Well I was wrong, even if in all honestly I can’t say that you eat better/healthier stuff in Germany than Italy, however I can’t complain at all. Expecially the breakfast! just take a look at the picture below… this is what had to offer a very small pension somewhere in the Black Forest. Comparing all that stuff with the miserable breakfasts that you can get in the 4 stars hotels in Italy…!!

a really good way to start the day, don’t you think?

The first time we went in Bavary we didn’t rent a flat, so we couldn’t prepare the food ourselves but had to go out everytime. (BTW, Argus offer a car hire Germany service which is a decent option if you plan on moving around Germany a lot)

First of all is very hard to find menu with english translations, except in the most tourist areas. It was easier for me to find menu in italian or waiters that could speak my native language (expecially near the Austria south border). In Karinthia for example, it is really common to met people that can speak italian better than english.

Regarding what food can you expect: if you eat meat, you don’t have a problem here… very famous indeed is the “wiener schnitzel”, a traditional Vienna dish, probably originating from Northern Italy, where is called “cotoletta alla milanese”, but there are many other delicious dishes as well. Instead if like us you’re a vegetarian, you can find exquisite salads, and the german potatoes are really great, expecially fried… so if you order french fries you can’t be wrong!

fish and potatoes, with a mixed salad in Mittenwald

The next years we rented a flat, so we could buy the potatoes straight from the local farmers (is really easy to find someone selling them in Bavary) and we cooked them in all the possible way. A real pleasure! Another specialty, or as they say “spezialitaten”, are the cheeses. There are so many and so good, from the spicy ones to the seasoned one, and so on. I still remember a shop entirely devoted to cheeses, called “Kase-Haus”, that literally means “the house of cheese”!

And of course you can find some very particular dishes like the one in the picture below, at the restaurant “Lilie” in Triberg… it appears a sort of dessert but it is a cheese-based dish, really particular!

in the picture above, a local dish we tried in a Black Forest restaurant

My first time in Austria was in 2003. It was the middle of August and finally I could enjoy some well-earned vacation. Since we had already been at the beach, my girlfriend and I decided to try a vacation in the mountains.

To find the place to go, this web page was very useful http://www.eurocampings.net
Don’t be fooled by the name. Even if it is mostly about camping, you can find apartments and bungalows to rent. So we went to the Otzaler Valley (you can find an interesting site here, although in German. You can see some pictures and a map of the villages we visited.)

http://www.austriareizen.be/oetz.htm

If you start from Bologna, the shortest way goes through “Passo del Rombo.” Well, it was a great experience! I have never seen a more winding road, full of 180-degree curves! But, once you are on the top, the panoramic view has no equals… look at the picture on the side if you don’t believe me!

Austria is a beautiful country to discover. If you need a rental car, try the car hire Austria service from Argus.

We spent the first week in Austria in a small village called Huben. It’s really tiny, perhaps 100 inhabitants total. Incredibly beautiful, though. It’s laid at the foot of some very impressive mountains, full of paths for people, who, like we, love to hike in the green of the Austrian woods, in awe of the great surrounding peaks.

The only real problem in this place is the cool weather. In the middle of August, first thing in the morning (we got up early, around 7,) it was only about 14° C (57° F!) This happens because the village lays exactly in between two big chains of mountains. Therefore the sun raises very late, around 9 in the morning, and sets early, at 7 in the evening (in the midst of summer, as I said!

I don’t dare think how it must be in the wintertime…!

The picture above is a typical Austrian/Bavarian balcony. Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?? If I think of the squalor of the balconies in my apartment building… gray/black ?

In Austria, however, it’s common to have flowers everywhere. I mean really everywhere – in the garden, on the balcony, and even in the house, in the place they call “Wintergarten,” which means winter garden.

To walk in any one of these little towns is like being in a fairy tale: wooden cottages, full of flowers and, in the background, the wonderful peaks, still covered with snow. If it’s not like in the Heidi cartoons, it’s very close!