Salzburg, Austria

After another hotel breakfast we are off to Austria on day 5.

View from our hotel.

 More autobahn today I, started and then Chance drove into Austria.

 During one stretch I was doing 120 and there was a little more pedal but traffic got in the way.  On the final leg the GPS detoured us off the hwy due to traffic which took us through incredible back rodes and into a small Bavarian town for lunch.  We jumped back onto the hwy and navigated into terrible traffic getting to the old part of Salzburg.

Soon the Alps started to come into view but Sally stayed the course reading her Kindle.

 I was totally ignorant regarding the size of this city it is a metropolis.  It ruins the charm of the large historic section.  If only Scotty could beam you into the historic section and skip all the traffic.  Chance was at the wheel and did a great job navigating the chaos and small roads.  It was all worth it because the visit was very memorable.

Love Padlocks are a custom by which padlocks are affixed to a bridge by sweethearts.  The lock is usually painted and can be very small or really big.  We saw this in Austria and Paris.  

One of larger Cathedrals has 5 organs to give you what must have been the original surround sound!  The picture above has three organs in it and two were behind us.  Mozart played here for two years, but grew tired of the routine and moved on.

We listened to a Rick Steves audio tour driving in and then when we got into the city we followed the same tour with a map and text on my Nexus 7.  It took use through the city pointing out the most historic places.  This is the prefect way to explore a new city!  The catacombs were incredible to see at night.

We finished that tour and bought some sausage in the Christmas Village which was by far the largest to date.

Mass was taking place in one of the many churches, it was great to see the locals all dressed up streaming into church.  

We then ventured up the funicular railway to the fortress overlooking the city.  Castle Hohensalzburg is one of the largest castles in Europe.  We walked around in amazement trying to comprehend how this castle within a castle was started in 700's by Romans and the inner walls completed in 1564.  The stone work was so grand and intricate it was truly amazing.

View from the fortress 

Family picture then we ended our day back at Hotel Turnerwirt which was a 15 minutes from downtown.  On another visit we will have to do the Sound of Music tour.

Bergen to Rothenburg ob de Tauber

Breakfast was a typical German buffet and we all ate too much. Sally took the wheel and we got away by 8:00 AM. A stop for petrol in Celle and we headed south to get on A7.  It was not long that we saw the no posted speed limit sign and cars started to whiz past us.  Sally got behind one group and was doing 100mph in no time.  

We ended up driving pretty much non-stop for 5 hours skipping lunch.  We consumed so much food the day before no one was hungry.  There was a lot more traffic than I expected and we were stopped two times for road work which brought us to a complete stop taking up valuable time.  The rest areas of the Autobahn are a lot dirtier than most US Interstate Water Closets. 

Chance has a friend named after the town of Kassel so we had to get a picture of him and a sign.  

Rothenburg is amazing, we walked around and tried to take in so many of the sites.  

We also realized we gained at least 90 minutes more sun light during the day by driving south.  I am so glad we did not try to do "Norway in a nutshell" in December there would have been 5 hours of daylight.  We finally did dinner in the late afternoon then took in more food and Gluwein at the Christmas village at night before heading to our hotel.  

It seems like we have tried a little of each type of sausage

  Edith Gaestehaust ended up being within the walls of the city, I booked on price not location so it was quite a surprise.  The family room has two separate rooms with a private bathroom down the hall.  

I had to park the car a few blocks over and just realized I left the chargers and SD card reader in it so I will get pictures up tomorrow.

Goteborg to Bergen, Germany

Long drive down from Sweden last night.  The car is great; I really like the adaptive cruise control.  This feature is the next best thing to a full auto train which Volvo is developing.  Just set the cruise and steer. When approaching another car you will adapt to that cars speed until the road ahead is clear and then you will resume your speed.  The lane departure and blis did their job warning us when needed. 

We stopped for gas in Nyborg Denmark because Chance saw a castle sign and he was driving.  This was the quaintest little village I have ever stopped at.  We ate at a small cafe that was amazing. 

The local Polizi drove a R design XC60!  We saw it twice but were unable to get a photo.

We walked along Nyborg Fyord and then as we were leaving we came upon the Castle.  It was getting dusk but we were able to park the car next to it and get a family picture.  

As we walked around the grounds Stephie went from info sign to info sign soaking in as much as she could.  This village is a must stop for any tourist passing through  on the E20. 

We then drove another 200+ miles into Hamburg to eat at Gronigens.  I was here in 2009 in support of the Dream.  Authentic German meats and potatoes.  This is a brew house which has amazing "white beer".   

We walked around the Local Christmas village which was huge.  Temperature was around 40 with a very light mist.  

50 miles farther south in Bergen is our hotel.  Setback 12 miles from A7 it is a great feel for rural life.  Sally swears she saw a Wolf on the side of the road.  We rolled in at 10:30 PM in a thick fog.  Quaint place with rooms for two but no WiFi.  I am on my tablet on a very limited data plan so no pictures until we can get to a cafe with better bandwidth.  Sleep alludes me so I had better try to close my eyes.

Lisebergsteatern's Christmas City

The hotel only does valet parking which was odd giving the car up so quick for it to disapear to who knows where.  After a few minutes in the room we did to go out for dinner.  After a 20 min walk through the city we ended up at the Christmas village which is in the local amusement park.  This park has typical rides and ferris wheel.  Small booths were setup selling Grog, pretzels, fudge and other Scandinavian treats.

We ended the day at a quirky restaurant that was called the Stagedoor that had a variety of different types of food.  

Food in Sweden is taxed at 25% and drinks at 12% amazing how much that adds to the bill!  Walk back was in a cold misty rain that settled into town.  

The great reveal!

After a great  buffet breakfast we were driven out to the Volvo factory.  Really it is called Volvo City.

These picture do not do it justice it is a very large complex.  We reviewed the sales papers, European car insurance, maritime insurance and export documents signed for the car and they brought the vehicle in.  On this day there were 8 deliveries; the receptionist said during the summer months they average 20 a day.  We met people from Virginia, Baltimore and military families from Rammstein AFB.

The delivery manager walks you through the details of the car and the features.  After a quick run around a small driving track (loop rode) we went back in and ate lunch and did the factory tour.  We were asked to leave our camers but here is part of what we saw.



Then it was time for the nerve racking first drive back to downtown Gothenburg.  I borrowed a GPS with European maps from the DCL IT Expat.  The Garmin made it possible to get back without incident.

Gothenburg

After the 35 minute plane ride from Copenhagen we arrived at Gothenburg.  The driver from Volvo was not at the airport so we took the metro shuttle bus to the Raddison Blue after waiting for 45 minutes.  The bus ride was around 20 minutes, weather is similar to Copenhagen.  We arrived at a bus stop downtown which was about a ten minute walk from the hotel. I am sure we were quite a site pulling our luggage around on the brick sidewalk!  We packed too much into too many suitcases.

It was too early to check-in so we ate lunch along the canal.

810 Kronos later we were all feeling better.  Chance ate lamb, Stephanie beef and Sally and I had Salmon.  We found a pub/bar that had a Swedish buffet.  You order the meat of your choice then you get to go pick out the vegetables, salad and potatoes you want.   

Here is a picture of the restaurant, we took later in the evening after a nap to get adjusted to the time difference.  Gothenburg has hundreds of stores downtown, being Sunday everything closes early and there was not much to do.  

Found the below sticker in a bus stop.  Can you identify the restaurant with the different fonts?  Clearly someone is not a fan of US junk food.

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