Travel Update

Note...I am now in Bari, Italy, having just arrived on the boat from Greece. I didn't post this before because I hadn't uploaded all the pictures. Also, I was not able to get the Vienna pictures, the computer I was using was too slow. Anyway, I'll just post the blog as I wrote it from Greece...

This is a very long post, but I finally found a place that allowed me to install a program to (hopefully) recover my Vienna pictures. I am sitting here waiting for it to finish, so I decided to post an extra long blog. Enjoy!

I am in sunny Athens, Greece. I arrived on an night flight from Frankfurt, Germany last night, and I went straight to my hotel. I woke up this morning and spent a few hours just relaxing in the sun, and reading my Bible. It's really amazing to be in some of the same places where Paul walked and preached. This afternoon I'm going to the Acropolis, and to Mars hill, where Paul talked with the Greeks of his day. It should be fun!

Last week was pretty cool, although I didn't exactly follow my plan. I was going to travel on the Romantic Road in Germany and see some of the castles, but it was raining all week, and every place I wanted to go took at least five hours to get to on the train. From Vienna, I started out by going to Salzburg for one afternoon because I was on the train all morning. I spent most of the afternoon at Salzburg Fortress (Hohensalzburg), which is on the top of a bluff overlooking the town...

I also went to see Mozart's birthplace and museum. I kind of stumbled on the place as I was walking along. The outside is not very impressive...

but inside they had a lot of original paintings, pictures, instruments, and other things from his life. The camera rules were very strange, in some rooms we were allowed to take pictures, but in other rooms, we had to put our cameras away. I couldn't see any logic to the rules. Anyway, these are some of the pictures that I took...

I walked around town for a little while trying to find out how to get up to the fortress. I ended up walking up a flight of stairs that seemed to lead nowhere, but at the top was a steep road that led to the castle. I found out later that there is a tram up the mountain...oh well, guess I saved a few euros.

When I got to the actual fortress, I couldn't believe the view. It was stunning; the whole valley was in front of me. I filled up my new memory card that I had bought (2 Gb's) and I couldn't decide what to delete to make room for more.


























































I finally left the castle and got on the train for Munich, where I stayed the night.

I got on a train for Fussen in the morning, and didn't arrive till about 4 in the afternoon. I had planned to see the two castles in the area - Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau - but unfortunately it was too late to go up. It was also kind of wet and rainy, and the visibility was not very good. I ended up wandering around the town for a while...

The next morning I got up right away and headed to the castles. On the bus ride I was told that it was one of the worst days that they had had for a while. The fog was so thick that you couldn't see more than 20 or 30 feet in any direction. I went ahead anyway and bought my tickets. I figured that I could spend the morning inside and the sun would eventually burn off the fog. I also thought that I might be able to get some cool shots of the castle in the fog. Unfortunately, the fog was too thick to see the castle except from up close. This picture was from the morning when I was standing on a bridge where you could usually see the castle. I didn't even know which direction to point my camera.

I went on the tours...no pictures allowed. However, the insides of the castles were very cool, all pomp and grandeur. One of the castles - Hohenschwangau - was a private home of the royal family, so it was not as big. The other castle is supposedly the castle that Walt Disney copied from. It is very fairy tale like...more on that later.

I went through the castles and came back outside. The fog showed no signs of lifting, and in addition, it had started raining. I decided to head for the next town and see if I could fit a side trip back here for some photos. I was waiting at the bus stop when I looked up and saw this...

It was about 2 in the afternoon, so I knew that I wouldn't be able to get to any other town that day if I went back up the mountain. However, it looked as if the fog was lifting, and so I figured I would give it a shot. I went back up the mountain and back to the bridge. Even though I now knew where the castle was, I still could not see it...

I decide to do a little hiking while I was up there, and try to find a good place to be when the fog finally cleared. I went along a little path that continued from the bridge...

I finally reached the end of the trail, where several trees had fallen into the path. I figured I wouldn't be able to see anything on the other side, because it just looked like forest.

The forest was very quiet, and all you could hear was the rain pattering on the leaves. It was awesome.



















I finally came back to the bridge, and went back up to the place where I thought I could get a good shot of the castle. It was perfect timing, the fog was just starting to lift, and the castle looked like it was floating in a cloud...















Here is a before and after shot to show what the fog was like...

I stayed there for a few minutes, then decided to go a little higher up...

I came down the mountain and went back to the hotel and washed up. I was all wet and muddy from climbing around on the mountain. It was completely worth it though.

The next day, Saturday, I had to make a flight connection to Athens, from Frankfurt. I wanted to stop in a small town along the way - Rothenburg. The train was supposed to take 4 hours to Rothenburg, and a train from Rothenburg to Frankfurt was supposed to take about 2 hours. I made my flight, but it was close!

Here are some pictures from the town, It has a wall that goes all the way around the old part of the city. I walked on part of it...

and went up in one of the guard towers...

I also visited the Criminal Museum in the town, which displays some of the tools and methods used in the Medieval justice system.

I thought this was pretty interesting...

Well, I will post again when I have some more pictures. The cafe that I am in now is one of the more expensive ones that I have used. It's the only one in town, though, so I guess it has the market cornered.