Our Christmas trip to Zagreb: part 1

About a month ago, I did my usual pre Christmas search of vacation home rentals--looking for any particularly good deal pretty much anywhere within driving distance of Heidelberg.  One of the more promising looking rentals, from a price, size and appearance perspective was in Zagreb, Croatia.  A quick google search showed that Zagreb is a mere 8 hours drive from us, and has quite a few interesting things to do and lots of neat architecture downtown.  The only thing we were worried about was that the rental house had no reviews at all on Holiday Lettings or Tripadvisor, but someone has to go first, so we took the plunge and booked.

We drove down on Sunday, and were so happy that Rio thought to download a navigation program into his phone that ran off of the gps (no data package needed) because Croatia is the first place we have taken the car that is not in our Navi system and my written googlemaps directions were not that useful when missing one poorly labeled exit (do we bear right or left here????  answered AFTER choosing) means you cannot exit again for 12 kilometers and then can not reverse direction.  Roads here in Croatia are not particularly well labeled, they twist and turn in the most illogical of ways, and are not at all well lit when arriving after dark on the shortest day of the year.  Here is our navi showing us driving in the great abyss:

After a bit of wandering around in a very dark, very convoluted set of streets--and creeping along slowly as it seems to be very much the norm in this area to wear all black and walk down the street in the dark, we found the house.  The owner, who is really, really nice met us at the street (to help us find it) and showed us where to park at the end of the long drive (she lives upstairs).  The house is GREAT.  Better than the photos suggested even--we are so glad we took a risk on a place without a review yet.

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/VacationRentalReview-g294454-d3984687-APARTMENT_ZAGY_2-Zagreb_Central_Croatia.html

Here are some photos of the exterior (which we did not see until the following morning):

(the apartment is on the lower level)

(looking out the front door--no neighbors right there)

(We like the statue in the front yard; the owner's brother made it)

Inside the apartment is super clean, very roomy, furnished nicely (not a bunch of IKEA things bought for a rental, this feels like a home) and even has lots of CDs, DVDs, real art on the walls, etc  Rental homes are nearly always the way to go for longer trips (a 3 bedroom, with a kitchen for less than 70€ a night, at Christmas?!  Heck yeah!  We'd never find hotels to sleep four comfortably for that, and if we did we wouldn't have room to spread out, a place to cook Christmas dinner, etc).  Here are lots of photos, also in case anyoneis  looking at possibly renting the "Zagy Apartment" finds this review (it is very much worth it--rent it!):

The nice, big entry hall is actually really good for sitting down to remove shoes, storing coats, etc. You can see our Christmas gifts there on the cupboard and our stockings on the bench.--yes we brought those all along (as well as birthday gifts for both kids)!  Those photos above the bench are of the owner's mother and aunt in the late 40s and early 50s; both were opera singers--a really nice touch (note: we asked about them, the owner is really nice but not at all pushy and did not force us to listen to any stories we were not asking to hear)

The living room, dining area and kitchen are all open to one another.  I really like having the open kitchen--I don't mind cooking on vacation, but do not enjoy being isolated from everyone if I do.  Those Christmas cookies on the table were made by the owner for us--they were delicious, mmmmmmm.

Each of the kids' rooms has two twin beds and ample closet space.  There are also dry erase boards with welcome messages on them--cute touch.

The main bedroom has a double bed and large closet and set of drawers.  The bed is a bit short for Dave's 6'5" frame, but this is the norm for him in most rentals (and a fair number of hotels) in Eastern Europe or even down in Spain or Italy.

The bathroom is huge.  I love the double sinks, and if I have to deal with the standard Eastern European thing of a tub with handheld shower and no curtain, at leas this one has a pole for the shower head and the tub is so large that you can turn the shower towards the corner and not drench the bathroom.  There are tons of clean towels too--nice, big, soft ones.  

So, there is a tour of our rental for you all.  After we got settled in and unpacked, we headed back out for dinner at a local Italian place (Paprika in Lucko).  We were thrilled to feed all 4 of us large, and delicious meals, linger with two alf liter caraffs of wine, and 5 sodas and the bill only came to the equivalent of 36€

So, both our accommodations and our meal were great bargains and really nice; starting off our trip to Zagreb on the right foot.

--Hadley

Tolls, tolls, tolls (and vignettes)

I rarely have much of an opinion on anything in German politics.  This is generally because I really don't feel I am grasping enough background of complex issues--between my outside status and my limited German I just "don't get it."

There is one issue which has gotten a tremendous amount of press in the past year or so, and is relatively cut and dry and mundane, about which I have been able to form an opinion though---the push to move to a vignette system, requiring drivers from other countries who drive to (or, as often as not, through) Germany to help pay for the roads they are using.  Whether Germany should require a sticker, and how to go about it, has been the subject of seemingly endless articles and much debate.

The idea of requiring a toll or sticker to drive in your country is certainly not new to the EU.  Spain and France seem to have toll booths every 50 kilometers and for us to drive from our house to Barcelona and back runs about 150 in tolls alone.  In holiday periods you can often wait 30 minutes (and sometimes much longer) in backed up traffic just to PAY the toll (the environmental cost of all those cars idling in the French countryside, where this seems to be a particular problem, is astounding).

Switzerland has a (reasonably priced at, in my opinion) yearly vignette sticker that you must buy and display.  It costs 35 euros for the year and if bought in December works for the following year (so holiday travelers need not buy two to leave before Christmas and return before the new year).  Swiss border guards physically look for vignettes at border crossings, which can gum up and slow down traffic in very high travel days as well.

Several other countries have tolls or vignettes (or both!) as well--including all three wich we drove through in the 4 hours after we left Germany yesterday.

First up was Austria where we end up cheaper to buy a 10 day vignette for 8.70€ and another one on our return in 12 days than buying a month long one for 25.30€ (there is also a yearly option for 84.40€).  In addition to that, we went through two toll areas totaling another 13 Euro.  For our trip, that means we spent 20.70€ to drive for two and a half hours in Austria.

Moving into Slovenia, a country in which we drove for only half and hour and whose roads left  a lot to be desired, it worked out to the same price to buy a one month pass than two one week passes, so we saved the hassle of a second stop and plunked down 30 euro.  Yep, 30 Euro for an hour of total drive time on bad roads.  Sigh.

(a photo of our car window cluttered with all of our vignettes--Dave dislikes all the clutter and pulls off expired ones right away; this is the 2014 Switzerland, a 10 day Austria and a 1 month Slovenia)

Here in Croatia there is no vignette.  We just hit one toll road as we drove into the city, about 45 minutes on the road cost the equivalent of around 6 euro.

So in total, those four hours of driving beyond Germany's borders will work out to about 48 Euro (splitting the cost of that Slovenian sticker in half since it works on the way home as well).

So, it seems that many Germans, and German politicians have decided it is high time that the many foreigners who criss cross the German autobahn contribute to keeping those autobahns in the excellent shape they are in (constantly under construction, which gets annoying, but in excellent shape).  As I understand it (and I admit I have not spent a ton of time delving into details--it is more that the debate has been nigh impossible to avoid) the idea is to have a vignette system fairly similar to Austria's (with one year and also shorter term options) and similarly priced as well (though, without the added tolls in addition to the sticker cost).

So far this seems pretty simple, right?  The problem comes in the details (isn't that always the case?).  It seems that per EU law, no member country can impose a fee on others that it does not impose on its own people--so in order to require a sticker, German drivers would have to also buy one--simply paying income tax and car taxes (which, of course, are what currently fund these roads and would continue to do so) would not be enough.  Many Germans and their politicians balk at paying more themselves.

The ever inventive lawmakers have come up with a plan to have everyone buy a sticker, and then Germans can receive a tax credit equal to the amount they paid for the sticker when filing for the year.  So, essentially German drivers will not spend more per year than they do already--but on paper this fits the letter of the EU law--well, it MIGHT fit, Austria and The Netherlands are not happy with this game playing and are threatening to sue Germany if the country in fact moves to this system in 2016.

So, what is my opinion?  Well, I am not thrilled with the political game playing and moving money around on paper to meet the letter of the law---though that seems par for the course in politics pretty much world wide.  And I do think it is a bit absurd for the EU to have a law that prevents  charging a reasonable road use fee to those who are not paying taxes to maintain those roads otherwise, unless they make it an cross the board thing that each country must allow free access to their roads and support them entirely themselves (and I should clarify that there are MANY foreign cars on the autobahn all the time; in some holiday periods nearly half the cars on the road lack the German D on their plates.  Also, in our area we see lots and lots of drivers, primarily Dutch for our location,  driving through Germany on their way to France, Spain or Italy.  Much like us driving through Austria or Slovenia yesterday, these drivers are not adding much of anything to the economy as they are not staying as tourists, just getting across us on their way elsewhere).  Which means, I am fine with trying for the loophole under the circumstances, though my preference would be to just have everyone buy vignettes from now on (Germany included and yes that means us) and then perhaps Germany can not raise plate taxes for quite a while to make up for it.  That seems the most fair to me, and the most like what probably happened elsewhere.

So there you have it, my one foray into offering an opinion on a hot button political issue in Germany (and seriously, only Germans could put THIS much thought and discussion into something as simple as a 90€ a year driving sticker--I think we've been hearing about it for two years now already).

More Christmas Market fun (plus a vineyard)

As most of you have probably ascertained--in my opinion bigger is not always, or even often, better--and this is particularly true of Christmas Markets (even more so if it happens to be Sunday).  I like smaller, less crowded markets with fewer tourists and more local artists and craftspeople selling their own wares.

I have gotten better and better at finding those as my German searching skills have improved and as I have gotten to know the towns in our area.  Today we thought we'd try to find a market or two in the direction of the Pfalz and started by checking if the smallish (but rather touristy, owing largely to their huge fall Wine festival) town of Bad Durkheim has a market.  They don't, but I found a website saying that nearby Freinsheim did, and after a quick google search to confirm it was up and running this weekend, off we went.
Dave and I always debate about actually eating a meal at the markets.  The food is good, cheap and plentiful, but also cools down really fast in the outside air, which we don't enjoy.  So, we agreed that if we found an interesting looking restaurant in route we would stop, and if not we'd have market fare.  Just as we were heading into town we hit the jackpot of inexpensive, charming and tasty restaurant food (with easy parking even!):

Weinparadies Freinsheim is actually a winery (open on Sunday, which does not kill the "no errands" vibe since, really, when is wine tasting tedious?) that also has a cute little Italian restaurant with very good wood fired pizza and a killer (and huge) salad with chicken (plus many other things, but that is what we ate).  http://www.weinparadies-freinsheim.de/startseite.html

So we started with lunch:

Before heading into the shop for samples.  They have a bright, airy tasting room and shop with pretty displays and a variety of wine related gifts (like jellies made from the wine grapes, etc).  This is definitely a place to know about and bring guests; we are so glad we stumbled across it:

Thirty minutes and two cases of wine later, we headed further into town in search of the Weihnachtsmarkt--JACKPOT!  Oldtown Freinsheim is yet another little storybook village.  The market is big enough to feel worthwhile yet small enough that tourists have not found it (I think we were the only non Germans there).  At least 80% of the stalls were quite clearly staffed by local artists or crafters selling their own creations --more than anywhere I have been (and one of those which was not was a local farmer selling her own things as well as spices and dried beans and rices---I was low on rice and salt and wanted more fresh garlic, so this was an exciting find).   This was exactly what I wanted (there are photos of the houses around the market as well as the market itself, just because I thought it was all so picturesque):

(dedication statue outside the library)

(the simple and small but sweet little fairy tale forest)

(kids could go in and have a Christmas story read to them)

(some vendors were set up in an old barn--I loved the ceiling and chandelier)

(there is ALWAYS a ride, at every markt)

(I love quirky, angled houses like this in old European towns--look how narrow that is on this end!)

Freinsheim is probably too small and too local to take visitors to, but it was EXACTLY what I wanted in a Christmas Market and I have a feeling I will be going back for many years to come.

On the way home we stopped in Grünstadt to visit their market.  It was smaller, and the downtown area more modern, but still a pleasant stop also almost entirely local crafters and artist and charities selling food and drinks, and we got to hear Christmas Carols played on Alpine Horns, which was pretty danged cool!  We had some particularly good Gluhwein and were able to buy an entire bottle to bring home.  

(I've never seen a market projecting video onto the outside wall of a house before.  It felt a little odd seeing that giant fire up there!)

All in all yet another excellent day visiting the Wiehnachtsmarkts--with a bonus of finding a great little winery and restaurant that is perfect to take visitors to.  

If you happen to be getting sick of Christmas Market posts, I'm sorry.  I have a great love for the things, but they'll be gone in another week and a half or so and then you can safely open the blog without being inundated by my gushing about yet another market.

--Hadley

A mini post on a mini market

I didn't do much today, but I did end up stopping by the very bland, over commercialized, run of the mill indoor mall a few towns over.  I thought I should take some photos of the little mini Weihnachtsmarkt that is front of the mall--just to prove how ubiquitous they are this time of year.  Even at a mall full of stores and with an indoor food court, there are stalls selling food you can eat outside before you shop (and one stand selling beeswax candles).

Tomorrow we are going to the Brazilian consulate in Frankfurt to get a visa for David for a business trip.  No appointment is needed and there are no mentions of needing to leave electronics at home, etc.  I think it will be a very different experience than visiting the US consulate--I hope to write a little something comparing the two.

--Hadley