Day 11 - Strassbourg, France

Off again early, this time to France! Strassbourgh is the home to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg, a very large and beautiful church that dates to 1176. We decided to take a boat ride on the River Ill in order to see the major sites of the city, which is the home of the Council of Europe. After a relaxing lunch, we headed back to Schitach, for our last night with Celky, Lisa and Michael at the Alte Brucke.

Day 10 - Schwartzwald

We arrived in Schiltach in the Black Forest a day earlier than planned, and awoke in our hotel, the Gasthof zur alten Brucke to another beautiful, sunny day. We took our host's advice, and headed to Wolfach, a city that predates the 1100's. From there we continued on to the Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof, the Black Forest Open Air Museum, that has six fully furnished farmhouses dating from 1612. We arrived in Triberg, wehre the tallest waterfalls in Germany are located, and also a lot of Cuckoo clocks are to be found, including the world's largest!

Day - 9 Sattel, Switzerland

In Sattel, we woke to the sounds of bells - bells dinging on the cows and bells ringing in the churches! What a delightful cacophony of music! After breakfast and a ride on the Alpine slide, we headed down the hill on a road NOT recommended by "Nancy", and the descent was much easier. We passed right by the original Ulrich farm! In the village, we met Herr Moser, the town administrator who took us to St. Peter and Paul Church. It is the church that all of the Ulrich ancestors were baptized in, and we were able to view the original record book showing the dates of the baptisms of Melchior and Frank X!! It indicated who the parents were, as well as who the sponsors were! We were invited to go to a neighboring town to see the legal records, but time was too short. Definitely a return trip is in order!

Day 8 - To Switzerland

Another beautiful day in Europe, sunny and warm. After a European breakfast of crusty rolls,sliced meats and cheeses, as well as fruits and juices, we again hit the road! Another long day of driving in order to reach to Sattel, Switzerland before dark! Didn't trust "Nancy" to get us to the very final destination without a few problems! The highlight of our day was stopping at Lake Como for lunch, a beautiful city on the lake. Speed boats were racing on the lake as we ate, zooming to their finish line with loud roars of their engines!
After lunch we continued climbing the Alps toward Sattel, stopping by the shore of Lake Lucerne for a visit with a friendly kitty. We reached Sattel in the late afternoon and a long winding climb up a very narrow road to the top of the mountain. Once again, we followed "Nancy's advice and took the wrong road! We were greeted by brown swiss cows ringing their bells, probably inc celebration of our safe navigation of the Alps.

Day 7 - Venice

We arrived in Dolo, just west of west of Venice in the dark last night, and finally found our hotel, Villa Gasparini after "Nancy", as we have named the voice on our GPS unit, had difficulty navigating us accurately on the roads in Italy. In the morning we took a boat across to Venice, a most beautiful city! When we arrived in St. Mark's Square, we discovered a ceremony honoring the firefighters of Italy was taking place, and they were lowering the flag of Italy down the Campanile, the Bell Tower. The piazza was crowded, since there were so many cruise ships anchored off the Grand Canal. Saint Mark's Basilica was closed to the public, unfortunately, however, we were able to tour the Doge's Palace, which dates to 1300's.

Day 6 - Off to Venice

We left Punzelweg in Berchtesgaden, early in the morning and headed off to Venice. We drove through Austria, literally!! Some of the tunnels we passed through under the Alps were 10 miles long! We saw a castle, schloss, from the highway that beckoned us to stop, and as it turned out, it was a well worthwhile visit. Burg Hohenwerfen, which dates back to the 11th century, was used as the castle 'Schloss Adler' in the film Where Eagles Dare, aWorld War II spy film with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. Appropriately, the castle is now home to a Historic Falconry, complete with an American Eagle. Later in the day, we stopped in Gmund, Austria, with the ruins of smaller castle from the 13th century. And after driving through the winding roads of Austria and northern Italy, we arrived in Dolo, Italy for the next stage of our journey.

Day 5 - Muchen

On the morning after our second night at Punzelweg, we ventured off to Muchen (Munich) for Oktoberfest! What a festival of bier!! Twelve tents holding 10,000 people each, full of folks drinking beer from LARGE steins! There were a lot of very happy, happy people from all over the world enjoying Lowenbrau, Paulander, Hofbrau, Pschorr, etc. We didn't try them all, but did sample a few! Think I liked the horse drawn wagons the best, the horses were all decked out in elaborate harnesses. Very cool.

Day 4 - Berchestgaden & Salzburg

In the morning we decided to visit the Kehlsteinhaus,also known as the Eagle's Nest, built by the Nazis in the mountains as an official 50th birthday present for Adolf Hitler. Eva Braun spent a lot of time here, though Hitler did not, which is why it was saved from destruction at the end of WW II! The views were spectacular!
The afternoon brought us to Salzburg, Austria, where we visited the Hohensalzburg Castle, Motzart's Home and enjoyed Ocktoberfest, Austrian style.

Day 3 - Schloß Mespelbrunn & Schloß Neunhof

On our third day in Germany, we picked Don and Leigh up at the airport in Frankfort and drove to Berchtesgaden, in the German Bavarian Alps. We stopped at several "schlosses", castles, on the way. Some were small, some not so small! The first, Mespelbrunn, was a wasserschloss, and was built between 1412 and 1569. The second stop was at Schloß Neunhof, a much smaller schloss close to Nuremberg. It had a very delightful garden!

Day 2 - Eberbach - Rothenburg

After a good night's sleep in a guesthouse in Eberbach, we continued driving next to the Neckar River, which is one of the towns on "Castle Road" in Germany. We spent most of the morning in Bad Wimpfen, which is an ancient Roman market town that can be traced back to the first century. The Schloss, or castle goes back to the 10th century. In the afternoon we traveled on to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, an idyllic medieval town that overlooks the Tauber River.

Day 1 - Heidelberg

We landed in Frankfurt in the rain, but by the time we reached Heidelberg on the river Neckar, the sun was shining! We spent most of the day investigating one of the oldest university towns in Europe and Heidelberger Schloss. Then we found a quiet "gasthaus" nearby in Eberbach, and retired VERY early. We were asleep by seven.