Stuttgart was more of an industrial town…Zurich is set in the Swiss Alps, a wonderful blend of beauty and money (expensive!).  We arrived late after trying to see the Black Forest in Germany…’tried’ being the operative word. We got partway down the road we needed to take and soon found it was closed for construction. It would have been a rather long detour around, and we wanted to make sure we saw the Alps while it was still light out; therefore, we gave up on the Black Forest and headed for Zurich. As expected, the Alps were stunning. We were able to stop and take photos at a few opportune spots. This is an area I would love to return to with a little more time (and money) on hand to fully appreciate its charms.

Arriving at our hotel, took a bit of an effort since our GPS took us through downtown Zurich at rush hour [side note: our hotel was just outside of the city…]. But we finally made it to the hotel… We were delighted to find out our room had been upgraded to one of their apartments due to a plumbing issue with our original room (no extra charge)…Aaahhh! It was so nice to have some extra room to spread out after a week on the road! We had a kitchen area, walk-in closet and HUGE bathroom with a rain head shower fixture!! Our boys had the original room booked for them. It was a bit smaller and the shower stood in a small kitchenette/bathroom area. Both of the rooms overlooked the lake, mountains and the city of Zurich. It was a glorious view to behold.

The hotel restaurant was booked for dinner, but the (one) restaurant within walking distance – Moosegg – was open and available…and expensive. Yikes! Our most expensive dinner yet…but it was delicious. I enjoyed a nice glass of an Italian red wine with a steak, salad and lentils, all perfectly cooked. It was great to finally have vegetables after all of Germany’s heavy food!!!

I am enjoying the dinner conversations with my family so much. We don’t always take/have the time to sit and chat with one another, especially with one away at college. The years have flown so quickly, and we are so fortunate to be able to take advantage of this incredible opportunity…I almost have to pinch myself sometimes!

We left Munich for another day trip…to Fussen this time. Fussen houses the famous castle from which the Disney castle was modeled. We toured both that and another castle. The town is gorgeous!

After our hikes up and down the mountain to tour both castles we headed to Reutte, Austria for dinner. It was about a 20 minute drive to get there and well worth the time. After dinner we ended up taking a scenic route back to Munich, a route which wound us through the Alps and at one point ran alongside one of the lakes.

Will update this post later…emotional day here and it is taking me a bit longer to write. Just want to post this here so all is in the proper order…

We got a late start today, but made up for it with everything we fit in…I cannot imagine how we could have crammed in more if we had gotten any earlier of a start!!

So, have I mentioned our time in Germany is more or less centered on beer and cars -not always in that order…?? The BMW-Welt and Museum was the first stop on our agenda. As with Audi, we ate in their on-site restaurant…the food here was just as wonderful as the café at Audi’s museum. [I know it may seem odd that we traveled all this way to Germany and end up eating in car museums, but the quality of the food is top-notch!] We were unable to schedule a factory tour here because they were totally booked and had been well in advance of when we called. However, the museum was open, available and worth the time. I loved seeing some of the older cars on display…there is something nostalgic about their shapes and colors! I especially enjoyed their special exhibit of ‘car art’. They have several BMWs on temporary display which have been painted by various artists – there is even one painted by Andy Warhol.

Next on the schedule was Olympic Stadium and Park, the setting for the 1972 Olympics. There is a tower here which overlooks the city, and we rode to the top to see the views and take some pictures. This vantage point offers a 360 degree view of the city. From here you can see Theresienwiese – the field where Octoberfest has taken place since it began 200 years ago. (I marvel at how I spent time researching and writing about Munich’s 200^th anniversary of Octoberfest just this past September…and here I am less than a year later in the city itself! Funny how things work sometimes!! )

Leaving the stadium, we took the train back into the city center for a self-guided walking tour. We began at the ‘Ratskeller’, a pub/restaurant located in Marienplatz (Mary’s Square) where we sat for a quick snack and pint to map out our path…one must not be hungry or thirsty for a historical trek!! We wound our way through town, stopping at the Old Town Hall, St. Peter’s Church (the oldest church in town), Viktualienmarkt (an open air market…this was my favorite stop!), the Pedestrian Mall, and finally Frauenkirche – a Gothic-style church built in the 1400s. We had dinner at ‘Nurnberger Bratwurst Glockl am Dom’, one of the many restaurants scattered around the perimeter of this church. This very Bavarian-style restaurant was wonderful for both food and atmosphere. Their specialty is their wood-grilled sausages, which I ordered. It came with a side of German potato salad (mmmm). My boys all ordered a sampler platter which was filled with roasted pork loin, crisply roasted duck, sausages and pork belly (OMG, so delicious, especially the skin!), along with potato dumplings, bread dumplings, and kraut. Of course we paired this with pints of lager (for good measure…). And all this served up by a friendly wench dressed in appropriate Bavarian attire. A perfect end to a perfect day!