1st day in Bregenz

     Today we had a 2 hour train ride to Bregenz, Austria. We easily made our 2 connections and enjoyed the scenic countryside along the way. It was pretty much the cliché of open, hilly fields with grazing dairy cows neighboring Chalet-esque villages. Lovely to say the least!

     In Bregenz, Adam and I hit another roadblock. Having hiked from the train station, we wandered a suburban hillside a bit before finally finding Pension Biedermann, where I thought we had reservations for two nights. Unfortunately, there are two Pension Biedermanns. One, in Bregenz, is no longer doing business. The second one is in a town about 600km, or several hundred miles, from Bregenz. This second one is where I had mistakenly made reservations. Google fail. I looked this place up so many times, I have no idea how I could have made the mistake. Disappointed and downtrodden, Adam and I walked into downtown Bregenz to get some lunch and figure out what to do next.

     We landed in a place called Asparagus Time (I don’t think a restaurant by this name would be very successful in the States…). The restaurant also happened to be a hotel! The wurst and salzkartoffeln (salty potatoes) were delicious and the price for two nights was great so we decided to stay.

     In the afternoon we walked around Bregenz some more. It is a beautiful old town. Without meaning to, we stumbled upon one of the most note-worthy features of Bregenz—Martinsturm. Martin’s tower and surrounding fort walls date back to the 1400s. The tower itself is capped by the biggest “onion” in Europe! Onions are ornate onion-shaped metal structures on top of towers, church steeples, etc. They are commonly found throughout southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Behind the medieval wall was a neighborhood just as old. It was beautiful. Adam likened it to Hogsmead from Harry Potter. I thought that was pretty accurate; it was like stepping into another world.

     Rainy and cold weather drove us inside. We went out for a bit to get Nachos Grande for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Mexican in Austria does not taste the same as Mexican here! It was very interesting to observe the difference. I got a Sachertorte for desert, which is an Austrian specialty. I had just learned about it in German class so of course I had to try it!

     Luckily, tomorrow’s weather should be better.

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