If you follow this blog long enough you know that I like visiting small and off the beaten track museums. Although I appreciate the mainstream art I immensely enjoy modest exhibitions focused on a single city or a theme. A good example was one of my favorite museums of all times – The Little Museum of Dublin – of which even the name is cute. Visiting small museums all over the world I realized they have a particular set of properties that I like very much. The exhibition is small enough to visit it in a relatively short time. Its narration is usually cohesive and understandable. And lastly the staff is very friendly and because of the size of the museum it also gives you an opportunity to interact directly with them (=experts). My last trip to Munich was very enjoyable in terms of one day hike in the Alps but also two interesting visits in a museum: Neue Pinakothek and Deutscher Alpenverein Museum. Pinakothek: the name says everything. It is very traditional sort of a place with beautiful pictures on walls. Large, obviously. I liked it but the second museum by the Alpine Club was much more sophisticated. Museum Focused On Mountain Tourism Deutscher Alpenverein Museum has only 4 rooms. Seriously. And in these tiny little rooms it contains exhibition focused on brief history of hiking in the mountains. B-R-I-E-F. What is striking is that this sport is so young! More than 250 years ago nobody would climb mountains for fun! It was originally connected to scientific and academic world: various geologists would climb some mountain ranges to get know the properties of rocks or to record the geological history of the area. And they were doing this in their ordinary clothes which always makes me laugh! By 1900 all prominent European peaks were climbed and named and I think it shows the real explosion of this activity. For couple of decades, however, climbing remained a highly exclusive hobby and climbers were recruited mainly from upper classes. In early years all Alpine Clubs, including the British one established in London and the German one established in Munich, were for selected wealthy and highly educated people. In that time British aristocracy simply invaded Swiss Alps climbing all highest peaks and enforcing its exclusive character. Along the development of this expensive hobby critical changes occurred. On the one hand climbers seeking out increasingly demanding challenges caused design  and production of modern climbing tools. On the other, a substantial development of facilities was noticed. Soon, the European Alps became a crowded place. Urban comfort pushed into the wilderness, as the Visitor’s Guide puts it. Two important mainstream trends: skiing and physical fitness – contributed later to further expansion of the mountain tourism making it also open to young people of non aristocratic backgrounds. And finally this process ended up with increase concern over protection of wild mountain area, as we know it today. My visit in Alpine Museum Being small and being focused on mountains seemed to me a perfect combination to spent one afternoon in Munich with. The weather was nice so I took a long walk along the river to finally reach a small island where the museum is located. Just as I expected: a warm welcome from a nice lady just for a start. After I paid 3 EUR of admission fee I received a thorough explanation of the exhibition with a short guidebook in English. One of the weaknesses of this place is a total absence of the English signs but with this little booklet I could enjoy my stay in this museum and actually understand what I watched. It took me about 1 hour and a half to watch the exhibition, read the information in a booklet and talk to the staff. I always enjoy watching old pictures and equipment. It always strikes me how difficult the beginning of climbing was. But what I love most about this sort of museum is the thought you have on taking for granted some of the present habits. And suddenly you discover that the obvious things are not that obvious. And that the moment when you’re ready to hear the story told in a museum like this. I enjoyed listening to it very much! Haus des Alpinismus und Alpines Museum, Praterinsel 5, 80538 Munchen, Germany. Disclosure: all pictures were taken with my cell phone rather than the real camera. Apologies for the poor quality.  

The post Deutsches Alpine Museum in Munich appeared first on Null & Full.

This was an awesome conclusion of my trekking spring: a one day hike in the German Alps with my friend. Needless to say the weather was marvelous, however, not everything went as smoothly as we planed. The start was pretty comfortable with excellent German facilities namely: parking lot WITH coins exchange (!) and ATM (!) on site! This is only possible in Germany, as far as I’m concerned. Mythical German organization appeared in its whole glory. The basic idea was to have a look at the Königssee (ang. King’s Lake) from high altitude and to do that we had a plan to go up in a cable railway first and climb a nearby summit called Schneibstein (2276 masl) afterwards. The plan was simple, we set up in the early morning and after a 2h drive from Munich we met the first obstacle: a lady at the cash desk of Jennerbahn (a cable railway). Not that I am prejudiced towards ladies working in such facilities but this time it was really classic! She refused to sell us a one way ticket up saying that the path towards  Schneibstein and Carl-von-Stahl hut was impossible to cross. We could only buy a half way ticket and we did so. And that was the first thing that made our day and the route really really long. No worries, though. Starting from the middle of the track we enjoyed a spring weather: +18C, sun and green grass all over the place. The sun was shining for the rest of the day but green grass became covered with snow really soon. So for almost 2 hours we’d been walking through Strubalm valley trudging up in deep snow, falling down up to our waists from time to time. If you start to laugh every time you fell you quickly become pretty tired so not only the trail was long but also considerably engaging. There should be a mountain hut waiting up there after about 2h walk but it was closed. Bad luck again but we were in such a good mood it didn’t make any difference. Instead of an open hut we met a local trekker who looked like a professional sherpa (I swear he did!) and he told us about another mountain hut called Carl-von-Stahl (1736 masl) located just at the border with Austria. 5 minutes walk. Fine. Before we arrived to this hut we sat for a while in front of the closed one that I can’t remember the name of and watched skiers who were skiing down the Schneibstein with amazing speed (so jealous!). It was high enough to enjoy amazing view towards west with the majestic Watzmann massif as background. After a short walk we reached a saddle where  Carl-von-Stahl hut was located. The view on the Austrian part of the Alps and Schneibstein was awesome. But by the time we got to the hut we knew we won’t be able to climb it. Obviously trekking without any summit reached feels somehow incomplete so after a short discussion we thought it might be a good idea to climb at least Jenner summit (1.874 masl). Crossing the ski piste we safely arrived to the cable railway (I wonder what a lady from the cash desk would say if she knew we crossed it!) and went directly to the peak. And it was so beautiful! The lake was there and although it was shadowed by the Watzmann range it was still amazingly appealing. Just as everyone says: reaching the summit is only a half way down so after a while we had to get going. This was fast. And tough at the same time. We picked up alternative route down and soon got to cross the snowy fields sinking up again. At some point we would just running down like mad through these fields until we reached the green grass again. The deep winter in Strubalm valley we crossed that morning was a fairy tale like place but it was also by far the longest route to the Schneibstein and because of our lost battle with a lady in Jennerbahn we had no chances to reach it. I guess we traded the achievements for the beauty this time. And I am quite happy about it. We were both smiling when we finally reached the car left in Schönau am Königssee and we are pretty determined to cross the mythical 2200 masl next time. Itinerary MUNICH – KONIGSSEE (603 masl) – STRUBALM – JENNER KONIGSBERGALM – CARL VON STAHL HUT (1736 masl) – JENNER (1.874 masl) – HOCHBAHNWEG – RABENWAND – KONIGSSEE (603 masl) – MUNICH  

The post Königssee: A Marvelous One Day Hike appeared first on Null & Full.

ITB Berlin has a reputation of world biggest travel event. Here the tourism industry gathers. Travel agencies, tourism boards and associations meet in order to find a common ground. In last few years the organization committee created a space for bloggers who are very specific actors on this stage. In 2014 I was one of them. After getting the official accreditation of ITB Berlin Press my adventure started. Here is my story and few thoughts on this event. If you are interested in ‘behind the scenes’ or you are a blogger who is thinking about coming next year this post is for you! Organization The quality of organization of this event is mythical. As a blogger I received all support imaginable: my own profile with short instruction how to personalize it, on-line support, a searching tool of all other participants and an invitation for so called ‘Speed Dating’. The most impressive thing is actually a real on-line support. I had to contact the organizers few times and I always received answer to my question. It should be normal but it rarely is. And I felt so good about it! Discussing all things that were important to me with a person from ITB was really great. I knew exactly where to go while on site and it made this event so pleasant and stress free! Pre conference arrangements included shuttle bus from my hotel which actually was on time! Impressive. Also organization on site was excellent. Despite thousands of guests -literally! – I could easily find my way to meet everyone I planned. Stands I didn’t visit ALL stands but in two days I was able to see the majority of them. I must say that many stands made a huge impression on me. The particular countries did great job presenting their homeland from the best and most interesting perspective. I enjoyed the following stands in particular: Curacao for their colorful houses constructed in the middle of the fair hall. Paraguay (one of very few that exposed their social media icons and hashtag). And finally Tirol for their ingenuity in bringing a gondola with them. Best event ITB Berlin is not only a collection of stands. It also provides a huge repertoire of events related to travel. My favorite even was organized by Tourism Board of the Italian region: Puglia. They cleverly invited some bloggers for a cooking lesson and I must admit I had fun! Not only I was making Italian pasta again but also I tried delicious food and met fabulous people behind this excellent initiative. #WeAreInPuglia attacked (and conquered) all my senses. What a delight! I received a cook book from them and the fresh pasta I made so after my return home I cooked pasta for the whole family. Speed Dating Last event that was very helpful was so called ‘Speed Dating’. On our ITB profiles we could pick up several companies that we wish to meet and the companies could also do the same. And there was a space dedicated for a meeting when we were discussing all issues related to potential cooperation. As a tool to meet people it is quite popular but the german genius made it as smooth as possible. Every Friday evening before the event all unconfirmed dates were cancelled so nobody was blocked by companies or bloggers who did not reply for an invitation. Brilliant! All in all the ITB in Berlin is a wonderful event and I hope to go there again next year. My congratulation to all who were engaged in this spectacular event! Interested in other blogger’s review of ITB Berlin? Click here to read a short summary of ITB in German by Monika.    

The post Bloggers Meet The Travel Industry: My Story From ITB Berlin 2014 appeared first on Null & Full.

The German system of highways is one of the best thing this country has to offer to the tourists. Seriously! Travelling across Germany by car is really pleasant. The highways are excellent in terms of its density, interchanges and overhead direction signs, but also in terms of good driving conditions in the winter season. What really drives me crazy is the growing number of traffic jams, but this is true for all well developed countries, isn’t it? And Germany is not an exception.  Is that true that there is NO speed limit in Germany? Well, the German autobahns are famous of its advisory speed limit rather than the general speed limit. While this is generally true you can still get caught for exceeding speed limit. How come? It’s because the advisory speed limit is valid unless otherwise regulated by signs. Generally 2km before each interchange the speed is limited to 120km/h for safety reasons, then, the speed is limited in the vicinity of streams and lakes, on the bridges, in the case of sharp curves, or between certain times of the day and night (between 22:00-6:00), and couple of other exceptions. All sum up gives you practically around half of the length of the German highways under the speed limit. You need to be focused as the quantity of the speed limit signs might surprise you. Oh, yes, and the road works! The Germans are famous of its reliability and serious attitude towards public works which is very true in the case of road works. At least in the case of their highways the works are always organized “with a flourish”. What I mean is the scale of it. When you’re passing any of them you can usually admire a huge terrain being under construction. Deep excavations, mountains of sand, huge caterpillars and particular elements of new bridges are amazing. But the scale of road works has also dark side: usually when a few kilometers of two-line section is under construction the equivalent of it at the other side of the highway is shared by two driving streams, which drastically limits not only the speed (under 60km/h or even 40km/h) but also generates considerable traffic jams. When you meet one road work along your German adventure it’s OK but if you have a bad luck and you meet, let’s say, five, your trip takes twice as much as planed. The code of conduct Don’t be surprised if you see the Germans braking sharply when the speed limit sign is seen. This habit might be dangerous for the foreigners who are not used to such literal treatment of the signs. The German drivers simply believe in everything what is written along the road and they follow the rules without a second thought. As far as the safety reasons are concerned it is justified and the are no complaints. However, I saw plenty of situations when the only reason of a traffic jam was a speed limit followed by everybody. Ironically, the speed limit is temporary introduced because of the traffic jams on the road, causing even bigger traffic jam. And that how it goes: self regulated mechanism of traffic jams. All cars should occupy the right line of the road starting with the slowest trucks, campers, buses and vehicles with trailers. In the middle line you need to drive considerably fast, but the majority of the drivers follow the 130km/h advisory speed. The left line is  occupied by the people in rush and it might be even more than 200km/h. Now, I’m not the crazy driver and I usually follow the general rules (to all my friends: STOP LAUGHING!), but I can’t say that driving 200km/h on the German highways is unpleasant. If you wish to feel the wind blowing in your hair, the German highway is the right place. Remember to open the window ;-) and slow down when the sign says so. What is the difference between German, Italian and Austrian highways? The German highways in the major part are three-lines while in Austria and in Italy this is much less so. My least favorite highways are those in Austria because of its ridiculous speed limit of 100km/h. Few years ago there was a huge and very burdensome road work near Innsbruck with construction of tunnels and bridges. Everybody was hoping for the improvements after months of driving 40km/h because of the traffic jams in the surrounding of the city. Today, even if the road works are completed the speed limit of 100km/h is still on. The second reason of my dislike towards the Austrian highways is the system of payment. The Austrian vignettes are sold for peculiar number of the days: the shortest is a 10-days vignette and this is what you’re normally buying, so if you go to Italy for 2-weeks holiday you need to pay TWICE! What’s even more frustrating despite of buying the vignette there are additional fees for some tunnels and bridges. The Italian system of autostrade has also some problems, although, you pay exactly for the segment of the road that you drove. The further south the quality of the highway decreases, that’s the general trend. Also, the road works are much worse marked and taken care than in Germany so you need to be much more careful. Some of the areas are exceptionally crowded, like A4 between Milan and Brescia or even further towards Venice, and it is advisable to avoid these roads. In my case, I had two very unpleasant events with this highway involved. Once, my passenger was late for a plane because of the traffic jam. What’s even worse the next day we drove the same highway with extra time and guess what happened. We got stuck in a traffic jam again. Eventually, my passenger was the very last person boarded on the plane that day. Crazy, I’m telling you. To sum up: while driving a German highway is not a sort of ‘must do’ activity it is still a very memorable part of your travel around Europe.  

The post Are The German Autobahns Best in Europe? appeared first on Null & Full.