Day 20 Passion Play Trip to Paris, France, Germany, Austria, & London; July 29-Aug 17, 2010

We had the most wonderful trip!

There were 7 of us exploring Europe together for 20 days. We started in Paris, visiting Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs Elysees, climbing to the top of the Eiffel Tower and soaking up Parisien ambience. We picked up a van, then branched out to Versailles, the Loire Valley and the WWI battlefields of Verdun in Lorraine in NE France.

Here we are on the plane coming home from London. What a congenial group we were. These people were a delight!

Burg Eltz and Bacharach showed ancient German culture, complete with a short trip down the Rhine River. We stayed overnight in Rothenburg, where time stopped in the year 1500.

We stayed below 4 ruined castles in Austria, visited the castle that was Disney's inspiration, ascended to Hitler's Eagle's nest, got trapped in Salzburg, and finally saw the 400 year old traditional Passion Play.

We flew from Munich to London for our last 3 days, and saw the Crown Jewels, rode the London Eye, and went to the theatre.

Day 19 Loose in London! Aug. 16, 2010

Today was our last day in London, and I gave my people a free day. I like to get them oriented and then turn them loose. They always love the adventure of being on their own in a foreign country, and I love hearing about their adventures when we get back together.

My grand-daughter loves Shakes-peare, so I took her to the Globe Theatre. It's a replica of the original, and it sits on the south bank of the river only a few hundred yards from where the original stood. We took a guided tour and had a wonderful time.

Here we are in the "groundling" space right in front of the stage. These were the cheapest tickets in Shakes-peares' day, what we would call SRO. You had to stand, but you were inches from the actors, and they had to play to you.

We met the others for dinner in a tiny place and then went to Love Never Dies, sequel to Phantom of the Opera. What could be better for our last night in London?

Day 18 London Eye Aug. 15, 2010

Sunday! We went to church in the Hyde Park Ward. Next door are 2 huge and free museums. The Victoria & Albert has a "Cast Room" with exact replicas of lots of famous statues. You get to see all the famous sculptures in the same place!

In the picture you see a replica of Michel- angelo's David, plus the concrete thing is a cast of one entire house from the a ghetto in India. It was built in the cracks between other houses. You can climb around inside. It's 2 levels, but it's tiny. A family of 8 people lived in the original house.

Then we walked around Parlia- ment and West- minster and started down Whitehall. Around the corner, underneath the Treasury building, are Churchill's War Rooms. This underground complex was his headquarters. Churchill really was the man for the times. You can hear him speaking. His inspired speeches galvanized the country in their darkest hours. You see the famous shot of the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, surrounded with smoke during the Blitz. People stayed up on the roof 24/7 guarding it from burning shrapnel. The Brits would emerge from the subways after a bombing raid, and look to see if the dome of St. Paul's was still there. It became a symbol of their determination.

We came upon a parade and found we'd just missed the Prince. We saw the same folks on TV later that night.

We took the subway and then 2 taxis to the British Museum. I wanted to show them the Rosetta Stone, which cracked the code to Egyptian hieroglyphics. People are always surprised that it's not bigger, because it was so important to our understanding of history. At about 4 feet high, it's totally covered in tiny engraved writing in Greek, demotic, and hieroglyphics. Afterward, we had to zoom to get to a concert at Westminster Abbey by 5:00. We found a red double-decker bus going our way, hopped on, and got there with minutes to spare!

That evening we had tickets to ride the London Eye. This giant ferris wheel turns around once in 30 minutes, providing stellar views of the city with the Thames River, London Bridge, and Parliament far below.

Thirty people ride in one pod, getting a ride they will never forget.

Day 17 Tower of London Aug. 14, 2010

As soon as we arrived in London on our flight from Munich, we dropped our bags and were off to see the town! Here we are by the Tower Bridge, which spans the Thames River next to the Tower of London.

Famous for the Crown Jewels and the Beef- eaters, the Tower of London is a must- see when you go. As you can tell by the picture, the line to see the jewels is long, but of course we went anyway.

The oldest part is the White Tower, which was built by William the Conquerer, a French invader who crossed the Channel a thousand years ago in 1068. That's it above.

London theatre (notice the British spelling) is the best in the world, and it's cheap. When you throw in the easy availability of half- price tickets, and you see why it's THE place to see great shows! That night we got cheap tix for Love Never Dies, which is the sequel to Phantom of the Opera.

Here's my attempt at an artistically framed shot of Tower Bridge.

Day 16 Munich & Dachau Aug. 13, 2010

Drive to Munich, tour the concen- tration camp of Dachau, wander down Kaufinger- strasse, watch the Glock- enspiel go off, spend one night, and fly to London in the morning! That's lots of local color in a very short time!

It's only a couple of hours from Oberammergau on the German- Austrian border up to Munich, and the scenery is great. We arrived in time to spend a few hours on a side trip to Dachau.

Dachau was the training for all the other concen-tration camps, and there were hundreds of them. Soldiers were sent here to learn how it was run, and then to all the other "work" camps through- out the Reich. The inmates were worked hard, tortured, experimented upon medically, or shot. Most starved. 30,000 Jews, priests, and political prisoners died here. The sign over the gate still reads "Arbeit macht frei," or "Work will make you free." The ovens in the picture burned the bodies, around the clock, but could not keep up with the job. Local towns- people claimed not to know what was happening here, but at the end of the war, the American commander made all the townspeople tour the camp.

Reminders of WWII are every- where. The main street is now a busy pedestrian area. The "New Town Hall" in the picture survived the bombings, and became the American military headquarters.

There's a much- loved vegetable market/ open air beer garden right in the center of town. It occupies prime commercial real estate, but the rents are subsidized just to keep it going. The cheese shop in the picture is a great example. I have never been there but every table was crowded and waitresses in traditional costume were busily scurrying about carrying plates of sausages and fries and large steins of beer.

Day 14&15, Passion Play, Oberammergau, and Linderhof Castle Aug. 11&12, 2010

I finally got to see the Passion Play! It's world famous and I've wanted to go for forty years. My high school orchestra went after I'd moved away. I didn't get to go, and I'm still bitter! But now I've finally seen it, and I can recover. You see the theater above. It seats about 4000.

Presented by a tiny town in the Alps of southern Germany, the village of Ober- ammergau itself is an attraction. Gepetto must have carved Pinocchio here! Surrounded by mountains, there are lots of buildings are painted in the Tyrolean style. (Notice the fool-the- eye staircase painted on the outside of the building. The wall is actually flat.)

People make their living with a B&B during the tourist season. In the winter, they ski or are woodcarvers.

Why would anyone care to see a play that lasts for 3 hours? And that's just the part before intermission! That's when everybody leaves for 3 hours to go eat dinner. Then they come back for 2 more hours. It really was great, much better than you'd think for an amateur play put on by a town of 2500. No ringers; you have to have been born in the town or lived there for 20 years to be in the cast. Music, acting, cast of hundreds, costuming; everything was on a professional level.

Oberammergau has presented the Passion of Christ every year for the last 400 years. Why? In the 1600's the plague - the Black Death - was ravaging Europe. In their little town of 700, already they'd lost 70 people.

The whole town made a promise to God that if he would stop the plague, they would present the Passion every 10 years. From the time of the oath, no more people died. So they have kept their promise, and it's grown so that now they do it for 5 sold-out months and 100,000 people see it.

The flower- decked house is where we stayed for our 2-night Passion Play package. Two great things about it: walking distance to the theater so we could come home for dinner, and it had a pastry shop on the ground floor!

We drove in from Berchtes- gaden in the morning, so we a tiny jewel of a palace built by Mad King Ludwig, which was only a few clicks away. Each year the gold- encrusted Linderhof and it's sister palaces bring in far more tourist dollars than they cost. At the time, the government had the king declared insane because he was bankrupting the country!

Day 13 Trapped in Salzburg! Aug. 10, 2010

What a day to remember!

I've always loved Salzburg, town of Mozart and lovely old churches, with a fortress on a hilltop right in the middle of town! Add a river running through it, lots of chocolate, world famous music festivals, and you have a wonderful concoction.

We arrived in our van nice and early, before the rest of the crowds. We drove right in, because the traffic barriers were up, and parked in a prime spot on Mozartplatz. If you could see right through the statue in the picture, you'd see our van.

After a lovely walking tour (I'll tell you later) and a crazy tram ride to the top of the fortress, (picture left) we returned to the van and tried to leave, but the barriers were up, which are metal posts that rise up from the center of the pavement. So we tried to exit the historic core of the city by driving down tiny little streets until they got so narrow we could barely fit through. Every time, we arrived at another traffic barrier.

We we had to return each time to Mozart- platz. Finally we saw several other cars approach the barrier and punch in a code. The barrier retracted, and they left. I talked to several drivers. It seems that the code is specific to the car, so their code could not help us. A man said it would cost us 100 euros to get out. Oh my! We certainly didn't want to pay 100 euros! Apparently we had parked illegally in the old city. Only authorized vehicles are allowed. After asking several other people for help, I found that everyone thought we would have to pay the fine in order to get out. Furthermore, we would have to go to the police station blocks away and pay the fine first!

So I grabbed our trusty handicapped parking sign, left the people with the van, and ran off on foot to the police station. Inside was a secure area, and I had to buzz to get someone to come. When I explained the situation, the lady officer said that indeed, I would have to pay the 100 euro fine. Then I showed the handicapped pass, and everything changed. Evidently it is permissible for handicapped vehicles to park there. "Oh, just drive your car over here by the station, and I'll open this barrier for you to get out." I was temporarily stupefied. How in the world could we drive our huge 9-passenger van through those tiny winding medieval streets all the way to the police station? Eventually I persuaded her to mark out a route on a map that would not get us wedged in permanently.

I returned to the van with my marked map. There was much relief all around! We cheerfully drove the van right through the pedestrian areas, complete with crowds of people and a few shaking fists, eventually coming to the back of the police station right past Mozart's birthplace! (Yellow house in the picture) True to plan, I ran back into the police station and they opened the barrier for us. We were free, with a story to tell forever!

Other Salzburg highlights: there is a slanted cog rail that lifts you up to the fortress in the middle of the town. It really is as steep as it looks in the picture!

We listened to quite a few street musicians, which I love doing.

Lawana and I found a shop selling traditional German clothing. The work- manship was exquisite, but the prices ranged upward from $800- $2000. I did not buy any.

We had fun in the marionette museum in the top of the fortress. There was also a cool exhibit of old musical instru- ments.

When we left Salzburg, there was still plenty of daylight left, so we decided to take a detour past the original church where "Silent Night" was first written.

It's tiny! No wonder they could accompany it with a guitar for the first performance. We discovered that this church is a replica, as the original was destroyed by a flood. We walked up the nearby riverbank, and discovered it makes a sharp U-turn there. When the river reached flood stage, it all poured directly over the church. The replacement was built on a mound.

Dinner was right next door, in a little outdoor cafe. I had an elaborate dessert for dinner, which everyone thought was weird, but I really enjoyed it. Hey, life is short, so eat dessert first!

Day 12 Hitler's Eagle's Nest & Koenigsee Alpine Lake Aug. 9, 2010

For Hitler's 50th birthday, his loyal followers built him a safe retreat on the tip- top of a mountain. According to the guides, he had a fear of heights, and so he actually came up to the Eagles' Nest only a few times. What the guides don't tell you, though, was that he spent a lot of time just below here. His heavy- duty Bavarian war headquarters was the resort town of Berch-tesgaden. In fact, he had 8 levels of under- ground bunkers right where you get on the bus to ride up to the Eagle's Nest. The beer hall that's there now was the ballroom of the old German headquarters.

After the war, Americans made it into an R & R center called the General Walker Hotel. When we lived in Germany years ago, we brought kids here for youth conference. When the Americans left, the Germans tore down most of the hotel so the number of rooms would not compete with the local zimmer freis. I think they also wanted to wipe out anything to do with Hitler. The fireplace you see in the picture is up in the Eagle's Nest, and there are pix of Hitler in front of the same fireplace

While we were there it was amazing to watch the rapidly shifting clouds. Standing atop the mountain, you saw one side below completely enshrouded by clouds and mist. I loved watching the clouds rise up to meet us. The view in the other direction was completely clear over far mountain ranges and you could see past Salzburg in the distance. Ten minutes later, it was reversed, and the beautiful Koenigsee could be seen to your left, while Salzburg had been swallowed up in white.

The only thing that can top the Eagle's Nest is the electric boat ride on the Koenigsee (King's Lake.) The steep- sided mountains lead down to water over a thousand feet deep. You glide smoothly toward your destination at the end of the lake. St. Bartholomae Church is over 500 years old. When you're half way there, the driver cuts the motor and pulls out a trumpet from under the bench. He plays a haunting song, which bounces off the mountainside and echoes back to you a moment later. Every time I go, I am struck by the beauty of the music and I wish he would keep playing. Alas, one short song, and he returns to driving the boat. This is one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Returning to the dock and oh- so perfect tourist shops, you don't even mind the crowds. We always try to talk to others on the boat and discover the many countries they are from.

Day 11, Cont. Berchtesgaden Aug. 8, 2010

The quickest way to Berchtes- gaden from Neue- schwan- stein is south and then east through Austria. Winding roads led to the freeway past Innsbruck, which led to more winding roads. (Picture above) Since the scenery is the best in the world, none of us minded the 4-hour drive!

Our home for 3 days in Berch-tesgaden, the Boehm family gasthaus is one of my favorites. Check out the glorious view from the terrace!

It's a real trick to find. The address is Am Gschnaitl- bichl, which is actually just a walking path! The first time we came here, we drove past the turn several times. Nowadays, we just let the GPS do the work.

Day 11 Neueschwanstein Castle, Aug. 8, 2010

Get up early and scoot the back way across the Austrian border into Germany. Buy our tickets for the castle as soon as the office opens. Then get tix to ride up the mountain on the bus, instead of hiking uphill for an hour. Voila! That puts us up on the Marienbrucke (bridge above the castle) before the crowds arrive.

Neue- schwan- stein was the inspiration for the Disney castle. It's new, as castles go, at only about 140 years old. Built by "Mad King Ludwig" as a fantasy remembering castles from medieval times, it was incomplete at the time of his death.

Within weeks, tourists were going through it, just like today.

Mystery and contro-versy surrounded the king and his castles. Once engaged but never married, was he just a reclusive eccentric with creative ideas, or was he truly insane? Tall and handsome, he used to ride through the country- side on his white horse. The people loved him.

He, on the other hand, wanted to be alone. He invented a table which could be hoisted through the floor, already set for dinner, so he would not have to see the servants. He was at odds with the government.

He built 3 fabulous new castles at tremendous cost. Government said he was bankrupting the country. They had him declared insane, though the psychologist who certified it never examined him. Two weeks later, he was found dead, floating in a lake. Was he murdered? No one knows. It was declared to be suicide, but there is no evidence. Books today are still being written about him.

No pictures are allowed in the castle, but it's tall and vertical and definitely not wheelchair accessible! Some of the rooms are ornately decorated. Some are still unfinished, and you can't go there. My favorite is the ballroom on the top floor, which is often used today for musical concerts. You can, however take pictures from the windows.

Rather than walk down the mountain, I hired a carriage ride for us.

The driver wanted us to load and sit waiting for departure, but I was busy taking pictures. "Sit down!" he said loudly in a com- manding voice. I just cheerfully replied, "OK," and kept taking photos. This was repeated several times and my group thought it was pretty funny.