Castles of Bavaria

The second part of our holiday was spent traveling around a bit of Germany. We left the group in Innsbruck and caught a train to Reutte where we had booked a hotel. It had been snowing all day and it was starting to accumulate heavy on the roads. It turns out the hotel was a 15 minute drive from town. Not the news we were looking for, thankfully a lovely woman at the information centre called the hotel and then sent a driver to get us. It really was more of resort set in the woods. It reminded me of some of the resorts in the Catskills. It was a great place and the food was delicious. It was a first try ordering of a German menu without any help, but we managed. The next day we took a long walk and then had a driver take us to town so we could catch a bus to Fussen. Here we were lucky the bus dropped us right next to our hotel and it was located in a perfect location in the centre of town. The town was very cute with a car free area. We went and got tickets to see Ludwig, a German musical about Ludwig's II life. It was all in German but we had a synopsis so we could follow the story. The theatre was built specifically for this show and the set designs are by far the best I've ever seen. It has Europe's largest revolving stage and included a large lake with real water and a mechanical swan, Very cool! The next day we went to see two of Ludwig's castles. One was his childhood home where he lived with his father Maximilian, and mother. The other he had built, but died/ was killed before it was completed. They were spectacular castles in a beautiful setting.

Snow in Austria

We spent our holiday in Austria and Germany, it seemed better than staying in London and feeling homesick. It worked- we had a great time. We started by booking a Winter Experience trip in Austria. It was good fun. There were 20 of us in the group, we were the only ones not from the UK. That was the source of some good jibes from the group- though they didn’t seem too British at times- no one could tell us what or why they celebrate Boxing Day. Any way the real point of the tour was to have fun in the snow. We skied (both cross country and downhill), snow shoed, and did some winter hiking. We also visited the Christmas Markets in Innsbruck. The Alps were beautiful and the snow was perfect. Not a bad holiday but we really missed our families.

Cambridge with Janet and Graham

We just had the most amazing weekend with our friends Graham and Janet. They have been terrific to us since we arrived and a great source of information on many things- driving rules, lesson plans, Guy Fawkes, Mary Queen of Scots, Indian food, test cricket rules and Englishness in general. They are the best and we are so thankful for their patience. This weekend they showed us Cambridge. We went to a great book sale on Saturday and walked through a few of the colleges. We browsed in some of the shops and enjoyed the unique shops here; this town is not a copy of every high street in the country. Then we headed back to Raunds and had Chinese. On Sunday we headed back to Cambridge and began to explore more of the colleges- Trinity, Kings, Clare, Queens, Pembroke, St. John's, and many others. A highlight for Brian and Graham was Trinity College. This is where the famous courtyard run from Chariots of Fire took place. It wasn't actually filmed there though, they wouldn't allow it. Anyway in the movie he runs around the courtyard (it's a big courtyard) in the time it takes the clock to strike twelve. Brian and Graham wanted to try it so we went there at 12:00.

It was quite funny. It is a very poshand quiet place and the two of them running looked a bit out of place. Janet and I just stood there and laughed. We also poked our heads into the dining hall at Trinity and it looked just like the dining hall in the Harry Potter movies.Then they made us a full Christmas Dinner. Janet disappeared into the kitchen for two hours and emerged with a roast, Yorkshire pudding, potatoes, stuffing, parsnips, carrots, brussel sprouts and pudding. It was delicious and such sweet thing for them to do. Our weekend was perfect- Thanks, Janet and Graham.