If you follow me on Facebook, you probably saw pictures that
I posted from a client traveling through Germany and Switzerland earlier this
summer. They had a great time, and gave
me permission to share some of their Facebook posts and text messages.
“We took the advice and did the castle drive along the
Rhine…We must have seen 20+ castles. Very cool for the first thing we did.”
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| Castle on the Rhine |
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| Beautiful buildings in Nuremburg |
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| Heidelberg |
Rothenberg ob Der Tauber is a beautiful small town out in
lush green hills that is stuck in the medieval times. The village walls,
towers, homes and shops were all intact.
It wasn't bombed during any wars so it survived as is. The history there
is incredible. We took a walking tour of the town given by a funny town
watchman. They had some great museums with fantastic medieval artifacts. It was
amazing.”
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| Rothenburg ob Der Tauber |
“It took a few hours to drive to Aying. It's a small village
off the beaten trail. It's famous for its Ayinger brewery (I'm not a beer
drinker and even I liked the beer).”
“We had a fantastic day at Salzburg. We walked around the
entire city. Walked up to the castle and had lunch. [My daughter] wanted to see
as many Sound of Music sites as she could. We got in four before we had to
leave....The Abbey, the do-re-mi stairs, the Von Trapp house and the
16-going-on-17 gazebo. It was fun
searching through town for them. There were so many churches that it seemed
like they chimed all day long. “
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| Sound of Music gazebo |
"[My daughter's] in heaven...the view from her bed, yes that's right, not just the room, her BED! Cinderella's castle!"
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| Neuschwanstein Castle |
“The Glacier Express ride from St Moritz to Zermatt was
beautiful. It was raining when we arrived
so we didn't get to see the Matterhorn til this am. What an amazing site. We
have a room with a gorgeous view of the Matterhorn. We took a train up to
Gornergrat, another peak across from the Matterhorn. It was about 30 degrees
this am but it warmed up by the afternoon. It was a gorgeous day!”
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| The Matterhorn |
One of the highlights of their trip was the day spent with
Ueli Summers, an 80 year old farmer from Grindelwald who spent his life working
as a private mountain climber guide. He escorted
them from their hotel via rail to Jungfrau, aka “The Top of Europe.”
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| At the "Top of Europe" |
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| Walking through a glacier |
I want to point out that Switzerland is a bit more
logistically challenging than Germany, in that many towns can only be accessed
by train, which is a problem if you are driving a rental car! I did not want my clients to backtrack to
pick up their car, so my Switzerland partner came up with the
perfect solution: she sent over a driver
to pick up their car and move it to the parking garage at my clients’ final
destination, where they picked it up a few days later.
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| Train to Jungfrau |
On any vacation, but especially an extensive trip through
Europe, one expects a few snafus, but happily everything went quite smoothly. My clients did need to scramble for backup transportation to Paris when it appeared the French rail strike would disrupt the final leg of their journey. But my wonderful partners in Switzerland worked with my clients to make sure they were covered. Fortunately their train was not cancelled and they arrived in Paris as scheduled.
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| Lucerne |
It’s important to consider not just the price, but the
quality of the suppliers, and the value of having a reliable contact at your
destination just in case something goes awry.
Go ahead and travel independently, but don’t be on your own!
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