From: Rainer7735@aol.com Subject: Rainer's Europe Trip 1998 -- part 21 Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 19:19:56 EDT Hi All, I think I'm really back. Writing is easy again, the block is gone. Even though it's 1 a.m. and the rest of the family is asleep, the fingers and the thoughts keep working. The wine is gone by now and the minibar only has 2 beers (at most) so I'm pretty sure that this is the last entry I'll send today/tonight. Tomorrow we're leaving Italy and getting rid of the rental car. We're on the last legs now. But, I jump ahead. The part 21 that I'm sending hasn't even reached Italy yet. You'll find out soon enough what that was like. Cheers, Rainer Wednesday, 10/14 -- part 21 The night before we went to bed we agreed that the plans would be flexible and that if the weather was like yesterday we would stay in Ehrwald. The clear starry sky gave way to low clouds that looked like it would snow. We packed up and left. The day would be rainy most of the way to Liechtenstein. Shortly out of Ehrwald we climbed through a pass at whose summit we stopped and did the tourist trinket thing some more. We knew we were going to encounter the Alpine tunnels and inquired about tolls. Since we didn't have many shillings left and since the ATM machine in Bieberwier didn't work this was a concern. The lady at the cashier sold us a pass for 70 shillings. We encountered the Alpine tunnels and the pass never helped -- it was for the autobahn, but we never needed it there either. Luckily, the tunnel toll booths accept Visa. Why would anyone want to use American Express? The tunnels got longer and longer. We drove through the "second longest tunnel" in the Alps -- 13 kilometers. We got a sticker and a brochure and an addition to our Visa bill for quite a few shillings. On the other side of the long tunnel the weather turned worse. It really rained until we got to Liechtenstein. This little country is really just a Swiss valley along the beginnings of the Rhine (spelled Rhein over here). The country uses Swiss currency and Swiss border guards. This leaves the 52 (no kidding) Liechtensteiner police/army/marine/navy/air-force personnel free to do other things. This was the first border that we passed where there was any sort of official activity (looking into the car and waving you on) since the passport line in Charles de Gaulle airport. The country is only 14 miles long and 3 or 4 miles wide. We were going to "do" Liechtenstein. We cruised through Vaduz, the capitol, past the royal vinyards and castle where the Prince and Princess of this country live. In fact, we probably drove through almost 1/3 of the cities in this country before we started looking for a hotel. The first hotel we visited was in Triesen -- in the low country. The rooms were nondescript and large and nothing clicked. We drove onward and upward into the hills. We entered Triesenberg -- a village on the side of an alp above Triesen. We found the Hotel Kulm which overlooked all of Liechtenstein but the two young women in the office could not get the stupid PC to run the program that would tell them whether or not there were any rooms available. The "boss" was out at the post office (which we later found to be just around the corner from the hotel entrance so I guess the boss was really out drinking beer or something) and they didn't know the password. The place looked empty even though it only had 15 rooms. Oh well. We drove onward and upward. The higher we drove on this alp the smaller the hotels became. Some were full, some weren't. Vera found the alpine cabin/hotel of her dreams -- right out of a Heidi book -- but it smelled a bit too much of old stuff, only had a pay phone in the hall, and was a long, twisty road away from downtown Liechtenstein. We drove back down the alp the the Hotel Kulm. The cook was back and knew the password and confirmed that a room was available for a couple of nights. We saw the room -- didn't have a view -- but the phone looked okay and it was clean and right. We took it. Maybe tomorrow a room on the other side would open up. We unpacked, looking forward to another two night stay someplace. The phones even had a jack that looked compatible. We had the right adapter, but these turned out to be` ISDN lines. Our modem didn't cut it. Vera and I went to the "bar" for happy hour. Monika stayed in the room to update her journal. The bar was empty. In fact the hotel was empty. One of the computer-illiterate young women we saw earlier finally appeared and took our order. The beer in Liechtenstein isn't great either. It's all imported from outside and they don't have a demand for ales. The wine was okay. We got to study the dinner menus -- they even had an English version. It was "wild week" at the Kulm. Deer, rabbit, mountain sheep, wild pig, all sorts of delights were on the menu. Bruce would have loved it. We, however, decided to try someplace else. Since Triesenberg is on a berg, all of the streets either lead uphill or downhill. So no matter where you go, if you want to get back to where you started from you have to go uphill. Vera and I explored a minimal radius away from the Kulm without having to do too much uphill. In this radius we found a very well manicured cemetery, a church, which rang it's bell at every possible occasion ("three blind mice" rang once on the 15 minute mark, twice on the 30 minute mark, three times on the 45 minute mark, and four times on the 60 minute mark at which time it also rang a much larger bell to signal the hour itself; then, at arbitrary times, like 0610 and 2150, all of the bells would ring for at least 10 minutes to signal some sort of religious event, I think. The church, by the way, was located just across from the Kulm, so we could hear it very well, even with the windows closed and pillows over our heads.) and a small establishment that advertised Conny's Bar and the Kainer Restaurant. Conny's Bar was dark, but the Kainer showed signs of life and eating. If you squinted just right the "K" in Kainer might look like an "R" so we had to eat here. It was "wild week" at the Kainer, too. But they also had a regular menu. We convinced Monika that wienerschnitzel was something that she would like -- and she did. Vera and I ordered different roesti dishes which we enjoyed as well. The waitress, wearing a nose ring, was a bit stiff, but she was efficient. Still not having figured out if gratuities are included or not in Europe, I left a good tip since it was likely that we might eat again here tomorrow. The Kainer is a small place, maybe 12 tables. The corner table, overlooking all of Liechtenstein from the berg that Triesenberg was on, seemed to be reserved for the locals. People came and went -- but the table was always full. During an ebb in the business cycle of the Kainer, the cook came out and visited with each of the tables. He asked us if "it was right", loosely translated from the Liechtensteinian language which is very similar to German. We told him that it was "right" and he was pleased. He then lit up a cigarette and sat down at an open slot of the corner table reserved for the locals. We walked back to the Kulm to the serenade of church bells.