Germany

October 26 - November 3

dara / Jim & I took the train from Brussels to Frankfurt. Then, we hopped in the rental car and headed for Wurzburg (the beginning of the Romantic Road). The Romantic Road is this road with fabulous views of Bavaria, Germany. It starts in Wurzburg and ends in Fussen (near the Bavarian Alps). The countryside changes from farmland to valleys to hills to mountains. It is fall in Germany, and the trees are fabulous colors of red, orange and yellow. There are many cute and quaint untouched towns. Definitely a great way to spend a couple of days.

We did detour for a day to view half of the Castle Road. We went from Rottenberg to Heidelberg. There were tons of castles on rivers and above valleys. Some beautifully preserved, while others were a little more rundown. Pretty fabulous to view overall.

The best part, though, was our weekend. We spent the weekend in Oberstdorf in the Bavarian Alps. As I mentioned, it is fall, and the weather was perfect. We found this great room with a patio overlooking the mountains. It was off season, and there were plenty of reasonably priced rooms in the city.

On Saturday, we took the cable car to the top of the mountain and hiked down all day. The mountain was covered by clouds. At the top, the sun was shining down on the mountain tops and the clouds below. The mountain tops of the Bavarian Alps could be seen for miles. It was amazing! We hiked through the clouds to the forest below. A six hour hike in total. But, worth every minute of it.

On Sunday, we headed up to Munich. We stopped at Neuschwantstein (King Ludwig´s famous castle). It is the castle that Disney based their castle on. Pretty amazing detail and worth the trip (although full of tourists).

Jim & I are now hanging out in Munich. Tons of great architecture, great museums and great beer. We also found a good little hotel near the center for a good price. We went to Neue Pinakothek Museum (the 18th and 19th century museum with painting and sculptures). A couple more favorites are Van Gogh's The Weaver, Moritz Von Schwind's Wandering Minstrel Visiting a Hermit, David Wilke's Reading of the Will, Petrus Van Schendel's Market in Antwerp by Night, Adoph Von Menzel's Living Room with Artist's Sister, Johan Christian Dahl's Morning After a Stormy Night, Thomas Gainsborough's Portrait of Mrs. Thomas Hibbart and Johann Heidrich Fussli's Satan and Death Separated by Sin. We are planning on checking out two more art museums tomorrow (classics and modern art). Jim also wants to see the antiques museum. Should be fun!

More importantly, we have CNN to view the election coverage tomorrow, or actually, Wednesday morning. We will be up at the crack of dawn to check out the coverage. No worries though, we voted absentee for those friends and family concerned about our absence. From what we have heard on CNN, there are some election concerns about the ballots in both Ohio (hanging chads) and Florida (faulty computer systems due to the hurricanes).

We are off to Prague on Wednesday for three days. Then, we are meeting Jim's parents in Vienna this weekend. We are headed to Slovenia and Croatia for the following week. We are looking forward to it!