Eisenach and Wartburg Castle, Germany

We left the hotel around 9:30 in the morning to the town where Bach was born. On the way, we stopped at the world heritage Castle, Wartburg Castle. Without the tour of the inside because of not enough time, we just walked  around and got on the car again to the birthplace of Bach. It was fun to hear musics of Bach while we were inside! It was a nice and lovely house. We arrived Munich at 8pm, it was quite a trip, our last 5 days trip in Germany!

The world heritage Wartburg Castle

Inside garden

Nice hotel just next to the world
heritage site

Bach

Musice room inside Bach' s house

The house where Bach was born

View from Bach's house

Hamburg and Lübeck, Germany

Our destination of today was Hamburg. On the way, we stopped by at the World Heritage city, Lubeck. We parked our car at the parking lot of the mall nearby and walked around 10 minutes to the Old Town to see Holsten Gate, one of Germany's World heritage! There was a Christmas Market here too! The Christmas market was held in front of the church so we went inside for a look after some snacks and hot wine and found  the bell that fell down during the War and was left as it was to remind us about the War. That made me feel sad and realized how bad War was.
Then we moved to Hamburger. On the way, Dad just realized that it was a day before Christmas so most of the shops might be closed. As expected, The Beatles Museum that dad was looking forward to during this trip was closed today. . . So we just went to Beatlesplatz nearby and another dad's favorite place, HRC. Also we visited the Bar that the Beatle had a concert before while they were in this town. Just took a picture from outside but that made my dad happy already! Then we went back early to the hotel so I could go to the pool. As Santa Claus was supposed to bring some presents for me tonight based on the fact that I was quite a good girl this year.  So I went to bed early so that Santa Claus could come any time he wanted and I would dream about him tonight for sure!

Holsten Gate

Town hall of Lubeck

The big bell that fell down during
War, remained there as it was since

A picture after War 

Christmas Market in Hamberg

The Bar where my dad's favorite band,
The Beatles, had a concert 

The Beatles !

Bremen, Germany

We left home early in the afternoon yesterday and arrived Bremen after seven and a half hours drive. It was a long ride so we got up late today around 8:30 and walked around the old town of Bremen after breakfast. There was Christmas market here too! I was allowed for 5 plays on anything I wanted today to inside Christmas Market of Bremen! Also so many foods to try. Dad had a lot of hot wine. It was very fun ! After a few Ferris wheel ride, I took a rest by having mushrooms which was so good.
After that we walked around to find the Musicians of Bremen. The rule was if I was the first who could find the Musicians of Bremen in the first, I could get another one more ride for today! We walked around for awhile before I could find it at the same time as my dad. So we decided who would be the first by rock-paper-scissors and I won!
From the Information Center nearby, There was an computer with e-mail service. It was not just that you could send an email but you could take a picture with background of Bremen famous spots and send it out to your friends free of charge!
In the afternoon, I was so tired so we went back to the hotel so I could take a nap and went back to the Christmas market again in the evening. At night just when everybody was packing up their stalls, a shop lady gave me a large cotton candy for free! It was fun until the end! :)

Found it! 

World heritage, the statue of Roland on
the marketplace of Bremen

Another set here too!

A ride for me in Christmas Market

This mushroom was so good! 

Town hall, World heritage too!

Beautiful at night too!

I like this one too! 

Überlingen and Monastic Island of Reichenau, Germany

After breakfast, we walked around Überlingen town. Not too big so we could feel its history all around by walking, that's good! Nearby, there were a lot of birds for us to feed before we left for Monastic Island of Reichenau. On the way, we with our car were on the very big ferry to the Island. I toured around 3 famous church on the Island which all were small but still remained the same as in the past. The 2nd church was empty so we thought it was already closed but somebody came out and gave us special key for the basement tour on our own. It was not that big so we could finished all around the Island within 2 hours. Quite impressive Island for  today!

I got this blue rabbit from the hotel

Together with our car on board to
Monastic Island of Reichenau

Special approval for basement tour

1,000years ago!

Monastic Island of Reichenau

Inside garden

Semmering Railway, Austria

Today we went to the world's first world heritage railway (out of 2 World heritage railways in the world), Semmering Railway. First we went to Semmering station, the main station of Semmering railway. The train would stop here only once every hour so it stopped at every stations along the route!  It sounded quite unpleasant trip but we had no choice so we took the train and leisurely rode to the last station, Mürzzuschlag station and continued our return trip on the same train back to our start point. The whole journey took about 2 hours. The view from the train was not quite different from the view we usual saw around here so I killed time practicing calculation with dad and mom!

Departed from this station!

World heritage!

Inside the train

Graz, Austria

Left our car at this P&R

Arriving by car last night to be ready for our trip today. This morning we had breakfast at the hotel and left the hotel at 10 am.  We parked our car at Ost Graz station, P & R station. The train would stop at this station only every hour so we took tram instead to Graz old town. The famous clock tower was up hill so we had to climb up the hill (with stairs) to the tower. The clock tower was a very large and very European style! We took a lot of pictures there and walked around before went down and headed to the cafe on the river which we could see from the hill. After that we went to strange shape building museum. In the evening, we went to the Christmas market at the City Hall, dad enjoyed hot wine as usual!  Then went to the department store in downtown, the view from the roof floor of the department store was very beautiful, nice place to enjoy view of Graz too!

Climbed this hill to
the clock tower

Clock tower

Interesting museum building

Tram

Cafe on the river

Christmas Market in Graz

Inside the church

Night view 

City hall at night

Interesting mark,
don't know what it is?!

Hallstatt, Austria

At 10am we left home for  the world most beautiful lake in Hallstatt, Austria. We arrived there around 12:30. It was a very beautiful place but most of the shops were closed because it was Sunday so we just walked around, enjoyed the nice view from everywhere. Without a plan, we walked to the church  on the hill and found a room full of of skeleton inside!!!  It seemed that there was not enough grave in the old time so they dug some up and put them inside this church. I felt so scared when I first saw them but dad told me that it was not a scary thing but just human body. Then, around 2pm, we took the boat trip around the lake which took us about 10minutes.  It was very quiet today, not many tourists. We stopped the coffee shop while we walked back to our car and had coffee and cake which mom said that this was the most delicious cake she had ever tasted while in Europe! After that we drove back home.  Our dinner today was frozen foie gras we bought from Kafer the other day and again mom was so happy with it! 

Hallstatt from boat 

Another view of Hallstatt

Very nice view but so cold!

Nice reflection

All skeleton 

My favorite view

Hallstatt downtown

Modena, Italy

We finished our breakfast at the hotel and walked in the garden for a while and packed our stuffs to the car and left for Modena. After about 2:30 hours, we safely arrived the Romanesque in Modena, however, it was not possible to go inside because it was under construction! Quite disappointed! This city was quite near Bologna so we was thinking about Bolognese for our dinner today but could not find the restaurant with that menu so we left for Munich and had dinner quite late in the restaurant in  the service area on highway. The Italian food here turned out to be amazingly delicious! All of us was so impressed by Italy, plus, during this Italy trip, we had visited 10 world heritage places! My dad was so happy!

The city tower of San Gimignano
from the hotel

Vineyards view from our hotel

Look at the number on this clock!

The Romanesque in Modena
Under construction….!