Tootsall

As many of you know, we spent our family vacation this year in Germany. Visiting friends in Bavaria (not far from Wangen), we were able to take advantage of their kind offer to borrow one of their cars and drive to southern Switzerland where we stayed a week in a time-share that they own up on a mountainside... accessible by cable-car. Daytrips out from there allowed us to pop into Italy for a day of shopping and do some other fun stuff.

The middle week of the 3 week trip saw us spending our time around Bavaria visiting some of the medeival towns of Wangen, Sigmarigen, Fussen and Mitterwald (this last where the entire village seems to concentrate on building Stradivarius-style violins).

Our last week was arranged to allow us to visit the Danube river, taking a riverboat cruise from Passau to Linz, Austria and back before a half-day visit to Munich and return home.

To see the slideshow you will need to click the following link, use password "shredder", then drill down to "Bavaria Switzerland 06" and select "slideshow". If anyone has any questions or comments I'd be happy to try to respond within this thread. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed our vaction!

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Tootsall/

Tootsall.

Solar Bell

Toots,

I have been looking at your ppictures for about an hour now. (I started before this thread)

All I can say is "Well thank you, Pal!"

Now Karen really has the bug to get back to Germany!

GREAT PICTURES!! Just enough shots of YOU too!

-cw-

tpter1

Welcome back, Toots! And thanks for sharing all those wonderful photos.

frank

great pics, Toots! Thanks for taking us on the journey - the south is pretty much different from the Brandenburg sand box

BUT: Is it possible you didn't show some pics of a certain place in Wangen? Confess...

Tootsall

Frank, I have nothing to confess! My conscience is absolutely clear.

Chuck, there will be more photos added as I get through my daughter's collection (another 300 or so) plus we get my wife's films developed and scanned in. There should be a few more of me in there. :)

Oh... and you really do owe Karen a trip to the land of enormous breakfasts. (Imagine if you will... buffet breakfast featuring... juice, tea (half dozen brands), coffee, mineral water (hate the stuff... like drinking liquid ozone), cereals (three kinds including what can only be described as "granola"), plates of cheese and meat slices, pates, fruit of a half dozen varieties, BREAD... oh the bread is to die for, scones, butter, scrambled eggs, margarine and "half n half", jams, jellies, honey. If you have the idea that what some hotels here in North America call "continental breakfast" (consisting of coffee and a bun) comes from the continent, THINK AGAIN!!!!!!! (But you won't get fat on the breakfast... some of those grain breads will certainly take care of THAT wee problem with great efficiency!)

Drinking water is almost impossible to come by unless you "come, buy" it. Even then most of it was either mineral water or carbonated water. We were fortunate in that the water tank the dog was standing in in that first photo was the result of an artesian well and you could drink the water straight out of the pipe. One minor "day of adjustment" and there were no more stomach problems experienced by any of the four of us.

The one thing I couldn't square myself with is the virtual lack of milk! They sell milk in (mostly) 1-1/2% and 3-1/2% butterfat varieties in one litre containers. Over half of what I saw was the "heat treated" stuff (long, unrefrigerated shelf life). You pay for "tap water" (known as "still vasser") and the one time I ordered a glass of milk I got.... a cup of milk (like "cafe au lait... and hold the coffee"?) along with about four cubes of sugar should I want to sweeten it! It seems that milk is more of a condiment in Europe (and I've since heard also in South America) and it just isn't considered "a beverage" unless for babies.

frank

No visit to Franz Straub then?

B15M

I looked through all of them. All the old vacations and trumpets. Pretty cool stuff.

londonhusker

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dow30

Wow, Toots! Nice photos. Thanks for those, really enjoyed them. Being I don't go on planes I miss all the great sight seeing around the world. Loved all the great scenes, post some more!

Tootsall

That's a negative, frank. We just didn't have time to dig around and see where his shop is...but I seem to remember from mapquest that it's S.E. of the main part of town. Believe me... when you're a stranger and you don't really know your way around the tendency is to drive to a central location, park and walk! Besides... add in one teen-age daughter who is bugging you to "hurry up and get shopping"... well............... what price peace and quiet?

Dave, if I'd known you were going to be around I'd have looked for you. The thing is, we didn't have a clue that we were even going to go there until the weekend we arrived (July 12, 13) and certainly didn't have time to check out what was available. My original plan had been to drive to Interlaken and stay there but........ well, when the opportunity was presented we decided to jump at it. Temperatures were in the mid-30s when we arrived and everyone's brain was on "fry" mode! All we were looking for at that point is a cool place to sleep!

(But get in touch with me if you're interested in investing in a Swiss condo... 2 br & etc.) Right near the south end of the Berner Oberland tunnel.