EUROPE 2006

Treasures of Central Europe
A 12 day tour by Holiday Vacations of Eau Claire, WI

Map

Day 1 Monday, Sept. 18
This was a long day! Most of us flew from our home area to Detroit and then boarded an 8 hr. flight for Frankfort, Germany. Some from the eastern states took a different flight. Our Holiday Vacations Tour director, Rose, met us in Detroit and helped get everyone on the flight. BUT....the two ladies from Missouri didn't arrive in time, so they were delayed and adventurely caught up with us in Germany, their luggage then caught up with them a couple days later!! What a nightmare for them!! One lady had a misfortune of skinning her shins and found out that there is a medical Doctor on duty at the Frankfort Airport.
Of course, by the time we reached Frankfort, Germany, it was the 'next day' and we hit the road running!!!

The first picture is our 'awesome threesome'!! They were amazing!! On the left is our bus driver, Herbert, who was very talented in small areas!!! In the center is our Holiday Tour guide, Rose, who took such good care of all of us and on the right is Karl.....what a guy! He was our European tour guide, his knowledge was incredible! With the three working together, we were off on a Wonderful tour. Of course, the picture on the right is our bus, Herbert had complete control and command. His driving was superb, never an anxious moment on our part.

Day 2 Tuesday Sept. 19 Wurzburg and Rothenburg

Wurzburg, Germany
Fortress

We traveled down the 'Romantic Road' to a town named Wurzburg. The first thing that caught our eye, in the distance, on a hill was the city's 'Fortress'. You can see in the first picture what it looked like and the grape vineyards below it. Most every city had a fortress of some sort as a look out for the enemy. Our bus then took us to the 'town hall' which was the center of the city centuries ago. Most town halls have a tower with a clock in them and the city government is done there. This one also had a cafe where we ate our first German Cuisine! We had mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, long sausages with a beer sauce. It was all very good.

The first picture is a street scene from Wurzburg and then the huge church that stood next to the city square. All of these scenes were pretty amazing to all of us! This church was presently being used, I do have several pictures taken inside. After some free time spent shopping and 'looking', we continued down the road to our next stop and where we would stay for the night.

Rothenburg, Germany

Rothenburg is an old medieval town, it dates back to 1240. Above you can see one of the town gates and on the right is the wall that surrounds the old city. It is a busy little town! Our hotel for that night was located just outside of one of the gates, in the newer area although part of the hotel complex dated back.

The picture on the left if one of the cobblestone streets in Rothenburg, there were many like that, some are very winding, some are even narrower. On the right is the town square with the large Town Hall. The vendors were setting up to sell their farm produce, flowers and baked goods.

On the left is the town square with vendors and the town hall. The two buildings to the left were shops, in fact, one was a drug store.
The picture on the right was taken in the St. Jakobskirche (Church of St. James). The vertical Gothic church has three naves. It was built over a long period of time, the first part in 1336. It was getting a 'face lift' on the outside when we were there, so I didn't get a picture of the outside.

Day 3 Wednesday Sept. 20 Dinkelsbuhl & Munich

Dinkelsbuhl, Germany
Gate

Dinkelsbuhl is another walled and gated city from the 10th century. The city commemorates the saving of the village by its children in 1632 from the conquering Swedish troops. The children pleaded with the troops to save their city without damage and were able to convince them to move on.

Our bus had to park on the outside (like other walled and gated ancient cities) and we walked across the bridge into the city. We had lunch here. It as so nice, we could eat outside.

We continued our bus trip to Munich but before reaching the city, we stopped and toured the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial site. It was a very sobering experience, so hard to comprehend what those thousands of people went through and how many thousands lost their lives there.

We continued on to Munich. Our hotel was within a couple blocks of the Munich Oktoberfest. Several of us walked down to the celebration that evening. It was like a big carnival with PLENTY of beer!!! It was interesting!!

Day 4 Thursday, Sept. 21 Munich, Linderhof Castle & Oberammergau

Munich, Germany

We drove around sight seeing in Munich. Then walked to the old town square. It was very hard to get a good picture of the building, it was so tall and so wide and not enough space to get back far enough to get it all in the picture. The Government building is to the left and the picture on the right shows the domes of the church, but we didn't get to that.

While at the town square of Munich we noticed the painted lions. Karl told us that the Lions were a symbol of the Bavarian area and there was an Arts Council project of painting the Lions. So Karl posed by one!! On the right is a 'Smart Car'. They might work well for the big city but I'm sure they wouldn't pass the test for the midwest of the USA!!! They were sure little!!!

On our drive to Oberammergau we could see the Bavarian Alps along the way. The small buildings were storage sheds for the owner of that small piece of land. Most of their homes were in a small village where the house and barn were one building. They didn't own very many cows, maybe 20 each. The young cattle and dry cows were taken up in the Alps to graze during the summer and the milking cows were kept near by to be milked.
This house near Oberammergau has a painted fairy tale on it. Many of the houses are decorated like this. Instead of flower boxes like we saw earlier, this area had the paintings. Oberammergau is the home of the Passion play which is presented every 10 years. It draws huge crowds and reservations need to be made years in advance.

We traveled a few miles from here to the Linderhof, one of Europe's most impressive palaces, built for King Ludwig II. We were able to tour the castle, it was gorgeous. There was a lot of gold leaf decorations. The castle grounds were beautiful and so well kept.

We returned to Munich for our evening out.....to the Hofbrauhaus....a buffet meal, entertainment and toe tapping music.

The band was very good and dancers were charming. It was great!!
Dancers

On the left is a closer picture of the dancers and on the right, they played a couple songs using the cow bells!
Delores

Some people really enjoyed it!!!!

Day 5 Friday, Sept. 22 Salzburg, Austria and Mozarts birth place

Scenery pictures taken from the bus on our way to Salzburg.

Salzburg, Austria, Mozart's birth place(1756)

Note the castle in the back ground, Salzburg's' fortress which dated back centuries. They began building it in 1077 and it wasn't completed until 1681. It is the largest completely preserved castle in central Europe. This was taken from our hotel window, so shows more of the modern day city. The statue/memorial to Mozart is in the center of the old town square.
church

We went on a tour of the old city. The picture of the church was hard to get, there were vendors set up in the town square and many many people because there was a special festival going on. The next picture is the ceiling in this huge church, then the chancel area, it was really beautiful. The 4th picture is taken down one of the narrow streets with all of the shops.
Courtyard

This is a contrast with the old buildings and the carnival that was running. In the background of the last picture you can see the fortress on the hill, the town square, streets, shops, monastery founded in 700, cemetery and etc. were all at the base of the mountain. It was hot that day, of course there were a multitude of people milling around but a lot of tasty food vendors!

Day 6 Saturday, Sept. 23 Rattenberg & Innsbruck, Austria

We left Salzburg and traveled toward Innsbruck. We stopped in a real small town, Lofer, it was early so the shops weren't open yet.

Lofer, Austria
Lofer

This was such a beautiful little town with the Austrian Alps in the back ground. It was a beautiful crisp morning and the sky was so blue.

Rattenberg, Austria
Crystal

Rattenberg is known for their beautiful Austrian Crystal. We saw a demonstration of glass blowing and then got down to some serious shopping! Beautiful things!! We had lunch that day 'on the street' in this small town.

Innsbruck, Austria

The Austrian Alps surrounding Innsbruck are known for their great ski slopes. In 1964 & 1976 the Winter Olympics were held here. A beautiful place!!

We visited the Imperial Palace and saw the Golden Roof built in 1500's as a Royal balcony, a gift from Emperor Maximilian I to his second wife. There are 2,657 gold tiles. The Emperor would view the activity below from this vantage point.

The first picture is an ornate building across the way from the Golden Roof. Then we went to Dom zu St. Jakob (Cathedral of St. James), built in the 1700's. It was too huge to get a full length picture of! Inside was beautifully painted. The picture on the lower right is very unusual....it is the ceiling, but it is painted to look like a dome but it isn't, it is flat! IT was sooooo pretty and unique.

We then went to our hotel around the corner and enjoyed a wonderful evening meal with all our friends.

Day 7 Sunday, Sept. 24 Valduz, Liechtenstein and Lucerne Switzerland

We began our day with some traveling in the Alps. It began to go from cool to cold as we were climbing the mountains to the Continental Divide. How awesome!!

At the TOP there were a few shops and a cafe. Look at the scenery above! WOW!! It was crisp! The top right picture shows all of the snow fences that have been erected to keep some of the snow off the road and to prevent avalanches. The bottom 2 pictures are on our road descending the summit. There was a little village tucked in below, I didn't get the name though.

Valduz, Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein is the smallest principality in Europe with 62 square miles. There are 34,000 people living there. Valduz is the capital. Our travel was on Sunday and most of the shops were closed, but there was a flea market set up for us to browse. A couple shops were open and we did get a sandwich in the open air cafe.

The picture on the top left is the fortress/castle for the ruler. If the flag is flying (and it is) it means that he is at home. The top right is the flea market. The bottom two pictures, I'm not sure what they are!! These 4 characters appeared in the street, one acted like the mother and the other three as children. They were all on stilts and wore those big long black noses. So maybe they were something from a fairy tale or suppose to be birds....does anyone reading this know??

Lucerne, Switzerland
Farm

The picture on the left is of a farm on the way to Lucerne. The picture on the right is looking across the outlet to Lake Lucerne, viewing the old town.

Our time in Lucerne was damp. It drizzled both days and was very foggy on Monday. The pictures above are in the old town area. One of Lucernes land marks is the Chapel Bridge with the octagonal tower building that used to be a jail. The Chapel Bridge was built in 1333 over the River Reuss, there was a fire in it a few years ago, but it has been rebuilt. Several of the buildings in the old town had painted pictures on the front. Also there was the clock tower and the fountain in the center. We were told that old clocks had only an hour hand, they didn't care about the minutes.

Day 8 Monday, Sept. 25 Mount Rigi and Lucerne

Mount Rigi

We were a bit disappointed with the fog the morning we ascended Mt. Rigi. We went up the 6,000 ft. mountain by cog train. We came part way back on it but then took the ski lift to come the rest of the way.

This is a view of the homes on the way up the mountain. The fog would start to clear and then move back in. If you look up in the top part of the fog clouds, you can see some of the the taller Alps behind the valley scene.

This is the train we rode in. It was comfortable. Note the milk cans that they pick up and then return again. The second picture is of the rails and cogs that pull the train up, of course it also has the electric wire on top. This train system is about 120 years old. In the winter time it takes the skiers up to the top where there is a nice restaurant.

The clouds of fog broke a little bit and you could see the tops of the mountains peak through. It was so quiet up there on the top. With the heavy fog, all you could hear was the tinkle tinkle of the cow bells......just like in 'Heidi'. The home on the left kinda made you think of Heidi's home.

This was the view of Lake Lucerne as we came down the mountain. This neat house set in the mountain side nearer the bottom.

This was a neat little meadow at the base of the cable lift that we came down in. Such a quiet peaceful scene. You could hear the cow bells.

Dying Lion Monument

This lion was carved in the stone in memory of the 79 (I think that is right) Swiss guards of King Louis XVI that were killed in 1792. This was one of a very few battles that Switzerland fought, as Switzerland is known as neutral territory.

Day 9 Tuesday, Sept. 26 Rhine Falls, The Black Forest and Freiburg, Germany

Rhine Falls, Schaffhausen, Switzerland
falls

The falls on the Rhine river were nice. I wish I could have gotten a better picture, but it was misting, a bit foggy and cloudy.

Black Forest
a home

The left is a farm along the way. The right is the Black Forest Cuckoo clock maker. We had a nice tour of this, ate our sausage there and then bought a clock to be shipped home.

Freiburg, Germany
church

We went to the Town Square of Old town in Freiburg. The above are pictures from the church. They were busy doing some re-construction and face lifting on the building. I'm sure it would have been very impressive if the construction equipment hadn't been there. The stained glass windows were beautiful. Each ancient church has it's own special interests.

These were some of the building along the town square. Note that we are seeing more black slate roofs now, instead of the red roofs.

Day 10 Wednesday, Sept. 27 Heidelberg Castle, Heidelberg and Wiesbaden, Germany

Heidelberg Castle

As you can see, I was really taken by the Castle! I have more if you would like to see them!!! We did enter the lower level of the Castle and saw the huge wine vats and tasted the wine. The vat pictured in the bottom left holds 57,000 gallons of wine and is the largest vat in the world. It was built in 1751 & has a dance floor above it. The court dwarf on the right, seems to have been the overseer of the huge wine barrel and his name is Perkeo.
Heidelberg Castle, along with the city, were first destroyed by Tilly's troops in 1622. The castle was rebuilt by Karl-Ludwig. The castle was destroyed a second and final time during the War of Succession, in 1693.

Heidelberg, Germany

This is the city as seen from the castle.

shops

As you can see, the town is tucked right in below the castle up on the hill. These are street scenes, the bottom left would be their government building. There were vendors selling flowers, vegetables and other things. It was really neat!!! We did have time for some shopping and ate lunch here.

Day 11 Thursday, Sept. 28 Rhine River Cruise and Rudesheim, Germany

Rhine River

We had stayed overnight at Wiesbaden. We drove along the Rhine River down to the Lorelei statue at St. Goar where we boarded a small cruise ship for a trip back up the Rhine.

These are some of the scenes as we traveled down the Rhine. Some of the old castles were in ruins, some have been made into homes and some even into Hotel's. Vineyards were lined up and down the banks, this is a very famous wine valley. It was a bit cloudy and hazy that morning and did get a little cool on the boat if you were in the front like we were. The bus picked up us part way to Rudesheim, which was our next stop.

Rudesheim, Germany

When we reached Rudesheim, we were lead to 'Drosselgasse', a unique, famous narrow lane with many shops and places to eat. We all ate together in a garden type area. We had a traditional Germany meal.

Of course, we had time to shop here....our last chance!!! We made use of it!! From here we traveled a bit out of the city and up on a very high spot to find the Niederwald monument.

Niederwald Monument is a huge monument designed to symbolize the re-establishment of the german Empire and Germany's unity and was erected in 1877 and 1883. It is 132 ft. high and 120 ft. wide and contains 32 ton of Bronze. We felt this was an appropriate place to take picture of all of our U.S. service men who had been stationed in Germany.

They are: John Yarbrough, Jim Head, Owen Birkholtz, Jim Lawrence, Harold Huls, Frank Brhel, Chev Kellogg, Charles Burmeister from the USA and our guide, Karl felt it a privilege to stand with these fellows.

This groups is all of our men who served in the U.S. military: John Yarbrough, Jim Head, Owen Birkholtz, Jim Lawrence, Harold Huls, Frank Brhel, Chev Kellogg, Charles Burmeister in the back row and Mike Budnovitch & Bob Meinertz.

Day 12 Friday, Sept. 29      Journey home........

We were up early, breakfast was at 5:45 AM!! Suitcases out and on the road to the Frankfort, Germany airport. It was the end of a wonderful vacation. I for one, could have stayed longer, even tho I was tired!! I hated to stop all of the great things we did and saw. I kinda envied Jim and Pat that they were staying a few more days!!!
I don't think any one had too much problem at the Frankfort Airport. Then we began the long journey on the plane across the ocean. Finally landed in Detroit, went through customs and then on to our next flight.
I'm sure all were exhausted by the time you got home, we were. But oh what fun we had and the wonderful memories. That is what I've tried to record here.....Sharing the Memories.   I hope some of us can stay in touch......

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