The foothills of the Alps near King Ludwig's castle.

Our last day on this trip was spent on the Bavarian-Austrian border in the scenic Alps. We visited the Bavarian towns of Schwangau, Füssen, Oberammergau, and circled near the Austrian town of Reutte. The history and mountain scenery were magnificent.

We started with a visit to St. Coloman, the Pilgrims Church, just outside the town of Schwangau just about on the Bavarian-Austrian border. St. Coloman, an Irish pilgrim on his journey to the Holy Land, stopped here to feed his cattle. Apparently, his livestock accompanied him on his pilgrimage. Eventually, he even became the patron saint of cattle. Anyway, this was easily the most ornate church we have ever visited. There is a lot of artwork in that church.

Next, we went to the castles of the Bavarian father-son Kings, Maximilian II and Ludwig II from the 1800s. These castles are in the foothills of the Alps near Füssen, Germany, another border town. King Ludwig II's castle, called Neuschwanstein Castle, was the model for Walt Disney's trademark castle. I climbed a mountain to get the overview photos of the castle. It was quite a climb and quite a view. The photos were worth the effort.

King Ludwig II also built the wonderful Linderof Gardens with fountains and statues just a bit further East near the mountain towns of Ettal and Oberammergau which seemed to be deeper in the Alps. He seemed to like naked women as he had many statues of them (yet he was rumored to be gay).

We touched into Austria and drove around the mountain roads through the Alps and along jade-green waterways.

Finally, we returned to Bavaria and toured the amazing border town of Oberammergau. Surrounded by the Bavarian Alps, this town is renowned for three things: a world-famous Passion Play; a long tradition of wood carving; and elaborately painted buildings.

I honestly didn’t want to return home. Traveling is amazing. We have already started to scheme ways to extend our short jaunts into odysseys. We’ll be back, baby!

St. Koloman de Schwangau (St. Coloman in Schwangau, Germany). The baroque-style St. Coloman is set in a pastoral rural setting near the village of Schwangau on the Austrian border. The onion dome identifies it as a Bavarian Catholic Church. The lavish and opulent interior was unexpected as we first entered.

Whoa, get a load of this place.

King Maximilian II’s Hohenschwangau Castle in southern Bavaria near the town of Füssen on the Bavarian-Austrian border. Because Maximilian was Ludwig’s father, this is where Ludwig grew up.

King Ludwig II must have had father issues. When it was Ludwig’s turn to be king in 1864, he built an even grander palace, Neuschwanstein Castle, farther up the mountain to look down on his dad’s Hohenschwangau Castle. If you look carefully, you can see Ludwig’s castle farther up the mountain.

King Ludwig II’s Neuschwanstein Castle is the model for the Walt Disney Castle.

It took a long hard climb up the mountain to get these amazing photos of the Neuschwanstein Castle.

The path up the mountain runs past this interesting geological feature. This waterfalls dives into a disappearing pool.

The Linderhof Palace is the smallest palace built by King Ludwig II. It is more of an extensive garden than a palace. Ludwig loved art and spending money on art. His lavish palaces and gardens bare that out.

This cute pavilion, the Moorish Kiosk, proudly stands on a hilltop at the Linderof Palace Gardens.

Part of the entrance to the Linderof Gardens.

The hotel next to the Gardens.

The St. Mang Monastery in Füssen, Germany. Füssen is pretty much on the Austrian border. The town was on the strategic road between Rome and Bavaria. This former Benedictine Monastery started in the 9th century. The chapel dates back to the 7th century. Currently, it is the town hall and museum.

We finally made it into the verdant Austrian Alps.

I believe this is part of the Lech River system in Austria.

The gorgeously unique town of Oberammergau, Germany.

The historic family-run Hotel Alte Post in Oberammergau, Germany, was built in 1612.

We came across a gathering of Heinkel Tourist motorbikes. More than 100,000 of these well-regarded scooters were built between 1953 and 1965 by the Heinkel Flugzeugwerke.

VINTAGE VENTURES: The reason I write my travel journals is to be able to look back and remember our ventures. A secondary reason was to allow me to organize all my trip photos. I have thousands of photos. Organizing them into a travelogue made sense. The trick was to figure out how to organize all these photos and journals into a cohesive story. My early attempts failed miserably because I couldn't figure out how to meld photos and text into a structure that worked. It was when Wanda came across the Constant Contact format that allowed me to, not only develop a coherent story of our trips, but to be able to send them to friends, family, and anybody else that is interested.

It is my plan to take each of these early trips, which I call, Vintage Ventures, and collate them into Constant Contact. I hope you find some value in them, even though they are, well, vintage.

Dave and Wanda

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