Germany

We just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!  We are both so thankful for our health our families and our wonderful friends

We had such a fabulous time in Germany so I put together a few pictures just to give you a taste of the fantastic time we had.  Our trip started in Berlin where we spent three days.

Eric standing by Check point Charlie

Here is a section of the Berlin wall that is still standing.  They leave it as a reminder of how far they have come.

They were getting ready for the big unification celebration at the Brandon berg gate

There capitol building the dome on top is glass and you can walk up a spiral walkway to the top.  The building is heavily secured.

This is part of the Sony building it is one of the coolest building.  the center of the building was put up by alpinists and it's meant to look like Mt Fuji.  It's all open air in the center.  Apparently they do a lot of the major movie premiers there.

We took a boat ride on the river Spree to see the city and there where wonderful restaurants along the river 

After Berlin we flew into Munich.  We checked into our hotel and headed straight for Oktoberfest.

It was the last weekend of Oktoberfest and they said a half a million people  where there. 

We went to the Hofbrau "tent" it holds 10,000 people  and I think there were more than that in there.

We saw a chance and made our way in.

The vibe inside was fantastic. 

It was wall to wall people on the street

The Spaten "tent".  We visited it that evening.

I don't know but a merry go round and a lot of beer don't seem like such a good idea to me.

So many tents to choose from so little time and such a small liver

Good Bye (I think if you can still read it your doing good)

Man down!  Rookie mistake!

The next day we went to the Hofbrauhaus for lunch

Look at the locals!  We dressed up like everyone else and 

If you drink enough you will buy a Fidora

Enjoying the Spaten house 

Eric and his Mom 

Yummy!!

Cheers!!

Everyone know's it's Windi

The caption above the walk way say "Thirst is worse than homesickness"

My new friend from Poland  "Prost"

Wild Bill and I enjoying a small glass of beer

some more new friends from Poland

Just a few people enjoying a good music, food, and beer

Our cute hotel in Munich

It was such a cool hotel

The lobby of the hotel 

After we left Munich we headed to Salzburg Austria we had lunch at our cute hotel the Golden Ente

We stayed in old town Salzburg

Our cute little hotel

I think this picture speaks for itself.  It was so funny I had to take a picture

The church from sound of music

The house where Mozart grew up

They have turned it into a museum.

A cute little flower shop I bought Edelweiss seeds at.

The fountain from sound of music

We were then off to Vienna.  What a big and beautiful city we went the Schonbrunn Castle  (It was the Home of Emporer Franz Joseph and Queen Maria Theresa)

She only won one battle during her rein and the monument in the far end of the picture was built in celebration of that victory.  She gained all of her hold through her many children that she strategically married off.

This cafe is famous for it's Sacher cake (it's a chocolate cake)  so we had to stop in and give it a try.

I was so impressed on this trip by all of the beautiful flower shops.

St Stephen's cathedral.  I is gorgeous inside and Eric and I climbed up the tower  it's like 300 and something circular stairs.  I get a little vertigo when I climb circular stairs.

We went to the Albertina museum it was amazing.  Then we had dinner at there little cafe 

This is the view from the Albertina at night.

We went to the Kaiser appartments and Sisi Museum

We took a boat cruise on the Danube. It was very lovely and it's the first time Eric or I have ever gone through a lock.

I think Bill might be getting sea sick!!

Driving from Vienna to Innsbruck we passed a large lake call Chiemsee and decided it would be a good place to stop for lunch.  The first place we stopped was closed for some reason but he told us about this cute place.

It was a magical little town we were so glad we stopped.

At one point during the trip a Cow jumped on my head this is a picture of me trying to fight it off.  I finally won.

Very beautiful they said the box was built so they could sit out and watch the people in the square.

This is the Goldenes Dachl in Innsbruck built in 1420 to honor Maximillian's second marriage to Bianca Sforza of Milan The roof is made of 2657 gold plated tiles

Innsbruck was a lovely town and the alps are beautiful

This is a bronze carving in a church in Innsbruck I just thought the detail was amazing.

Leaving Innsbruck we are on our way to Schloss Neuschwanstein (which is the castle that Disney created his fairytale castle out of)  As you can see we headed up into the alps over Fern pass and we were welcomed with our first snow of the year so we stopped for a photo.

This was a lovely drive and it proved to be our most adventurous day yet.

When you get to the town below the castle you have to buy tickets to go up to the castle.  When we arrived at the parking lot it was snowing so Eric and I quickly bought an umbrella and headed down the street to the ticket office while his parent's waited in the car. We were completely drench by the time we arrived at the ticket window and starting to second guess whether we wanted to go up to the castle

Eric bought the tickets and some rain ponchos and we decided to do it.  We took the horse carriage ride up but it doesn't take you all the way to the castle we still had a walk to get to the castle but luckily by this time it had stopped snowing, it was still cold but the sky was clearing up.

after the castle tour we walked out to the bridge to take some more photos of the castle.

This is looking down at Schloss Hohenschwangau.  This is the castle King Ludwig II of Bavaria grew up in.

Apparently one big, beautiful castle is not enough so he build Neuschwanstein actually he build the castle to honor the works of Wagner (I think he was sweet on him)

It turned into a lovely day for a fairytale

Look at the cute princess and prince

Suzanne's bed and breakfast in Fussen very lovely

What a little delightful discovery these things are call Schneeballen (which means snowball) they are dough that it stuck together into a ball and rolled in chocolate or powdered sugar or cinnamon then baked.  I glad we tried them at the end of the trip or my waistline would be in trouble, though all the apple strudel didn't help my waist line.

This is a church in Fussen it's so cute Eric ran up to make sure it was open and the lady turned the light on inside so we could go look at it.

This is what it looked like inside.

Our cute Bed and Breakfast in Fussen

Heading into the black forest

One of the churches in the black forest

The clock outside 1000 clocks.  It is so cute

In the black forest we stopped at a town called Triburg which houses the world's largest coo coo clock (way cool)

We took a little more time than we thought to get through the black forrest that it was late when we got into Rudesheim. We had no idea that we would have to take a ferry across the Rhine to get there

We arrived at the Center ring hotel really late and the owner  was so gracious he made us an incredible  cheese and meat spread and wonderful wine.  We went up to our room and it's was the coolest room ever.  See the stairs next to eric they lead up to our loft bedroom

It was so much fun

Here is our cute bedroom in the loft.

The cute town of Rudesheim we did a boat cruise to see all of the castles and vineyards on the Rhine river  

They said this was one of the oldest Gausthaus's in Germany

Just one of the many castles along the Rhine

Pretty church

We went by the Loreley rock where the Sirens would sing to the ships and they would hit the rock and sink

The Loreley statue of a Siren

One of the vineyards in Rudesheim

After we left Rudesheim we headed to the wall city of Rothenburg it was so wonderful 

A poster for the smurf movie I just thought it was way cute!

It was a little windy and cold in Rothenburg so we didn't walk around too much but what we did see was lovely

Bill trying to pull that innocent man's finger

St. James church. This is the Holy blood alterpiece.  

Our last stop on our way back into Munich was at Dachau it was a very sobering experience.

the writing on the gate says "work will set you free" 

A sobering statue 

My parting shot from Dachau