| The Alps Italy Switzerland Austria Germany April 2008 |
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| Starting in Italy, we spent three days in Milan before heading up to Stressa on Lake Maggiore. Milan's cathedral must have a thousand spires which you can see close up on the roof. |
| We had a wonderful view of Isola Bella from our balcony in Stressa. While there we took a boat ride on Lake Como and then headed over the Simplon Pass to Switzerland. I was hard to believe it was April, what with all the snow. |
| On our drive to Interlaken we stopped for lunch in Zermat. It was 3 degrees celcius and the low hanging clouds didn't give us much of a view of the Matterhorn but it was a quaint ski town. |
| Interlaken is nestled between two lakes and impressive mountain peaks. From a park just a block from our hotel there is a wonderful view of the Jungfrau. |
| On a perfect day we had lunch at a farmhouse overlooking Gstaad and the next day we took a train from Grindelwald up to the ski area overlooked by the Eiger, Monk and Jungfrau peaks. |
| Old town Bern is noted for its astronomical clock, many public fountains, beautiful architecture and the bears, for which the city is named. |
| Heading on to Austria we stopped in Luzern and its famous lion and Lichtenstein and its famous banks before arriving in Innsbruck. Nestled among the mountain peaks, this is a beautiful city. |
| Again, the weather cooperated and we were able to take a funicular and two cable cars to the top of the mountain peak overlooking the city of Innsbruck.. Amazingly, people were still skiing here. One afternoon we had lunch at the top of the ski jump built for the olympics back in the 60's. |
| I remembered this beautiful church from when I visited here on a college trip in 1963, |
| Two towns noted for their magnificent painted houses are Millenwald, also noted for violin making, and Oberammergau, also famous for the passion play put on every ten years. After touring the theater we really would love to go back and experience this famous play and have lunch again at the dumpling institute. |
| The first thing we went to see in Munich was the Glockenspiel and the second thing was the Lowenbrau beer garden for dinner While walking around the city the next day we made sure to stop at the Hofbrau Haus for lunch and the park where the Octoberfest is held. Actually, it seems to go on year round, not just in October. |
| The castles of Mad King Ludwig are famous for their beauty. Above is Linderhof, a small pearl by castle standards and below is the famous Neuschwanstein, on which Disney's Cinderella's castle is modeled. |
| And here is Salzberg, early home of Mozart. |