TRAVEL TUESDAY

When I visited Innsbruck, Austria at the beginning of October of this year, I brought this photo along with me on my IPAD.  I so wanted to re-create the photo -- have a photo of me under the same sign that Grandma Theresa posed under in 1961.  Well, I looked around at various spots in Innsbruck and to my chagrin I never found that spot.  Of course, 52 years later, things can look a lot different.  So, I had to settle for sign below.

Reading Grandma Theresa's travel diary, I did notice that she visited the Castle Heidelberg (received by King Ludwig I) on that trip. Since we didn't go to Heidelberg, I did not have the opportunity to see the ruins of that castle.  Instead I had the opportunity to visit on of my favorite castles (if not my favorite) the Neuschwanstein Castle, built for King Ludwig II.  It was definitely one of my top reasons for the trip and I was not disappointed. Not only is the castle majestic, but the surrounding area is absolutely beautiful.

OCTOBER -- A MONTH OF TRAVEL

It seems like I was either traveling or packing for a trip the entire month of October. I am definitely not complaining since I loved it -- from visiting various locales in Austria, the town of Munich and places in the Italian Alps (in the first third of the month) to the beautiful coastline of Ventura and Santa Barbara and the inland valley of Santa Ynez and the darling Danish town of Solvang in the Central Coast area of California in the latter part of the month.  After all of that, I spent this past weekend in the college town of Westwood, celebrating Parents Weekend at UCLA with my daughter.  So while I thoroughly enjoyed all my traveling, it did leave little time for my blogging.  So, now my task is to get back on track.   However, before I do ...

One of the highlights of my trip was definitely visiting with family.  While in Munich, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet my cousin Bernd and his lovely wife Susanne (with whom I share a love of genealogy).   Susanne gave me two documents that I had never seen before and will share on my blog in an upcoming post. It was delightful to meet Bernd and Susanne and they gave us a fun tour of Munich, giving us the opportunity to smell the wonderful Farmer's market, hear the music from the large glockenspiel and see the historic St. Peter's Church  (the oldest church in Munich).

On my sister Kate and my road trip to Central Coastal California, we visited with my brother Mike and his wife, daughter and his eldest darling little granddaughter in the Danish town of Solvang.  Okay, I will admit that Kate and I returned to Solvang the next morning so that we could eat some of those delicious Danish pancakes at Paula's Pancake House (it's always a must stop when I visit that town).  

Kate and I also visited our cousin Julie, who we hadn't seen in 20 years and got the opportunity to meet her lovely family.  It was just one fun day after another!

Now, however, I am home and need to get back to research, blogging and creating scrapbooks of my travels or I could sit at my computer and look at my photos one more time!

THOSE PLACES THURSDAY

While I was perusing the slides of my Grandparents' visit to Austria in 1961, this one caught my eye.  I remembered that Innsbruck had hosted the Winter Olympics several times.  Perhaps, this is what made me save this photo vs. disposing of it like I did with all the other photos without people in them.  Yes, I am still kicking myself for doing that five years ago.

So, when I found out that I would be traveling to Innsbruck this fall, the ski jump was definitely on my list of sites to see.  Now, I guess it is not surprising that it doesn't quite look like that anymore.  The photo below is the current ski jump (the 6th one that has been built).  The current one is 14 years old.  Our tour guide told us that the Innsbruck cemetery is below the ski jump so the jumpers can see the cemetery on their way down.  I guess that gives them added impetus to jump correctly and not end up in the cemetery -- one way or another!

TRAVEL TUESDAY

On our first full day in Austria, we took a tour of Innsbruck.  The first place we stopped was the Basilika Maria Empfangnis (also known as the Wiltener Basilica).  As I was sitting in a pew in this absolutely gorgeous church, I suddenly remembered that my Grandmother commented about this church in her travel journal while visiting  Innsbruck in 1961.  

Grandma Theresa wrote in her 1961 travel journal about the church of "Our Dear Lady" in Innsbruck --
"words can't tell you how beautiful it was".  Grandma Theresa, you were so right!  It was absolutely breathtaking!

Wow, even the organ in this church is majestic.  There is a statue of the Blessed Mother (shown in the photo below) that is the reason why people have been making  pilgrimages  to this church since the Middle Ages.

On the ceiling of this church are murals of the life of the Blessed Mother.  Visiting this church was a wonderful way to start off our trip to Austria and Germany.

THOSE PLACES THURSDAY

Fifty two years, my Grandparents (Charles and Theresa Sherlock) enjoyed a month long vacation in Europe.  They visited England, Ireland, Amsterdam, Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland and Italy.  It is my dream to follow in their footsteps -- to visit the places that they visited and create my own memories.  I won't be able to visit them all in a month long trip like they did, but rather in several separate trips.

I began fulfilling that dream this month on October 1st.  My brother invited my husband and I to join him and his wife on a trip to Austria and Germany.  How could we say no?

After a very long flight from California to Munich via Chicago, our tour bus drove us to Innsbruck, Austria which took an additional 2 or so hours.  We checked into the Grauer Baer Hotel in Innsbruck, exhausted but very excited, and was just in time for dinner with our tour group at the hotel restaurant on that first night.

Our adventure would begin the very next day ....