Our last morning in Venice. A warm day, humid and filled with all kinds of anticipation for picking up my project, saying goodbye to my new friends and knowing a sweatfest was about to begin as I pulled my luggage for about a half mile with a heavy backpack on my back. But let’s start with the good stuff. Breakfast was coffee and my FAVORITE pastry…so delicious…like a custard pie with a really tender flaky crust. I should have had two, but there is only so much a girls belly can take, even of the most delicious pastry on earth. Guy had his usual scrambled eggs, cheese, ham and a bite of my pastry for dessert. Afterwards we walked to my class where I got to take a final look at my beautiful project before Sahar lovingly wrapped it in bubbles. Antonella gave me a bag full of goodies including my scrap smalti, a color board with a large portion of their smalti on it (for future ordering purposes which is WONDERFUL because those boards are expensive to buy) and I got to keep my Orsoni apron! I hugged everyone goodbye and Guy took our group photo and we all exchanged emails. Saying goodbye was bitter sweet but I ripped off the bandaid and didn’t linger too long as they all had work to do and I knew I’d have to leave at some point. What a great experience.
Back to the hotel we settled up our bill and with two heavy suitcases and two heavy back packs we started the trek to the train station. I just kept looking down so as not to get discouraged and before I knew it we had arrived at the station…hot and sweating, but in good spirits. We bought our tickets for the train (a 10 minute ride) to the mainland from a kiosk, validated our tickets, and hopped on. Yes my friends, air conditioning!!! We soaked it up and in no time we were at the next station and off the train, walking a few blocks to the car rental building. We only had to wait a few minutes before we got our car which was “upgraded to a station wagon” I think that means “upgraded to uncool” and off we went. We weren’t gone long before I asked guy if he sees on our rental agreement where the scratches on the side of the car were documented. He looked and didn’t see anything. Uh oh. We once paid $200 in Italy for a scratch we didn’t cause. Once we stopped and looked better, it’s beyond scratched. So Guy took a photo and mailed it to the car rental company. So we wait.
Our drive to Berchtesgaden was entertaining. We had a combination of rain, sun and clouds, but mostly sun. The highway was busy, but nothing crazy and there were LOTS of campers…so many campers! Where had they all been or where were they all going?? Too much fun. Of course, the large trucks on the roads were not as big as our semis at home and they stay on the right. They don’t zigzag in and out of traffic. They stay put. So that makes it all easier. Also the campers were all small and fun to look at, nothing like our huge motorhomes (sometimes we do things too big).
When we left Venice we could see mountains in the distance and before long we were IN those mountains. It was a beautiful drive first through Austria (we catch a little piece of it between Italy and Germany) then in Germany. The tunnels…so many tunnels, but only a few were more than 5 or 6 kilometers long. So that wasn’t too bad. Traffic stayed pretty much at the speed limit, except for the occasional person that was in a wee bit of a hurry, but we cruised along in no particular rush and enjoying the scenery. We stopped at an AutoGrille, which is the Italian version of a Love’s gas stop, which usually always has nice restrooms, fun shopping and great food. Of course we got our lunch there and sat in our car and had a picnic. Part of our entertainment was a man with his dog who stopped outside the AutoGrille and used the bathroom outside the AutoGrille (the man not the dog) and pulled out food from his trunk and ate it standing outside his car door dropping a few bites of ham to the dog every now and again. We were embarrassed for the dog.
Nearing our turnoff we passed a beautiful castle that Guy and his family toured last time they were here (I stayed back with Nero on that part of their trip 😢) but it was the place where the movie “Where Eagles Dare” was filmed. It was pretty cool from the outside, but I didn’t have the desire to go in even though Guy hinted they had the BEST sausage sandwich. Within just a few miles we turned off the interstate and took some back roads to our final destination of the day. The Edelweiss Hotel in the quaint beautiful town of Berchtesgaden. We had help with our bags from a young man from Croatia and he also parked our car. Once parked, he came up to our room to tell us our car was damaged and did we know about it? Um…yes…we know. So, since Guy had stayed here before, I got an expert tour of the hotel and we went to the roof to see the pool and look out at the beautiful views. You can see Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest from here (barely) and we are contemplating a visit. Guy has done it…but there is a long tunnel, then elevator to take to the top. Strike 1 and Strike 2. We’ll investigate the hike to the top. If not, I’ll google it and be happy.
Back to the room Guy called Eurocar and chatted with a lady who gave us the Venice number to call. Guy spoke to the gentleman who gave us the car and he assured us that it had MANY scratches and it was all documented and for us not to worry. He said it was all on the rental agreement paperwork, so we’ll take another look once we get in the car again, but this eased our fears. “Rookie mistake” Guy says. We should know better, but when you are busy loading all your luggage you sometimes don’t slow down and properly document things to cover your you-know-what. Relieved for the time being, we packed up all our dirty clothes and headed to the laundromat as we were too tried to explore and it looked as if it may rain, so it seemed like the thing to do. A nice German fellow in the laundry helped us get our machine going and even tho there were only 4 washers and 2 dryers, the timing was perfect and we didn’t have to wait except for maybe 5 minutes for a dryer to open up. Success. Currently the temperature is a blissful 64 degrees and the shorts and short sleeve shirts being washed won’t be worn much, but we needed a few things cleaned and it’s nice to know our suitcase isn’t going to smell like our hot Venice experience.
Back at the hotel we dropped our clean clothes and headed down for a light dinner. By this time it is nearing 8pm and all the area restaurants, including a few at the hotel, were already closed! So they sent us to the pizzeria and we were pleased to find the menu was perfect. You could sit either inside (which was really hot) or outside (which was chilly and rainy). We chose outside as it was covered and although it was cool, there was no breeze and it ended up being just right. I had bruschetta and French onion soup. Guy had a burger. It was all really really good and we are looking forward to tomorrow being a relaxing day of sleeping in, a great breakfast, and taking a day to not do too much besides explore around the town.
Photo credit to Guy as he was the navigator and photographer when in the car. ;)
Gute Nacht from Berchtesgaden Germany.
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