June 24 - Germany and Austria

Sorry that we haven't posted for a few days.  We don't always have great Internet service.  Tonight when we checked into the hotel, we were told that their Internet service was down.  However, Jack was able to help them get everything back on.  He used the old trick of turning everything off and then starting up everything again.  He is sooooo smart.

Let's start with where we have been since we left Munich.  We took the "Romantic Road" through Germany to Wieskirche.  First, the Romantic Road is romantic.  It is dotted with small "perfect" German small towns.  Every town looks like it is out of a picture book and the country side is spectular.  When we got to Wieskirche we visited the "Church of the Meadow."  It is one of the most extravagant Rococo buildings in the world.  The Christ figure "wept" in 1738 and there is a collection of hankies that dried the tears and healed those who dried them.  The organ was playing when we got there and it was incredible.  This is a pilgrimage church drawing visitors from all over the world yet it sits by itself in the middle of nowhere.  Here are some pictures:

Ceiling

Organ

This is what the neighborhood looks like.

Of course, what everyone is going to remember is the incredibly delicious fry bread that is sort of like a donut dusted with cinnamon and sugar that they sell just outside the church.

Then we were off to Neuschwanstein where there are two castles, one on each hills and our hotel was in the valley between them.  There is a lake in front of the hotel and I walked around the lake (2 hours) while Jack and some of the other folks ventured up the hillside.  Since I had the camera, you only see my adventure.

Newshcwanstein Castle

Hohenschwangua Castle on the left, hotel in the middle and Neuschwanstein Castle on the right.

Swan on a crystal clear lake

Where I hiked

Rainy but wonderful

The Neuschwanstein castle looks just like the castle at Disneyland.  It was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria who could not stop building castles and it took 17 years to build but was never finished. Ludwig spent 6 months in the castle. The king was declared mad at age 41 and three days later was found dead.  We took horse drawn carriages up the steep hill to the castle and decided to walk back down.  You don't get any pictures of the castle because picture taking is not allowed.

The castle on the left is the Hohenschwangau Castle which was build by the Knights of Schwangau beginning in the 12th century.  It was remodeled by Maximilian II, the father of King Ludwig in 1832 - 1836.  For those of you who have ever tried to do a remodelling job, you know that this is not much time.  Maximilian lived on one floor and his wife lived on another floor.  Not a marriage of love but an arranged marriage.  Again, we couldn't take any pictures but here is the outside:

Hope you are enjoying the pictures. 

Tonight we are in Prien. To get here, we drove through incredible countryside.  The mountains were gigantic and the roads were very narrow and winding.  It took us 6 hours to go just over 100 miles.

Bill (our host) and his brother met with relatives that they have never met who live here in Prien.  They are enjoying meeting a number of newly found relatives along the way.

Big day tomorrow.  Can't wait to tell you about it.

Jack and Nancy