The Servello's
European Vacation 1999

We had a few visitors this year during our vacation. Beth and I spent 2 weeks with her Mom(Val), Aunt(Pam), and Vera(family friend). We were joined by Ray(Beth's Uncle, Pam's hubby) on the 31st of July.
Here is the run down of 1999's European Vacation with the Servello's...

25 July- Rhine River
The first 'day  trip' took us along the Rhine River. We drove along the western shoreline to a small town called Bacharach, then took the ferry across the river to Lorch. We then continued north along the river to Braubach where the Marksburgh Castle is located. Built in the 1200's, it is the only undestroyed castle on the Rhine. However, there are some remnants of damage done by the USA during WWII. Nice shootin', guys;)

26 July- Triberg
Beth and I had made this trip before to buy our cuckoo clock. Triberg is in the Black Forest and is the home of Germany's highest waterfall.

27 July- Idar-Oberstein
Idar-Oberstein is famous for the mining of luxurious stones and gems for jewelry. Needless to say, there are plenty of jewelry stores, all in a row, as far as the eye can see. There is also the infamous 'Church in the Rock'. The legend is as follows: The castle above the church was occupied by two brothers who were courting the same woman. Out of rage, the elder brother pushed the other out the window. The younger brother died on the precipice below. After many years living with his guilt, the elder brother confessed to an Abbott who told him to build a chapel on the site where the brother's remains were found. The church was actually built from 1482-1484.

28 July- Rothenberg(ROE-ten-berg)
This town was popular between 1150 and 1400 and most of the buildings were constructed by 1400. There are some interesting museums including the Crime and Punishment Museum where you can find instruments of torture and manuscripts describing punishments for various crimes. This is the most 'typical' looking Bavarian town in Germany. It's like 'Busch Gardens-The Old Country' on STEROIDS!!

29 & 30 July- Kaiserslautern and the Wein Probe
Though we have no pictures to show for these days, there was plenty of fun involved. On the 29th, we spent the day shopping in souvenir stores in Kaiserslautern. It was a welcome break from all the driving.
As for the Wein Probe (wine tasting) on the 30th... Well, let's just say that it was a good thing we rested up during the day for it!! Herr Hartl is a businessman in Oestrich-Winkel. His company sells and rents steam cleaning equip., repairs small and medium motors, and repairs small farm equip. (including tractors). So it started at 4:30pm. The table was set with 7 glasses, 2 baskets of bread, and a corkscrew. After all the introductions were complete, we began with the drier of the wines and worked our way up from there.
  The first 6 glasses went by quickly and Herr Hartl suggested we get some fresh air. He gave us the grand tour of his business and shared photos of his family doing their wrought-iron work. Quite a talented family. Eventually, Frau Hartl joined us and gave us a tour of the house. This is not the usual treatment, however. I guess this means we have new friends. By the end of the evening(10pm), we had consumed 9 bottles of Herr Hartl's products and... get this... 2 bottles of Sekt(champagne), a bottle of wine from 1976(the year his 1st daughter was born, and a bottle of 1943!! This was to celebrate the year that both he and Beth's Mom were born. All these 'extra' bottles were from Herr Hartl's private stock. This is to be considered an honor to say the least! Beth and I bought 12 bottles. Good stuff, too! I can only assume that Beth drove us home... she was stuck drinking fruitjuice!

31 July- Frankfurt Airport
We picked up Ray at the airport.
His flight was late due to 'technical difficulties'.
For fear that  my Mother will never get on a plane,
I'll say no more on this subject :)

1 August- Bad Kreuznach
This is the town that Beth and I live in.
We took our visitors for a walk downtown
to see the famous Bridgehouses.
We had some ice cream, then went
home to start packing for the trip to Bavaria!

2 August- Garmisch
We stayed in a guesthouse by the name Sonnenshein. Very cute place. We had 3 rooms, one with a kitchenette, one had a balcony, and Beth & I had the small room(very romantic!) The view from the room was breathtaking! Getting into Garmisch was interesting since we had to drive in and out of Austria on the back roads we took. It was weird to see the old guard shacks where the border guards used to work. Now that it's all open borders, the guard shacks look deserted.

3 August- Castles!!
We told the owner of the Sonnenshein that we would have to skip breakfast since we planned to leave for sightseeing at 7am. He prepared a 'breakfast-to-go' and met us at the door. He packed bread, butter, jellies, honey, coffe in a carafe, and even cups and saucers!! Unbelievable!
We went to the most famous of the castles first, Neu Schwanstein. The one Disney stole for his Magic Kingdom. This castle is located right next to the castle King Ludwig II was born in(Hohenschwangau). We say both castles from the outside, but only toured Neu Schwanstein. It was built from 1869-1886, but was never finished.
Linderhof was the third castle we saw this day. It is the only finished castle Ludwig built.(1878) We all agreed that the rooms in this joint were exceeeeedingly GAUDY!!
The pics are in order Neu Schwanstein,Hohenschwangau,Linderhof.

After all the castle viewing, we had some dinner, then drove Vera to Innsbruck, Austria to catch a train to Italy for a visit with her brother. Yeah, it was a spur of the moment trip, but the drive was interesting. We had 1 hour to get there and it was a 60 kilometer drive on twisting and turning back roads through high mountains where the clouds hung just slightly above the bumber of the car. And on top of all this... IT WAS DARK!! We made it, but not without asking a sweet old Austrian lady for directions to the train station. The train station looked like a storefront in a strip mall! The drive back was fun, too!! We were driving a rented 6 passenger Fiat Multipla. The UGLIEST CAR EVER!! Very comfy, but NO horsepower! Had alot of fun shifting going up and down the Austrian mountain ranges!

4 August- Mittenwald
This town is famous for its violins. Matthias Klotz (1653-1743) brought the violin making tradition to Mittenwald. The trade is now carried on by Anton Maller and his violins are highly regarded by many musicians. The prices prove it! We actually got to see him. He sold us our souvenirs, and I managed to get a business card for my sister. 

5 August- Chiemsee
A huge lake that houses another of King Ludwig's castles on one of its islands. Herrenchiemsee was also quite gaudy! It was also unfinished. It was built exactly like the Palace of Versailles where King Louis XIV lived. The fountains and gardens were nice.

6 & 7 August- Eagle's Nest and Dachau
The Eagle's Nest was once used as a conference center for Adolf Hitler to meet with other political figures, but is now a restaurant. A 20 minute bus ride gets you to the base of the mountainside where the elevator takes you the last 406 feet straight up into the restaurant (in 42 seconds nonetheless!) The summit of the place is 5,970 feet above sea level! The view from the Eagle's Nest was awesome!
  As for Dachau... well, this was the first of the concentration camps for the Nazi's. It wasn't an extermination camp, but 31,591 people died here. That's the documented number. Thousands more were executed. We took very few pictures. It was "disturbing".

The drive home was uneventful and sights like gliders flying over us, Audi TT's flying past us (at outrageous speeds!), and strange looks flying our way from the passengers of passing vehicles(no doubt disturbed by the sight of such a hideous vehicle) sufficiently lightened the mood.

So ends the first of our European Vacations. Hope you enjoyed it from afar. Come and see us and perhaps we'll see a few new things! Ciao!!

Randy and Beth in Triberg

Downtown Bad Kreuznach


Neu Schwanstein

To check up on the developments of
Beth and Randy's soon expanding family!