Ok, here are some pictures from our trip to Germany and Austria over the 4th of July, I apologize if the pictures cause the page to load slowly. During the first half of the trip we rented an apartment in Kitzbuhel, Austria (a ski town in the Austrian Alps) and drove to our daily destinations from there. The second part of the trip we stayed in a hotel just outside Munich and drove from there.
One of the day trips we took was to Oberammergau, Germany. The town is located in the south of Germany, in Bavaria – near the center of the country. The region is in the lower mountains and was heavily forested in the surrounding areas – it has a somewhat close proximity to the Black Forest. The town is famous for a few things, the Passion Play that it puts on twice a year, very intricate (read: expensive) wood carvings done by local artists, and paintings on the buildings, typically dipicting fairy tales or scenes from the Passion Play. The pictures below are just scenes from the town that caught my interest.
Oberammergau, Germany
Oberammergau, Germany
After Oberammergau we were headed to Fussen which is right on the boarder with Austria. Fussen is home to Nueschwanstein, which is a very famous castle or schloss. On the way to Fussen we stopped at the Weiskirche. The Weiskirche is a pilgrammage church really in the middle of nowhere. It is considered one of the finest examples of Rococo style archtecture and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The church was quite amazing and the few pictures I have don’t do it justice.
Weiskirche, Germany
Weiskirche, Germany
Probably our favorite place we went was Hallstatt, Austria. Hallstatt is a small town, population less than 1000, crammed between a large lake and a mountain; the town is literally one street with one side on the lake and the other going up the mountain. It is located halfway between Salzburg and Vienna and was only reachable by car near around 1950, if I remember correctly. This town is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site; they had banners up at the museum celebrating 7000 years as a settlement. They have evidence of settlement dating back to around 5000 b.c., likely because of the salt mines in the region (Hall translates to salt). It is also home to the first known pipeline, which was formed using hollowed trees.
Hallstatter See - Hallstatt, Austria
Hallstatt, Austria
Hallstatt, Austria
Hallstatt, Austria
Hallstatt, Austria
Hallstatt, Austria
Hallstatt, Austria
Hallstatt, Austria
After Hallstatt we were headed to Salzburg but we stopped at the Lichtenstein Gorge on the way there. Unfortunately we weren’t really prepared to do much hiking so we couldn’t go to far.
Lichtenstein Gorge - Austria
When we got to Salzburg we went to the Augustiner Braustubel, a famous brewery which also had the largest beer garden in either Salzburg or all of Austria, I don’t recall. After that we went to the old city, unfortunately there was even going on in St. Peterskirche so we could not go inside. We did get to see Mozart’s childhood home though. We probably should have gone back and spent some more time in Salzburg.
St. Peterskirche - Salzburg, Austria
Salzburg, Austria
Salzburg, Austria
It was really strange seeing all of these old buildings with the lower levels occupied by modern stores, like a McDonald’s or Prada. It felt like they should all be protected, but I guess they are all old so it isn’t so special?
The final picture is just a picture of farmland in the midst of the Alps in Austria.
Austrian Alps
More to come…
Ok, some of the pictures are cut off on the right side…does anyone know how to fix this? Maybe I made the pictures too big?
@Joe, I change all my images to 72 dpi and make the width 7 inches or less, height does not matter.
You need a Flickr account, my friend!
I have one, is it easier/better to upload from that? You use the medium size, right?
I use it for so many things, it’s easiest for me to also use it here. Yep, I use the “medium” and it seems to fit perfectly for this blog and my own.
These pictures make me feel like I am in Europe!!!! Wait I am…
Gorgeous shots! I will be coming back and looking at these pictures many times for a mini-vacation escape! Austria looks gorgeous, adding it to my must visit list! Thank you Joe for sharing these pix!
I am going to miss everyone at training tomorrow night!
Beautiful photos! Absolutely gorgeous!
Beautiful shots, I want to go to Aus and Switzerland someday (like Sound of Music!).
I have this weird “thing” about mountains like that though. It is beautiful but I don’t know if I could live there, it makes me claustrophobic. Not that I’m afraid of an avalanche or anything like that but the mountains almost give me vertigo just looking at them and I would feel like I’m being blocked from the sun. Yeah, I’m weird…
Hallstatt was my favorite town that we visited. Too bad it started to rain when we were there otherwise I think we would have explored much longer!
I love your photos. Please post lots more! It is so much fun being an armchair traveler when the photo quality is so excellent.