Munich to Haguenau - Mon., 8 Oct 2012

This was our last day in Germany and we unexpectedly discovered what was to become one of our favorite towns in Europe.  The plan was: Alice would do laundry while I went to climb a tower, then we'd leave town.  I found a laundromat just one mile from the Ulm Minster (Ulmer Münster), which is the tallest church in the world (530 feet).  Having previously climbed the second tallest (515 feet) -- in Cologne (Köln), Germany -- I wanted to climb the highest.  Alice, having no desire to climb towers, was very content to do laundry -- and we actually finished at about the same time.  HOWEVER, having seen the town square in Ulm, I insisted that we both go back.  We both LOVE Ulm.

First of all, on the way to the town square, you cross this picturesque canal.

Then, you walk into the town square and face the tallest church in the world -- the Ulm Minster.  Its construction began in 1377 A.D. -- and it was financed by the town instead of the Catholic Church.  In 1530, a referendum was held and the town converted to Protestantism, so the Minster became Lutheran.  There are 3 levels.  The first is about halfway up (230 feet/392 steps) -- where you see the fencing if you click on this picture.  I climbed to that point and was about to quit when I saw a sign:

So, I climbed to the second level (335 feet/560 steps) -- where the cone on top begins.  I looked up and saw this:

Even if there had been another sign, I wouldn't have climbed that!  But, I had already climbed more steps than the "mere" 509 of the Köln Cathedral, so I quit.  The last 208 steps are for those much braver (and less acrophobic) than me.

But Alice was more interested in the open-air market in the town square.  Imagine eating and shopping at the base of the Ulm Minster.

And here's the view of the open-air market from 335 feet in the air.

From the second level of the Minster, you can see gargoyles and (what I later found out was) the Danube (Donau).  We hated to leave Ulm (and hope to go back someday), but we wanted to get to the chocolate outlet store before it closed.

As you drive into the quaint little town of Waldenbuch (population 8559), it's hard to imagine that it's the home of the Ritter Sport factory, museum, and outlet store.

But it seems appropriate that our last stop in Germany was to purchase German chocolate.  Here's Alice with her goodies.  She started throwing out the travel books (that we had already used) to make room in our suitcases for chocolate.  (Unfortunately, she threw out "Let's Go France" as we were about to reenter France.)

Linz to Munich - Sun., 7 Oct 2012

We had originally planned to attend church in Linz before I realized that it was General Conference.  I'm still not sure how Europe does General Conference with the 8-hour time difference, but we were able to get the Sunday, 10 a.m. session at 6 p.m. online.

This is Chiemsee (Lake Chiem) and the island -- seen above -- houses Herrenchiemsee.  On the way to Munich, we had planned to visit Herrenchiemsee -- a personal "Versailles" built by "Mad King Ludwig" (Ludwig II of Bavaria) -- but it was a very rainy day, so we just drove straight to our hotel in Munich.  Ludwig built his famous and elaborate "Disneyland" castle (Neuschwanstein) at age 23.  At age 33, he began building Herrenchiemsee and, even though it wasn't completely finished, it cost nearly 3 times as much as Neuschwanstein (over $125,000,000 in today's currency). 

We paid a visit to Oktoberfest before settling in at our motel.  As advertised, the beer was flowing and the people were wound up -- and it was only 5 p.m.  The video below gives a glimpse of the indoor festivities.

After that, we returned to our motel and watched several General Conference talks -- a sharp contrast to the raucousness of Oktoberfest!

Vienna to Linz - Sat., 6 Oct 2012

This is Melk Abbey - about an hour directly west of Vienna.  It was built between 1702 and 1736.  As with many historical sites in Europe, it was difficult to get far enough away to get a picture.  I had to go across the valley into someone's cornfield (notice the cornstalks at the right) to get this shot.

Entering the grounds, you can't see much of the Abbey, but the grounds are beautiful as well.

The color is quite unusual, but one article I read said that this was the cheapest color of paint at the time is was first built.

Five minutes from Melk Abbey is the contrasting Schönbühel an der Donau (Schönbühel on the Donau River).  At first, I was puzzled because I thought Melk Abbey and Schönbühel Castle were on the Danube River.  It was only after our trip that I realized that the Danube River is only called "Danube" in English (from the Latin "Danubius").  The "Danube" flows though Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine, and Bulgaria and NONE of them call it the "Danube."  They call it "Donau, Dunaj, Dunarea, Donava, Duna, Dunav," etc., but not Danube.  We've been in Vienna, Budapest, and Bratislava -- all famous cities on the Danube -- and this was the first I realized that none of them called it that.

Next, we drove to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp -- near Linz.  We had driven here on a previous trip, but arrived just after closing time.  Alice was really disappointed that we hadn't gotten to go inside, so I made sure we got here plenty early this time.  (Alice likes to look at every picture and read every sign.)

It is a huge complex with rows of barracks that have been preserved/restored.

Many of the signs were in German only -- but the meaning was clear.

From the Concentration Camp, the "Stairs of Death" are visible (center of picture).  There was a granite quarry at the bottom and starving prisoners were forced to carry blocks (weighing as much as 110 lbs.) up the 186 steps.  Many didn't survive.  Ironically (as happens many times in Europe), right beside a horrific landmark is a peaceful little farm or town.

Bratislava & Vienna - Fri., 5 Oct 2012

Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, is only about an hour from Vienna, so we drove there and back rather than staying overnight.  

This is a view of Bratislava (the castle is white with a red roof) from the freeway.  The population is 460, 000, but it has a "small-town" feel --

especially in the old part of town.

"Old Town Hall" ("Stará radnica") is definitely "old."  The tower was built in 1370.

 We happened upon a group that was playing some traditional music -- using some unusual instruments.

Recently (1997), however, several amusing bronze sculptures have been added to "Town Square" (Hlavné námestie).  The most popular is "Čumil," a mischievous sewer worker peeking out of a manhole.

The "planned" highlight of the trip was the Lipizzaner show.  (We bought our tickets a month in advance.)  They don't allow photography of the actual show, but if you're unfamiliar with Lipizzaners, I would suggest: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY3wmWT-sb8
That video is a traveling performance in America (that we have attended), but it's just not the same as being in this arena at the Hofburg Palace that was built specifically for this purpose in 1735.  We sat near the corner of the balcony and I took this picture before the performance.

I took this picture from the ground floor after the performance.

Vienna - Thurs., 4 Oct 2012

We stayed in a different city every night of our trip -- except Vienna.  Yesterday, we arrived late, found a small cafe (near the hotel) with GREAT food (which we vowed to revisit tonight -- and did) and a laundromat (across the street), so we ate, did laundry, and retired to the hotel.  Today, we saw Vienna -- and made sure we know how to get to the Lipizzaner show on Friday.  Vienna has a great U-Bahn (subway) system, so -- to avoid traffic and parking -- we bought a 2-day pass and and boarded the U-Bahn.

Our first stop was Karlsplatz.  We've been there before, but it's a beautiful place -- and it's where we needed to transfer U-Bahn lines.

Another advantage of riding the U-Bahn is that you end up discovering some obscure gems that aren't in the guidebooks.  This church (Minoritenkirche), built between 1276 and 1350 A.D., is hidden among some larger buildings, but happens to be right in front of the U-Bahn station.

We located the Spanish Riding School where the Lipizzaners are trained,

but Alice just wanted to pet the horses.

This is Josefplatz (around the corner from Michaelerplatz where Alice is petting the horses above).  Directly behind Alice is the entrance to tomorrow night's Lipizzaner show.

Our next U-Bahn stop was Stephansdom.  This cathedral was built in 1137 A.D., but reconstruction and expansion continued until 1511.  The colored roof consists of 230,000 glazed tiles.  (Because of neighboring buildings, it's difficult to get far enough away to get a complete picture.)

This is the "Upper Belvedere Palace" -- built between 1717 and 1723.  The "Lower Belvedere" was built between 1712 and 1716 but, apparently, was insufficient.  The gardens between the two (some of which are shown in the video below) are about 300 feet wide and 1700 feet long.

These are some of the fountains and gardens behind the Upper Belvedere.

Unbeknownst to us, there were two major events going on in Vienna while we were there.  Alice found a brochure in the hotel (that she's holding in the Karlsplatz picture above) that said (or so she thought) that there was a "wine festival" going on in the "Prater" -- which is a public park that includes an amusement park.  So we went there.  It didn't seem like a wine festival -- it seemed more like a beer festival -- so I Googled it.  It turns out that we walked into "Wiener Wiesn" ("Vienna Oktoberfest") -- only the second year this festival has existed.  Although, just like at Munich's "Oktoberfest," they celebrate their heritage by wearing lederhosen and "pioneer dresses" -- and drinking beer -- the atmosphere is much more subdued than Munich's (as we would later learn).

This year's Wiener Wiesn (September 27 - October 7) boasts 165,000 visitors (we were two of those) and the consumption of 5000 schnitzel and over 22,000 gallons of beer (we were none of those).  There were 3 tents with "traditional" music groups.  This was the most traditional -- the others mixed a little rock and roll with their accordions.

Besides Wiener Wiesn, there was a music festival, called "Waves Vienna" (October 4-7) going on.  Modern bands were playing in several venues outside the Prater (as per my Google search) and we just happened upon this one in front of the Prater U-Bahn station (notice the ferris wheel in the background).  Unbeknownst to us at the time, this is "Dust Covered Carpet" and they have a couple of albums on iTunes.

Graz to Vienna - Wed., 3 Oct 2012

This was a hiking day.  It's only about a two hour drive from Graz to Vienna, but we spent a couple of hours hiking Myra Falls and another 2 or 3 hours hiking to and from Hamilton Castle.

Myra Falls is about an hour southwest of Vienna.  It's about 2000 feet long, but only drops a total of 230 feet, so you have to admire it in several segments (that are each about 20-50 feet in height).  This is one of the lower segments.

This is one of the middle segments.

This is one of the upper segments.  A couple of German-speaking ladies kept trying to get in my pictures (they were successful here), but, by going in October, hardly anyone else was there.

This castle (about 35 minutes southwest of Vienna) is really called "Ruine Rauheneck," but since our former bishop proposed to his wife there, we call it "Hamilton Castle."  It was first built prior to 1130 A.D., but was destroyed by the Serbs in 1477.  It was rebuilt, but then destroyed again in 1529 -- this time by the Turks.  The entrance has a moat (under the bridge in the foreground) and the tower can be seen in the background. 

Although most of the inside is in ruins (hence "Ruine"), it is still very peaceful and fascinating in its beauty and antiquity.

The tower is still intact and the view is incredible.  Part of the castle wall can be seen to the left and another castle can be seen across the valley.

Ljubljana to Graz - Tues., 2 Oct 2012

This may have been our second most picturesque day.  Slovenia is a small country (smaller than Maricopa County in Arizona and less than 4 times the size of Utah County), but it is very photogenic.  Predjama Castle (yesterday's entry) and the pictures below are just a sample.

This is the "Triple Bridge" (or "Tromostovje" in Slovene).  The stone bridge (in the middle where the tour group is) was built in 1842, but because it was narrow and crowded, a pedestrian bridge was built on each side of it in 1931.  Now they are all pedestrian bridges.  The pictures in yesterday's entry were taken from the left side (toward the bridge where the lady has a green bag) and today's picture (2 below) is taken from the right (toward the bridge where the lady has a blue bag).

When the "Dragon Bridge" (or "Zmajski Most" in Slovene) was opened in 1901, it had the third largest arch in Europe at the time.  It was dedicated to the 40-year reign of Franz Joseph I of the Hapsburg Dynasty (hence the 1848-1888 on the side).  There are two green dragons guarding the entrance to each side.  The back of two of them can be seen above.

This picture was taken from the Dragon Bridge -- looking toward the Triple Bridge.  (There is another bridge between them that partially obscures the view.)

Škofja Loka (pronounced Shkohf-ya Loh-ka) has one of the best preserved medieval urban centers in Slovenia.  The column (above the mini-van) was erected in 1751 in thanks for turning away plague and fire.

This stone bridge in Škofja Loka was built in the 14th century.

Looking across Lake Bled ("Blejsko Jezero" in Slovene) to the north, Castle Bled ("Blejski Grad") can be seen.  Parts of the castle date back to 1011.

Looking to the west across Lake Bled, you can see the only natural island in Slovenia.  The church on it was built in the 15th century.

Upon entering Austria, we stopped at a gas station and I snapped this view of Wörthersee (Lake Wörther), which is a 12-mile lake that used to be an exclusive summer retreat for Vienna's nobility -- sometimes referred to as "Austria's Monte Carlo."  Even though "normal" people are now allowed at the resort, we were content to glimpse from afar.