Beautiful Switzerland - Day 8

Waking up to the beauty of Switzerland in a farm house was an absolute treat! I opened the windows and you could hear the bells ringing from the animals that were grazing in the fields. The beautiful green rolling hills, the fresh air, the smell of rain was a real treat. Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE Switzerland?
Jenny let us use one of their cars to drive around, which was so great! We drove over to the Lucerne area and spent the day there. We went to the Hirschel Glass factory. We went through a museum and learned the history of the company. We also got to go in part of the factory and watch them blow the glass and make vases, platters etc.

It was really interesting to see and was one of the best museums I had been to in a long time. It rained all afternoon while we were in Lucerne which made it really cold. We did some shopping…bought our chocolate, YUMMY! We also saw a carving of a lion that was carved into the stone wall, it was quite an impressive carving. I don’t really understand why they used this as a memorial, but it was cool.
I got a call from the airline saying they found my camera. Whew, I didn’t lose my pictures! I will have to pick it up the morning that we fly out of Zurich back to the States.
Our drive back to the farm house was extremely long due to the traffic. I had to switch driving with Kristen because I was so exhausted from not sleeping well. So right in the middle of the interstate of Switzerland we did a Chinese Fire drill while we were sitting there. We seemed to amuse those in the vehicles around us.

There were signs on the side of the road that looked like a warning sign for Sheep...but when you got closer it was cars...it was really funny!

Once we were off the interstate we had to be diverted by the police to go a different route. That was fun to try and talk to a police officer that didn’t speak English. Luckily, we had a GPS to help us get back!

Good bye Germany - Day 7

We checked out this morning from the lodge, leaving the beautiful community of Garmisch. We bought a bunch of root beer and peanut butter m&m’s on base to take into Michael and Rebekka at the Munich office. You can’t buy that type of stuff in Germany. We delivered it and had another free lunch at the café. We then drove to Dachau concentration camp.

It was a drizzly day, fitting for the place we were about to visit. We did not have a lot of time to spend here since we had to catch our flight to Switzerland. We walked through the museum and read some of the information panels and saw photographs. It is really quite unbelievable how many concentration camps there were during the war throughout Europe.

It is tragically sad to read of the things that took place in these camps. We were there 63 years to the day of the liberation of Dachau. I wonder if this is this the reason that I did not feel as overwhelmed with sadness like I thought I would be. Don’t get me wrong it was definitely not a place where I felt the spirit, it was a somber place. I think had I been on a tour or watched the movie and heard stories of particular people it would have been more real and more disturbing.
We drove up to Nurnberg Germany to catch our flight out of Germany. We stood in line waiting to check in our bags for quite sometime. There wasn’t anyone at the desk and there weren’t any other passengers which seemed really strange. Finally, an older couple came and we inquired if they were flying to Zurich today. They said no, tomorrow. This counter was for advance check in…so we had to go to another area in the airport. Good thing we asked, we could have been standing there all day.

Our flight on Air Berlin was fabulous…the plane was very empty and they served us yummy Chocolate! The flight was only about an hour long. We had smuggled some cheddar cheese into the country to give to Heather’s friend Jenny. Apparently, it is super expensive to buy cheddar in Switzerland. We got our luggage off of the baggage carousel and discovered that the “Eagles were still nesting.” The cheese had not been confiscated, whew! We were headed towards customs when I discovered I had left my camera on the airplane. Lost and Found called to the plane and they said they found a camera. Unfortunately, it was not mine…they took my number just in case they located it later. He seemed pretty skeptical that they would locate it. I informed him that I was lucky that way and I would be expecting a phone call.
We drove from the airport to Jenny’s house. We were driving on these narrow winding country roads that were only wide enough for one car. I could not wait for the next morning to see the beautiful countryside in the light.

Day 6

Today was our tour of Munich. We had yogurt, cheese and bread for breakfast…it was so delicious! We started out by stoping in at the Tahitian Noni office in Munich. We were able to park for free in our parking lot there, which was super nice. We made an appointment to come back and have lunch in the café.

I thought that I would wear my cool European looking shirt that I had purchased here in the States after I got back from Europe the last time. I discovered that I was wearing a not so appropriate shirt for Germany. My shirt had German writing on it, so I had no idea what it said. Come to find out it is talking about the third reich. Oops, talk about a fashion blunder…needless to say I had to make sure my jacket was covering the words.

We went down to the Marienplatz and saw the Glockenspeil,

we walked through the market where food and flowers are sold,

we saw the nymphonberg palace,

saw some of the locations where different Nazi events took place, walked through the gardens by the residence. It was a nice warm day until early evening, when it started to rain. By that time we were headed to dinner so it worked out okay.

We ate at the Motu’s café in Munich for lunch…this is located in the Tahitian Noni building. Fortunately for us we got to eat for free! They fed us a TON of food, it was delicious and filled us. So much so that it was hard to eat dinner. We ate some yummy Wiener Schnitzel, it was sad that I wasn’t very hungry. Kristen ordered a pretzel and was surprised when they brought her a basket full of the large pretzels. James said they would charge her for each pretzel she ate. She only ate one, the server asked if she was done and when she said yes he took the basket and sat it on another table. YUCK! Who knows who touched her pretzel before she did.

This is in the Motu's Cafe. Michael is on the left he is the operations manager and Rebekka is on the right, she is the cafe manager.

Day 5

There is nothing quite like the brisk, fresh mountain air to wake you up at 6:00 am. We had the opportunity of being woken up by a fire alarm this morning. We had to leave the lodge in our PJ’s and breathe the fresh air in the Alps. The fire department arrived in their fire truck and declared it safe to go back inside.

This is what the country side looks like and the Lodge.

We decided to get ready for the day and have breakfast before we headed into Munich for church. We thought we were going to the International Ward but, discovered my ability to read German is pretty poor. It was the German ward that was meeting. So we attended sacrament meeting and listened to the Elders translation of the meeting through our headphones. It was fun to have that experience. There was an old man that was confirmed that day in sacrament meeting. It was interesting to see the little differences in their culture but, to see how the church is the same where ever you go. The thing that impressed me most was the power and simplicity of the gospel in their lives.

After church we went to see the castles. We drove out to Neuschwanstein castle, which was a beautiful drive for the Sabbath. We had great weather on this day! The castle was started in 1869 and completed in 1886. It is one of the first castles to have plumbing and electricity. It is quite the impressive sight to see this castle built up on this hill consuming the entire top of the hill. You can stand on this incredibly high bridge, not for those who are afraid of heights, and capture some impressive pictures of the castle. Only a third of the castle was completed before Ludwig II was found dead.

We drove from Neuschwanstein to his hunting villa around the mountain called Linderhof. This hunting villa is quite extraordinary, it is very baroque in design and did not spare any detail. It makes me wonder how much hunting really took place. We were too late to go on the tour but, we were able to walk around the beautiful grounds. It was nice to have the place to ourselves. I just can not imagine living a life in palaces and in such opulent settings. It is simply beyond my comprehension!

Day 4 - The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Music

The Hills are alive with the sound of Music! We woke up this morning excited to go on our tour of Salzburg. We rode in a tour bus and they told us history and trivia as we drove. We stopped at the pond where they filmed the scene where they come home in the canoes, new clothes and meet their father and the new baron. Interestingly the house that it was filmed at was not part of the movie, just the back veranda and the pond. We saw the lane where they were hanging in the trees, the gazebo, we drove past the Abby, went up into the mountains and saw where they filmed the picnic, where Maria was singing and dancing at the beginning of the movie, the church where they filmed the wedding and of course the scenery in the opening part of the movie, the stairs where they sang Doe Rae Me and the fountain that they danced around. It was a fun tour to go on with beautiful scenery and I can’t forget the great music to sing along with!

This is the pond where the canoe scene was shot...they only use the veranda of the house and the pond, not any of the building.

This is the driveway where they are hanging in the trees as he comes home with the new baron.

The Abby is the building with the red onion dome on the roof. The hillside where they had the picnic.

Inside the church where they filmed the wedding.

We had the back of the bus which was great because we had more windows to take photos out of. Heather was spinning around constantly trying to capture the shots. We were probably pretty funny to watch as we were all snapping pictures! We met some LDS people on the tour. They were dentists in the Army based in Wiesbaden. A couple of the husbands were leaving for Iraq in a few weeks. They were really nice...well most of them. One girl didn't really want to talk to us.

It would have been nice to have more time in Salzburg to see more of the old city, the fortress and some of the other Sound of Music Sites. We needed to leave so that we could meet up with James that evening in Garmisch. We drove through Austria, the Alps to the little town of Garmisch. It was again in a beautiful setting nestled in the Alps.

We went to the train station to get James and he wasn’t there. So we headed over to the base to see if perhaps he was there. We can’t get on the base without James so the nice security guys tried their best to help me call him. I was having some cell phone issues and couldn’t get my phone to call out. While I was in the security booth trying to call James, Kristen was out taking a picture of the beautiful scenery. I guess you are not supposed to take pictures of the base so they had to come and tell her to stop. I am sure we seemed very suspicious; trying to get on base without a sponsor and taking photos!

We finally met up with James and got on the base to check in. We had dinner that evening in the lodge and ate at the buffet with American food. We also could use our American dollars…finally we could afford to spend our money!

Off To Austria - Day 3

We woke up early Friday morning to leave to Salzburg, Austria. We hoped to get to Salzburg in time to catch the 2:00 Sound of Music tour; it was a rainy morning which slowed our progress. There were times when the rain was coming down so hard that the wipers wouldn’t go fast enough. There was also a stretch of the road that was under construction that caused us a lengthy delay. There were some stretches along the way where we could make up time. The rain would stop and we had some nice straight roads where we could hit the cruising speed of 118. No, I didn’t stay at that speed for long but, I did enjoy not worrying about trying to stay below 80 miles an hour. I would say 100 is a comfortable speed for me. Once we hit Munich we began our search for an Esso gas station, as we had to fill up and they were the only ones that would take our gas coupons. We stopped at a gas station to ask them where an Esso was, and they didn’t know. We did have a bathroom break there and I got to see a new type of toilet. The seat of the toilet rotates so that it can be sanitized. Marta didn’t use the restrooms so I video taped it for her to watch…so now you all can watch it to. It was a pretty cool concept!

The drive along the border in the Alps was breathtaking. It was so beautiful and all we wanted were some great pictures. I was driving and so everyone else, mainly Heather tried to capture the picturesque surrounding as we flew down the interstate. It was quite humorous as cameras have that lag time between pressing the button and capturing the picture. So, we had many pictures of trees, telephone polls etc instead of the meadows and mountains. Heather got quite good at saying, “I can do better!”

It was so nice to have Ursula, James’s GPS, with us to give us directions. This was much needed as the city of Salzburg isn’t easy to navigate through. We found ourselves at the Sound of Music tour location about an hour after the last tour. I did have some difficulty navigating into the parking lot, turned down a one way street the wrong way and tried to go into the parking lot the wrong way. After figuring out the parking lot we went to secure our tickets for the next morning. We negotiated a better price for our tickets by asking if they were the cheapest place to buy. He gave us a student discount and then Kristen didn’t have enough money so he knocked another Euro off. I think that is what happened.

The guy spoke English quite well; I on the other hand was having some difficulty. Something about reading signs in a foreign language messed me up. They were going to pick us up at the hotel in the morning and I couldn’t remember where we were staying…as we had not checked in yet. I knew it was the Marriott so I so the Residence. This of course caused great confusion as every town has a Residence which is where the Royalty stays. Finally, he said is it the Renaissance? Which that rang a bell and I said “Yes, that is where we are staying. I am sorry; English is not my first language.” This of course made everyone laugh…but, I think he was a bit confused as if I was serious or joking. It was pretty funny.

That afternoon we went and found Mozart’s home that he was born in. We went into the museum there and I was a little disappointed with the museum. We walked across the river and saw where he lived when he was older. It was fairly cold outside and was raining off and on. We decided to go back to the old city and find something to eat. We ate at a spaghetti place. They sat us right by the smoking area and gave us all a headache. When we were done eating we decided to call it a day and went back to the hotel.

Wurzburg, Germany

Our first day was spent traveling to Europe. We all met up in Cinncinati and took our long flight across the ocean. I gave chocolate to those around us before we took off, in hopes they wouldn't get too annoyed with us if we got noisy on the flight.

Kailey and Kedrick picked us up at the airport in Frankfurt and we made the drive to Wurzburg where James and Kailey are stationed. It was so much fun to see them again and visit their cute city.

We went to pick up Reilyn from her preschool so we could be her show and tell. We arrived just in time for the fire drill. So we got to participate in that as well as show and tell. We went down into the town that afternoon and walked around. These are some pictures of the bridge and the castle. That evening I played the long awaited game of hide and seek with Reilyn. She has gotten to be a really good hider!

We started our second day in Germany with rain. We decided to go to the "Walmart" type store and buy chocolate in hopes of the rain stopping. Lucky us it worked! We went and walked around the Residence and the gardens were starting to bloom. It was really pretty with the flowering trees and bulbs.

Later in the afternoon we traveled to Rothenburg, a medievil town not too far from Wurzberg. This is such a fun town to visit. The buildings have so much character and there are fun stores to shop in. There is a garden area at the edge of the town that you can see the city wall. Due to the rain earlier there wasn't a lot of people and the birds were out chirping...it was really relaxing and beautiful!

We had an amazing dinner in one of the restaurants. We seemed to be very interesting as the other diners kept starring at us. We were trying to be quite and but, it must have been our beauty and foreign accent that made us so intriguing.

We took an evening tour with the night watchman and learned the history of this town. It was quite interesting to hear how this town survived the destruction of the various wars. The tour guide was excellent! This little city was definately one of the highlights of the trip.