The workings part 1

Jun 29, 2011 01:36

It is really unbelievable how times does seem to slip through our fingertips. June is almost over, and that will mark 2 months that I have been here!

There is so much to talk about but some things I feel are personal matters for the family and should not be discussed publicly. I will instead focus on the positive aspects!

First off: my trip to Hamburg was a success! I only had to make one U-turn on the way into the city and a small scare on the way out on the way back when I started driving but my trip hadn't been calculated on the GPS. I had to drive some random neighborhoods "blind" for a bit but then the GPS kicked back up and started bossing me around.

I got back on Sunday evening and on Wednesday morning (at 6 am!) we left for vacation!! We had a looooong drive over 8 hours from Northern Germany to Burghausen (See the drive here!-map-). The drive probably took over 11 since we were on country back roads for the first 3 hours becuase there was a glitch with the GPS, the cool thing about that was that we drove by old DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) German border crossings! There was a small museum by the road where you could see the difference between the West side-just a wall, and the DDR side was a stretch called "no-mans-land" with chained dogs, land mines, armed guards in towers, etc the difference was really astonishing and while I only caught a glimpse of the memorial while we were driving it was virtually impossible not to think about the people who tried to escape, many of which lost their lives in their attempts.
We also had a long "break" (like 90 mins) at McDonalds so Clarissa could expend some energy on the playground.

We arrived at Burghausen around 5 pm where we stayed at a lovely Bed and Breakfast run by an English family living in Germany! They were so nice and it was great chatting in English although it was amusing to see the kids talk in "Denglish" much like how my family often operates in Spanglish.




                                                                                       (My room!)
That night we toured the city center a bit (really for my benefit since Cat grew up in that town). Burghausen borders a river and the other side of the river is actually Austria! In the days before the formation of the EU one had to drive through a border check, lucky for me the older check station is now a museum because I left my Passport at home! We crossed into Austria and had a lovely dinner while looking to Germany and the castle that overlooks the city (funfact: the castle now houses apartments, Cat's dad lived in one for over 20 years!) 
                                                


(Burghausen castle, and Cathedral from Austria)
After taking care of some family things the next day, the day after I was able to tour the castle, Burghausen is actually the longest castle structure in Europe! It is over 1000 meters long, which according to my phone is .62 miles! Wow! I wonder who claims the longest castle in the world.. my guess is maybe China.

After we left Burgahusen, we stopped in Altötting, which is a very famous pilgrimage site for people to pray to an icon of the Virgin Mary, which is black, She is known Schwarz Mary and people come to pray to her for health. There is a chapel outside the main church where she is located the entire outside of the church is filled with paintings and pictures giving thanks for Mary's help. Pictures ranging from 1800 to present day, if someone prays to the black Mary and she answers they're prayers they then commission or paint a picture to hang on the outer apse of the chapel


        
 


                                                    

(People leave pictures to give thanks, or have special crosses made that are placed by the door, people who are cured from ills leave their old aides here)

Then it was off to Dorfmond for the Bavarian party of the century......

Next time :)

I hope you enjoyed the detailed/informational post and would love feedback!

I also have some good news and will share once everything is confirmed :D

bavaria, travel 2011, germany 2011, june 2011

Previous post Next post
Up
[]