Next step: Wertach.

Our last day in Vienna dawned bright and sunny.  After breakfast at our hotel, we rolled our bags out the door and headed for the closest U-Bahn station.  As we rode towards the Bahnhof, we felt the same way about Vienna as when we left Venice…our time spent there was just enough to begin to understand the possibilities.  We had become comfortable maneuvering around the city and were ready to really begin some serious sightseeing.  Our first visit here was accompanied by snow and cold, and this trip cold rain made walking around town a challenge.

The train eased out of the Vienna station 2 minutes late as a result of the section from Budapest arriving that much behind schedule.  Only a few brief halts as we rolled toward Germany on this express.  In Salzburg, ½ the cars and an engine were detached, with no noticeable delay, so those souls could continue on to Innsbruck in the Tirol.  Our section rolled along and into Munich.

It turned out the most difficult part of our trip from Austria to Germany was finding the car rental salon in the train station.  I had seemingly straightforward instructions from the website where I had reserved the car, telling us the salon was on the 1st floor(2nd floor for us Americans) in the center of the station.  Unfortunately, the area was being renovated so there was some construction confusion.  We finally located an elevator which seemed sure to take us the right direction(up), but got herded off by an enthusiastic Deutsche Bahn employee who spoke no English, but kept insisting it was verboten.  Fifteen minutes later, after finding an out of the way stairway, the salon de autos was located and we were able to obtain the keys to a VW Golf which was hidden away in yet another building.  As we walked away from the counter, the helpful young man called out to us, saying, “There is an elevator you can use just around the corner.”  You guessed it…the same elevator we had been chased off!

We found the car without too much difficulty, and set to familiarizing ourselves with its controls.  The built-in GPS was, of course, set up totally in German with no apparent way of switching it to English, and it was quickly obvious we would be relying on paper maps and my smart phone’s map app for our trip.  
 

Driving across southern Bavaria turned out to be much less stressful than I had feared.  Picking up the car at the Hauptbahnhof meant we were on the side of town closest to where we were headed, so we were able to make a fairly quick escape from the big city and into the countryside.  There were only a couple of turns required to put us into the general area where the town of Wertach is located.

"Our" Pizza Place

 
It was only after I turned off the main road into Wertach that I ran into trouble.  We had a hand-drawn map and some photos from our hosts to guide us to our destination.  Unfortunately, trying to follow the directions & photos, listening to my iPhone butchering German street names, all while dodging the drivers who actually knew where there were going, caused us to circle the very narrow streets several times before finally arriving at our condo. 


The next day was spent walking the streets and getting a much better feel for this small town.  It is not a large place and there are not very many streets, but none are actually straight.  Most streets curve as they follow old paths which were laid out long before there were such things as automobiles.  Fortunately, everything is within walking distance if you don’t mind a few rather steep hills.  I try to view it as a little extra exercise to help offset the really good Gasthaus meals we’ve been sampling.

Gasthaus Hirsch - one of many good places to eat.