What Frank saw in Germany

Some photos Frank took while in Germany...I'll have him post some descriptions later.
OK, here they are:

I did take a little trip to Oberammergau, Germany recently. Not having traveled by myself for a while, I had some difficulty remembering how to pack just my own clothes. What I did not remember to take was a camera. Luckily, a colleague loaned me his so that I would not get in trouble for neglecting to document my trip.

I thought this scene said "idyllic German village". I will not say this car was representative of what I saw in Oberammergau, but it did speak to my inner pack-rat who never discards anything, no matter how old.


This is the local Tex-Mex restaurant. It was good, but not like any Tex-Mex I have eaten before. They definitely put a German spin on a burrito. I did find it ironic to be eating at a Tex-Mex restaurant in Germany as I myself am a Ger-Mex-Tex-ican...


These are some of the local buildings. The town makes most of its money from tourists coming in to see their passion play. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberammergau_Passion_Play) Long story short, the town made a deal during the 1600's to end the plague and has been living up to their end of the bargain ever since. Quite a few of the buildings are painted with these ornate murals.


There was also an organized tour of a local castle, about an hour away. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle) It was a very interesting tour, although I do have to fault the designers for putting it on the top of a rather steep mountain instead of on a nice flat field. They also neglected to put any room for parking at the top or to install a ski-lift system. I took a nice climb to the top. Here I am at about the 3/4 point up on the path getting my picture taken (and catching my breath).
I finally reached the castle and took some pictures outside (no pictures allowed inside). If you take a careful look at the floor plan, you can see that while the designers neglected parking, they did thoughtfully include a cafe and gift shop.


The drive back from Oberammergau actually had us traveling through Austria for a few miles/kilometers. Unfortunately, I don't think that you can tell just how magnificent the mountains and lakes looked in real life from these pictures, but you get the general idea.


And of course, no trip would be complete without souvenirs. These two traditionally-attired Bavarian bears were about the only thing I found that I thought the boys would have difficulty breaking...