Our last night in Austria
Trip Start
Sep 09, 2010
1
10
17
Trip End
Sep 29, 2010
Bregenz, Austrian Alps, Austria
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Our drive today was another gorgeous one, on tiny country roads over three or four passes, through many ski areas. It is very easy to see how one could get very lost skiing in the Alps. We arrived in Bregenz early this afternoon, intending to visit the tourist information center first thing and find a place to stay without going door to door. The traffic in town was terrible and of course, we missed our turn. The traffic coming the other direction was backed up for miles, so we decided to go to the next town, have lunch, then come back later. The next town was Lindau in Germany. We found a 30 minute parking spot, bought some food at a take-out place, fed the meter and headed to the lakeshore for our quick lunch. The traffic in Bregenz was gone when we returned, so we found the TI, got a place right in town at the Hotel Central and went out exploring. The most exciting thing we found here was the stage they have IN the lake. There's a big outdoor theater with the seats on the shore - sort of an amphitheater - and the stage literally in the water. They do one production for two summers. In 2009 and 2010 it was AIDA. They are in the process of disassembling the set now, taking down huge pieces of metal with a crane and a barge. The pictures of the production look amazing with parts of the stage floating in the water. We'll see if the pictures we took do it any justice and we'll post them.
We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant tonight. Neither of us are wild about Austrian food and we're a bit tired of the pizza and pasta that has been our fall back for the past several nights, so we decided we'd try Austrian Chinese. The desk clerk at our hotel recommended this place just a five minute walk away. We were a bit concerned when we arrived at close to 7:00 and there was no one there. This isn't Italy where everyone eats at 9:00. But we were warmly greeted by our Chinese server who spoke barely a word of English, but found us some English menus. We tried to order some tap water, but finally gave up and ordered a bottle of water. The menu was quite fun to read; it was very extensive and pretty typical Chinese. We ordered spring rolls, corn soup with chicken (egg drop soup), chicken fried rice, and a dish called 'crispy chicken with garlic sauce and greenstuff". I was intrigued by the name! The soup was definitely what we would call egg drop soup. The spring rolls were quite different, but good. Everything was very hot - temperature-wise. Before our entrees arrived, our server brought our plates on a warming tray that was warmed with tealights. Then she brought our entrees. The chicken fried rice was exactly like we would have had at our favorite Chinese restaurants. The crispy chicken would probably have passed as General Tsos chicken. The greenstuff was a couple of green beans, but the majority of the vegetables were orange - carrots! Everything was very tasty. When we were finished, we were presented with a plate of fried banana pieces. They were also very good, but at this point we were pretty full. THEN when she brought our check, she brought us warm plum wine, not just little cups of it, a whole little pitcher of it AND fortune cookies. Then to top it all off, she presented us with our own bottle of plum wine to take home with us. She said (I think...) that if you drink it warm it helps you to sleep better! All in all, a very good experience.
We walked home by the lake. The lights all around were very pretty. Tomorrow we leave Austria and head for our last week of vacation in Switzerland.
