I should begin by clarifying: Wien is German (Deutsch) for Vienna. Dan took Deutsch in high school and I took one course in college which I dropped when I realized I was failing horribly and switched to Spanish . . . So, between the two of us, Dan's high school Deutsch and mine from visiting Tyler several times, we are managing to get by! Below is a photo which I interpret to mean "no horns in Wien."
Our Tour de Europa 2014 (my Spanish peaking through) began this past Friday afternoon when we walked into downtown Wien, fully loaded with our backpacks, to pick up our reserved rental car. To begin, the rental car company didn't have a formal address, so we wandered around several blocks in the general area based on a map my brother had given us before actually finding the location.
After we arrived the staff was busy and friendly and we ended up with an "upgrade" from our initial reservation (a manual compact car that seated 5 with some luggage) to a brand-new manual "4x4" which was more like a small SUV. I had concerns from the beginning, realizing that the smaller the car the easier to maneuver the small streets of old world Europe. Additionally, even though I learned to drive on a manual (Saab 900s - the best car ever!!), it's been years since I've driven one for more than a few blocks. Similarly, Dan had learned to drive manual while working for his last employer and had only driven on occasion.
All of this said, a brand new clutch + 2 people who haven't driven a manual in a long time, let alone an SUV manual = smoking engine! Not even 9 blocks from the rental car company we had a smoking transmission due to stalling several times. . . The rental car fellow kindly walked the 9 blocks and found us, took a look to diagnose, admitted it was likely our driving which caused the "smoking engine" and drove us back to swap cars. Dan and I were both much more comfortable the second time around: We ended up with a small Citroen and I ended up driving, being the most comfortable with driving a manual. All in all an amusing but stressful situation!
It's so much fun driving a little sporty manual on the roads in Austria !!!
Nearly 5 hours after leaving Wien we found ourselves in Innsbruck on Friday evening. We are staying with a really nice fellow we found on Airbnb who is likely our age and an Innsbruck native. He is working on his PhD but "playing" it seems before writing his dissertation.
In our few days here we've enjoyed exploring the city center, seeing the beautiful architecture, and learning about Tyrollean history (the Tyrol is a culturally rich portion of the Austrian and Italian Alps that has existed for hundreds of years). Below is a map of Tirol (auf Deutsch) from 1766:
Tomorrow we are headed to the lake town of Sachseln in Switzerland which is more or less in between Lucerne and Interlaken (which are respectively, more or less, north and south of Sachseln). We are looking forward to exploring the city of Lucerne for a few days and also the mountains around Interlaken, Gimmelwald and Sachseln the other few.
Sigh. I am fighting a small cold so have napped a bit today and am ready for some real "zzzzz's." Guten nacho!
- Kelsey
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