Day 11 Vienna to Liezen
Line 1 to the Hauptbahnhof in good time for the 8.53 ostensibly going to Venice but in fact stopping in Austria for continuation by bus. Waiting to get off at Bruck am Mur we make the mistake of asking the guard about Liezen and he expresses surprise that we are getting out and we remain on board. After we set off, it transpires that he thought we meant somewhere else and we are now on the wrong train. We get to Graz at 11.45, just in time to miss our connection but in good time to have lunch on the platform, and for J to enjoy a delicious cinnamon bun from the bakery while I have a coffee.
The 12.45 is then late at Selzthal which lies baking in dramatic mountain country but without other facilities. We wait for the 3pm. It arrives complete with passengers who remain on board when it leaves in the direction it came from. We are in Liezen at 3.10, three hours later than if we had not changed our plans on the way, our journey double the scheduled time.
Liezen is baking hot – 39 degrees according to one sign and apparently just one large commercial estate with an unattractively busy road through it. The eee hotel is in the middle beside the car showrooms. Reception is a large screen that scans J’s passport and produces room key credit cards. No person in sight and the room utilitarian. The wc has a glass door and a movement-operated light so the bedroom is illuminated every time either of us goes to the loo.
Out at 6pm in search of dinner, Iskander kebab in the incongruously-named Milano restaurant. The town is very modest, the only buildings of interest are the town hall and the onion-domed Catholic church which is very plain inside.
Day 12 Admont
A basic breakfast, poor value for €16 a head. A rather stern man in chef’s whites is not worth approaching about leaving our bags during the day but I speak (in German) to one of the few staff and arrange to deposit our bags in the laundry room and return to collect them by meeting her in the foyer at 1.30 – our keys will have expired at midday. This strictly irregular arrangement is perhaps the place’s only redeeming feature.
We buy our bus tickets from a machine at the station and get the 9.45 to Admont. This is a wonderful journey through the hills, hugely picturesque.
At Admont the Abbey is in the middle of the village, a rather attractive place with hotels and other places we wish we had stayed in. Entry is not cheap – €19 each – but the library which is our first stop is fantastic especially when the tour group in occupation leaves it almost empty.
After that, the arrival of the next group is our cue to go back to the exhibition rooms we omitted en route.
The church is Gothic, not Baroque which is quite a culture shock.
We still have time to explore the village and an early lunch in a traditional hof, a wood-lined room with an old-fashioned fire where the women are doing the work and the man of the house is drinking the profits with a mate. Lunch is cauliflower soup and pork and sausages, all in the local style.
J gets us off the bus at the hotel rather than the railway station that is further on and we wait nervously for our luggage-holder to appear with no plan B if she doesn’t. However, all is well and we leave by the 14.09 to Bischofshofer which gives spectacular scenery even though it is now raining, the clouds enveloping a corridor of hills in a dramatic fashion. We are on time and for the first time on this trip shelter in one of the glass waiting booths on the platform.
The journey to Salzburg is even more dramatic with huge cliffs looming out of the mist.
We are so impressed with the journey that we think of another trip to Austria next year.
Light rain at Salzburg as we wait for he 5pm to Munich to leave. Little but office blocks seen.
We have half a carriage of quiet zone making the journey more relaxed than quiet coaches sometimes are. The mountain wonderland has given way to rolling arable country side as we head back to Germany. A text from a phone provider is the only indication of a border and though the polizei come through a bit later, they show no interest in us.
At Munich it’s a 25 minute walk to the Hotel du Train which is done up in the Orient Express style. The room is small but wood-panelled and satisfactory. Out to dinner at a very busy Italian place.
Day 13 Munich
Bad night; a party group keep us awake between 3 and 4. It is not clear where it is coming from. When I wake about 7.30, J has already been down to reception to demand a move. Breakfast similar in content to yesterday but of first class rather than lowest denominator ingredients. A very charming lady makes me a pot of Earl Grey tea and is very solicitous of our requirements. It only emerges later that she is the night staff we are negotiating with; she offers a move to a quieter suite for €20 a night more which we accept. The new accom is just across the corridor from the noisy room and not a suite but it is a larger room with a couch and a bath and it is a substantial improvement albeit the test will be tonight when there is a Euro match.
The man in the kilt and this cafe give our Munich visit a Scottish flavour.
Off into town, visiting a number of churches, some of which survived the war unscathed.
WWII has clearly deprived us of many magnificent buildings.
Rather cool for tee shirts. Lunch of the tapas that a nearby Portuguese restaurant refused to serve us last night. Back for a siesta then out in search for stamps for the latest batch of postcards we are sending which takes us to some interesting areas and a gay restaurant where we have schnitzel and and gulasch respectively, both authentic and therefore with barely a trace of vegetables.
Day 14 Munich
A good night in our better accom and another good breakfast at the window of the dining room. A packet of ham falls from above onto the nearby pavement. A crow arrives soon after, showing an interest but whether the two events are otherwise connected or not is not clear.
Our Hotel is in the same street as the Sendinger Tor U Bahn station. We take the line 7 ot Olympia Einkaufzentrum which proves to be a shopping mall more than a mile from the Olympic area.
The walk there is full of interest including the athletes’ village and the memorial to the victims of the outrage.
An hour later we are at the Friday Flohmarkt in a carpark beside a park. This is much less full of quality antiques than the one in Vienna and full of traditional costumes for Oktoberfest which begins in just over a week’s time. I secure 37 postcards for €15, mostly field post from WWI. The google map takes us up to the the bus stop for the 144 bus which (via the fleamarket again) takes us to Rotkreuzplatz Ubahn Station a few stops away. As we passed through here on the way, this is good.
Gulasch soup in a self-service bakery where the hot food is collected from one end of the counter and cold from the other. By the time I have assembled the food, J has disappeared round and obscure corner of the seating so the meal is not as restful as I hoped. The coffee machiato is a long drink in a tall glass and, by the time I have added another shot, is our most expensive coffee.
Later, we walk to the Residenz where we have to choose between the Museum and the theatre as we do not have time to do them both. We choose the Royal Theatre which is surprisingly difficult to locate and, for the second time this trip, we find ourselves leading an American guy on an indirect route. He is from Tennessee, on a twelve-day self-drive tour. His tour organisers seem to have persuaded him that he will experience the Oktoberfest, suggesting that we are not the only ones to have led him astray.
The No Talking! admonition as we enter the theatre seems unnecessary and makes J cross. We resolve not to visit more empty theatres.
We head down Ludwigstrasse to the State Library
and St Ludwig’s which are both modern and impressive.
Ubahn back from Universitat to Sendlinger Tor and more excellent tapas at La Vida near the hotel.
Day 15 Munich to Paris
Awake at 6 and we decide on an earlier train to Stuttgart rather than risk the planned nine-minute transfer. Breakfast at 6.30 and away from Hotel du Train about 7.15 one stop to the Hbf and the quiet 7.50. Coffee served at our place.
Stuttgart is sunny; its rail station still unfinished of course but some signs of progress since we were there last year. The later train would in fact have let us make our connection.
The train to Paris is entirely different from the one the bookings were made on and there are none but we grab a table which is satisfactory. There is no catering and the nearest working loos are two carriages away. But there are enough seats for everyone and the first class SNCF seats are more comfortable than the DB ones.
Paris is in full sunshine and much warmer than we have had in the last few days. Hotel Little Regina is a few yards from the Gare de L’Est and the window gives a full view of it. The Fauburg St Denis produces some more Parisian macarons. At Restaurant Les Résistants – La Table at 7 Rue de la Fidélité we choose the six courses for €75 each in preference to four courses for €62. Either way, you have to trust the chef as the price and number of courses is the only information you are given. More than that, the guidance from the waiting staff doesn’t add much to my understanding. But, it’s really tasty – mostly vegetarian though the mains are beef and skate. The beetroot ravioli with the beef is a particular highlight. It’s just round the corner from the hotel and a very satisfactory end to our trip.
Day 16 Paris to Edinburgh
And so home. Eurostar announce their 10.07 as being the 9.30, the latest example of their absurd and insultingly paternalistic approach. Checkin includes the taking of my fingerprints though not J’s. The shortage of seats in the waiting area will no doubt be cured by their plan to run more trains.
Enjoyably sociable journies today – a couple on the eurostar who do the Wordle together and a chatty Edinburgh pair with whom we converse all the way from London to Edinburgh.
We return from another wonderful Interrail trip, having visited some beautiful places and had an excellent holiday.
