We left on Saturday morning to travel by train to Berchtesgaden. The German rail passes were the "BEST" decision we made for traveling during our trip. While there can be a few moments of stress as we try and figure out what the announcer just said in German that made everyone standing around us rush to another platform..........it's quite relaxing for the most part. We took the S Bahn in from Karben where David and Eva live......to the main Frankfurt station and then took an ICE or inner city express train down to Berchtesgaden. Unfortunately, the trains were all delayed because of flooding, so we missed one connection, and ultimately ended up several hours late. Funny thing.......we didn't print out the directions to the hotel......counting on using the "very smart phone" that we took with us. Did you know that in a little mountain village that your smart phone may not be able to receive any data? Well, best laid plans didn't work out. It was pouring rain and I kept saying, "look and see if you can see the hotel name on any of the surrounding buildings......it said they were close to the station."
Well, close to the "stop" meaning bus stop is what it really said. So it was a really good thing we figured out that we should just get in a taxi and have him take us there. A few minutes later a taxi came by main train station there in Berchtesgaden, and I showed him the email with the name and address the hotel. He acknowledged quickly that he knew right where it was and I breathed a big sigh of relief as we loaded the backpacks in the trunk and liked into a warm dry car.
Yes, you are thinking, oh good.......no. We drive and drive, up and moutain roads and its looking more and more remote. I'm thinking where is he taking us? How much is this costing us? What have we done? After a very long 12 minutes.......yes I knew exactly how much time had passed, I saw the first sign to our hotel. Whew! He is in the right spot! We went through several more little side streets and climbed the mountain even higher till we were at the last row of houses when we arrived. Ahhhhhhh! We made it. Now for the drum roll......how much did that cost?
"17 Euros please" said the nice taxi driver. Ok, not so bad. Could have been 50 or 100 for all I knew. We approached the front of the little BergHotel Edelwiess, and were completely mesmerized. It was the darling little Bavarian hotel we had seen in the pictures. We were greeted warmly by the older gentleman who owned the hotel and he gave me the room key. My eyes must have gotten big, because the darling old fashioned key had a key ring identifying it to room number 13! Really? Really? So after he said, are you ok, I said, "yep, that's my favorite number.....how did you know?"
It took CJ explaining how double locks work before we could open the door. The room was small, but clean. Had the customary AWESOME german windows we have grown to love and little bathroom with a shower. We had two big doors that opened to the patio were we could see the beautiful mountains. We decided that with the effort to get there, we would just go to the dining room for dinner. We took turns in the bathroom and unpacked a little before dinner. CJ and I found a slug, unlike any we have ever seen before. It had horns and armored scales. (Insert update from one week later...I learned that those horns are actually the slugs eyes, and their name translates to naked snail, because they have no house or shell).
We headed to dinner a the little restaurant and had a great meal. The Bavarian music was delightful and the food was great. The couple who owns the hotel does the cooking and serving, but they did a great job. We went back to our room and had a great nights sleep.......except I realized that somehow I didn't pack any of my medication. I guess we will figure that out tomorrow.
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