January 24 - Drive to Salzburg

We left the hotel about 10 AM. It was foggy the entire way, but very little precipitation, and no problems with the road conditions. Very lucky!

We stopped off at the Berghotel Aschbach near Bad Aibling, a favorite place where Ron and I have stayed and dined many times. It has been in the same family 130-years. The great grandparents of the present owner started a small inn there, and it has grown over the years to be a very substantial hotel, restaurant, and wedding facility. On a clear day the views are outstanding over the Wendelstein Mountains. But today we were looking at fog.

Their Thursday special was rind filet  (beef filet), and thee of us had a small filet - Pat's with a yummy peppercorn cream sauce, Mike's with a red wine sauce, and mine with krauterbutter (herb butter). Ron was happy to find a schweinebraten which he had been searching for the last six weeks - served in a dark beer sauce with potato knodel. He enjoyed every bite and was sorry when it was finished.

Mike's filet with sauce and potatoes

Ron's schweinebraten

Mary's filet with herb butter and  fries

Pat's steak with pepper cream sauce

Display of desserts at Berghotel Aschbach

We continued on our way to Salzburg to find the small apartments we had rented at the last moment when we changed itinerary mid-stream after being unable to access the gorgeous house in Trin. The apartments were QUITE a different scenario. Ron and I had a studio on the ground floor and Pat and Mike a 3-room apartment up one flight. The entryway of the building was not heated, and the lights were on a timer. The studio had a sleeper sofa of sorts, which we topped with an extra "mattress" (more like a comforter). We moved the coffee table out of the way to make the bed, and used the table for our luggage stand.  In the kitchen area was another small sofa which made into a bed, and so we opened that up as well. It was not what you would call cozy or gemutlich, but it was functional with a Miele dishwasher, cooktop and oven, refrigerator, coffee maker, hot-water pot, toaster. Unfortunately, the ground level apartment had flimsy curtains and did not have rolladen shutters, and there was a street light outside, so it was very bright for sleeping.

Mary's "bed"

Sofa that became Ron's "pallet"

The 3-room apartment did not have enough light in the kitchen (which was the kitchen we all planned to use), but Pat improvised, and brought in a floor lamp from the little office. The other odd thing was that in the living room there was, in addition to two sofas, a hammock and low sofa (futon?).

Hammock and Futon

Sofa, TV opposite Hammock

Ron had read numerous reviews of people saying it was a "great location" and 10-15 minute walk to old city, but we found it rather remote unless using the bus. Believe the reviewers were a younger group of people! We had taken the apartment for one night with the agreement with the owner that if we were comfortable we would stay 5 nights. We all discussed the matter, and even though the apartments were not ideal, we felt it was easier to stay put than to move yet again.

Mike and Ron went off to the grocery store and errands, and I did some laundry in the small European machine in a closet in the unheated hallway. After many years using these machines, it is still hard to understand why they are so different from American machines - not just in size but the fact that they take so long (1-3 hours or more). One thing is that they heat their own water. Pat started to cook our dinner, which she couldn't finish until the guys got back with the groceries. A big batch of chili, which was a good thing on a cold evening.

We had a long day and all wanted to relax, so around 9 PM we went down to our little "nook" with our newspapers, and called it a night. Of course, the dryer was still going on and on - as mentioned, European appliances are very time-consuming.