We checked out of Hotel Maria in Munich, heading southwest, toward Austria and ultimately Switzerland. We had a lot of driving to do in one day. The highway took us through Kempten and we crossed over into Austria near Lindau. The highway briefly followed the southeast point of Lake Constance, also known as the Bodensee. Our lunch was in Bregenz (or somewhere thereabouts), near the western border tip of Austria. The restaurant we stopped at was completely unprepared for the deluge of 33 people that our group represented. It took 2 hours for all of us to be served. I was last! (See amusing photos.)
We were definitely not on the leisurely two-lane Romantic Road anymore. What I mean to say is that we were trying to take the fastest route possible on whatever autobahns were available. Tim was lobbying for us to detour south to the principality of Liechtenstein, just so we could add another country to our itinerary, but it would have taken us too far out of our way and we still had to get to western Switzerland in time to claim our beds at the hostel.
Leaving Austria, we passed into and through the German-speaking area of Switzerland completely on the freeway, past the capital, Bern, finally arriving at the hostel in Fribourg, in the far western (French speaking) area of the country. This hostel was a disappointing step down from Haus der Musik and Hotel Maria. It was more like Frankfurt, but smaller. There were 6 or 8 people each in small dorm rooms, in bunk beds, and the food was nothing special, as I recall.
We all had a chance to see a little bit of the city, getting used to the switchover from German (supposedly my foreign language from my college days) to French. I have photos of two things that we never saw in the U.S. back in 1991-- An articulated double-bus running on natural gas, and recycling bins. I'm happy to report that-- with the help of some sleep aids-- I got a decent night's sleep, despite the cramped quarters in the dorm room.
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