Itinerary

At the age of 50, we (Connie and Sheila) enjoyed 12 glorious days in Bavaria and Tyrol and lived to tell our tale. 

In 1992, at the age of 31, we took a trip that we’d only dreamed about as friends in high school.  We headed off to France and Italy for two weeks, taking traditional backpacks and staying in pensiones.  While traveling back from Florence to Paris, we traveled through Switzerland, stopping in Lucern for the day.  Unfortunately, it was really foggy that day so we never got to actually see the mountains.  It was our intent to come back and visit Germany and Austria soon, and we made a vow to each other that no matter what life dealt us, we would celebrate our fiftieth birthdays in some exotic locale.  We didn’t exactly plan for the big half a century birthday trip to be our trip back to the mountains, but with career changes, children, and life in general, it just worked out that way.  So, here is how a couple of out of shape, now middle-aged, ladies did a modified backpack and pensione style trip to the Alps.

First, we had to decide where exactly we wanted to go given that we had less than two weeks.  Connie has teenagers you know.  Here was our itinerary as it ended up, but it didn’t start this way when we left.


Fri Oct.14          Fly to Munich
Sat Oct. 15       Munich  (Arrive 7:50 a.m.) 

Sun Oct. 16       Romantic Road (Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber) 

Mon Oct. 17      Fussen  / Neuschwanstein

Tue Oct. 18       Salzburg

Wed Oct. 19      Obertraun/Hallstatt

Thur Oct. 20      Hallstatt / Return to Munich

Fri Oct. 21         Munich / Overnight Train to Venice
Sat Oct. 22       Venice /  Train to Bolzano, Italy 

Sun Oct. 23       Bolzano / Innsbruck / Return to Munich

Mon Oct. 24      Romantic Road (Nordlingen & Donauwörth)
Tue Oct. 25       Return to Austin

Nordlingen, Germany

On Sheila’s 50^th birthday, we used Connie’s brand new AARP membership (Sheila is in denial about her eligibility to join AARP) to get a hotel and flight package to Munich.  Among the many packages available, other than price, we chose based on the flight times, location of the hotel, and the reviews of the hotel appearing on Expedia. 

Backpacks are wonderful things, except if you are too short to get one to fit right (like Connie) or have back issues (like Sheila).  So, to be honest, there were no real backpacks, but we also weren’t quite ready to give up our freedom for guided bus tours of each city.  Instead, we used the hotel in Munich as our base and just carried small day packs for our daily outings and even a couple of overnight trips.  Suitcases on wheels are marvelous things, but not if you have to drag them around with you everywhere you go. 

Despite being in Sound of Music land, we didn’t actually intentionally visit any of the movie locations.  Connie was interested in seeing mountains while Sheila was interested in seeing medieval cities and “dead bodies.”  Our itinerary gave us plenty of both, with the opportunity to add Sound of Music sights, if we wanted to (we didn’t.)  On our first trip to Europe, we had a much more hectic schedule, and visited many many museums.  On this trip, we decided on a much more sedate pace, and many many fewer museums.  There are many wonderful art museums in Munich, but we were more interested in nature and architecture for this trip.  Our main pleasure was wandering through the cities we visited.