Whirlwind Tour Continues

Just had to share some great "selfies" of Carter and the latest on life in Germany.

Here is the latest update from Frau T, emailed to us lonely parents on Sunday:

We are back from our whirlwind tour of the Alps and the castle region. Fortunately, we left the rainy weather behind for the most part when we left Landshut on Wednesday. We had a lovely afternoon visiting the castle at Herrenchiemsee and then pulled into the youth hostel in Berchtesgaden right in time for dinner. The view from the rooms was fantastic. They did renovations since two years ago and all the rooms (very large) had their own showers.  

We then had a very packed day on Thursday touring the salt mine, going up to Hitlers Eagles Nest, and then the boat ride on the Koenigssee. The weather couldn't have been better. The kids were real troopers considering this was a marathon day of touring. They were on time to everything and were very polite and attentive listeners. 

On Friday we drove to the monastery in Ettal for a short visit and then it was on to castle Linderhof. We toured not only the castle, but the grotto, the tee house and the hunting lodge. We definitely got in our 10,000 steps and then some that day. We pulled into the youth hostel right in time for check in time. After a spaghetti dinner many headed into town to check out the closed stores. (Tourist shops were open and the restaurants). 

Yesterday [Saturday] we toned our thighs and calves hiking up to castle Newschanstein, over the Marienbruecke and then back down and up to castle Hohenschwangau. Unfortunately, rainstorms came about the time of our Hohenschwangau tour which didn't allow us to go paddle boating on the Alpsee. The rain stopped in time for shopping in the late afternoon in Fuessen. 

Today [Sunday] we went to the famous Wieskirche for mass. Much to our surprise and great honor [two of Carter's classmates] were asked to serve mass. Needless to say, I was quite nervous about this, but at the same time immensely proud of them. The church was FULL for 11 a.m. mass. We got to take pictures afterwards with them in their serving robes (not sure if this is the right expression) along with the head server. The pictures were taken on the altar of the Wieskirche. Because we had plenty of time, the bus driver drove us to Oberammergau to see where the Passion Play takes place. 

We arrived just after 4:30 p.m. here in Landshut to the waiting families. There were hugs all around.

Some interesting observations from the students: there are so many Japanese at the castles that we thought we were in a different country. It was a good idea for Frau T to get a roll of 50 cent pieces to use at the bathrooms. They came in very handy. Even the bus driver needed one.

The youth hostels now have wireless Internet access in the commons areas - aw shucks. However, the kids had very little time to be stuck on their phones since Mr. O and I walked them around and up and down a lot. The weather is supposed to be quite summer like this upcoming week. Tomorrow we head to the BMW plant in the afternoon and on Wednesday we will spend the day at Dachau.

Even though I would love to include pictures, I have not yet downloaded them from my camera.

Thankfully Carter has shared a few. This one may be a poster somewhere in our house!

We texted back and forth today and he enjoyed the BMW plant but wasn't allowed to take pictures. I imagine when he gets back, his Honda won't be good enough for him anymore!