Oberammergau – Germany Trip Blog Post #6

After our visit to Linderhof castle, we got to wander around the quaint village of Oberammergau, in the middle of the Bavarian Alps.

The town gets its name because it is in the district (gau) of the upper (ober) River Ammer.

No pictures of that river, just lots of shots of the beautiful, detailed fresco-painted buildings or Lüftlmalerei.

The paintings depict fairy tales, religious scenes and designs that look 3-D. And they are everywhere you look.

There were also pretty flowers in bloom on many street corners.

We had lunch at the Hotel Alte Post. It was first established as a hotel in 1612, as the Lowen or lion. Records show that in 1783 it also held the post office (hence today’s name Alte Post or old post office). It’s been called that since 1864. The same family has been running it since 1896.

I had the Bavarian meat loaf.

When the waitress set it in front of me, it sure didn’t look like what I expected. But, oh, it was soo good! Zehr gut!

Probably the thing that Oberammergau is most known for is its Passion Play. The entire town’s population takes part, as actors, stage hands, etc. It came to be in 1634, when the residents vowed that if God spared them from bubonic plague, that was sweeping the region, they would perform a passion play every ten years. Due to the COVID pandemic, the 2020 production had to be canceled but was held two years later. In 2030, the Play will be back on track, and I’m sure the town’s folk are already making preparations behind the scenes.

Then we had to leave, and drive through the peaceful countryside back to Ulm. 

Linderhof – Germany Trip Blog Post #5

Saturday, May 9, was spent on another quest to see places I had studied in high school and been fascinated by ever since.

We left our hotel at 8:30 in the morning to sunny skies and a temperature of 51 degrees. The countryside we drove through was beautiful and became more breathtaking as we drove into the Bavarian Alps.

We arrived at the parking lot of the Linderhof Castle and were immediately drawn into the romance of a time gone by. Did not expect to see several couples dressed in their nineteenth-century finery.

Linderhof Castle was built between 1874 and 1878, by King Ludwig II, and was the only one of his building projects that was completed during his lifetime. As with his other projects, there was no expense spared. You may have heard of his castle 30 west of Linderhof, Neuschwanstein. It was the inspiration for Princess Castle at Disney World. It wasn’t on the agenda for us to visit that one, but I was okay with that. Linderhof was more than enough.

The gardens surrounding the palace are extensive and beautifully manicured. I wish I would have had more time to explore the grounds.

 

The other disappointment was that there was no photography allowed inside the building. It was actually relatively small inside, but the rooms were covered in opulence, gold, murals, mirrors, and statues, some of which were fanciful.

 

King Ludwig died in 1886, just shy of his forty-first birthday, under suspicious circumstances. He had become King of Bavaria when he was only eighteen and was not well-prepared for that role. His life was complicated and tragic, filled with drama, espionage, and romance. And also, sadly, a lot of loneliness.

I hope you research more about him and his castles.

Acting out his Faith

 

Well, let’s finally delve into the Bible.

The Old Testament is important as it is the background story for Jesus coming to live among us. But sometimes it is really heavy, a lot of words and a lot of things that we, with our twenty-first century brains, have a hard time grasping. So, I’m gonna start in the New Testament.

You hopefully have heard of the books of the Gospel – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They each tell the story of the life of Jesus on this earth. Many of those stories are familiar with us, especially at Christmas and Easter.

The next book in the New Testament is Acts. It is known by Biblical scholars as the History of the Early Church.

Theophilus, I wrote about Jesus in my earlier book. I wrote about all he did and taught until the day he was taken up to heaven. Before Jesus left, he gave orders to the apostles he had chosen. He did this through the Holy Spirit. (Acts 1:1-2, New International Reader's Version)

The book of Acts is named that because it describes the deeds, missions, and actions of the early Christian apostles (mostly Peter and Paul). It was written by the apostle Luke, the same guy who wrote the Gospel book named after him. I like his writing because, in pretty much any translation of the Bible, I find it easy to understand. He doesn’t use a lot of flowery language or vague metaphors; Luke tells it as it is.

After his suffering and death, he appeared to them. In many ways he proved that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days. During that time he spoke about God’s kingdom. One day Jesus was eating with them. He gave them a command. “Do not leave Jerusalem,” he said. “Wait for the gift my Father promised. You have heard me talk about it. John baptized with water. But in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:3-5, NIRV)

Later on in this book, Luke writes about how Saul was converted and became the most spirit-filled believer who spread the Gospel to pretty much the whole world at the time. You know him as Paul. Maybe if you have time this week, try to read the rest of the Book of Acts. And I’ll see you next Sunday, when I’ll tell you about some of the books that Paul wrote.

For two whole years Paul stayed there in a house he rented. He welcomed all who came to see him. He preached boldly about God’s kingdom. He taught people about the Lord Jesus Christ. And no one could keep him from teaching and preaching about these things. (Acts 28:30-31, NIRV)

(In case you don’t get around to reading those 28 chapters of the Bible this week, that is how Acts ends.)

(The picture above doesn't have anything to do with the Bible. It was taken in front of our hotel in Ulm, Germany. I took over 1300 pictures on that trip, so thought I would share some of the pretty flowers here.)

Heidelberg – Germany Trip Blog Post #4

On Friday, May 8 (only our second full day in Germany), we once again climbed on our bus for the two-hour drive to Heidelberg. By the way, our bus driver for the entire trip was Erick, from Poland, and Fred, from Austria, was our tour manager the whole time. Fred’s job was mostly to make sure we got where we were supposed to go and that no one got lost. He also talked about the history of Germany and the surrounding countries, while we were riding on that bus every day, as well as answered our dumb questions.

(Can't see him well, but Fred is the tall guy in the middle of the picture.)

I don’t know if it is because of my strong German roots or if I just paid attention in German class, but I remember so many places throughout Germany, places I’ve wanted to visit for fifty years. Sometimes I forget that most people haven’t heard of these places, so I try to tell you everything. Hope I don’t bore you.

So, Heidelberg Castle is one of those places. I’ve seen so many pictures of the ruins of this massive fortress perched on the hill overlooking the Neckar River. It’s hard to describe it when I finally saw it in person.

It was built in the 1200s, and our tour guide for the day, Roman, told us so much of the history of it and its people that my head kinda started to spin. I wanted to remember it all, the melodramatic stories of what went on at that time, but there is no way. I will look it up for myself online sometime, and you can do the same. 

Anyway, even though parts of the castle are still in decent shape, it has been considered a ruin since the 1700s.

 

We rode a funicular up the hillside to the castle and took it back down.

Once back down in the city, we wandered a few blocks down the Haupt Strasse or pedestrian street. Lots of interesting buildings and shops, but it was too overwhelming to even know what stores to go into.

 

The large church on the Marktplatz, or market square, was the Church of the Holy Spirit. 

I walked part of the way across the Old Heidelberg Bridge, a historic stone walking bridge on Neckar River.

 

Along the river I walked past this swan and her partner, tending to their nest of eight eggs. Oh, wouldn’t it have been sweet if they would have just hatched.

We ate lunch at the restaurant Zum Weissen Schwanen, which means “to the white swan". Did they know about the pair of swans a few blocks away?

I had the pork schnitzel with fries. It was good. Your basic meal.

Blaubeuren – Germany Trip Blog Post #3

 

Late morning, on our first full day in Germany, after our walking tour of Ulm, we boarded the bus for Blaubeuren. 

The town of Blaubeuren is a half hour drive from our hotel in Ulm, in the Swabian region of southern Germany. Cities in this region which you may have heard of are Stuttgart and Augsburg. 

Blaubeuren is a small, quiet village known for its Monastery, which was founded in 1085 by the Benedictines. During the Reformation, it was taken over by Protestants in 1535, but monks returned for a while during 30 Years War. In 1817, it became a Protestant seminary with attached boarding school. 

Our tour guide spent a lot of time telling us about each of the pictures in these panels, which told the story of John the Baptist, as well as Jesus.

He also told us that all monasteries were set up using the same blueprint, such as where the chapel, the garden, the cloister, et cetera were going to be. Anyone coming from a different monastery would be able to find their way around. I never knew that before, and I also don’t know if this was something they did just around that part of Europe during those years, or if they have done this around the world for millennia.

 

The chapel was beautiful, with many wood carvings. I am sure that they all had a certain meaning. 

 But some of them were rather creepy.

Behind the monastery, was the Blautopf, the spring where the Blue River originates.

It was a serene, wooded spot, and felt so much like home to me.

We wandered up one of the streets of Blaubeuern for lunch at Restaurant Ochsen (or Oxen). 

We were treated to Maultaschen, which translates to “mouth bag”. During Lent, to keep church leaders from knowing that the people were eating meat on Fridays, the women put the meat, usually beef, between sheets of rolled dough to hide it. It is a traditional Swabian dish and was very good, with the meat mixed with spinach, bread crumbs and onions. Similar to ravioli, they are square or rectangular and three to four and a half inches across. This was served with a lettuce salad atop cooked shaved potatoes, pickled beets, shaved carrots and shaved cabbage. I ordered it for lunch another day, but it wasn’t quite as good as this first one we had.

I had cut it up for the picture, so you could see what's inside.