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!