On June 7th we took off for our overnight flight to Frankfurt, Germany. After arriving in the afternoon on the 8th we go to dinner to meet our traveling group. It was going to be a good trip! Everyone was friendly and were ready to have a good time. So off we go the next day.
June 9th we leave Frankfurt after having a bus tour of the city along the Romantic Road to the town of Rothenburg. It is a medieval town that was celebrating a festival with townsfolk,in period costumes roaming the town and reacting a festival day. Bands of soldiers were marching around the town, peasants were walking around with their livestock, singers serenaded diners, and we were in the midst of it all. One house that I have to show you is one that is a little lopsided. Notice the house angle and the people in front.
We arrived in Munich the night of June 9th. Taking a bus tour of the city with a local guide we were shown the Olympic Stadium, the Holocaust Memorial and Marienplatz which is a bustling shopping area. Then we arrived at the Linderhof Castle which was built by King Ludwig II. After that we were off to see the beautiful town of Oberammergau. That probably sounds familiar to some people as the town that holds the Passion Play. For those that haven't this towns holds a play once every 10 years that shows the life of Christ. The town has about 2000 residents, but during the passion play it jumps up to about 500,000! The houses and businesses are beautifully painted with murals like this:
June 11th we were off to Salzburg, the town of music. Our first stop were the Mirabell Gardens which was the scene for the movie "The Sound of Music" during the Do-Re- Mi song. Remember the children playing in their "curtains" clothes where Maria teaches them how to sing? Well, we saw the steps where the kids jumped up and down while they were singing the notes, the fountain they danced around and we walked down the tree lined path where they finished singing. It was a great time. We crossed the Danube River many times and then that night we went to a Heurigen dinner which is a dinner of a normal "farmer's dinner" complete with all the wine you can drink. Needless to say we were having a great time.
June 12th we were given a city bus tour of Vienna with a local guide who showed us all over. Unfortunately Vienna is a dirty city with lots of graffiti. The buildings are beautiful, but it's a shame that you also have to look at stuff like that. As an extra excursion we took a bus trip over to Bratislava, Slovakia. It was the first time we have ever been in a former Iron Curtain country. It was an eye-opener. It is still a rather new country for tourists, but they are trying. It was interesting to see how people lived under Communist rule. The following pictures show how the Communist government kept houses (or rather didn't keep houses). They are just now trying to reconstruct houses and the town itself,but it's going to be a long project.
June 13th has taken us to the beautiful Schonbrunn Palace in. We were lucky enough to get a "private" tour of the palace before the general public. During the summer the palace will get up to 50,000 visitors a day!!! The palace was going to be the same size as Versailles in France, but due to money woes it ended up only have the size. Still, it had over 1,000 rooms. On our way to our night stop tonight we were privileged to stop at the Lipizzaner Stud Farm and found out all about the royal white horses. It was great because there were many foals running around because they breed the mares so that they will deliver in the spring.
Tonight we are spending the night in the village of Villach, a spa town in the Austrian Alps. Tomorrow we are off to Innsbuck. See you later!
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