Yee-haw....we’re coming back to Texas.
There were 4 of Cori’s fellow study abroad students that were on our flight. They all had fun comparing stories of their 10 day travels since they’d left Oxford.
It was a LONG flight, but uneventful...and for that, we’re thankful!
First stops after the airport, at Cori's request, were Sonic (first, of course) and then fajitas! Both tasted good!
We feel very fortunate to have been able to make this trip...& we’ll have these good memories for a lifetime. Counting our blessings...of being able to go AND having a good place to call home. “There’s no place like home...there’s no place like home...there’s no place like home.”
Today began with an early AM flight to London. Upon our arrival there, we quickly headed to a bus stop where we could catch a bus to Oxford. The bus ride was about 2 hours (lots of traffic).
We got off the bus & walked around to see the sights of Oxford. Cori showed us some of the highlights (which included Ben’s Cookies, routes they’d walked to favorite sandwich shops, grocery store and the house where she lived). It was fun seeing where she’d been for her study abroad time.
We dined at the Eagle & Child that evening...great fish & chips dinner. This little diner was a favorite hangout of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
After another walk back to the bus stop, we headed back to London. We stayed at a hotel that was near the airport.
Yet another good day...
This AM we headed out to a tour of the Eagles’ Nest. It is a building that is built at the TOP of a mountain high above Salzburg. It was built as a gift from the Germans to Hitler on the occasion of his 50th birthday in 1938. It is amazing to think that they were able to build the road and the structure in 13 months with the resources they had available in those days. The road is SO steep & narrow. I have to admit that I missed most of the ride up because my eyes were closed. We were on a big tour bus & the driver drove as if he were in a sports car. Honestly, it made my palms sweat when I looked. The view was beautiful, but I thought it a bit scary. Once we reached the top, we got to go into the building & climb to the top of the peak. Amazing views that we decided didn’t even look real. Instead, they looked like a backdrop that someone had painted.
It was a great day. The weather was perfect. Walked to the old town center, had a bite of lunch & came back to the room. Cori worked on homework that she had to finish up for her class, I read & Tommy watched CNN.
We’ve had LOTS of CNN this week. It’s the only channel we found in English. HA!
We’ll need to get packed up as we plan to leave for the airport at 9 AM tomorrow. We all agree it’s been a great trip & just the right amount of time away.
We left Germany on an 8:30 AM train headed to Salzburg, Austria. It was a nice train ride with beautiful scenery along the way. We arrived at 10 & headed to our hotel. Room wasn’t ready, so we left our bags here, went to the “old town center” & got a bite of lunch. At 2, we went on a bus tour of the Sound of Music filming sites. We saw the house where they filmed the outside scenes, the gazebo where they filmed, the lake & lane that were in the movie & finally, the church where the wedding scene was filmed. These sites were in four different places. In between the stops, there was beautiful scenery all around.
One of the stops on the tour was at a ski slope. They had a rail set up & sleds that you could sit on. They towed you up (sitting backwards) with the ski lift. At the top, you sat on your sled & rode it down a metal luge. You could control the speed with the handle. It was really fun.
Salzburg is also the birthplace of Mozart & there were several mentions of that fact, too.
Tonight we went to a little pizza place & found a table on the sidewalk to eat. There was a television set up outside so we could watch the World Cup Soccer semi-finals game. Germany was playing Spain. When we left there at halftime, it was tied 0-0. We came back to the hotel to watch the 2nd half. We stepped into the bar to watch. A few minutes into the 2nd half, the fire alarm goes off & the doors to the bar close. They tell us we’re supposed to leave. The fire trucks come, only to determine that someone has set off the alarm by burning incense in their room. Meanwhile, while we are standing on the street outside, Spain scores the only point of the game. We missed it!
Game is over....we’re upstairs & hoping that we get to sleep through the night without another fire drill.
Our hotel has a delightful breakfast buffet, so that is how we started our day today. We then headed to the train station near our hotel & made our way to the central station. There we met a guided tour that took us to Dachau Concentration Camp. It is a very somber, sobering destination. Our tour guide was Gordon & from all accounts, he’s very highly respected for his knowledge of the history of Dachau & that time frame. He gave us a perspective I hadn’t heard before. It was an enjoyable experience.
This image is at the end of the memorial walk & the inscription is "Den Toten zue Ehr den Lebenden sur Mahnung", which translated says, "To honor the dead and warn the living".
We got back to the train station about 3:40 & decided we had time to make it to a 4 o’clock bike tour of Munich. The weather was perfect for it. We enjoyed a nice ride, several interesting stops along the way & a good dinner (potatoes with sausage....YUMMY) before we finished up. It ended up being just our guide (a 22 year old girl from Green Bay, Wisconsin) & the 3 of us. That made it fun!
It’s time now to pack up & get ready for an early AM train ride to Salzburg tomorrow.
Today’s exploration was the Royal Castles tour. We toured the Linderhof & Neuschwanstein Castles. They were both built by King Ludwig II (also known as the Bavaria Fairy Tale King). The Neuschwanstein Castle has appeared prominently in several movies and was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle.
We left on a tour bus at 8:30 this AM & didn’t return until around 6:30 this evening. By the time we rode the train back to our hotel, we left our backpack at our room, got a bite to eat & are now ready to call it a day.
This AM, we got up early, had breakfast & a driver picked us up to take us to the airport. We had an 11 AM flight to Munich. Again, we were happy to see someone at the gate with a DONAHOO sign. We were delivered safely (though, there was a little driving around in town before the driver found our hotel...we think he didn’t know exactly where he was going). Our hotel is great. It overlooks a little park & is near the train station. Good news is there is a little gelato stand right around the corner!
The weather seems to be a little cooler here & for that, we are thankful!
We had arranged to do a Fat Tire Bike Tour of the city of Berlin. We met the group at Alexander Plaza at 11 & enjoyed about a 4 1/2 hour biking tour. We had lots of stops to see the sights & have an explanation of what we had or were about to see. Some of the highlights were the Brandenberg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie station, a portion of the Berling Wall that is still standing, the site of Hitler’s bunker, the German Parliament buildings & much more. It was FUN!
After the bike tour, we walked to the Story of Berlin museum & looked around the exhibit.
An added bit of excitement today was the Germans playing in & going on to win the game against Argentina in the quarter finals of the world cup soccer. THE GERMANS DID CELEBRATE THAT WIN!! Made for an exciting subway ride home. :)
We were SO tired & didn’t get up & around until after noon today. We had tickets to do a “hop-on/hop-off” bus tour to see the main sights of the city & decide what we wanted to go back & see more of later. We had a quite a hard time finding the stop for the bus tour, but FINALLY got on & enjoyed the warm ride. After finishing the tour, we found a bite to eat.
Tommy ordered a GREAT bratwurst with mashed potatoes & sauerkraut. It was yummy. We then headed back to the hotel & called it a day.
Tommy & I got to DFW in plenty of time for our 5:35 PM flight out. Because of some rainy weather, the flight coming in was delayed, so we didn’t leave until about 7:15.
We arrived about 9 AM in London. As soon as we got out of the gate, we saw Cori, Lacy, Kenli & Morgan. The other 3 girls were headed back to DFW that AM, so we only got to hug their necks & visit for a minute. We were SO excited to see Cori! She’d been in Oxford since the end of May doing a study abroad program with ACU’s College of Business.
We had a little time to kill before our flight out, so we got a bite to eat while we sat & visited.
We left London about 12:55, headed to Berlin and arrived late afternoon. There was a driver at the airport waiting for us (wow...were we glad to see him standing there with a sign that said DONAHOO!!). We got to the hotel, checked in & put our things away. We decided to just walk a little & find something to eat.
