Monday, December 24, 2007

The Winter Explorer, part 3



The tour gets better everyday. It's now December 24, Christmas Eve.

We had a good breakfast again. Na-addict na rin ako sa freshly squeezed orange juice.

We're so lucky with the bus seating rotation, kami na sa FRONT NA FRONT!!! Sabi ng Tour Director, prime seat daw kami. And true enough it's the best drive of all the days in the tour. Everything is covered with ice, frozen yung mga trees, para talagang fairytale.

Our first stop for the day is the Neuschwanstein Castle. This is the castle built by Louis II of Bavaria. May mga nagsasabi na baliw daw itong si Louis II kasi he went under debt just to build the castle. Pero in the end, mahal na mahal pa rin daw sya ng mga constituents nya.

The castle is really grand. Although we didn't get to actually visit, we can see na romantic ang design and pang fairytale talaga. The castle is actually the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's Castle in Disney World.




Dito na kami nagwala sa Neuschwanstein. It's as if everybody was dying to hop off the bus. Grabe, nagtatakbo takbo na kami sa snow, nag batuhan ng snow, namangha sa lake, everything! Di na namin nadama ang lamig kasi our senses were really high, takbo kami nang takbo. At ang ganda ng village at ng castle, just look at the photos!




Dinaanan din namin yung Romantic Road! Ay grabe, frosted lahat ng mga puno.





Then off to Oberammagau where they hold the passion play every 10 years. The tradition of holding the passion play started in the 17th Century yata. It was during a massive German plague when the people prayed to be spared from the plague. Their prayer was granted, and so they vowed to hold the passion play every decade. People from all over the world visit Oberammargau just to watch the passion play.


After Neuswanstein and Oberammagau we passed a country road where there is the mountain and the lake all snowed in! As in pang postcard! No one in the coach was sleeping during this ride.

Then we headed for Innsbruck, Austria. Inssbruck is a valley surrounded by Austrian Alps! Ang Alps super taas talaga. Para syang wall na nasalahat ng sides. It's so dominating, so overpowering. Everywhere you look, you see the snow-covered slopes.

We also saw the Golden Roof, the center of the governance sa Innsbruck. It's a balcony kung saan dumudungaw ang leader to see the happenings down below. Sayang nga di kami punta sa Salzburg para sana nakita ko yung mga pinuntahan ni MARIA and the VONN TRAPP FAMILY Singers ng Sound of Music! Anyway, after a quick picture taking moment, we headed for the hotel to get ready for our excursion sa gabi.




For Christmas Eve, we rode a SLEIGH!!! It was a full moon, umakyat kami sa foot ng Alps roding this carriage na hinihila ng mga super laking kabayo. Tapos meron pa sialng mga bells na nagji-jingle. Super lamig na may mga blanket kami to keep us warm. Pati yung mga kabayo, pagnagsa-stop kinukumutan din sila.

May mga part din na we had to go through a small forest, na wala na talaga kaming nakikita from any side.

In the middle of the Sleigh ride, tumigil kami to see a 600 year old farmhouse. Tapos uminom kami ng Schnapps, which is parang gin. Onti lang sakin, kasi di ko kakayanin. Tapos after another short ride we stopped to get Glu Wine and some coffee at Hotel Geisler. Afterwhich we rode the sleigh again for another 20 minutes in the freezing cold to get back to the coach.

We had our Christmas Eve dinner at the hotel. We had the famous Apple Strudel, which is the national dessert of Austria.


Next entry: Innsbruck-Venice


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