GERMANY - DAY 11

This morning we left Munich and traveled towards the beautiful Alps. We stopped at a quant village of Oberammergau. There we saw buildings painted depicting fairytales or religious images. They were gorgeous. The mountains in the background and this tiny village, what a place to live. Once every decade, they perform a seven hour play called 'The Passion'. Legend has it that when the plaque was spreading through Europe, the people of Oberammergau prayed to God asking to be spared and saved. If they were saved, they would perform this play every decade as a tribute to God. They were saved and even today they still perform this play every decade.

Wieskirche Church was next in a tiny village of Wies. WOW! Never thought that we would see a more beautiful church in the middle of nowhere. It was amazing. The detail in the carvings and the ceiling was beyond belief. It was so light and airy. Truly magnificent.

We then continued onto Neuschwanstein to view this 19th century fairytale castle built by King Ludwig II. It was the castle that Walt Disney based his castle in Disneyland on. It is a wonderful castle but sad because of the 600 rooms only fifteen have been completed. We caught a mini bus up the winding side of a mountain, then walked the rest of the way to a metal bridge which gave impressive views of the castle. This castle is truly fairytale like.

We left the bridge and walked the rest of the way to have a close up look at the castle. We didn't bother going in, to expensive and not worth it, but the outside was impressive enough. Instead of walking down the mountain, the girls and I climbed aboard a horse and carriage and were transported to the village below. It was nice and a bit of a novelty for the girls.

After a lunch of German sausage and bread (turning into a true German), we hit the road and watched a German movie called 'Goodbye Lenin'.

We headed further into the Black Forest where we drove through a little town, Friedrichshafen, where the zeppelin airships were invented and are stilled produced today. We were lucky enough to see an airship flying over the lake. Across the lake looking towards the mountains you could see the country of Switzerland.

We arrived at the hotel nestled in the village of Titisee bordering on a lake that freezes in winter. I could very easily see us staying here in summer with water sports on the lake and the picturesque landscape. It was hard to sleep that night as we kept looking out at the mountains and lake.