Arriverderci Italia!
Trip Start
Aug 24, 2010
1
23
34
Trip End
Sep 27, 2010
Where I stayed
Memmingen, Bavaria, Germany
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
The drive was boring and at the end of it we found the hotel and unpacked. We then went out to find some dinner and after that Dad took us down all the dark streets (scary) to the hotel (He had no idea where it was or even what the name was) and we then went to sleep.
Beck's Word of the Day: Goodbye!
From Sam: Today we had breakfast at the hotel (I had banana yoghurt) before getting on the Vaporetto to go back to the car park. We got in the car and started on our journey out of Italy. We stopped at a petrol station in Trentino Alto-Adige (a region in northern Italy) for lunch. I had a burger with cheese and prosciutto and Mum, Dad and I shared a 1.5 litre bottle of yellow Fanta.
After lunch we got back in the car and continued on our road to Austria. Arriverderci Italy. In Austria nothing exciting happened (except for that most of the electronic entertainment objects in the car ran out of charge).
Eventually we arrived in Germany, where nothing happened (very similar to Austria) until we arrived in our hotel, where we left our bags, saw a McDonalds ad that said that in Germany they serve sausages and (I found this out later) beer and enquired as to where the nearest restaurant was. We were told where the centre of town was so we headed there and found a good looking restaurant. I had a schnitzel classic with a side serve of chips and salad and a yellow Fanta (Looks like Fanta in Germany is yellow as well). It came out massive (a giant sized plate with two pieces of schnitzel and the rest of the plate full of chips with a bowl of salad and a large glass of yellow Fanta filled to the top.
After tea we wandered around (lost) for a while in the dark while we tried to find our hotel (I had suggested earlier to go back the way we came but no-one else had agreed with me at the time). Eventually we found it and started trying to go to sleep in it (the pillows in it were like bean bags and were not very comfortable).
Sam’s word for the day: Schnitzel
From Steve: Left Italy this morning to drive through the Austrian alps on our way to Germany. We didn’t really know what to expect of the road, I was hoping for a nice winding road (and the kids weren’t). The kids got what they wanted. :( Most of the road was sweeping bends with lots of tunnels but still very nice scenery. It felt cool to be able to drive through a whole country in the afternoon. When we go to Germany we hit unlimited speed autobahns and pushed the little diesel up to 160 km per hour for a little while – but it wasn’t very comfortable about it. We cruised most of the way at 130 – 140 km per hour being passed by big Mercs doing at least 200 km per hour.
Stopped in a lovely little town called Memingen where we did the usual wander through the streets to find dinner with a bit of window shopping on the way. Great local German food for dinner.
Steve’s Word of the Day: no bends
From Alison: This morning we said goodbye to glorious Venice and took the vaporetto back to the Tronchetto carpark to collect our faithful car. We had anticipated lunch being in Austria but we managed one last Panini in northern Italy before saying goodbye and crossing the border into Austria.
Nothing exciting to report about Austria other than the spectacular mountain scenery and quaint alpine houses – all with flowering window-boxes. What seemed a short time later, we were in Germany. The animals in Germany seem luckier than those in Italy – they are allowed to graze outside! The only animals we saw outside in the whole of Italy were in the north on our daytrip to see the rock carvings. The drivers in German leave a bit more space between them than those in Italy, but it is still a little scary when someone passes us travelling somewhere close to 200 kph when we are sitting on 150 kph. I am glad that Steve is driving! The funny part about today was that we started the morning in Venice – t-shirts and shorts and 30 degrees to arrive in Germany – where the weather was 13 degrees.
We took a stroll into Memingen once we had unloaded at the hotel, to find somewhere to eat. We stopped at a terrific place and all ordered traditional German fare – right down to Steve’s half a litre of beer – just a little glass for the Germans. My meal was called Schwabenteller – which was made up of a grilled pork fillet, schwaben (which was like a spring roll sized ravioli) and Spatzle (which was like little tiny pieces of pasta) served with fried onions and brown gravy – it was really yummy!
Alison’s word of the day: Ausfahrt (Any guesses what this is? - answer in tomorrow’s blog)
