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Vacation 2010 Switzerland - Austria - Germany All on One Page

It will still take a little while to get all the pictures of our latest Germany visit only, but here is a first quick overview of these two very exiting weeks in September 2010.

The trip started with a flight from San Francisco to Zurich via Philadelphia. The first really exciting moment happened above the Atlantic Ocean, at 54 degrees West, half way between Manteca and Potsdam, when Volker pulled an engagement ring out of his pocket and Judy said "Yes!"

Six hours later, the newly engaged couple landed in Zurich, Switzerland, where Volker's friend Frank picked us up. Before reaching Germany, we visited two of Zurich's main attractions, Laufen Castle and Europe's widest waterfall, the Rhine Fall.

Frank lives at beautiful Lake Constance. The lake connects Austria, Switzerland and the German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. For the next three days, we checked out many of the sights along its shoreline.

Our first real road trip took us to Neuschwanstein, the fairy-tail-castle of Bavarian king Ludwig II. It was the only rainy day of our trip, thus it was an enjoyable visit without masses of tourists.

The next day, Frank took us to Austria, into the heart of Europe's largest mountain range, the Alps. At an altitude of 6,500 feet, we spent a day hiking around beautiful Lüner Lake.

Then, Volker's brother Steffen picked us up and we went on a three-stage road trip heading north from Lake Constance to Potsdam. Our first stop was the small Bavarian town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, well known for its well-preserved medieval architecture. Judy called it the most beautiful town she had ever seen.

Next stop was Jena, hometown of Volker's daughter Julia. Here, we visited a small renaissance fair and checked out parts of the Thuringia Forest, also called Germany's green heart.

Julia also took us to Erfurt, capital of the German State Thuringia. Then, on our way from Jena to Potsdam, we stopped in Leipzig at the monument of the Battle of the Nations, where Napoleon was defeated in 1813.

In Potsdam, home of Volker's family, we revisited some familiar places and checked out some of the sights we had missed during our first visit.

One place we particularly liked was the "Church of Peace" - indeed a peaceful place, right downtown in an otherwise very busy city.

Sadly, German history was not always peace and beauty. So, we also visited the former concentration camp of Sachsenhausen to pay our respect to the victims of Nazi tyranny.

We also made good on a promise we couldn't keep during our last trip and visited Volker's aunt and cousin in Bärenklau, a small village where Volker spent the summers of his childhood with his grandparents.

Exploring the rural surroundings of Potsdam, we found a farm where we could pick our own apples and visited a historic windmill. That day ended with a ride in one of East-Germany's infamous plastic cars, called "Trabant."

During the last days of our visit we went further back in history than ever before. Düppel, situated half way between Potsdam and Berlin is a reconstructed village, rebuilt on the remains of an excavation site dating back to the year 1200.

Then, we moved forward to a more recent part of German history, visiting the former Checkpoint Charlie and Eastside Gallery, the largest remaining piece of the Berlin Wall.

At the very last day, Steffen showed us the home of his volunteer work and Harry Truman's house at Hiroshima Square.

And then, there was of course the birthday of Volker's sister Jutta. The next day, on the way back home, we decided that traveling by plane, boat, car, train and bus was not enough yet - so we traveled the last 75 miles by tow-truck.

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