Visitors

My Mother and Stepfather have been here since last Friday so we've been on the go ever since they got here.

We started out pretty light on Saturday just visiting the local area but we've been down to the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles in Southern Germany, we moved on yesterday to the Seehof Palace and downtown Bamberg, Germany, a city with a unique beer brewing style that I talked about here, here, here and here. According to my European Daytrips guidebook Bamberg residents drink an average of 330 liters a person per year, a world record, but that's a story for another day and another blog.  Oh yeah besides the beer it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In Bamberg we of course had some beer and we visited St Peter's Cathedral, the Prince Bishop's Rose Garden and New Residence.  Today we headed down to Kelheim and took a River Cruise on the Donau River to the Weltenburger Monastery, home to the World's Oldest Monastery Brewery, where we had a lunch and enjoyed an afternoon lounging in the biergarten, very relaxing.

Tomorrow and Thursday it's off to Munich and Prague.  Friday starts the Ironman Regensburg activities.  So there is still plenty of fun ahead.

Ok enough talk, here are the pictures.

 

Hohenschwangau Castle

The clouds rolling down the Alps to Neuschwanstein Castle

Macen, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa

A view of the waterfalls from the Marien Brucke just above Neuschwanstein Castle

A picture of Neuschwanstein from Marien Brucke

Hohenschwangau from Neuschwanstein

One very sleepy little boy

One very sleepy Grandma

Seehof Palace

The fountains go off every hour on the hour

Macen being silly with Grandpa's hat

St Peter's Cathedral, Bamberg

The Prince Bishop of Bamberg's New Residence 

The Rose Garden

Can you spot the crazy American 4 year old in the Rose Garden? Hint he's wearing blue.

St Peter's Cathedral on the right and St Michaels Monastary on the left.  We spent an hour trying to drive to St. Michaels only to be continously routed the wrong way down a one way street by the GPS.  We finally gave up.

Grandma and Grandpa on the River Cruise. 

Grandma with Maddox and Macen

Grandma, Dad, Macen and Maddox

Dad trying to teach Macen how to skip a rock