Susan May: Germany, Switzerland and Austria 2014

We traveled alongside picturesque Rhine River most of the way to Trier.

Such beautiful green country covered with wine grapes, small villages and castles.

TRIER, GERMANY Roman Trier, build by Augustus, was founded in 16 B.C. This Roman fortification in Germany, was built with iron pegs, hold the sandstone block together. The 'black gate' (originally lighter sandstone, but darkend with time) survived because it be came a church in 1035.

Inside the Porta Negra

View of Trier from Porta Negra.

Late afternoon we met our 25 travel mates at the 'Welcome the Germany' gathering.

Afterward we walked through Deutschland's oldest city and made new friends over dinner.

The mid-size city of Trier, with about 100,000 people, boarders the Mosel River and Luxumborg. Trier's Hauptmarkt was filled

with a mix of fruit stands, flowers, painted facades and fountains. Passerbys can order their favorite wine at a stand-up wine bar.

Burg Eltz, has been left intact for 700 years and is decorated and furnished as it was 500 years ago. Europe's oldest castle still in use as a residence.

BADEN-BADEN, GERMANY Baden-Baden was the playground of Europe's high-rolling aristocrats around 150 years ago.

We had a private tour of the casino, which looks more like a royal residence than a gambling hall.

A local guide walked us through the preserved farmhouses and mills of the Black Forest Open-Air Museum.

After lunch we enjoyed a slice of Bavarian chocolate cake and sampled of a local cherry liquor.

MURREN, SWITZERLAND Next, we traveled into Switzerland's snow-peaked Berner Oberland country. At the end of the deep Lauterbrunnen Valley, we took a gondola lift up to our hotel in cliff top Mürren. It was raining when we arrived so we didn't see the mountains. The next morning we opened the curtains to a beautiful day that made you want to sing, "The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music."

Ken 'playing' the alpine horn.

Murren is traffic-free resort filled with cafes, souvenirs, old timers with walking sticks, and happy tourists. Sitting on a ledge 2,000 feet above the Lauterbrunnen Valley, Murren has no doctor, police officer, or resident priest. They call a nearby town if they need assistance.

The Klettersteig or Way of Iron, is a cliffside trail made of u-shaped metal loop steps

drilled into the mountainside and a cable running shoulder height above to hold on to.

The 3,000 foot high mile long trail, takes about three hours to cover.

Look closely at the picture below and find, coming from the rocky bluff on the left,

someone walking on the Klettersteig bridge.

Beautiful country

LINDAU, GERMANY On the way to Munich we stopped for

lunch at the lovely lakeside town of Lindau.

St. Stephan Church

MUNICH, GERMANY

Munich, often called Germany's most livable city, (1.5 million people) is also one of its

most historic, artistic, and entertaining. The world famous Hofbrauhus is a beer hall that serves three sizes of beer.

We spent the morning on a walking tour through historic Munich's

Old Town. Munich has such has such a great market place.

Lunch time in Munich.

Smallest business in town. Munich City Hall

Neuschwanstein Castle

The most popular tourist destinations in southern Bavaria are the two 'Kings Castles.' Neuschwanstein Castle was built as the private refuge for Ludwig II of Bavaria, but opened to the public immediately after his death in 1886. Hohenschwangau Castle, a neo-gothic 19th-century palace built upon medieval fortress ruins by Ludwig’s father, King Maximillian II. Yes, Walt Disney used drawings and photos of this castle for the entrance into his Magical Kingdom.

Hohenschwangau Castle

HALLSTATT, AUSTRIA
Hallstatt, a beautiful village of 947 inhabitants, is crammed between the shore of a lake and steep mountainside. Hallstatt is known for its production of salt, dating back to prehistoric times, and gave its name to the Hallstatt culture, a culture often linked to people in Early Iron Age Europe, c.800-450 BC.

View from our hotel room. Translation: Jewelry Boat

The history of the Ossuary is that they ran out of space in the cemetery, and they decided to take the bones out after being
buried for 15-20 years.The decorated skulls belonged to men and women dating back to the 12th century.

View of Hallstatt from above.

MAUTHAUSEN, GERMANY Today we drove toward Vienna, stopping en route to tour the Mauthausen Concentration Camp, where we learned about the Holocaust of 1933-1945.

The Memory Room displays names of those who lost their life at Mauthausen.

The German, "stumbling block" (stolperstein) is a monument that commemorates a victim of the Holocaust. Stumbling blocks are small, cobblestone-sized memorials for an individual victim of Nazism. They commemorate individuals both those who died and survivors. Many of these bronze blocks are place in outside the victim's dwelling.

By July 8, 2010, there were over 25,000 stolpersteine in 569 cities and towns.

SALTZBURG, AUSTRIA Saltzburg is the fourth-largest city in Austria. It is known for its baroque architecture and is one of the best-preserved city centers north of the Alps. Salzburg was the birthplace of 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Mirabell Gardens where Maria and the Trapp children danced and sang, (Sound of Music) the Leopoldskron Lake where they fell into the water, the abbey where the real Maria Trapp was a novice, the church where Maria and the Baron were married.

Salzburg's most visible icon is the Hohensalzburg Fortress, built in 1077 which sits

high above the city. The 900-year-old cliff-top fortress is one of the biggest and best preserved in Europe.

View from the Hohensalzburg Fortress above the town.

VIENNA, AUSTRIA St. Stephen's Cathedral is the most important Catholic Church in Vienna.

It has a multi-colored tile roof with a diamond pattern and two tall towers which are the most recognizable

symbols of the city. It is the Number one tourist attraction of Vienna.

The church started as a Romanesque church in 1147. There was a major fire in 1258 that destroyed the church, so a Gothic church was started in the early 14th century as a replacement. There was a Turkish siege of the city in 1683 that caused much damage to the church. At the end of the Second World War, the roof was heavily damaged but through generous donations, the roof was completely repaired in 1950 with ceramic tiles donated by the people of Vienna.

Hofburg Imperial Palace