The Luther Tour -- A final wait at Frankfurt airport before our trip home.

Strange sculpture across the street from the hotel. It moves. No I don't know what it is. But it is culture. So I took a picture of it.

Happy Luther Tour travellers. Packing up for the trip home.

Day 12 -- Trip is ended -- Time to go home

Day 12 -- Trip is ended -- Time to go home

Our last day in Germany. Up early for a big breakfast at the hotel. Pack up the bus, and then off to Frankfurt airport.

Farewell dinner memories, friendship, and toasts. Here is LutherTour Carol and Tsiggy.

On our way to our farewell dinner. Beautiful bridge on the river at sunset.

Beautiful downtown Heidelberg. Which we got to see from the bus on our traffic detour.

Note the ubiquitous white buildings with the red-brown roofs.

Waiting for the bus. A German bakery was right across the street.

Inside of this huge, huge cathedral.

Tallest church steeple ever. Honestly. The tallest in the world. 530 feet tall. How they built such a thing hundreds of years ago is wonderment.

Breakfast at our hotel in Oberammergau. Our trip is nearly at an end.

Day 11 -- Bus to Heidelberg and WurmsNot

Day 11 -- Bus to Heidelberg and Wurms-Not

Early morning breakfast at Oberammergau, and then our bus to Heidelberg. We visited the tallest church steeple in the world along the way in the town of Ulm. (Yes, the same Ulm from which New Ulm is named) Ulm also is the birthplace of Albert Einstein. Unfortunately, our trip was cut short with a traffic detour through downtown Heidelberg. Our visit to Worms had to be shelved for a future trip.

In Heidelberg we had our farewell dinner, a wonderful restaurant down by the river.

Our short visit to the beautiful town of Oberammergau. This is our hotel, and we are out front waiting for the evening meal. If I remember right, there were waitresses taking orders for beer here.

What we really came to Germany for. Lunch after the trip to the castle.

View of the castle from the town down at the bottom of the valley. This is actually the back of the castle. The front is even more stunning.

A pretty view of the castle on the hike up to the top.

A trip to the WC before the bus and hike up to the castle. Remember to bring your 1/2 Euro.

Neuschwanstein castle at a distance. Our group at bus side.

On our way to the castle. A german farm, with the barn and a rooming house for farm workers all part of the same physical structure.

Also, am I the only one who's noticed that nearly every building in classic Germany is white with a red-brown roof?

Day 10 -- Bus trip to Neuschwanstein and Oberamergau

Day 10 -- Bus trip to Neuschwanstein and Oberamergau

Munich is done, and it's on to Oberamergau. With a stop at the world famous Neuschwanstein Castle first. At the castle we bussed up to the top, a walking tour of the inside of the castle, and then a horse and buggy ride back to the bottom.

A fine German musical instrument. This gentleman was playing a blown up rubber glove for us. These people know how to live!

What is the German word for "rubber glove?"

Stage show at the HofBrauHouse. Audience members were selected to help appear on stage. We were lucky.

The HofBrauHouse can seat as many as 7,000 at a time.

What we came for. The 5 foot German waitress that delivered the beer to our table carried 10 of these at one time. 5 in each hand. (The beer steins -- not the people...)

Enough culture. On our way to the HofBrauHouse for dinner.

On our way to German culture.

I cannot believe this car. It's the SMART car, and will be in the US next year. The web says it can travel as fast as 115 kph. (That's 70 mph to you and me)

I told my mom that if she had one she'd not only be able to park it in the garage more easily than her large American car, but that she'd be able to turn around in there too.

The site of the 1972 German olympics. Right across the street from BMW.

A german ruler's summer castle. Honestly. He had this built for his daughter as "a place to spend weekends in the country."

It's good to be the king....

Our tourguide Michael and the Luther Tour, just outside the Oktoberfest grounds.

Oktoberfest grounds. We were there just 1 week before it opened. Timing is everything, eh?

Oktoberfest is an annual re-celebration of what was a 2-week long wedding reception party for a past German ruler. I forget which.

Day 9 -- Munich tour, museums, shopping, and HofBrauHouse!

Day 9 -- Munich tour, museums, shopping, and HofBrauHouse!

Today was a roller coaster day! We started out with a 3 hour bus tour of the most popular sights to see in Munich. Our bus tourguide Michael was from Munich, and he is normally a tourguide for BMW. But his main job must really be standup comedy. No one will forget Michael. ("As in the archangel...") Oktoberfest grounds, museums, castles, industry, and Munich history. ("If only the Munich art schools would have accepted Adolph as a student!...")

The afternoon we were on our own to visit museums or shops. Our group spent a marvelous afternoon at the Deutches Museum, just a few blocks from the center of Munich. The Deutches museum is a sciences and industry complex, including WWII German submarines.

The evening -- the world famous HofBrauHouse. Food, beer, entertainment, beer, food, entertainment, and .... beer!

Special guests visiting our Luther Tour at dinner. The gentlement second from left came straight to our dinner from his day working at BMW.

A marvelous German meal after a long bus travel day. Tomorrow -- Munich!

Pretty town church just down the street from our hotel. We were on the outskirts of Munich here, about 10 miles from town center.

Roadside picture -- Luther Tour and our Rochester MN sister city sign in Moosburg. We were there!

Our bus's new logo. Thanks to German "bloggers" over night at the hotel. We wonder what it says.

A german roadside diner and shopping center. We had lunch here.

Day 8 -- All day Berlin to Munich -- Moosburg

Day 8 -- All day Berlin to Munich -- Moosburg

Today was an all-day trip from Berlin to Munich. We visited the Germany countryside, had lunch at an autobahn roadside diner, and did the SaniFair dances while we were there. Our bus was sporting a new logo in the form of some overnight graffitti.

We stopped in Moosburg long enough to take a group photo. Moosburg is the German town that is a sister city to our own Rochester, MN! The mayor was unavailable for the photo.

In Munich we stayed at a lovely town on the outskirts of Munich. Tomorrow, we visit Munich!

Munich, Oberammergau, Heidelberg updates coming

Munich, Oberammergau, Heidelberg updates are coming --

We're all back from the Luther Tour Germany trip now. The plane brought us back to Mpls airport on Saturday night, Sept 22, and then the bus back to Zumbro by about 8:30pm.

We were unable to post blog updates the last 4 days because we couldn't get to the internet with our busy schedule. If only there were a wireless connection on the bus.

Rest of the postings will be done by Wednesday.

Who is responsible for all this

Pastor Carol wants you all to know that most of the posts so far have been SteveS's fault. The mis-spellings and missed facts are entirely his. She will review the blog and correct everything at a future time.

Selah.

The holocaust memorial in Berlin.

Luther Tour -- what a great day to be alive, out and about.

Luther Tour planning committee.

Pretty picture from the zoo. We're here and you aren't.....

Yes, the white wolves actually put on a howling display for us. It was really quite spooky.

We went to the Berlin Zoo today. The one in the middle is not one of our tour members.

Day 7 -- Berlin -- Museums, the Berlin Zoo, and SHOPPING!

Day 7 -- Berlin -- Museums, the Berlin Zoo, and SHOPPING!
A late breakfast at the hotel, then our busride to the Kaiser Wilhelm Cathedral on the westside of Berlin (Mitte.) The cathedral was largely destroyed during wartime bombing, and the main steeple and foundation have been preserved in it's damaged form as a reminder of those years and events. The 10am chapel organ recital did not happen, so we were on our way to the KaDaWe Department Store, museums, and the Berlin Zoo.

After a light lunch the bus took us to Potzdamer Platz for more shopping at the Sony Center, and another chance to visit the Brandenburg gate, the Holocaust Memorial, the Reichstag, the Kennedy Years Museum, and of course, a Starbucks.

The downside of our Monday time is that the larger Berlin museums are all closed on Monday. But we found plenty to occupy our time.

Our last day in Berlin. Tomorrow we leave for Munich!

THINGS WE HAVE LEARNED --
"Knut the cute" is a tiny baby polar bear, a new addition to the Berlin Zoo just this year. We found out that Knut is still cute, but no longer tiny. But you can tell he is still a little one the way he plays in the water.

I have not found a light or hollow core door anywhere in Germany. Anywhere. Every door we've used could withstand any type of forced entry. They are SOLID. And they all seem to have handles, not knobs.

Our bus driver to downtown Berlin today was named Jenghis Khan. Really. We half expected to see him in the driver's seat with helmut and horns. (But no, he was very nice....)

We have been told that we can only bring a Smart Car home with us on this trip if we can fit it in the overhead storage compartment. We're working on that.

Zumbro celebrants that evening at dinner.

We had group devotions in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's backyard. Actually, his parent's house. But he visited there quite often through his adult life.

Luther Tour at the Bonhoeffer House, participating in a detailed Dietrich Bonhoeffer seminar.