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Day 12, Tour ends

We started our day with a 6:30 departure from the hotel and a 2 ½ hour drive to Austria and our tour of the Eagle’s nest. What a drive! The Alps are something to be  experienced as the photos don’t really do them justice.

After arrival we got out of our touring bus to get onto a narrower bus for the ride to the top if you look closely at this photo you can just make out the Eagle’s nest at the very top of the mountain.

We took this group shot at the top and spent about 45 minutes there before heading down the mountain for a lunch at the visitor center there.

From there we drove into Strauszburg, Austria for a walking tour and some free time before driving back to Munich for dinner.

No dinner shots as my wife, Linda, and I have opted to go to the hotel with the bus driver and I’ve handed off leadership to Mrs. Johnson for this evening. Linda has come down with a bad cold and I’m putting her to bed early this evening before we fly back tomorrow.

Day 11

We started our day with our German guide, Barbara at the BMW building and had some time to do some shopping, bad news everyone wanted to buy a sample, good news nobody had a high enough credit limit on their bank cards. :-)

From there we got on our bus for a bus and walking tour of Munich with our first stop at the former royal palace with some impressive grounds but not up to those as Versailles.

From there we headed to the center of the city and saw some areas that are related to events that took place during pre-WWII including a square where Hitler gave speeches during his time in power.

I don’t believe that I’ve shown you a picture of our Tour Director, Larae Malooly, who is all of 4’10” tall and is difficult for all of us to keep up with. This is not a flattering shot of her but does show her mocking me in a friendly way when she was not expecting a picture to be taken. She's been with us since our arrival in London.

We took the day’s group shot there in the square and then headed off for lunch where we all decided that the Hard Rock Café sounded like a good idea. For this picky eater it was nice to get a truly American meal and they even refilled my coke without asking for no extra charge, first time.

The afternoon was a visit to Dachau concentration camp and it was a very quiet ride there and back. We are all tired but I don’t believe that the reason was totally from fatigue but in anticipation of what was ahead. We had a great general tour and watched a documentary film in the middle of the tour which was a welcome respite from the walking.

You can see that we saw the gate, "work will make you free" and walked through for our tour and then later to the ovens that were used to elimiate the bodies of at least 30,000 political prisoners and Jews. Finally a look back over the grounds where the housing was located but destroyed because of the danger from disease. The buildings there now are recreated to show how they looked. The only genuine remaining structures are the foundations that you can see in the grounds shot.

From there back to town for an early dinner and finish to the evening so that we can get an early start for tomorrows trip to the Eagle’s nest in Austria and I’m excited about that.

We are having the time of our lives, but some are growing weary due to the constant push to see what there is to see but tomorrow is another day, our last day touring and then the journey back to Oklahoma. I'm not sure that I'll have time or energy to update tomorrow evening but we'll see . . .
Mr. P

Day 10

We got off to an early start leaving our hotel in Berlin at 8:00 AM with a 6:00 AM wakeup call. We then drove about 2 hours until a rest stop for a comfort stop and quick snack and then back on the bus for another 1 ½ hours where most of us bought a lunch before arriving in Nuremburg for an hour walking tour of the city.

Along the way you can see that we stopped for snacks and obviously we found an American chain. :-)

We first stopped at the famous court house where the Nuremburg War Crime trials were held at the end of the war.

Then we would make the walking tour of the old town, or new old town as a lot of the city somehad to be rebuilt after the war because if the extensive damage caused by allied bombing.

After the walking tour we took a short bus ride out to the Nazi rally site which is now a great museum showing the effectiveness of propaganda used during the war. This was the site of the torch lite rallies that you’ve seen in the documentaries where Hitler rallied the German people. The museum was a blend of artifacts, photos and walking in the buildings where it happened.

Although its been a long day travel wise we’ve had a good day and needed some down time before hitting Munich where tomorrow we will visit Dachau, the Jewish concentration camp and will spend about 2 ½ hours there.

Of course we have dinner still to look forward to as I’m anticipating very little time this evening to work on the blog I’ve taken my laptop on the bus and have been working on previous days photos and writing today’s entry hoping that I’ll be able to post this evening. As you can see we "got er done" this evening and you can see the beer hall where we ate and the group at the table.

We continue to move along with very few problems and the kids are having a great time although I am beginning to see some weariness on some from time to time.
Sorry that everyone is not in a photo this evening but we are all fine and well.

Day 9

We started out day in Berlin with a bus tour of the city beginning with some interesting architectural sites including this sculpture on the river.

From there we visited a Soviet Memorial to the Russian soldiers that died in the war but specifically those that died in the liberation of Berlin in May of 1945.

The Soviets would use a German Park and install their monument there and it was very nice but our guide said that not many Germans visited the park other than to run. He indicated that Russian tourists did visit it frequently on their tours.

We decided that it was a good spot for a group shot.

From there we traveled along a site where the Berlin wall was still standing but had art work in stalled back in the 80s that had been recently restored.

Took another group shot as we wondered through a German memorial to the Holocaust dead which was very different, huge blocks of varying heights from a few feet to well above our heads.

Then another group shot at the Brandenburg Gate which had been in no-man’s land during the Berlin Wall era, between the two walls and therefore could not be visited.

We were taking a walking tour and then headed to the famous Checkpoint Charlie, the entry and exit point from West Berlin to the east during the height of the cold war.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel via uban (subway) and electric tram line for an early evening before heading to Munich tomorrow via Nuremburg, about an eight hour trip via bus. There we will stay for the last two nights before heading back home.

About out of time to upload, internet use is expensive here, but will try and post the night before we leave. Will arrive too late tomorrow to upload probably.   gute Nacht from Germany!

Day 8

Day 8

Sorry didn’t get this posted yesterday but we had a long day and didn’t arrive until very late and had limited access to internet. We started our day with a bus ride to Cologne where we toured the city had lunch and took a group shot near a Roman gate dating back nearly 2,000 years. There is really old stuff here in Germany. :-)

From there we jumped on a train for a 5 hour ride to Berlin reaching top speed of 250 Kph or about 150-160 mph, telephone poles looked like uprights in a picket fence as we rode by.

Some of us read while some tried to rest but all in all it was a great ride.

We arrived at about 11:30 PM and were in our rooms sleeping by 12:30ish for a later start the next morning at about 9:30 AM.



Day 7

Day 7

We’ve just arrived in Liege, Belgium after leaving Paris this morning and have visited several sites associated with the Battle of the Bulge near Bastogne, Belgium.

Our guide, Robby, was an older gentleman, probably my age :-) that worked with the local community promoting visitation of the battle site and was an amateur historian as it relates to the fighting in this area. He was very engaging and informative.

We visited what is called the “Jack Forest” which is where the American 506th Army met the German forces in the Ardennes Forest. We walked through the forest and smelled the freshly cut spruce trees there before arriving at the site of a line of fox holes that date back to December 1944 when the battle took place. If you’re a little rusty on your history this battle was very well portrayed in the HBO movie “Band of Brothers” which our tour director has been showing on the bus as we traveled today.




We had lunch in Bastogne at a number of different places on the square and most of us enjoyed the local speciality of Belgium fries which are very similar to American fries with the exception that they are fried twice and as a result are hot and soft on the inside and crunchy on the out, tres bien!

We’ve visited several memorials to specific American groups including the 101st Airborne Group as well as a German cemetery where the dead were buried 3 to 6 to a grave but all noted on the head stone. The headstones were a cross but not the white of the American Cemetery at Normandy but a darker, smaller grante headstone. Nicely done but very somber looking in comparison to other cemeteries that we’ve visited.

We’ve finished dinner by 8:00 PM and were checked into our rooms in the local Best Western Hotel here and most are settling down to a slower evening with a later start tomorrow. Breakfast is at 9:00 AM with the bus loading at 10:00 AM for our trip to Berlin. We drive for about an hour and pick up a bullet train for the remainder of the trip with speeds up to 180 mph, I’m looking forward to that trip. We eat lunch before the train and will bring a sandwich for dinner on the train. We arrive late in Berlin at about midnight, so a late start but also a late arrival.

Bonne nuit!

Well as I reviewed this post I notice that I've not included any of the group and perhaps you'd like to see them as well. :-)

Here we are leaving the German Cemetery towards the bus before heading to the Jack Forest.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
And below you can see the fox holes that have filled in significantly from 1944.

And below we are in front of the American Memorial at Bastogne.

And then of course the obligatory bus shots! :-)

 

Well that will cover today pretty well. If time goes well this evening I'll try and go back and fill in some shots from day 5 & 6, so you might want to review those days, but first a shower and clean up prior to going to bed and then we'll see. It's now 10:30 PM but . . .