<![CDATA[Travel With Sonja

<![CDATA[Travel With Sonja - Blog]]>Fri, 26 Sep 2025 23:47:54 -0400Weebly<![CDATA[Munich Bike Tour]]>Sat, 17 Oct 2015 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.travelwithsonja.com/blog/munich-bike-tour

Our final day of the 2015 Boutique Group Trip has arrived. There wasn’t going to be time to see a lot of the city of Munich so I made arrangements for us to do a city bike tour.

This would not only be fun but would afford us to get around and see more of the city than by foot. We left our hotel for Marienplatz, our meeting point for the bike tour. We were a bit early and got to the New Town Hall just in time for the Glockenspiel performance in the clocktower of the hall. The performance tells the story of a royal wedding complete with jousting and dance which are all part of Munich’s folklore. The musical accompaniment is played on 43 bells in the clocktower. On to our meeting point and the start of our bike tour. Our guide was a young man, originally from Washington DC, who led us through Munich enlightening us on several historical aspects as well as adding his own touch of humor making it very educational as well as entertaining.

We saw several of Munich’s sites, the opera house and peace angel as well as riding through a large part of the English Gardens (Munich’s Central Park……but much larger), and stopped at Chinesischer Trum (Chinese Beer Garden) for lunch. This is Munich’s 2nd largest beer garden seating over 7,000 people. There are several different food stalls to choose from, each with traditional types of beer garden food. Now that we’ve re-nourished ourselves……because you know we’ve hardly had anything to eat on this trip…we’re back on our bikes to ride on.

We rode along the Isar River, where many people come to picnic and refresh themselves swimming and even surfing during the summer, winding our way back through the city to end our tour. This was our final tour of the 2015 Sonja’s Boutique Group Trip. It’s time to pack and head back to the U.S. to plan the next Boutique Trip.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our adventures and will join me on the next Boutique Trip....I promise you the trip of a lifetime!

]]><![CDATA[Neuschwanstein Castle & Oberammergau]]>Fri, 16 Oct 2015 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.travelwithsonja.com/blog/neuschwanstein-castle-oberammergau

Our day to venture into the Bavarian Alps to tour King Ludwig II’s Neuschwanstein Castle had arrived. The morning started off very chilly with a forecast of 30 degrees and snow!

We had a bit of a drive and it did start to snow on our way, fortunately the snow stopped prior to our arrival. There were a lot of low hanging clouds which gave our first glimpse of the castle a rather mystical view. This castle is known as The Fairytale Castle and that it is.

It is easy to see how when Walt Disney visited Neuschwanstein in the 1930’s he got his inspiration for what we know as Disney’s Magic Kingdom. We had the option to take a shuttle up to the castle or do the walk up, we did the walk up. It was quite a hike to reach the castle but even with the overcast day there were some beautiful vistas of the Hohenschwangau valley and as we climbed the view continued to get better as the trees surrounding the valley were starting to show off their fall colors. Upon arriving at the castle and doing a walk around to see various views of the exterior we entered the castle for our tour.

The interior of the castle wasn’t complete at the untimely death of King Ludwig but the completed area of the castle was opened as a museum 6 weeks after his death. We did see several rooms that were complete and found out there was even running water complete with flushing toilets...pretty modern considering it was 1886! The decor was very lavish and included several fresco paintings, crystal chandeliers and quite a grand kitchen full of copper pots. Once the tour was complete we were on our way back down the hill. After some time to warm up and have lunch we were on our way to Oberammergau.

Oberammergau is a small village that is well know for it’s production of the Passion Play which is performed every 10 years and began in1634. It is believed that during this time the Black Plague was sweeping across Europe wiping out many villages.

The residents of Oberammergau prayed to be spared and promised God that if they were spared the Passion of Christ would be reenacted every 10 years. The town was spared and this pledge has been kept for over 350 years. In order to be part of the production you have to be resident of the village.

It takes over 2,000 people from a village of 5,300 to make this happen……now you can understand why it is only performed every 10 years. The village is also known for it’s wood carving and is home to the state of Bavaria’s wood carving school. Along with the school there are many shops selling wood carvings and cuckoo clocks. Oberammergau also has a bit of a storybook look to it. Many of the building exteriors having painted frescoes of Bavarian themes, fairytales, and religious scenes.....I spotted Little Red Riding Hood on one.

It is very pretty just driving through the village taking in all the frescoes and the window boxes full of vibrant flowers on nearly every building. Time to head back to Munich and a trip to the Hofbrau Haus for dinner. One more day………is our trip really almost over??

]]><![CDATA[Beer Tour in the Bavarian Countryside]]>Thu, 15 Oct 2015 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.travelwithsonja.com/blog/beer-tour-in-the-bavarian-countryside

Since this was a Beer theme river cruise on our first full day in Munich I had arranged for a private tour for my group to get us outside of the city to visit some breweries that most tourists might not find or have a way to get to.

Our guide picked us up at our hotel for our day out in the Bavarian countryside. On the drive to our first brewery tour we passed many hops fields that had already been harvested but it was an interesting site to see all the rows of tall poles that the hops vine up on. Germany grows about 60% of the hops out of the14 EU countries producing hops covering approximately 17 hectares, equivalent to a little more that 42,000 acres…..that’s a lot of hops! We had an appointment for a tour at Kuchlbauer Brewery. Even if you don’t have an interest in beer this is worth a visit.

It is a most unusual brewery with elements of art throughout and is very recognizable by the 70 meter tower which reaches into the sky in the village of Abensberg. The tower and brewery are full of uneven floors, tile mosaics, onion domes and even some beer dwarfs.....yes beer dwarfs! The tower is dedicated to Bavarian beer and it’s brewers and symbolizes all the components of beer and brewing in Bavaria. We climbed inside to the top of the tour and had some great views of the Bavarian countryside. Once our tour was complete…..after a beer tasting of course we traveled on to the next stop for a quick lunch prior to our next tour appointment. Our second appointment of the day was at the Schneider Weisse Brewery in Kelheim. We were fortunate that we were visiting on a Thursday as they only do tours twice a week….jackpot for us! This brewery is very well known for its history of brewing wheat beer and actually saving wheat beer from extinction. Two hundred years ago wheat beer was only allowed to be brewed by Bavarian royal families.

With the decline in wheat beer sales King Ludwig II decided to discontinue brewing wheat beer and sold the brewing rights to the Schneider family who continued the brewing of this very popular wheat brew, thus saving wheat beer from extinction! We drove on to the Weltenburger Kloster, a monastery brewery, which sits along a very scenic area of the Danube. This section is too narrow for the river cruise ships to get through but you can take a short day cruise through this section which passes the Weltenburger Kloster.

We visited the St. George Abbey Church which is built in the baroque style with St. George at the front of the alter slaying a dragon. The ceiling in this church is also very beautifully painted and fooled the eye as it appeared to be curved but was actually flat. We then went to try a beer brewed at the monastery. This is the oldest monastery in Bavaria and has been brewing beer since 1035! There are still 7 monks living at the monastery that are continuing the brewing according to the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516.

Time to head back to Munich, another full day and I think the beer connoisseurs of the group were thoroughly pleased with all they saw, learned and tasted today.

]]><![CDATA[A Day in Salzburg]]>Wed, 14 Oct 2015 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.travelwithsonja.com/blog/a-day-in-salzburg

The Church of St. Michael

This morning we departed from our cruise ship with the option to transfer directly to Munich for free time or do an optional tour to Dachau with a visit to the Memorial site on the grounds of the formal concentration camp.

The other option was an excursion back to Austria for a day in Salzburg. Being a long time fan of the movie “The Sound of Music” I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit Salzburg and perhaps see a few sites used in the filming of the movie. It was a rainy day but we weren’t about to let that dampen our spirits or our experience. All suited up in our rain gear and we were off! Our first stop was in Mondsee where we visited the church of St. Michael that was used in the movie for the wedding scene of Captain Von Trapp and Maria. Can you envision the long center aisle of the church with Maria’s wedding gown and veil trailing behind her and up the steps to the alter…..I had to walk that same path, reliving the movie scene in my mind.

The entire church, alter and pipe organ are very beautiful making it evident why it was chosen for the wedding church in the movie. We also walked down the tree lined lane where the children were hanging from trees in their play clothes which was also filmed in Mondsee…..onward to Salzburg!

Mirabellgarten

Upon our arrival to Salzburg our local guide led us into old town, the historic part of the city. We saw Mozart’s birth place, Mirabellgarten, Residenzplatz, the Marionette Theatre, the birthplace of Christian Doppler (a mathematician and physicist known for the principle of the Doppler effect........now you know where the name Doppler Radar came from!), St. Peter’s cemetery (which was recreated in a studio for the movie) and through the street market. The street market consisted of many kinds of stands; sausage, cheese, fruits and vegetables, pastry and of course pretzels! We were told that many locals eat at the sausage stands but you don’t eat your sausage in the bread……only tourist eat sausage that way.

You have the sausage in one hand (on a plate) and bread in the other. Even though it was rainy and cold we decided to huddle under the awning of a sausage stand and eat like a local. I had a Kasekrainer sausage with mustard and fresh grated horseradish……yummy.

The drizzle had let up so our group decided to hike up the hill to the Nonnberg Abbey whose exterior was used in the movie. This is still a working abbey and you aren't able to tour the interior and unfortunately after getting nearly to the top of the hill the road was blocked for construction so we were unable to see the outside of the Abbey……but we did get a great view of the city of Salzburg! Back down the hill we went where we stopped and bought some roasted chestnuts from a street vendor and also some of the famous Mozart chocolates, the Original Salzburg Mozartkugel.

The original recipe for these was created in 1890 by Paul Furst and was awarded a gold medal for his creation. There are imposters of this candy being sold throughout Austria but the original chocolate is still being made today by hand and can only be purchased in Salzburg or Sankt Gilgen at the Furst Cafe’s. Our free time in Salzburg was over and it was time for us to board the bus to go on to Munich for the remainder of our trip. One day in Salzburg was good but I would love to go back and spend a couple of days, anyone interested in taking in Salzburg with me?

]]><![CDATA[Passau - Rieder Brewery]]>Tue, 13 Oct 2015 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.travelwithsonja.com/blog/passau-rieder-brewery

We enjoyed a leisurely morning of sailing, again enjoying the vistas around us as we sailed towards Passau. Passau is known as the city of three rivers as it is the location where the Rivers Inn, Ilz and Danube come together.

Our arrival in Passau was very picturesque with its colorful buildings lining the banks of the Danube. As it was early afternoon we had the option of a walking tour of Passau or a brewery tour as part of the theme cruise to the Rieder Brewery. Since the Beer theme cruise is only offered twice a year I opted for the brewery tour and will have to visit the city of Passau on another journey. Again on this tour we were accompanied by the Beerpope who served as our translator as the entire tour was in German.

After the tour we went for a tasting and they began bringing out plates of sausages and baskets of pretzels….wow, what a snack! After the tour it was back to the ship to finish packing as it was our last night on the ship…..already?

We enjoyed a wonderful farewell dinner and then some dancing in the lounge before calling it a night to get ready to disembark the next morning and on to our next adventure.

]]><![CDATA[Grein - Linz]]>Mon, 12 Oct 2015 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.travelwithsonja.com/blog/grein-linz

We arrived the following morning to the frosty coated village of Grein. There were three different options of how to spend your time in this port. Included was a walking tour of Grein and then sailing on to the city of Lintz or optional excursions to Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic or a trip into Upper Austria to the Austrian Lakes District in the foothills of the Austrian Alps. Our group split today, some enjoying Grein and Linz while others went to the Austrian Lakes. Even though we had a very chilly 30 degree start to the day the sun came out and we all enjoyed a beautiful day. I went to the Lakes District where we visited 4 of the 76 lakes that make up the district with lake colors varying from turquoise to emerald green along with visiting the very quaint villages of Sankt Gilgen, St. Wolfgang and Traunkirchen.

We did a walking tour of Sankt Gilgen seeing the home where Mozart’s mother was born and lived as well as his sister who spent the majority of her life there as well. Mozart’s sister, Maria, who was also a very talented musician was born before her time as females were not recognized for such talents at that time.

St. Wolfgang was a very charming, picturesque village where we enjoyed many panoramic vistas and had lunch overlooking one of the lakes with the Austrian Alps providing a fabulous backdrop. We had a quick stop in Traunkirchen for a walk up to the Parish Church which sits on a peninsula overlooking the lake. This church was rebuilt twice after being destroyed by fire in the baroque style. It is very well known for the famous Fisherman’s Pulpit which was carved in 1753 by an unknown artist. The pulpit is a very detailed sculpture depicting the miracle of the rich fish catch by Peter with apostles James and John in the boat dragging the nets filled with fish. Time to venture on to Linz and meet our ship. Tonight our dinner was a beer pairing dinner for the special theme event of the day.

]]><![CDATA[Durnstein - Wachau Valley - Melk]]>Sun, 11 Oct 2015 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.travelwithsonja.com/blog/durnstein-wachau-valley-melk

The village of Durnstein

We sailed through the night to arrive the following morning in the quaint village of Durnstein nestled in the Wachau Valley wine region in Lower Austria.

No bus today, we were able to walk off the ship into this charming village. We enjoyed a guided walk through the village learning the history of this village dating back to 1150. High above the village a stone fortress overlooked the village and the Wachau Valley. This fortress was where England’s King Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned. The blue and white towers of the Augustinian Abbey, which can be seen from the river, will catch your eye and is what you will see in many photos of Durnstein. We left Durnstein late morning to continue our scenic cruise down through the Wachau Valley of the Danube passing many vineyards that are planted all throughout the steep hillsides, villages, chapels and castle ruins.

Our ship arrived in Melk mid-afternoon where we had a choice between two included tours; the 11th century Benedictine Abbey or Schallaburg Castle. We could see the towers of the abbey that stand above the town from the ship as we were nearing Melk, all of our group chose to visit the Abbey. The Abbey is pretty spectacular, built in a Baroque style with frescoed ceilings, a marble hall….that really isn’t, it’s just painted to look like marble and a library that consists of 12 rooms and houses over 80,000 books and 2,000 manuscripts. The Abbey is still a working Abbey, not just a museum.

It is responsible for 23 parishes, holds mass each week and also has a secondary school with over 900 students in attendance. Another pretty full day but we’re not done yet! Since this is a Beer Theme cruise when we arrived back at the ship there was a Beer Seminar and tasting with Austrian Beerpope, Conrad Seidl, who was accompanying us on this cruise. After the seminar it was time for the Gala dinner as we cruised on to our next port of Grein.

]]><![CDATA[Vienna, Austria]]>Sat, 10 Oct 2015 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.travelwithsonja.com/blog/vienna-austria

We arrived in Vienna in the morning on the overnight train from Florence. We went to the meeting hotel for our river cruise to leave our luggage prior to transferring to the ship and headed to do some exploring of Vienna on our own.

It was agreed that a trip on the Vienna Ring Tram along the Ringstrasse Blvd. which circles around the Old City and had a narrated commentary would be good to orientate ourselves with Vienna and some of it’s history. After that we walked through Vienna stopping along the way for lunch at an outside cafe. We were to meet back at the hotel to transfer to the ship with all of the other passengers. We were scheduled to board our cruise ship in Vienna but due to low water conditions of the river, and the cruise line needing to do some shifting of passengers from the previous week for completion of their cruise, we were bussed to Komarno, Hungary to board our ship which would sail back down the Danube to Vienna…..bonus for us, extra sailing and we didn’t miss a thing on our itinerary! The cruise line was very efficient and organized in handling this situation which was totally out of their control and also offered all passengers the opportunity to attend the following nights opera concert in Vienna free of charge due to the inconvenience. Upon boarding and being shown to our staterooms we attended the mustering drill and then the Captains Welcome dinner and we were sailing!

We arrived back in Vienna the following morning and began our morning with a city bus and walking tour along with some free time. We passed many historical sites and caught a glimpse of the Lipizzaner stallions from the Spanish Riding School. We also learned that every New Years Eve at midnight the Blue Danube Waltz is played throughout the city and everyone grabs someone and dances the Blue Danube Waltz. They even hold classes to learn this dance so that everyone can participate in this tradition. After a bit of a chilly walk our group wanted to warm up and experience a Viennese coffee house…..along with a pastry of course.

Sacher-Torte

We chose the well known Cafe Sacher for our coffee house experience. This coffee house is located across from the Vienna Opera House and is known for making the original Sacher-Torte, a chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam between the cake layers and topped with a decadent chocolate icing……which of course I had to try and thoroughly enjoyed, others decided on an apple strudel. This cake has been made since 1832 and the original recipe is a well kept secret. You will find many copies of this cake being made but you can only get the original at the Hotel or Cafe Sacher. There were many choices for coffee and all were served with a small glass of water (as I had indicated in my earlier coffee blog) which is traditional.

This was a great way to warm up and enjoy the coffee house ambience. We then returned to the ship for a quick lunch and then we were off for a very extensive tour of the Ottakringer Brewery followed by a beer tasting with pretzels of course! Our river cruise was a Beer Theme Cruise which included many extra tours and onboard options that were available for all passengers at no additional cost. Back to the ship for dinner and then off for a night at the opera. I must admit I don’t normally listen to classical music, nor do I know much about it, but it was a very enjoyable evening full of aria’s, ballet, operetta’s and a little comedy as well.

]]><![CDATA[Tuscan Farmhouse Cooking School]]>Thu, 08 Oct 2015 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.travelwithsonja.com/blog/tuscan-farmhouse-cooking-school

We arrived in the evening for our 2-day cooking school in the heart of Chianti country. We were staying at the farm house with the owners of the cooking school and enjoyed a welcoming dinner that evening with them and their family.

The following morning we enjoyed a breakfast of toast with homemade fig, apricot and quince jams along with some different varieties of grapes, and other fruits also a pastry made with fresh grapes called Schiacciata con L'uva. We were then ready to begin our day of cooking! We entered the classroom kitchen and were given aprons and the recipes for the day. We started with the beans (fagioli) as they would take a while to cook. We cooked them in a way called “fiasco” which was basically a glass beaker with herbs, garlic and onion and the beaker was placed directly on the burner of the stove to cook.

We were then on to the tiramisu for dessert as that had to chill which was made with the traditional Italian lady finger cookies, espresso, sugar, mascarpone cheese and just a touch of brandy. Chicken (pollo) was up next which was prepared all Toscana which was a tomato sauce with olives….yummy! Now onto the pasta while the chicken simmers. We made a pasta called “Pici” which was round and long like spaghetti but much thicker. We kneaded, rolled, cut and then hand rolled the pic and left it to dry. Now for the pasta sauces; we made two, a fresh tomato sauce and a carbonara sauce. Now that everything was prepared it was time to eat and what a feast we had!!! We had a bit of time to relax and then we were off to tour a winery and do wine tasting of Chianti Classico. We enjoyed some beautiful vistas of the Tuscan countryside on our way to the winery. At the winery we had a private tour of the winery learning of its history and process for making their wine followed by a tasting. We made a short stop in the town of Radda on the way back to the farm to see the sunset over the Tuscan hills then continued back to the farm for dinner with the family.

The following morning we met for breakfast, which included a lovely ricotta type cake, before beginning our next day of cooking. We took a trip back into Radda in the morning to the farmers market for fresh produce that we would be using for our recipes along with a stop in the grocery market. The menu for that day consisted of turkey breast (Tacchino Farcito Alle Erbe), tagliatelle pasta with tomato sauce, spinach knudi, an artichoke side dish (Carciofi All’ Etrusca) and panna cotta for dessert. The pasta we made today was a slightly different recipe and could also be used for lasagna noodles, ravioli, and several other types of pasta. After another fun morning or cooking we all sat down to lunch to enjoy everything we had made.

We then had to bid farewell to our new Tuscan friends and travel to Montevarchi to board the train to Florence and then another overnight train for our next stop Vienna, Austria!

]]><![CDATA[Florence in Three Days]]>Tue, 06 Oct 2015 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.travelwithsonja.com/blog/florence-in-three-days

Mercato Centrale

Florence, Italy was the first destination of the 2015 Sonja's Boutique Trip. We arrived in Florence early on Saturday evening. Our driver was waiting for us and took us to our home away from home for our next couple of days.
After a long day and half of travel we decided to pick up some fresh bread, salami, prosciutto, cheese and of course some Italian wine at the local neighborhood grocery and call that dinner. Now mind you, this neighborhood grocery is not your Giant Eagle or Kroger Superstore, this is a neighborhood market. This little market kept winding back into the building and with every turn a new discovery. We awoke the next morning to rain so the raincoats came out and off we went to the Mercato Centrale. This market is similar to the West Side Market in Cleveland and is located in a building dating from 1874. The bottom floor is full of produce, fruit, meat, etc. stands while the top floor is full of different types of food stands.

We enjoyed having espresso and many different types of food for brunch and by the time we had finished so had the rain so off we went to start walking and exploring. There is so much to see and do in Florence so depending on the amount of time you have there categorize your must see list. There is the Accademia Gallery, the Duomo, Piazza Michelangelo (Fantastic view of the city of Florence), Piazza della Signoria (to see the copy of Michelangelo's David), Uffizi Gallery, the Boboli Gardens, Piazza del Duomo, food tours, wine tours and so much more.......which is why you need to prioritize.

View from Piazza Michelangelo

We did a fabulous walking food tour where we tasted many different olive oils, balsamic vinegar, cheese, wine, gelato, sandwiches, etc. The tour lasted for 4 hours so needless to say we were quote full. After a bit of a rest in the afternoon we headed to Piazza Michelangelo for the climb to the top for sunset and a view of the city at sunset. It was quite a hike but well worth it! We finished off the evening with a dinner of pasta and a Florentine steak. The next morning we departed for a tour into the Tuscan countryside visiting the towns of Sienna, Montalcino, Pienza and Montepulciano. In Montalcino we toured a small family owned winery and did a tasting of their Brunello wine.

In the Montalcino area there are over 200 wineries producing Brunello wine and the one we toured had recently been chosen as one of the top 10 producers and received awards in Milan and NYC. We finished our tour in Montevarchi where we were picked up for the next part of our trip......our Italian cooking school!

Tuscan Villa from the Gladiators movie

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