Germany and Austria
Yikes. At least 8 people on our tour came down with the 24 hour flu in the past couple of days. It seems to be moving thru the group quickly-keep fingers crossed for us! So far so good for Christine and I.
We had quite a mixture of experiences today. While we drove 6 hours from Rothenburg Germany to Ruette Austria we made several stops.
First, we took a Dachau pilgrimage where we learned powerful lessons about the Holocaust and WWII. We are going to make a separate post about the Holocaust because we are learning about it in all the different cities.
Next we headed to a monestary to a beer hall at Andechs . Beer was first used by the monks in Bavaria because they had to fast and this was their liquid food. Of course Christine and I tried the dark beer.
On from the beer hall we went to repent at Wieskirche. This was a beautiful rococo style Catholic Church that was in the middle of the countryside in the foothills of the Alps in Bavaria Germany. It is said that, in 1738, tears were seen on a dilapidated wooden figure of the Scourged Saviour.
We ended the day by arriving to our hotel and had a great time singing along to traditional Austrian music- with 2 fun musicians.
Our days were so busy that I am posting 2 days together.
Saturday June 11 - day 7 of the tour was very busy!
We got up early to take a 1.5 hour hike thru the Alps. We crossed from Austria to Germany and ended up at a beautiful lake at the base of Neuschwanstein castle. We were able to tour the castle, which was built by King Louis II (Mad King Ludwig), started in 1868 during a time after castles were needed for defense. He died (possibly murdered by his brother) before it was completed.
After touring the castle and having a picnic lunch by the lake we headed to a local ski resort that sat in the valley below the castle - Trgelberg. Since it was summer they had a fun luge to ride down. Even though Christine was a little leery, we each went down 2x. Picture this…..so here we were sitting around at the base of the mountain, eating ice cream, watching the luge, a dozen paragliders in the sky, cows with bells… and….we could look over and see Neuschwanstein castle. It was a little mind blowing how everyday fun was sitting side by side with history.
The adventures for the day ended with walking over an incredibly scary, swaying in the wind, suspension bridge. At 400 meters in length, and 114 meters above the ground, It is the longest Tibetan style pedestrian suspension bridge in the world. Christine did great. I …. not so much! Luckily Christine went in front of me and I just stared at the back of her head!
Last but certainly not least we explored the ruins of Ehrenberg Castle. This castle sat at the very top of a mountain above the suspension bridge and was a blast to explore. This was the highlight of a very highlight filled day for me. Thank
Here is is the morning of June 12 and everyone on the tour is recovering and no one new is sick!!! Christine and I are hoping that we have missed it since we are heading to Venice today. I am so excited all over again!!!
Welcome to Austria!!!
Beer Garden fun
Wieskirche church
What a great tour! Honestly forgot you were going to Germany/Austria. Don't you wonder where our Rowader ancestors lived and if they saw some of the same sights you're exploring? I'm SO glad you didn't get sick. And that looks like a snail. :)
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago a friend looked up Rowader for me in a German phone book and we didn't find any, but there were lots of people with the last name Rowehder. That makes sense. In German, it would be pronounced Row-VAY-dah
DeleteOK - RowVAYdah. Definitely makes sense. Funny how many Rowaders there are in the US, they must have all changed their name similarly? I guess because the "eh" is pronounced "ay"
DeleteI think I'm all caught up now, with several days. Thanks for posting, sisters!
ReplyDeleteLove the pics and info thanks so much for sharing
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