Grüß Gott

So I've been on vacation.

First we took the big boat to Kiel and the we drove to Rothenburg where we spent a night.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a lovely little town. People tell me the town in both "The Brave Little Tailor" and "Pinocchio" is based on Rothenburg. We spent only one night though, so I didn't see that much of it, but I wandered some of the streets and I got to visit the Christmas store there. Which felt strange. You're out in the streets in the beginning of July and then, suddenly, you're in some Christmas wonderland.

Then we drove to a Vinyard near Lindau by the Bodensee (Lake Constance) in southern Germany where we stayed for almost two weeks. Here's the view from our balcony:

The mountains to the left belongs to Austria and the ones to the right belongs to Switzerland. We visited both countries briefly, but stayed in Germany most of the time and visited small towns around us.


                                                                                          Lindau -->


My favorites were Meersburg, a loveley medieval town with a proper fort and plenty of small trinket shops.
 

And Wieskirche, a beautiful rococo church that was apparently saved from WWII bombings thanks to an Englishman refusing to follow his orders.

And the most beautiful of all:

the wonderful Neuschwanstein Castle which I've always wanted to see. I didnt get to see the inside though because the people I was with can sometimes be kind of lame and I'm too shy to tell them how much I wanted too. My siblings and I are planning a future road trip though, so I will see the inside one day.



AND THEN

the highlight of this summer, in my opinion:

We spent two nights in Riquewihr. An adorable little town in France. Surrounded by vinyards and full of tiny timber framing houses in bright colors.

And what do you know! The Christmas store chain has a shop in Riquewihr as well so I visited christmas twice this summer.

We rented a small cabin from a very French man and his wife. I made the mistake of answering all the polite phrases you know, like "ça va" and such, and so the man was convinced that I knew French even though these few phrases are the only thing I remember from French class ten years ago. (I understand politeness, food words and when something is beautiful). Luckily my Mother-in-love (I changed law to love because we're not married) speaks French fairly well.

pretty, pretty little town. I'd like to come again.

Then we drove up north trough the Moselle Valley and slept one night in Bernkastel-Kues and one night in Cloppenburg and then we were back in Schleswig-Holstein, where we always are, and spent one week before we went home.

"Grüß Gott" is a greeting some people use in the south of Germany where Catholicism reigns. It means "May God greet you".