Wow, where do I start. We had a very busy fall, starting at the end of September when our dear friends, Brenda and Dale Derbyshire (aka the Derbys), from Perth, ON, Canada, came to visit us on their way to a cycling trip in Portugal. Tim and I picked them up at the Munich airport and we had lots of laughs on the drive home.
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| ....what did you think we were going to do..... It was Oktoberfest! |
We toured them around Erlangen and then went for a typical German Franconia lunch.
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| The Schloss Garten in Erlangen. |
For our last night, we decided to stay closer to the Munich airport so that we didn't have to rush in the morning to drop them off. We stayed in a small Bavarian village called Aufham. We meandered down the road and took our time getting there.
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| We stopped in a little town called Riedenburg and had a look around. |
Next stop was the Befreiungshalle - Hall of Liberation in Kelheim. King Ludwig I of Bavaria order the Befreiungshalle to be built in order to commemerate the victories against Napoleon during the Wars of Liberation that lasted from 1813 to 1815. The building was completed in 1863.
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| View from the Hall of Kelheim and the Main-Danube Canal. |
We stayed at a great little gasthaus called Landgasthof Weiß located in the small Bavarian village of Aufham. We got there mid afternoon and enjoyed a beer (okay, maybe two) in their biergarten and then an amazing dinner in their restaurant.
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| Dale doing one of his party tricks!!! |
The Derbys were successfully dropped off at the Munich airport just in time for their flight to Lisbon.
They were only here for three nights but it was so wonderful of them to take the time to come and see us. It was great to see them.
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My Birthday Weekend In SE Germany
In between visitors we decided to take our mountain bikes and drive down to the Passau area. We found an amazing apartment in an old monastery called Klosterhof Sankt Salvator.
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| Kloster Sankt Salvator |
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| The entrance |
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| The church at the monastery was ABSOLUTLEY amazing..... |
The area is very hilly but we ventured out with our mountain bikes and cycled about 50 km
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| Hello!!! |
The next day we drove through Austria and parked our car beside the Danube River and rode our bikes up to Passau on the Austrian side of the river and then back along the Germany side of the river.
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| Passau |
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| To get across the river, we had to take a little ferry. |
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| After our cycling we stopped at a biergarten for...... you guessed it, a bier und schnitzel! |
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| As we were sitting there this van pulled up - a mobile bakery! Of course I had to buy something. |
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Ok, back to the visitors......
After a wonderful long birthday weekend in cycling and hiking in the Passau area, our next visitor arrived. My friend and former colleague from National Defence, Barb Arrais, arrived after three weeks travelling around Italy.
Barb was quite tired from all the travelling she had done and was thinking about going home early. Tim and I would have none of that. So we planned out the next three weeks, which included.....
A day trip to the beautiful medieval town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber....
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| The Rathaus - City Hall |
Four days in Prague....
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| Charles Bridge and Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral in the background. |
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| View from Strahov Monastery It is a Premonstratensian abbey founded in 1143 |
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| View of Prague from the Prague Castle vineyards. |
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| A quick Pilsner Urquell in the basement of the beautiful Municipal House. Built in an Art Nouveau style. |
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| A freshly made Trdelnik. It is made from rolled dough that is wrapped around a stick, then grilled and topped with a sugar and ground walnut mix. |
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| Oh, and Barb tried potatoes, pickles dropped with melted cheese. |
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| And......homemade coiled potato chips sprinkled with chil |
And, of course....
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| the astronomical clock, in the main square. First installed in 1410, making it is third oldest clock of its kind in the world, and the oldest one still working. |
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| One of the beautiful buildings in the main square. |
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| The alter at St. Nicholas Church, the most famous Baroque church in Prague, in the Lesser Town Square. |
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| One of the painted ceilings in the church. The pictures cannot do this church justice. Sorry, you will just have to go and see for yourself. |
Then four days in Barcelona....
As I had been to Barcelona a number of times before, Barb spent a day on a walking tour and took a day trip up to Monserrat. While she did that I went up to the Hospital de Sant Pau, a gorgeous early 1900's hospital that has recently been restored. It is a UNESCO Heritage Site.
Hospital de Sant Pau - amazing!!!
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| This detail was on the bottom third of the wall of one of the grand rooms in the front entrance! |
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| Sunrise on the W! (a hotel on the beach) |
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| Gaudi's Palau Guell |
Catedral de Barcelona
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| This Gothic cathedral was constructed from the 13th to the 15th century. |
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| The cathedral's courtyard. |
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| One of the cathedral's columns. |
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| Having a wine at the Boqueria Market. |
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| Just an apartment building - OMG - gorgeous! |
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| Our last dinner out. A tapas evening, with wine, of course. |
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| Ummm..... (not the greasy bacon looking thing - we offered it an Australian, and he loved it - yikes) |
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| ...ummmm |
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| ....good! Dessert - a liqueor with a biscotti floating in it! |
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| Röthelheim Biergarten, Erlangen |
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| Barb spinning one of the brass rings at the Schöner Brunnen (Beautiful Fountain) located in the main market square in Nünberg. Good luck will come to those who spin them! |
A couple of days after we dropped Barb off at the train station, Jocelyn and Roger Green, our great friends from Victoria, BC, Canada, came to visit for a couple of days after their Danube River cruise.
One day we went cycling.....
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| Roger - ready and waiting |
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| Lunch break at one of our favourite Italian restaurants near the Nürnberg airport - Trattoria del Nord |
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| Our route - 50 km |
We had a great fall and it was so good to see so many of our friends!!!!!! Tschüss!
