Month: September 2025

Despite our best efforts to mask on plains, trains. buses, gondolas etc.(and seriously we ere the OnLY ones with masks on), I still managed to pick up a bug, putting me in bed for 2 days with nasal congestion, chest congestion, body aches and slight fever. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this sick x. Covid test, 2 yrs expired was neg. It’s one of those times you yearn yo be transported into your own bed with a snap. Instead, the owner of Ravello Rooms drove us to Naples, an hour away. Our flight home leaves in the morning. So there’s the unfortunate ending and a not so fun birthday buy hey, that’s what blogs are about- the good and the bad. Reflections to come, hopefully from my bed!

It is forecasted to be a scorching and humid 90 degrees today, scratch hiking Path of the Gods!! Breakfast under the lemon tree branches is relaxing. We’ve never seen lemon trees form a crawling vine over a patio cover but it provides great shade. We meet a couple from Minn over a typical European breakfast spread.

Our plan is to walk the gardens at Villa Rufolo and then to wander the alleys. We enter the Piazza Duomo and find just the right number of tourists to feel lively but not overwhelming. Ravello is to our relief, calmer, more relaxed and sedate than the other coastal towns. We have no desire to go down and visit the tourist-heavy Amalfi!

The elaborate villa was built in the 1300’s for the Rufolo dynasty and the main walls are still standing. The views are incredible. The town stages a concert series from the balcony in August.

Next we visit the cathedral in the Piazza Duomo built in 1036, with a 30th century interpretation. The pulpit is supported by 6 twisting columns set on marble lions and decorated with mosaics of peacocks and birds.

Today we leave the crowds and head up the mountain to Ravello. Unbeknownst to us, the elevator at Palazzo Tasso is only operational during office hours starting at 8 so we had to carry our luggage down 3 flights of stairs. I had reserved a car to transport us and our luggage from Sorrento after breakfast. Geraldo made the 2 hr drive along the coast to Amalfi and was an informative driver. He told us there are 2000 steps up Positano, that the island is privately owned. and that the coastal area between Naples to Salerno is owned by the Parc Nationale. There is no limit on the number of ships coming in but large ships must anchor a mile away. The tourists empty out by Nov 1-April and there are about half the restaurants and hotels open in the winter, however Ravello shuts down completely. The weather remains nice.

The coastal is crowded with cars parked along the sides. These belong to residents and workers as there are no parking garages in Positano. These belong buses squeeze by alongside cars and scooters. Occasionally cyclists are also on he road. The views are magnificent.

Geraldo drops us off at the edge of a narrow road facing but high above the ocean. There is a steep set of stairs to a small gate, the entrance to Ravello Rooms. The owner’s daughter leads us up 2 more levels of stairs and checks us in. The view from the breakfast balcony is breathtaking.

Ravello is a small town above Amalfi. The bus ride down is 30 min on the winding road. There does not seem to be much of a reason to join all the tourists in Amalfi. Ravello is quiet, the breeze blows through and we can see terraced hillsides of gardens and what appear to be lemon groves. The weather is sunny and warm, nearly 90 today, a bit too hot for a hike. We relax and enjoy the calm.

We took a walk in the late afternoon past terraced hillsides

old ruin walls

and a mozzarella cheese store

Here is a local delivery truck, going up the hill on the ramp side

As I was taking a picture of the evening lights, I spotted a fire on the hills of Ravello.

We are finally over jet lag and sleeping regular hours! We didn’t rush this morning but took a leisurely breakfast and then down the long set of stairs to the ferries. We were standing in the line at gate 10 to Capri at 10:15 when the lady at the gate said our ticket was not her company. We made a fast scramble back up to find the correct gate and boat. We were the last passengers on.

We arrived amidst a swarm of people at Marina Grande, all trying to figure out a way to get to Capri City. We figured out you can take the funicular which had a very long line, bus, or you can walk 2.3 km uphill. We opted to walk. The walk isn’t long but given the heat and humidity, we were drenched in sweat by the time we arrived.

Lemon ice slushes do a good job of cooling us down. The central plaza was packed with people so we chose to walk 30 min to Gardini de Augustus, a lovely small garden with a spectacular view of the city and coast. Best of all, it was not crowded!

We spent a few hours exploring then decided to escape the crowds, took the funicular down and the ferry back. We met a nice couple from Calgary on the ferry and had a fun chat about places travelled.

We stopped at Ravi for gelatos, our third visit this week. When in Italy, must have gelato every day!!

It appears, after talking to other tourists, that many hotels do not provide their own breakfast but instead provide breakfast at Fauro Bar on the plaza. Ours is a standard eggs, croissant, breads and coffee. The plaza is a very busy place and breakfast is not a serene affair, good if you like to people watch! There are huge tour groups and others traveling alone, many European cigarette smokers, and motorbikes. Morning deliveries traverse the promenade which closes to traffic later in the morning. All in all a bustling place.

The wharf is below the plaza, down a lot of steps. At the bottom are ticket booths for ferries that cruise the coast to various cities such as Positano, Amalfi, Salerno, Capri etc. We are going to Positano. The ride is 30 min and the coastline is beautiful.

Positano is a cascade of colorful buildings that rise steeply from the sea. The cobblestone promenade goes straight up to stairs, the only way to many of the hotels and apartments. It is a dramatic scene as you approach.

Less photogenic are its alleys. We watch in disbelief as porters carry luggage, 3 suitcases at a time up the steep steps. It’s not an ideal place to stay!

The duomo above the wharf provides shade and respite as well as public art.

Our ferry ride back, billed as to Sorrento, surprised its riders by going via Capri, making it a 50 min ride. Though many were unhappy about this unadvertised stop, it was an unattended tour to Capri and with calm waters, was pleasant nonetheless less.

Tonight we celebrated my birthday early with a delicious dinner followed by tiramisu at Fuoro 51.

We took a shuttle to the Munich Airport in the morning and caught our Lufthansa flight to Naples. From the air we could see the multitude of peaks from the alps changing to cities with considerable density. I’ve had the impression of Naples being a gritty city and didn’t want to risk anything so I booked car transport to and from Naples. We were met by a friendly driver who sped us to Sorrento.

The highway is reasonably orderly and we travel from inland toward the coast. He is a friendly guy, pointing out landmarks along the way but alas we find it difficult to hear him and make out his Italian accent. We do learn that he is from Malagna “city of wheat”, a town known for pasta. Traffic is light and he says the ride is fast compared to usual.
The drive takes about an hour and we arrive at the central plaza. It is a disorderly traffic circle!!

Cars are not permitted any further so he directs us up the cobblestone promenade toward our hotel, the Palazzo Tasso. We see their flag hanging from the balcony but can’t find the front door. I call reception and she directs us to the alley behind where the entrance is. Our room is on the top of a 3 story building and has only a skylight. It is immaculate but with not much character. The receptionist is friendly, telling us about her best friend who visited Yosemite and SF recently. After checking in, we walk the streets. There are “lemon” stores since the region is known for its lemon groves, and high end clothing stores. It is quite touristy and there are tons of people, quite a change from Austria.

The Marina Grande is down by the pier and a has a stretch of beach front chairs/ umbrellas and seafood restaurants. We have seafood pasta and sea bream, delicious compared to our meals in Austria.

The city comes to life at night as people dine, drink wine, stroll the promenade and some street musicians play far into the evening. We can hear the activity until past midnight.

Pouring rain in the morning but forecasted to clear. The woman at the gas station told us it has been a particularly wet summer. We chatted about water shortages in the US and Europe. She said their aquifers have also dropped from 8 meters to 1 and conservation efforts exist in neighboring countries. She said the increase in hotels and ski resorts are contributing to a water shortage. She said people are buying land with water rights and some old water rights are preventing usage of water in some areas.

We head to Mittersill to hike the Schosswendklamm gorge which had been recommended by the lady at the visitor’s center. It is a gorgeous cirque with rivelets of water running down the cliff sides. Most of the visitors are Turkish, which we learn make up the majority of immigrants in the Innsbruck area.

Mid-afternoon, we depart from Tyrol and head to Munich, where we return our car. The airport Marriott is not really at the airport, but is in Freising, a 15 car ride away. It takes us a while to find the pick up location of their shuttle. We arrive in time to walk downtown to Preising Augustino for a traditional German dinner. The platz or square is quiet but a pleasant place to walk.

The Hotel Kaiserhof puts out a lovely and hearty breakfast spread- eggs cooked 3 ways, assortment of many types of breads, cheeses and meats, fruits, sausages, yogurts, muesli and sweet breads We eat enough to skip lunch. The Austrians make great coffee! It was forecasted to be a beautiful day and the clouds were lifting. We know we should make the most of it.

They had minimal information in the hotel lobby on regarding the park which was about what I could find online. All I knew was that it was a large protected area with a myriad of hiking trails, lakes etc.; where they were and how to access them was a mystery. There was some mention of an info center in Mittersill so that seemed like a good start. Lo and behold, the center was a regular small national park visitors’ center and the lady was extremely helpful. She explained that a national park is just protected space. It is not like parks in the US that have a defined entrance and trail heads. Hohe Tauern covers 1200 sq meters running lengthwise from close to Innsbruck to Salzburg and depth wise from the mountain top to the edge of the valley. Villages are interspersed along its length with gondolas that take you up to where you can hike, gorges you can hike up, lakes and reservoirs with trails, etc. Basically you access the lands and trails from any of the villages. I now understood why info was so hard yo find. Each village had its own trail map and visitor info. There is one panoramic road called the Grossglockner High Alpine Road that is 48 km long and starts in Fucht, a 30 min drive away! We decided to start there. She pointed out several “must sees” but it would take weeks to fully explore this area!!

The main road to Fucht runs lengthwise through the valley and we see that the bright green spaces we were admiring, are actually clearings in the forest, for cows to graze or for ski runs. More and more of the hillsides are being cleared. We weren’t sure how protected these land are as much of it appears to be privately owned.

We share the Grossglockner High Alpine Road with cyclists. It is steep and we are impressed with their athleticism as well as their fearlessness, coming down at speeds faster than we dared to drive, 30-40 mph? The early morning clouds were breaking and we were treated to an ethereal and majestic scene as we rise above the cloud layer.

We reach the high point and looking down can see the winding road we came up.

From here we can also see the backside of the mountain which resembles the eastern sierras, more barren, perhaps the clouds get stuck and don’t drop as much precipitation.

We head back down the mountain, opting not to continue on the switchbacks up to the glacier. On our way back, we stop at the town of Ziller em See, a beautiful setting along the lake with mountains behind it. We can imagine how gorgeous it must be with snow on them. Thus ends our day at Hohe Tauern.

We savored the pastries (dieting when we return) and the last views of Innsbruck as we ate breakfast in our room. It is adieu to Innsbruck;; we’ve enjoyed our stay here . Today, we will make our way east to Kitzbuhler.

The roads though narrow, are fairly easy to drive since traffic is light. The skies are overcast which is typical of Austria. Our first stop is Alpbach, said to be the “the most beautiful village in Austria”. It certainly does have charm with its well preserved wooden buildings and colorful flowers hanging from the balconies. There is no city center or downtown area. The narrow cobblestone streets lined with homes and hotels, are bus routes to the ski lifts, They wind uphill to join hiking and bike paths in the summer and ski runs in the winter.

We stop at a grocery store to pick up sandwiches, made to order for an unbelievable price of $2.50 each. Can you get anything resembling lunch for that price in the Bay Area? I chat with the young man at the deli counter, who proudly tells me he has been to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Like the young man in the Sixt office, who was proud to have been to LA and loved the “vibe”, there is no mention of politics, just an admiration for the US. It’s refreshing! We eat in the car at the edge of the forest and then continue on.

The town of Raffen has historically been known for its glass blowing. The old town is lovely but the glass blowing, although an interesting process to watch, is now for tourism and I’m not impressed with the glasswork for sale, which doesn’t exhibit much artistry.

In the parking lot we happen to notice a large sign regarding ticks! A search online revealed information about ticks in the woods that carry Lyme disease!!! The forests do resemble the lushnes of Maine and New Hampshire unfortunately. We will have to be more vigilent.

We arrive at our destination, the Hotel Kaiserhof Kirzbuhel around 5. Ray does a good job of navigating into a space in the very, very narrow parking garage, trying hard to avoid dings and scratches to the rental car. The ski gondola runs alongside our room, mostly empty, all day.

A short note on the conservation efforts we’ve seen thus far. The hotels and restaurants have no plastic containers or water bottles at all, cutlery is bamboo or metal, no plastic bags in grocery stores and very little packaging for produce. The hotels encourage drinking Tyrol tap water. Whereas Europe has always been minimalistic, it is even more so. There is very little in the way of disposables, evidenced by street trash bins which are tiny.

We’ve noticed how lean people are. In the grocery stores, the cracker/cookie/snack section is small with just a few options in small packages. There is no large frozen food, processed food section. The major sections are produce, fresh foods and wine! Surprisingly though, the diet is mainly carbs – pasta, bread and potatoes and not much in the way of vegetables other than lettuce and tomato salads. The air is clean and nature is all around. It sure does feel like a healthier lifestyle. It also makes us realize how much the US is an example of excess in so many aspects of our lives.

It’s a beautiful day, blue skies, sunshine and cool temperatures. We must make the most of it! We have a car reserved through Sixt at the Innsbruck Airport so need to make our way there on the F bus that stops every 25 min. in front of the hotel. Getting a bus ticket seems like an easy task. The girl at reception said you can buy them on the bus, but alas she is wrong. We spend 30 min trying to figure out how to buy them, while 2 F buses go by. The machine is not in English and we don’t know how much the ride should cost. An elderly woman on the street looks as stumped as us. I finally find and download the bus app and am able to purchase a ticket which has to be used on my device. Knowing the dollar amount, Ray then sees he can buy one from the machine for 3,20 euros. We are so proud to have figured it out! These are little challenges that I find fun in being in a foreign country. We pick up a Peugeot and are off on our day’s adventure. With no plan in mind we read about towns that are about an hour max drive and settle on Oext, west of Innsbruck. Tall cliffs with billowing clouds and green valleys line the highway. It appears that villages, most with ski runs and chalets sit high above in this long narrow valley. It is a beautiful scene.

Oext has a cable car that runs steeply up to 7,000 ft. At the top are hiking trails and we spent several hours exploring. The views of the villages below are incredible.

As we descend, a guy is preparing to hang glide off the mountain.

The sun sets with a golden palette in front of our hotel.

We enjoy wienerschnitzel and listen to a trio playing jazz tunes in the square, thus ending a perfect day.

Today was a laid back day-a day to recover from jet lag and to stay dry, since we Californians are not used to rain. After the rains let up, we walked the city, getting out of the “old town” tourist area. I love to wander through parts of a city where the locals live and work. We passed through the university area, residential streets and schoolyards. The city is tidy and well kept with bicycle trails that meander throughout the city and along the river. Although not as numerous as in Denmark, bikes are a visible mode of transportation and car traffic is light for a city. We marvel at the old architecture and the religious paintings on church and building walls.

Innsbruck, the capital of Tyrol, the western state (province) of Austria, occupies 40 sq mi, slightly larger than SF’s 49 sq mi. but a population of 132,000 compared to 1m in SF. It lies along the River Inn and is bordered by the North Tyrol Limestone Alps, the Nordkette and the Stubai Alps to the south. It is a winter wonderland, known for its skiing. It’s not a cultural arts mecca; I tried hard to search for art exhibits, concerts and performances and came up empty handed. The food of Tyrol consists mainly of pork loin, boiled beef, spinach and cheese dumplings, spaetzle, sauerkraut and of course wienerschnitzel. We very much enjoyed the wienerschnitzel and German potato salad but not fond of the pretzel bread dumpling, dense as a baseball; pretzel bread is better as a bread roll!

Some city scenes along our walk.

Sunny days are hard to come by. The average rainfall for Sept is 3”, half of the amount in other months. But the mountain sides are lush and green. We should be thankful there are parts of the world that still get measurable amounts of precipitation!

I can’t believe we are here, but I’m grateful we are! With Jen’s pregnancy (planned trip to Taiwan) and Ray’s punctured knee (planned hiking trip in Alberta), I’ve canceled more trips than traveled this year.

We flew to Munich and with a former flight attendant as a seat mate, had a delightfully entertaining flight. We were treated very kindly by all the flight attendants who stopped by to hug and chat with her. After 11 hrs, we arrived in Munich and proceeded to what I assumed was the main railway station, only to find the central station was a 20 min ride away. This story seems familiar! We still arrived with several hours to spare; the station was clean, safe and organized. We nodded off through most of the 2 hr ride and I set my alarm to make sure we didn’t sleep past the Innsbruck stop.
Our room at the AC Hotel Marriott overlooks the old town “Altstadt” with a beautiful backdrop – the jagged spires of the Nordkette range. Old Town is charming and quaint, especially early in the morning before the tourists descend upon it.

When in Austria, dine on strudel. The Strudel Cafe is tiny but serves a wonderful assortment of strudels sweet and savory. We chose 2-plain apple and plain cherry, the pastry thin and light and the fillings not too sweet. It is not unusual to meet other travelers from the Bay Area and the other couple in the cafe was from Sacramento. They were planning to hike the upper ridge at the top of the cable car line.

We went up the funicular, the first ride in a series of 3 but were told the cable car was closed due to technical issues. When it started up again, we were undecided about going up as the cloud cover appeared so thick. It really was a $100 gamble but after looking at the live cameras, decided to chance it. We got lucky. The second segment takes you to Seegrube. We were above the cloud cover, with a spectacular view of Innsbruck encircled by the Inn River. This is the view skiers get as they descend! Innsbruck was the site of the 1976 Olympics and we can see why it is such a jewel of ski locales. .

The last segment takes you to Hungerbuth at 6.300 ft in elevation. There are no ski lifts here but the scenery is jaw dropping beautiful. We stay for several hours and finally head down as the clouds close in around us.

The afternoon showers have passed and we end the day with a walk along the riverfront.