single applique t-shirt. Note to the Arkansans in the audience — I did see a Dillards suit bag!

The bookstore here in the terminal had a book about Flight 93 featured in the window. Who would buy that to read on a plane?!