On The Rhine with Flo and Birgitt

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Day on the Rhine

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Sorry I made a mistake on this slide show. I put Henrik's school in the mix with some of the Berlin Pictures. You will need to look at an advertisement and then wait for the Smilebox to download. Something to do on a rainy day if we ever get one. Enjoy

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Some of the great food and fun we experienced when we all went out with Opa and Oma. They paid for the entire gang. We had such a good time.

This is one of my favorites -Weiner Schnitzel

Opa and Beatrix

Maxie, Martin and Melanie.

Andreas on the right and his brother Rubert.

Thomas' family is here in the United States. They are having a wonderful time. Here is the link to their blog http://hasisgousa.blogspot.com We talked to them tonight but had a bad connection so we thought we would try it again tomorrow. I am trying to get my pictures downloaded and then I am going to start from the last part of our trip in Austria and print the pictures backwards. Then it will come out in the correct order (hopefully) from the beginning to the end. I am having trouble getting anything done because I am still trying to unpack and am missing some things like camera cords. I'll write more soon. Sending our love your way!! Nita and John

I have added this poem because it is the legend of Lorilei. As we took our tour down the Rhine they played the song of the Lorilei (Loriley). This is the narrowest and deepest part of the Rhine. There are several poems written about Loriley but this one is written by Mark Twain. The picture is of the rock cliff where Lorilei was said to have enticed her forlorn sailors.


An ancient legend of the Rhine
I cannot divine what it meaneth,
This haunting nameless pain:
A tale of the bygone ages
Keeps brooding through my brain:

The faint air cools in the gloaming,
And peaceful flows the Rhine,
The thirsty summits are drinking
The sunset's flooding wine;

The loveliest maiden is sitting
High-throned in yon blue air,
Her golden jewels are shining,
She combs her golden hair;.

She combs with comb that is golden,
And sings a weird refrain
That steeps in a deadly enchantment
The listener's ravished brain:

The doomed in his drifting shallop,
Is tranced with the sad sweet tone,
He sees not the yawing breakers,
He sees but the maid alone:

The pitiless billwos engulf him!-
So perish sailor and bark;
And this, with her baleful singing,
Is the Lorelei's gruesome work.

Mark Twain 1880

WE'RE BAAAAACCCCCCKKKKKKK!!!. We had a really nice plane trip to the states. John and I had an exit row and didn't have anyone in front of us. There was enough room for us to stand at our seats for a while and stretch our legs. It was nice. The Hasenzagl's were with us which made it more fun. We really liked Austrian Airlines. It was almost a 10 hour trip but it went by fast. Once we got on the plane to finish our trip from Chicago to Louisville, it seemed like no time until we were home. Momma and Donna picked us up and then we went out to eat. Although we had such a wonderful time, it felt good to be home. We both went straight to bed and slept until the next day. I hope you will continue to look at the blog. I will be adding more pictures once I get things straigtened out around here and I have some time to download the pictures. I think we took around 800 pictures. It will be a lot to go through. The Hasenzagl family will be keeping a blog of their trip to America. I have to get the address from them. If you like reading blog's a friend of mine has a wonderful blog that I will add here. This is Teri's blog http://overonpigeon.blogspot.com/ I hope you get a chance to read it. She does a great job and is very talented in many ways. Be back with more later. Nita

It is Sunday night in Austria. We are sitting in Thomas' living room watching what else=== The Sound of Music. It is so neat to watch the movie through different 'eyes'. We have seen many of the places where the movie was filmed in Salzburg now it means more to watch it. We are watching it in English with the subtitles in Germam. It is really an experience.
We will be going back to America on Wednesday. The Hasenzagl family will be traveling to Chicago with us and then we will go our separate ways. OH How sad!!!!! We have had such a wonderful time on the entire trip. It is going to take us a long time to get our thoughts together and realize just what we have seen. Just like today, Thomas' Opa took us to a village that was wiped out by Hitler during the war. We saw the remains of a church and walls from the village. There was a overrun cementery where Hitler's grandfather is officially believed to have been buried. Many of the Hitler family were buried in this cemetery. All of the markers have disappeared or have been stolen. I guess the Hitler name has been wiped out. Most of them probably changed their names after the war. It was really neat because we were the only ones on this hill. Someone had been there before us because there was one lone candle burning on the church entry way. I will include pictures later. It was totally fascinating to hear the story or I should say to listen to Thomas interpret the story through the eyes of someone wh0 lived there during that time. Opa was 11 years old when all this took place and he remembers it like it was yesterday. It is a very isolated place and we really had to search to find it and then we had to walk up a hill.(Everyone knows how I like to climb hills!!!!!) It was amazing. I plan to continue writing in my blog when we get back. It takes a while to download the pictures so we will work on it when we get home. We are going back to Vienna tomorrow. (Or as they say here Wien) Tuesday we are going to stay in St. Pölten and pack to get ready to come home. We are looking forward to seeing all of you soon. Hope you will continue to check back. Love, John and Nita

This picture was taken in Vienna. We have seen many of these 'people statues'. They usually stand very still until you give them money. I would say they probably make more money than I do.
These are my famous dumplings.
This is the pool behind Thomas' house. We had a night party.
Well believe it or not. Andreas was able to get us last minute tickets to a sold out concert of Kris Kristofferson. It was absolutely wonderful. We were sitting 8 rows back from the front. It was like he was singing to us personally. He is seventy-two years old and still going strong.