Guest houses in Germany, Austria, and Slovenia
A group of five of us traveled by car through Germany, Austria and Slovenia in May ’05. Most of our accommodations during the trip — guest houses, “Zimmers,” “sobe” (in Slovenia) or hostels — combined our double and triple rooms and gave us a per-person rate. All prices listed here include tax and breakfast. I made all of the reservations except one over the Internet, and only the hostel asked for a credit card number to hold. All had free, convenient parking.
Because we were traveling off-season, we often were given apartments instead of just rooms. Most of the rooms were up one flight of stairs and sometimes two.
• Five minutes from Neuschwanstein in Schwangau, GERMANY, on the street that runs parallel to the main street one block toward the lake, we had two roomy apartments at Gastehaus Guggemos-Velle (Mitteldorf 16, Schwangau; phone 08362-986508 or fax 987080) — €20 ($23) per person. There were several restaurants in walking distance.
• Triftsperre (Triftsperrstr. 15, 94034 Passau, Germany; phone 0851 51162 or visit www.zur-triftsperre.de) is on the Ilz River about three miles from the center of Passau, but it is like another world. There are nice trails along the river and a reasonable restaurant on the premises. Our room had a balcony. €48 ($56) double, €58 ($68) triple.
On Thursday evenings and also on weekdays at noon there are concerts in the cathedral with Europe’s largest pipe organ.
• Hostel Burg Stahleck (55422 Bacharach, Bacharach am Rhine, Germany; phone 49 6743 1266, fax 49 6743 2684 or e-mail bacharach@diejugendherbergen.de) is a wonderful medieval castle with a great view of the river. It is a steep hike or drive from the town but worth it. You can drive up to the entrance to unload but then park a short ways up the road. They said it was a one-hour drive to the Frankfurt Airport, but allow two.
Three of us had a room for eight with private bath to ourselves, and the other two had a twin room with private bath. There are rooms in the tower, if you don’t mind the climb. €28 ($33) per person included a buffet dinner, breakfast, temporary hostel memberships and sheets.
• In Erfurt, we stayed in the private rooms of Cornelia Hasel (Dalbergsweg 28, 99084 Erfurt, Germany; phone 49 [0] 361-2229434 or visit www.pension-hasel-erfurt.de) in an old mansion about a 10-minute walk from the center of the old city. We had two apartments, a double and a triple, and paid €20 per person. (A single room cost €28.) The apartments were supplied with the makings for breakfast, which we prepared ourselves. This was the only place that had an elevator, but our room was on the ground floor.
• In Salzburg, AUSTRIA, we have stayed on Moosstrasse before; there are many guest houses. I did not have e-mail addresses for those places, so I booked Haus Ballwein (Moosstr. 69A, A-5020 Salzburg, Austria; phone/fax 0662 824-029 or e-mail haus.ballwein@gmx.net), which was an excellent choice. We had the new rooms with balconies in their recently converted barn. €48 ($56) double, €65 ($76) triple.
The bus stop for a 10-minute ride into Salzburg was right in front of the house.
While we were in the area, we had hoped to visit Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest near Berchtesgaden, but it was not to open until about the last week in May.
• In Postojna, SLOVENIA, we had a nice, large apartment with balcony and terrace on the Tourist Farm Mihelcic (Mali Otok 9, Postojna, Slovenia; phone +386 [0] 57535 227 or visit http://freeweb.siol.net/imihelc1/imelhelc1) — €17 ($20) per person.
It was about a 15-minute drive from Predjama Castle and Postojna Cave. After visiting the castle in the morning, we spent a beautiful day driving north along the Soca River and through the Julian Alps to Lake Bled.
• With everything (except the two cuckoo clocks we bought), including air from Detroit to Frankfurt, our entire 2-week trip cost less than $1,900 per person. Very few places gave senior discounts on admissions, but a few times we qualified for a group discount.
If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me c/o ITN.
JUDY PFAFFENBERGER
Toledo, OH