The Holiday in Europe

From Vienna, Austria to London, England including stops in Germany and France

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Our holiday started Wednesday, September 29 with a flight from Toronto to Frankfurt, Germany. We arrived Thursday morning with reservations for an overnight train to Vienna that evening. We spent the day in Mainz, on the Rhine. It was raining so our first order of business was to purchase umbrellas. The umbrellas ended up getting quite a workout during our travels! We returned to the train station in Frankfurt in the evening. The city trains appear to work somewhat on honour in Germany. Tickets for the city trains are only verified randomly. There are no gates to pass through and no standard verification that the correct fare has been paid. People checking tickets may or may not appear on any given trip. This made it far more difficult for us, however, as there wasn't anyone to assist us in making sure we were getting on the correct trains and all the signs and information were in German.

The trip to Vienna was uneventful but I didn't enjoy sleeping on the train. The idea was to save paying for one night at a hotel by travelling at night. I reserved couchettes in a non-smoking car but in future, I would rather pay for the hotel. We arrived in Vienna early on Friday morning. The sun was shining and Vienna was GLORIOUS (even to my tired and jet-lagged eyes)! We hired a taxi and were delivered to Pension Pertschy. We weren't allowed to officially check in to our room until the afternoon but the Pension had baggage storage available for us. We set off to locate the Hofburg, the home of the Spanish Riding School and the lipizzaner stallions. It was only a block away. We queued up for the morning schooling.

I half expected I might be disappointed at the Spanish Riding School because my expectations were so high. Nothing could possibly live up to what I believed the Spanish Riding School to be. Not only was I NOT disappointed, I was thrilled with what I saw. The Spanish Riding School exceeded my expectations. The riders were the most highly trained, disciplined, effective, and elegant I have ever seen. These highly trained riders were able to work with and display horses whose spirits were still very much intact. I never even saw one moment where one of the lipizzaner stallions looked confused or frustrated by the demands being made of him. The relationship between the horses and their riders was one of complete confidence and trust. The horses apparently even felt free to express temper and extreme exuberance without fear of repercussions or negative consequences, whether deliberate or not, from his human handlers. It became SO CLEAR to me why trained riders are so valuable for horses.

For those interested, I have a lot more information (and pictures) about my impressions at the Spanish Riding School on another page which you can reach by clicking here.

We left Vienna on Sunday afternoon following the performance at the School. We picked up a rental car from Sixt (an navy blue Opel Vectra wagon was substituted for the very small Opel Corsa I had reserved) at the airport and headed south to Piber. We were immediately struck by how clean and forested Austria is. The drive to Piber was easy and stress-free.

We arrived in Piber in the late afternoon, just in time to see the mares and young lipizzaners being brought in for the evening. Our accommodation, Gasthof Günter Bardel, booked from Vienna on Saturday afternoon by staff at Pension Pertschy, proved to be right on the edge of the farm, facing the administrative building, the headquarters of the stud.

For those interested, I have pictures and more information about my impressions in Piber on another page which you can reach by clicking here.

We left Piber on Monday morning, heading for Bavaria in southern Germany. We travelled through the Austrian Alps and Tirol (Innsbruck and Hall, the heart of Austrian skiing country) heading for Füssen, or more accurately, Schwangau, the home of the castles Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. It was a rainy day and in the Alps, rain becomes snow and vice versa, depending on the altitude. The Austrians apparently feel that the view is more important than guard rails, even at the top. The view WAS spectacular but I must confess, we were feeling a bit vulnerable as the road became more and more snow covered. Hair pin turns were the rule as opposed to the exception.

Upon arriving in Schwangau, we were met by the owner of Pension Weiher who led us to his driveway. Pension Weiher, located in the valley immediately below the castles, was more like a home than a hotel. Our very comfortable zimmer offered a magnificent view of the castles, particularly at night when they were lit up. Our accommodation included a very hearty Bavarian breakfast and VERY STRONG coffee.

We spent Tuesday inspecting various buildings in the region, castles and palaces. We made the steep ascent to Neuschwanstein via horse drawn buggy and purchased an English tour. I did not enjoy the tour. I thought it was a waste of money at best and questioned the validity of much of the information we were supplied. We were rushed through the building as part of a small group making very hard to properly investigate anything at all.

I must confess, I found the castles altogether too touristy for my taste. Neuschwanstein is SO fantastic, it is unreal. Rather more like Disney World than royalty. In fact, the Disney castle was modelled after this one. Neuschwanstein is relatively modern. It was built in the late 1800s by Mad King Ludwig. Apparently he all but bankrupted Bavaria in the process of building the castle and it was never finished. Mad King Ludwig was arrested by the government and died (drowned) under mysterious circumstances.

We visited the palace, Linderhof on Tuesday, Mad King Ludwig's boyhood home. I enjoyed that far more than the castles. The grounds at Linderhof were extensively and attractively developed and were most enjoyable. The drive to Linderhof was very enjoyable as we passed a lake with water that was the prettiest colour of aqua-marine green/blue.

We left Bavaria for Karlsruhe, Germany, the home of Egon von Neindorff, on Wednesday morning and headed north along the Romantic Road. We stopped at Wies to visit the very ornate Baroque church (kirche) located there. Later on, we also visited Zwiefalten (south east of Stuttgart). The two towers of the Zwiefalten Cathedral were prominent as we approached the town. Both buildings are from the mid 1700's and feature spectacular baroque interiors. The ceilings are covered with flamboyant frescoes and ornate stucco-work. I have never seen so much colourful marble and gold gild work. These churches use frescoes instead of stained glass to tell the stories from the bible and it is effective. There was a service of Thanksgiving (celebrating the fall harvest) going on whilst we visited Zwiefalten so we were able to hear the pipe organ there.

It is true. There isn't a speed limit on the Autobahn in Germany. Unfortunately, however, top speed for our Opel rental car was only 150 kilometres per hour. We cruised at that speed in the right lane! Apparently only the Mercedes and BMW's can take full advantage of the German Autobahn's full potential.

We arrived in Karlsruhe in the early evening on Wednesday and checked into the very centrally located Hotel Berliner Hof. Very secure parking was available behind the hotel via an EXTREMELY narrow driveway. We set out on foot to find a detailed map of Karlsruhe, something to eat and a cash machine. Finding a machine that accepted our cash cards proved surprisingly challenging in Karlsruhe. Thankfully, we didn't have any trouble locating a compatible machine anywhere else during our vacation.

I was expected at Reitinstitut E. von Neindorff at 9 am on Thursday morning for my first overseas riding lesson. Click here if you are interested in hearing more about my experiences riding at von Neindorff's very classical riding school.

We left Karlsruhe late morning on Saturday. The plan was to travel north along the Rhine and then west along the Mosel and spend Saturday night in Trier, Germany, on the border between Germany and France and home to Porta Nigra, a building from the second Century which is still standing. I did not have accommodation booked in advance in Trier and that proved to be a bit of a problem on a Saturday night. Thankfully, I had lots of places to try and after many, many phone calls I finally managed to secure a reservation at Hotel Frankenturm with a bathroom shared by three rooms located across the hall. I wasn't entirely disappointed with this arrangement, however, as we saved a substantial amount of money on the room without a bath which somewhat made up for the rather expensive accommodation in Karlsruhe.

The journey along the rivers was quite thrilling featuring one castle and/or ruin after another. We discussed a cruise on the Rhine but decided against it because we were quite happy with the view from the car.

We stopped in St. Goar on the Rhine for lunch, a bean soup/stew and fresh bread. It proved to be the heartiest meal we experienced since leaving home and for barely more than $5 Canadian including wine.

We arrived in Trier at dusk. Hotel Frankenturm housed a wonderful restaurant so we didn't have to go far to get something to eat. We spent an hour inspecting Trier on Sunday morning. Der Dom was home to the most visually interesting pipe organ I have ever seen. It resembled a beehive, hanging from the ceiling. The console, and therefore, organist, appeared to be located within the hive! We were able to hear this magnificent organ complete with a choir as is was Sunday morning and we arrived in time for service.

Dogs and smokers are apparently welcome in Germany (and Austria). There were dogs accompanying many of the patrons at all of the restaurants we visited and no restrictions on smoking, certainly not in the restaurants and not even on the trains. Cigarettes are readily available from machines. Thankfully, a non-smoking car could be requested for longer journeys but people didn't seem to respect the non-smoking status of the car. One must remain attentive on the sidewalks as the dogs leave souvenirs which their owners apparently don't notice!

We departed Trier and Germany on Sunday morning. Destination: France. Paris and environs. I had two night accommodation booked at Hotel du Cheval Rouge in Versailles, a suburb of Paris. Hotel du Cheval Rouge is the former stable of Louis XIV. What an honour to be sleeping in the same place as royal horses used to!

We stopped at Chantilly, half an hour north of Paris, to visit the Le Musèe Vivant du Cheval. Such a magnificent setting for a superb and informative collection. Chantilly is home to volumes of information about horses, past and present, living and not. There were collections of things like toys featuring the horse, scarves sporting horses, equipment used with and for the horse, racing in France, the Arabian horse, the prehistoric horse, and a blacksmith's shop and forge. There was even a room full of nothing but postcards featuring horses. There were dozens of models of horses representing breeds and their typical use complete with a brief explanation of the history of that use and the equipment specific to that purpose. There were also dozens of live representatives of the breeds including ponies and a donkey. There was a display of classical riding with music in an outdoor courtyard. The setting was idyllic and I have to give the horse top marks for tolerance as there were a group of very active and excited young children that were making a GREAT deal of noise and running toward the horse every time he headed in their direction. The horse barely batted an eyelash in response to their disturbance. There is also a glorious circular indoor arena for the horses but that remained vacant during our visit. Much to my disappointment, the gift shop was closed. Shopping for souvenirs in Europe wasn't leaving me feeling terribly inspired and finally, I encounter a place that looks appealing but it is closed.

From Chantilly we headed to the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris to drop off the rental car. Driving into the airport proved to be THE MOST challenging drive we had encountered so far. Thankfully, Eric finally noticed and was able to translate a sign directing traffic to the area of the rental car agencies. He was then able to locate the area reserved for Sixt cars, we parked the car and headed into the terminal to sign off on the contract. From there we headed for the Metro and Versailles. Navigating the Paris Metro system proved easier than I expected. The lines were named and according to the board, we needed to take a train named Vick on the RER-C line in order to reach our destination. Le Cheval Rouge was an easy walk from the train station in Versailles and passed the palace.

Versailles is twelve miles west of Paris and was chosen by Louis XIV, the Sun King to be his residence and the home of his palace. Louis XIV loved art, the outdoors, horses and opulence. Louis proved his total command by also controlling nature. He built a mini-Venice at Versailles and an extensive network of extremely ornate, carefully groomed and controlled gardens. He even grew tropical orange trees in not tropical France by planting the trees in massive portable containers and having these taken indoors when weather dictated. The god of the sun is Apollo. Louis XIV built a circular fountain at Versailles that sports several horses and Apollo's chariot bursting forth from the water. Versailles is considered by many to be the seat of modern classical high school equitation although this is hotly debated.

Louis XV and XVI also reigned at Versailles. Louis XVI married Marie-Antoinette from Austria. Marie-Antoinette apparently longed for a simpler life. She built her own private village within the palace grounds. Her complex of twelve buildings included a working farm complete with domestic animals. The harvest from her tiny village was served at her table. I found this complex positively charming. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were kidnapped by a mob of angry Parisians and beheaded in Paris in 1783. This marked the end of the royal family in France.

We thoroughly inspected the grounds at Versailles but decided to skip the palace itself because of the massive crowds. Instead, I purchased a wonderful book with lots of colourful photographs!

We visited Paris on Monday, starting at Notre-Dame Cathedral. We climbed some 400 stairs for a spectacular view of the city. We followed this climb and descent with a three mile walk as recommended by Rick Steves in his travel guide. These three miles included the Île de la Citè and brief forays onto the left and right banks. We also visited St. Severin (a spectacular prickly Gothic church with gargoyles that are most impressive during storms, when they vomit rain!), an original Metro stop with ornate iron work adorning the entrance to the underground, Sainte-Chapelle, another Gothic built in 1248 and home to a most impressive collection of very tall stained glass windows, and finally, the Palais de Justice and Conciergerie prison, the final home of Marie-Antoinette, among others. We purchased Paris Museum passes to make entrance to these many sights quick and easy. >From here we walked a mile or so, through the Louvre, to the Champs-Élysées and walked some three miles down this ten lane wide city street to the Arc de Triomphe. We them climbed 230 steps in the Arc de Triomphe for another spectacular aerial view of the city. The view from the Arc was particularly impressive as it is the hub of Paris and all roads appear like spokes on a wheel, all originating from this central point. By this time we are thoroughly overwhelmed by the history in this city. We have literally walked through hundreds and hundreds of years of history in less than a day. We walked another mile or so to the Eiffel Tower (which ended up more like two miles because we kept making wrong turns on the way). We arrived at the Eiffel Tower at dust and decided to visit the top, a ridiculously expensive series of elevator rides (because we had had more than enough stairs for one day already). This journey proved not worth the time or expense. The trip up and back down ended up taking very nearly two hours, was terribly over crowded and the view wasn't any better than those we already had from Notre-Dame and the Arc de Triomphe! We walked along the Seine from the Eiffel Tower and happened upon the tunnel where Princess Diana met her fate. There is a mini of the Statue of Liberty at the end of the tunnel decorated with all sorts of notes and memorials to Diana. By this time, we were so tired and foot sore (I had a blister across the bottom of my left foot) that we decided to skip eating in Paris and head straight back to Versailles where we enjoyed a very North American Tex-Mex meal. Contrary to what I had heard, Paris was not a dirty city nor were its inhabitants unfriendly or rude. The prices were no more extreme in Paris than anywhere else in Europe. It is true, coffee and a seat IS $5 but then, so is Coke or orange juice or even a bottle of water (apparently bottled in Canada)! We survived very nicely and quite happily on much less expensive baguettes and red wine and we enjoyed a seat for free within the Cathedrals we visited.

We returned to Paris on Tuesday to catch the Chunnel train to London, England. Prior to departing we had enough time to visit the Latin Quarter; Saint-Sulpice and the Luxembourg Palace and gardens, where Master of the Horse François Robichon de la Guérinière schooled his horses and riders in the 1700's. Saint-Sulpice earns barely a mention in most of the tour books, except for its 6,000 pipe organ. I thought it was one of the more spectacular buildings we visited, quite worthy of attention.

We arrived in London on Tuesday evening. We hailed one of those famous London cabbies and were delivered to the Limegrove Hotel on Warwick Way. The Limegrove is very well located in a very clean and quiet neighbourhood within easy walking distance of Victoria Station and Buckingham Palace.

On Wednesday we travelled by train to Cambridge, a half hour journey from London. Cambridge is every inch a university town. We proceeded to the tourist information office and booked into a walking tour which included a tour of King's College, famous for its boys' choir and the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols now broadcast world-wide every Christmas Eve. Being inside King's College was as thrilling as I imagined it would be. The tour of Cambridge was well worth the fee. We were provided with informative historical information about the places we were visiting. I was most interested to hear that all the massive stained glass windows at King's were removed during WWII, to spare them from possible destruction. Apparently the individual pieces were all carefully catalogued and then given to various Fellows from the College for safe keeping. The miracle is that all the pieces were returned following the war and that they were actually able to put the windows back together as they were originally, some 500 years ago. We returned in the early evening to attend the sung Evensong service at King's. We were somewhat surprised to see that the Minister and Readers were all females. Obviously, things change, even at King's.

At first I had a hard time accepting many of the 20th Century changes and additions in Europe (like the females ministering at King's, the glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris and the Chagall window in Chichester). The tour guide in Cambridge pointed out that most of these historic buildings have been affected by the people living in each of the Centuries that these buildings have been in existence. The people of this Century have just as much right as those that came before us and, in fact, are obligated to make their marks and yes, even alterations to the architecture.

York and the famous York Minster were our destination on Thursday. I noticed an advertisement the day before offering a very low return train fare to York if purchased in advance, less than half of any of the fares I had seen advertised previously. I stopped at the ticket office in Cambridge and made the arrangements for the following day. The journey to York took two hours by train.

We decided to take the river cruise tour in York. In the end, we were rather relieved that we hadn't adjusted our plans earlier in the holiday to include river cruises as we found this wasn't really the best way to see a place. Although the information provided by the guide was informative, it was cold on the water and the view was obstructed more often than not because the river is generally lower than the banks that surround it. We attended the sung Evensong service at York Minster.

We called on Michael Stevens in Epsom on Friday. Michael and I have been corresponding for years and it was great to finally get a chance to meet him in person. Michael is also interested in classical riding and has published several books on the subject. He owns a lipizzaner gelding that he has schooled to advanced levels. Michael graciously agreed to drive us to Chichester, on the south coast, the location of Goodwood House and the home of John Lassetter. I ride with John semi-annually in Canada on my own horses and I had arranged to ride with him in England on his very much more experienced horses. Click here to read more about my experience riding in England with John Lassetter. We visited the Chichester Cathedral before returning to Epsom and enjoyed a light lunch from their cafeteria. The Cathedral is very nearly 1,000 years old now. The existing pipe organ was installed in 1678. The Cathedral in Chichester makes the difference between old and new most obvious. They are home to a very modern and very red stained glass window designed by Chagall. We returned to Epsom, arriving in the late afternoon. Mrs. Stevens served afternoon tea and then we went to Michael's livery to meet his horse, Apollo.

We stayed in London on Saturday. We started the day with a Big Bus Tour. This bus tour allowed us to hop off and back on in order to visit as many attractions as we could handle throughout the city in one day. We started the day by taking the first tour from start to finish, about two hours altogether. We were the first to arrive in the morning and the bus driver told us our guide also works for Harrods Department Store as Santa Claus!

On Sunday we headed out on foot. We walked to the parliament buildings ending up at the base of the tower housing Big Ben minutes before 9 am. It was another beautiful sunny day (in fact, every day we were in England, six in all, was beautiful and sunny), perfect for filming, so I recorded as Big Ben rung in the 9 o'clock hour. We then carried on to Whitehall in order to see the changing of the Horse Guard at 10 am.

After the Horse Guard, we headed for Wellington Barracks, behind the palace and watched the Inspection of the (Foot) Guard Ceremony at 11 am. The ceremony was briefly interrupted by an interloper that was escorted out of the barracks by militia. We then followed the Foot Guard to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard.

Following the Changing of the Guard, we carried on to Trafalgar Square, the only place it is legal to feed pigeons in London. I'm sure you can imagine the scene at Trafalgar Square! Actually, the only reason we ended up at Trafalgar Square is because of its proximity to St. Martin-in-the-Fields and the brass rubbing centre in the basement. As luck would have it, St. Martin-in-the-Fields also offers excellent cafeteria style lunches and we had one of the best meals of the trip in the crypt of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

The food really IS as bad as everyone suggests in London so the cafeteria at St. Martin-in-the-Fields was a welcome change. The only other restaurant I would recommend is Jenny Lo's Tea House. This place serves very healthy Cantonese meals. It wouldn't win any awards for atmosphere but the food is some of the best I have ever had. The owner is also very engaging.

I finished my brass rubbing and we decided to head for Harrods. Unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately, depending on your point of view), Harrods is closed on Sunday so we were restricted to window shopping only. As luck would have it, however, Harrods has branches at Heathrow Airport so I was able to bring home some souvenirs from Harrods including a fine old style jointed teddy bear with 1999 embroidered on one paw and Harrods on the other.

This brings us to the end of our holiday. We flew home quite uneventfully on Monday from Heathrow to Toronto. We then needed three weeks back at home to recover from our vacation!!

copyright (images and text)
Barbara Dodington-Huis 1999