The second leg of our vacation was all about Germany and kicking it with family. My brother and his family were posted to Germany a few months ago and we'd been looking forward to visiting them there. They're in the Bavaria region of Germany and were our tour guides to a bunch of cool towns in the area.
The first stop on our whirlwind tour was Amberg
It's a pretty town on the Vils River and it's been around since 1034.
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This square had the cutest fountain:
Pigs. Too cute!!
On the way back from Amberg we decided to do a quick drive through another town - Kallmünz.
Our quick drive through turned into a full-on exploration however when we saw Kallmünz Castle on the hill and decided to make the trek up the (steep, asthma-inducing, never-ending) stairs that had been cut into the mountain to see it up close:
The Castle itself was beautiful but so was the view from the top of the mountain.
Our next outing was to Regensburg. It's a larger town and had many beautiful churches, Roman ruins and more pretty parks and squares than I could count.
The Stone Bridge was built in 1135 and crosses the Danube. It was a pretty spot to stop and relax a bit.
The Dom cathedral can be seen from all over Regensburg. It was built between 1275 - 1634 but has one chapel inside that dates back to the 8th century. The interior was beautiful:
There was also a lower level where several bishops were buried and that had really early ruins - I'm not sure what period they were from, but they had a Celtic look:
Across from The Dom is a tiny chapel that is dedicated to St. Mary. It only has about 4 pews:
Also near The Dom was the Cathedral "Zu unserer lieben Frau". The inside is rococo style and blew me away:
We did a big road trip to Berchtesgaden, Germany to see the Bavarian Alps and tour the Eagles Nest and the Salt Mines. This area was breath taking - we could have spent a week there hiking and fishing. But as we were on a tight schedule, we hit the tourist highlights.
The Eagles Nest was interesting. The location has amazing views of the Alps. The only downside is that there is not much info about the history of the home and it use by Hitler as it's been completely renovated into a restaurant.
Pretty great background for a pic with My Sister-in-Law and nephews.
The Salt Mines tour on the other hand was very informative and FUN!
They suit you up in miner's coveralls and send you down through the salt mines by train, slide and boat:
The area near the salt mine is lovely with an aquamarine river running next to it that I think is a result of salt runoff, but for whatever reason the color is startling.
They sent us on our way with a free sample of salt which I thought was very kind! They had lots of salt based spa treatments as well as specialty cooking salts for sale in the gift shop but at that point we were nearing packing capacity on the suitcases for gifts.
On our way back to the States we spent half a day in Munich before our flight. It's a pretty city although I don't think we were really able to appreciate it in such a short amount of time.
This is the Hofbräuhaus in Germany. We were there around 3 pm and they were having a "Tea Dance" - which did not appear to involve tea but rather a lot of beer. I'm assuming "tea" just refers to the time of day.
Odeonsplatz.
We might have to give Munich more of a chance on the next trip. Bavaria is a beautiful region and we clearly only saw a small portion, but the whole trip was made that much more fun because of the time we got to spend with family.
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