Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Day Six –Tuesday, June 5 - Cesky Krumlov, CZ to Vienna, AT





The hotel U Mesta Vidne featured another wonderful breakfast buffet, but by this time Paul’s “wow, look at all this stuff!” greed has actually having to slow down and become more selective. We showered and packed and left the bags in the room to spend a few more hours in Cesky Krumlov to explore the castle area. The tower was a “must climb” attraction, and by now Annette’s calf muscles were up for more ascent/descent!

Since a visit to the castle interiors required a guided group tour and was going to take more time than we had, we skipped that and walked through the extensive garden instead, which feature both formal, terraced, symmetrical areas with an elaborate fountain and a wilder, forested area in the rear.

After a couple of hours, we checked out, packed the car and headed toward our next destination – the Abbey in Melk, Austria. Given our issues with the GPS on the way to Cesky Krumlov, we referred to a print-out of the route as recommended by ViaMichelin online web site. For some reason, again, the Nuvi wanted to recommend some smaller roads, so we “agreed to disagree” with the Nuvi and stuck to the other route which involved more large roads.

We headed south and crossed the border into Austria, past the city of Linz and then east toward Vienna. We stopped in the small town of Melk, which is noted for the enormous Benedictine Abbey perched on a hilltop which overlooks the Danube River and the small town below. We grabbed a bit of pizza for lunch (unfortunately not up to the standard established by Don Corleone’s, and probably a C) and chatted with a few Americans who were passing through Melk on a weeklong, fully supported bicycle tour put on by a Berkeley, CA based company.

The Abbey, or Stift, was huge, well restored, impressive, and had beautifully designed exhibit spaces as part of the tour. The displays, which were very contemporary and quite daring in their art direction and use of media (sculptural forms emerging from walls, projections, video, mega-graphics, etc.) were actually about the history of the Abbey and the ups and downs of the Benedictine order and Catholicism in general in Austria. Much better than the usual stuff!

From Melk (after snagging a beauty shot of the new car with Abbey in the background for posting on bimmerfest ;-)), we drove along the Danube up the Wachau valley to the town of Dürnstein. This town is historically notable for the imprisonment of Richard the Lionheart (Richard Lowenhertz) in 1192, and has a ruined castle overlooking the town. In spite of Annette’s still sore calves, we made the hike up to the ruins which were a bit farther than we’d been led to believe (it’s NOT a 10 minute walk…more like 20). However, as a reward when we got to the top around 6:00PM, we were compensated with extraordinary, but somewhat overcast, views of the Wachau wine country.

When we descended to the town, there was nothing going on yet at the restaurant of the Hotel Richard Lowenhertz, and rest of town was equally quiet, but we found a nice spot with outside deck with locals drinking wine. We each enjoyed a glass of the local white and headed on another hour or so to Vienna.

From here, our Nüvi proved flawless in getting us to the Hotel Savoy Garni in Vienna, which was a good thing since it was on a one-way street which would have proven frustrating to find without GPS assistance. Before the trip, we had learned from Paul’s dad, Dick, that the designation “Garni,” as fancy as it sounds, actually signifies a hotel without a restaurant. Talk about turning a bug into a feature (it’s not just a hotel, it is a Hotel Garni!).

Parking in the hotel garage was more of a challenge than one might expect. Upon arriving, we saw an open garage door under the hotel, pulled in and found ourselves a space – S.O.P. Then the door closed and the lights went off. We picked our way to the front with suitcases in tow, felt around in the dark and found a push-button light switch. OK, step one complete. Failing to find the hoped-for staircase upstairs or an electric eye that would open the door, after a few minutes of slightly increasing concern, we discovered another switch and went with the “Auf” direction. Free at last from the temporary garage imprisonment, we went upstairs and checked in.

The hotel was a great find. It has a good location within walking distance of most of the major sites in Vienna and we were welcomed by a wonderfully helpful desk assistant who supplied us with maps, advice and clarified the garage situation. We headed off to dinner in nearby Spittelberg area, which is a pedestrian district with galleries, shops and lots of outdoor restaurants. After zig-zagging through several streets, we ended up eating on the charming patio of the Gasthaus Witwe Bolte on Gutenberggasse 13. The meal was OK, (Prosecco aperatifs, Wiener Schnitzel, Filetsteak “Bolte”, disappointing asparagus soup – a B or B-), but totally hit the spot after a full day of activities.

After dinner, it was another “straight to bed” night. Since the rain and cooler temperatures that had been with us in Munich and Prague had given way to warmer temperatures, we found the hotel room very hot (hotter than the hallway or outside temperature, it seems). Fortunately the room was equipped with a large rotating fan on a stand which was a lifesaver, especially at night.

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