June 29, 2005
Early this morning (5am) it started to rain really hard along with thunder and lightening. It was great, sleeping
in this medieval town, our windows were open, and we were in the middle of an "evil thunderstorm", spooky!!!
Up early again this morning (6:30am) - shower - pack and breakfast all before meeting the bus outside the city wall at
7:50am. Today, we headed to the concentration camp in Dachau, Munich for lunch, and then to our hotel in Reutte (Pinswang)
Austria for 2 nights.
We took about 2 1/2 hours to visit the camp at Dachau - now a national park. It was very well done and very
emotional to get through it and think of the horror that occurred here not so long ago.
| This is the main hall where there is an art |
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| exhibit depicting scenes from the holocaust as well as a movie theatre with a short film. |
| Ben gives us an overview of the site and then sets |
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| us free to create our own memories. (Hi Saura!) |
We headed to Munich for lunch at a beer hall. Juan dropped us of near the city center and we had a quick walk
to the pedestrian area to view the large clock tower called the Glockenspiel which was built for the Viddlesback family.
From there he brought us to the Haufbrau House for the Germanic beer hall experience. We had HB Radler (1/2 Sprite 1/2
HB draft beer) along with a 1/2 rotisserie chicken and a pretzel with an oomph band playing in the background.
| Here at the Haufbrau House, Ben takes the liberty |
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| of telling us how to navigate through the menu. Beer, beer, more beer!!! |
| My fellow tour mates and I toasting Germany!!! |
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| The Oomph Band looks Poophed!!! |
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On our way to our hotel in Austria we stopped at a church in the middle of nowhere. This church was erected to
house a wood carving of Jesus Christ that had bled tears which was confirmed by the Vatican.
| Beautiful church in the middle of no where. |
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| A wooden statue of Jesus Christ once bled tears. |
Our hotel was lovely, the hotel Gutshof zum Schluxen. Dinner was fantastic, we split our meal choices which as
wild mushrooms and veal goulash. Dessert was apple crepes and vanilla ice cream. After dinner some of us got together
and played cards in the lounge. The mountain air made us sleep very well that night.
| Our Hotel in Pinswang, Austria. |
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| The view from the hotel. |
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| Our hotel room was small but very comfortable. |
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| The fresh mountain air puts you right to sleep! |
| This was a very efficient bathroom! |
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| Don't drop the soap otherwise the shower is over!!! |
June 30, 2005
After a great breakfast of breads, jam, scrambled eggs and ham we headed to Mad Ludwig's Neuschwanstein Castle which
was just about 10 minutes away. We had the option to hike to the base of the castle or bus over, we opted for the bus.
It was a rainy morning but we all made the best of it. The castle was beautiful. What a way to live back then!
We were supposed to have a picnic lunch but with the weather and Ben decided to set-up our lunch back at the hotel.
What a spread!!! After lunch we had the choice to go to a town nearby called Fusen or stay behind and catch some zzz's
and rest up before heading down to Venice - Florence and Rome - a busy stretch. I think I took a 3-hour nap!
| Neuschwanstein Castle - A beautiful site from |
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| Marion's Bridge - it's worth the hike even in the rain! |
| After dinner most of us walked to an outdoor |
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| concert hall. The towns people were putting on a musical concert - we were the American guests!!! |
| Lenore and Marybeth do a little jig - I think they |
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| had too much schnapps (it tasted like jet fuel)!!! |
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