Germany

So you thought I was done slogging through long, boring travelogues. Nope! I hope to plow through the rest of my pictures before I reach 80 or so.

By Monday, May 28th we were in Breisach, Germany. 

At this point, I was very aware of how the places we visited were likely places Mom had been to often, and thus thought a lot about what Mom would think or feel about the places we saw. Mom described Germany as "....one of the most beautiful countries in the world, where one can find all possible scenery---high mountains (Alps), low valleys, gigantic rivers (Rhein), the ocean, the heath, and lovely hills. You also can eat some of the best food in the world." (Thanks to Bob for the quote.)  Our ship information says "Germany is just smaller than the state of Montana", although with 82.2 million population, it has about 81.2 more people than we do.

 On our morning excursion we visited St. Peter's Monastery. The original Abbey was founded around 1073, but like so much of historical, religious Europe, suffered the accidents of history--in this case, major fires in 1238 and 1437. Those ancient people apparently played with matches a lot! The current building rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries in Baroque style. I love the simple outside of this church,

which encased the striking typical white, bright Baroque interior.

I was intrigued by the many non-biblical sprinkling we saw in European churches, depicting the baptism of Christ.

We puzzled over the meaning of this statue--a plague? an unbaptized infant? I don't know, but a little disturbing.

Or how about this painting--the fight between good and evil?

 Beautiful!

We left St. Peter's and traveled further into Black Forest territory. Mom talked often about her trips to the Black Forest, how beautiful it was.

We started out at a little touristy village just in time to see this 

 gigantic cuckoo clock in action.

We watched a glass-blower in action

and unsuccessfully looked for a cuckoo clock in our price range. These babies are pricey!  Perhaps it's better to remain cuckoo-less after all.

Stan and I decided to head into the forest.

I hummed "A Walk In The Black Forest", imagining Mom being here.

How could you not be charmed by this place?

No wonder Mom enjoyed the wilderness of the Tetons so much.

Look! I hummed myself to sleep!

We saw this cool water feature on our way,

and listened to this "Oompa" band.

We returned to the ship just in time to learn how to not drown should there be a disaster.

Fortunately, we never had to test to see who was really listening to the instructions....

Along our cruise, we saw an astonishing amount of swans. Who knew these creatures live outside of Hogle Zoo? We saw dozens and dozens of groups of swans, also know as a bevy, lamentation, team, game, or my favorite--herd.

Now, because we are in Europe, we could visit France in the afternoon without hardly moving. I'll post about Colmar, France next.