Hotels in Switzerland and Germany
In early June ’02, three of us spent 10 nights in 10 different places “doing” eight countries! I’d like to share some of them; they were “winners!” Prices listed include breakfast and tax.
We flew on a charter, Air Transat, from Toronto to Frankfurt, GERMANY, for $485. We all agreed this was the most cramped flight we had ever been on, and they had just discontinued serving complimentary wine with meals.
Our car rental was through AutoEurope (phone 888/223-5555 or visit www.autoeurope.com). A standard-shift Ford Focus cost $362 for 10 days, including a surcharge for the Eastern countries.
Four hours’ driving took us to our first stop, Eguisheim, near Colmar, FRANCE. Rick Steves recommends staying in Eguisheim since it’s only three miles from Colmar and generally less expensive. It’s good advice. We immediately fell in love with the town and spent the evening there instead of going back to Colmar.
Bombengers (3 rue des 3 Pierres; phone/fax 038-9237119) was a good choice at the edge of town, with easy parking, lovely furnishings and a terrace overlooking the town. The price was €41 ($44) for a double with facilities en suite and €31 ($34) for a single with shared bath.
In the morning we explored the ruins of the three châteaux high above on a hill before setting off on one of our longer driving days through SWITZERLAND.
After a lunch stop in Lucerne, we continued through the Arlberg Pass to Haus Panorama (phone 435-12548799 or e-mail hauspanorama@atanet.at), overlooking Innsbruck and the Brenner Pass. We had stayed there three years before and enjoyed even the same room very much again. We had a 2-room apartment with a balcony for €22 ($24) per person. There is a Ping-Pong table.
The Stubaital train into Innsbruck stops about 50 yards away (€5 round trip). Café Pichl down the road in Mutters was a good choice for wienerschnitzel (€10 each).
A 2- to 3-hour drive (less on the Brenner Toll road) took us to Castelrotto in the Dolomites. Rick Steves recommends this town, but we found it overrun with tourists and drove on a few miles to St. Valentin, where we found Pension Vroni (phone 041-7706513 or fax 047-1704658), with an even more spectacular view than we’d had the previous night. We paid €28 per person for a triple room with a bath and balcony. Here we enjoyed hiking to the ruins of Castle Hauenstein across the valley.
We had hoped to stay in Venice at Hotel Galleria (Academia vaporetto stop, Venice, ITALY; phone 041-5232489 or e-mail gallaria@tn.it) on the Grand Canal, but it has only 12 rooms and on a Saturday night it was full. They offered us a nearby flat for €165 ($178) for three. The makings for breakfast were provided, but we had to prepare it. This was fun, and we felt like Venetians for a day instead of tourists.
Another 3-hour drive took us to Lake Bled in SLOVENIA. They didn’t officially use the euro, but it was accepted where we tried it. This turned out to be our favorite stop on the trip. Although Pension Borni (www.munnwerks.com/slovenia.html) was a little more worn than the other places we stayed, other factors such as the great view, the great food and the gracious host more than made up for it.
Most of the pensions and private rooms in this area are clustered in town, but Pension Borni is more secuded on the opposite end of the lake. The price was €25 per person for three of us in a 2-room suite with balcony. An extra €24 each got us a 4-course dinner with beer or wine.
The pension’s website has much good information about the area, and there is plenty to do within 20 miles of Lake Bled. Besides the island with the “wishing bell” church, there is a castle perched high above the lake plus a gorgeous walk through Vintgar Gorge, white-water rafting and a scenic national park.
Borni was a wonderful host. He offered us his boat to row to the lake’s island, and although the boat’s name, KRAP, was quite fitting, it was seaworthy and we had a lot of fun.
After a night in Hallstatt, we made a quick stop at our favorite summer bobsled across from Lake St. Wolfgang (€5), visited the wedding church from “The Sound of Music” at Mondsee, then were on our way to Cesky Crumlov, CZECH REPUBLIC.
Be sure to purchase a highway permit (€3) at the border. I had read about this in ITN, but my guidebooks didn’t mention it and we didn’t notice a sign, so we didn’t buy one. It cost us a €30 fine. Depending on the mood of the policeman, the fine can be as high as €450.
In Cesky Krumlov, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, we stayed at Hana Sladova (Parken 125; phone/fax 420/337-717 120 or e-mail hana.sladova@seznam.cz) for $42 for a triple. Parking was tight but available. The location was good, in the Old Town, five minutes from the town square and the castle. Riverside restaurants were just across the street.
We rented a rubber raft for about $4 per person and paddled for 30 minutes through the heart of the city. What fun! You can go around the little waterfalls or over them.
Since we didn’t want to drive into central Prague, we were lucky to find a very nice pension, Pension Tyle (Na Dolnici 32/861; phone 00420/2/651 29 78 or e-mail pension.tyle@atlas.cz), in a western suburb near the Autobahn from Pilzen and Nuremberg. For $18 per person, we had a large 2-room suite with balcony but not much view. The subway to the city was a 10-minute walk away through a park. Our hosts were very helpful in routing us out of the city when we left.
When we crossed the border into GERMANY, we were glad we weren’t going the opposite direction because the line of cars coming into the Czech Republic was about a mile long. I had read in ITN that this was the case on weekends, but this was a Thursday. People were coming in to go to a giant flea market just inside the border. Many people parked their cars and walked across.
The area across the border is called Swabisch Switzerland and is quite scenic. If I were planning the trip again, I would spend an extra day there. We made a lunch visit to Koenigstein, an old fortress with a great view of the Elbe River, then it was on to Wittenberg, where we stayed at the Gaestehause Lindemann (Friestr. 73; phone/fax 3491 40 34 27 or visit www.pension-lindemann.de). This was a delightful place, and since it wasn’t too crowded they gave us a double and a single room for €22 ($24) per person.
A new tourist attraction, almost as popular as the castle church, is the “Hundertwasser School.” No two windows are alike, and trees grow out of some of the windows.
After a visit to Buchenwald, we arrived at Eisenach in the early afternoon to visit Wartburg Castle, the Lutherhaus and the Bach Haus. We spent our last night in the Gaesthaus Karolineneck (e-mail bodo.krause@web.de). Our rooms were large and well furnished. A double and single cost €18 per person. Breakfast was served extra early for us, as we had to get to the airport in Frankfurt two hours away.
JUDY PFAFFENBERGER
Toledo, OH