Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Home again

We got back home late on Sunday evening. We had an amazing trip. We spent most of our time in Germany, with a four day visit to Austria to see our friends there (actually one of those days was mostly spent in the Czech Republic) and a four day visit to France.

My favourite things, although they are hard to pick, were:


...going to the world's largest medieval knight tournament in Kaltenberg (Germany). There was a huge market there and a fantastic two-hour show with very gifted riders.


...visiting the Moët & Chandon champagne house in Épernay (France).


...and I really enjoyed our visits to old palaces (I could have gone to lots more): Charlottenburg (in Berlin), Neuschwanstein (in Füssen, Germany), Fontainebleau and one in Krumlov in the Czech Republic (I can't remember the name of it right now). The picture above is from Fontainebleau. Sadly, you weren't allowed to photograph inside any of the castles, palaces or forts in Germany.


And in general, I just loved walking in the old city centers of various towns and looking at the beautiful houses and knowing that some pretty well known people had possibly walked in the same exact spot and seen the same things (we visited, for example the hometowns of Bach and Luther). The picture is from Quedlingburg and the buildings date back to the Middle Ages.

We also visited several WWII and Cold War sites, including a concentration camp (Sachsenhausen near Berlin), which were interesting and, I think, well worth a visit, eventhough they made me feel very sad.

The weather wasn't really co-operating with us. For more than a week it was cold, windy and rainy, which was okay for driving in our non-air-conditioned car, but not so great for sight-seeing (especially if you forget to pack a jacket) and then the temperature decided to jump up by a whopping 20C and it was suddenly unbearably hot (around 35C) for a week.

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7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lovely photos! I visited Neuschwanstein some years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Sorry the weather was a bit hit and miss though.

2:47 PM  
Blogger Sharon said...

Beautiful pictures!

9:10 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Oh gosh, what a wonderful experience, I love the champagne photo, I wish I had a room like that!

Your trip sounds much more exciting than mine, the weather sounds a little crazy though.

12:07 AM  
Blogger Christine S said...

Hi Lina! It sounds like you had a great trip. DH and I visited Fussen when we were in Europe last year. Neuschwanstein was gorgeous and Hohenschwangau was very neat, too! Your last picture reminds me a lot of Rotenburg.

Glad to see you back safe and sound!

3:49 AM  
Blogger Nicki said...

It sounds as if you had an amazing time, though it's a shame about the weather. I'd have loved to have seen the medieval tournament. Lovely photos!

6:59 PM  
Blogger Michelle said...

Welcome home! The photos are lovely - what an amazing trip!

8:13 PM  
Blogger Karen said...

What beautiful pictures!!! Looks like an amazing place to visit! I'm so jealous! ;)

6:43 PM  

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