Germany September 2010

In September 2010 we took a journey through Germany.  The trip originally was started so we could see the Passion Play in Oberammergau.  The play is put on once every 10 years as a promise to God for sparing the village from the plague in the 1600’s.  We also wanted to finish circumnavigating the world since our world cruise in 2009 stopped in Rome after leaving Ft. Lauderdale.  We were able to catch a cruise that was repositioning from Venice to Ft. Lauderdale.  We were looking for flights to Europe and happened upon Icelandic Air that was the cheapest and allowed us to have a stop over in Iceland for no extra cost.  It’s surprising how these things work out and get combined for one terrific trip.  Anyway, I posted the Iceland part already so now I’ll do our Germany overland tour.

We arrive in Frankfurt on September 22, 2010. Our itinerary was Frankfurt and then head to Cologne, Hamburg, spend 2 days in Berlin, Dresden, Nuremburg, spend 2 days in Oberammergau, Black Forest and then back to Frankfurt to end the tour.  We then made our way by train to Garmisch where we spent 5 more days before leaving by train to Venice to catch a 16 day cruise on the Ruby Princess before landing in Ft. Lauderdale on Oct 24 and flying home.

Here is a picture of the old town of Frankfurt.

We took a cruise down the Rhein River and of course got to see castles along the bank

As well as some interesting gardening on steep hillsides.
Our travels also include Cologne known for it's cathedral.

Pretty intricate work on the door entrance.

So the Romans were also in Germany back in 50 AD. This is the an entrance to the old city.

This church in Hamburg is kept as a memorial to the war.

Thought this was rather interesting.  People sit on the stools to drink beer as they pedal down the street.  Luckily the driver doesn't get to drink.  It was pretty funny seeing it go down the street with traffic.  A sure happy bunch of passengers.

I thought this was an interesting shot of some of the sculptures around town.

Here some kids are preparing for sailing lessons.

The next stop was Berlin and I was stationed there back in 1977-1980.  Obviously it has changed quite a bit especially since the wall came down.  Check Point Charlie now looks like it did when it first went up and nothing like when I was there.



The Brandenburg gate was interesting to see from the other side and to be able to walk under it since it was in East Berlin when I was stationed there long ago.

There are a few places where the original wall still stands.  Berlin had many artists submit ideas to paint on the wall and above is just some of them.  The rainy picture is of Gorbachev and Khrushchev kissing which they did accidently instead of kissing on the cheek

This picture is of the Hunger Fork located at Templehof Airport.  This is where my unit was stationed even though I worked elsewhere in the city.  This is also where the American's flew in all the supplies needed for the Russion blockade of the city.

We then went to Potsdam where Gary Powers was traded back to the US on this bridge.  There is still a line down the center seperating West Berlin from East Berlin.

We then went some more site seeing and took a shot of this chimney that is quite different from any I've seen.

We then traveled to a small town called Modlareuth where the wall was built down the middle of  the little streem seperating the town in half.  It was a long time before neighbors were reuinited.  There still remains portions of the wall, watch tower and tank stoppers that were there from the beginning.



After leaving here we headed to Dachau where it was a chilling site to see everything there.  I'll just put in a few of the pictures and won't include pictures of that time.

 The ovens used to dispose of the prisoners remains.

The barracks where prisoners lived .

From here we headed to Munich and had to stop by the Hofbrauhaus, largest drinking establishment in Bavaria. 

And of course one has to witness the Glockenspiel.  We were able to watch all the movements as it chimed away.

We visited many ornate churches in our travels and I've always wondered why a church would place a dead body on display.

Then we hit Oberammergau in Bavaria with the painted houses showing murals and flowers everywhere.

And of course I have to show you what the stage looks like.  Our tour guide said one of the funny things he saw outside just before the show is over is all the people in the production staff taking off with their bikes in all directions.

The cast actually perform outside and the audience is covered in case of bad weather.  They do give the earlier ones blankets to put over their legs.



The show goes for most of the day and there is a dinner break where everyone heads out to catch buses to their assigned restuarant.  You get about 1 1/2 hours before heading back into the play.  During that time you can walk around the town and admire the different wood carvings these masters have produced.  Below is a carving inside a promigranite.

We then headed through the black forest.  Ok, after I had my nap.  This trip was very gruelling.  We were up early and out late the whole time.

We stopped along the way to do some shopping.  You don't see too many restuarants that look like this in the states.

We were heading down to see Neuschwanstein castle and also Hohenschwangau castle.

Neuschwanstein

Hohenschwangau castle

We then took a break at a church along a lake and the inside was quite spectacular so I added it also.

How do you like this sun dial.  I thought it was pretty wicked.

Now this is how I'd like to see my grave plot taken care of when I go.

We are now headed to Baden Baden where they have great old bath houses and everyone used to come here for the water as it had special qualities.

I thought I'd throw this one in showing life size Hummel figurines which also come from this part of Germany and along with Hummels there are wooden clocks made in this area so here is one of the largest.

 The owner only gets this going for the tourists but it's really neat to see in action.

So now we made it to Baden Baden and was able to see this theatre.

This is the entrance to one of the great bath houses.  It had some great murals which I only show one.

I guess it's nice to be king.

Now this is a keg.  These were built to hold the village supply of either wine or beer.  I guess it helps with the community party.  This ended our overland tour of Germany.  We headed back to Frankfurt for our last nite and then June and I caught a train back to Garmisch where we spent another 6 nights before heading to Venice by train.  I guess I may add that as another blog later.