May 25, 2025 Rick Steve’s tour Day 7

Over the Alps to Bavaria 

PROPOSED PLAN:

Today we say “ciao, Venezia” as we hop back aboard our bus and drive north into Germany, on a breathtaking all-day drive through the Dolomites and over the Austrian Alps, stopping for lunch along the way. Our destination is the medieval Bavarian town of Füssen, perched on the border — both historically and geographically — between Germany and Austria. After some time to settle in, we’ll gather together for a hearty dinner. Prost!

Light walking: 2–4 miles throughout the day on mostly level terrain. Boat: ½ hour. Bus: 8 hours. Sleep in Reutte, Austria.

ACTUAL EVENTS:

Early Sunday morning was a good time to walk to the Rialto Vaporetto Station. The obvious root of Vaporetto is vapor which came from the steam engines to power these boats that are more like the buses of Venice. The cost for one ride was 9.5 Euros but that was much better than the 25 euros that it cost to ride in a gondola but the gondola was definitely worth the money on Friday night. There were several stops including the train station before we arrived at Tronchetto station where the bus was parked.

We piled aboard the bus for one of our longer days of driving but between the beautiful scenery and the frequent rest stops, it was a pretty wonderful day. We drove north of Venice to Verona and our lunch stop was in a cute little town called Egna. This region is called the South Tyrol or Sudtirol in Italian. The several young people in Egna were wearing traditional costumes which we assumed had something to do with the Folk Museum there. Definitely worth a return trip to explore more.

We arrived at our hotel in Reutte, Austria which is near the medieval Bavarian town of Füssen around 5 pm and managed to get some laundry washed before dinner. Nick had trout and I had Weinerschnitzel. Then we were entertained by a duo with an accordion and a guitar singing traditional Austrian and Slovenian songs. It was a very spirited and lighthearted evening of songs and rhythmic clapping. We even managed to get our clothes dry in the free dryers. The pictures tell the rest of the story.