Gottfried Travel Adventures

 October 15 Well, Lucerne is now one of my favorite European cities!! It is breathtakingly beautiful and historic and has never been bombed! The former fortification walls and the 20-something towers are partially intact after 700 years!! The lake Lucerne is crystal clear and encompasses the region where Switzerland became an independent nation. All the luggage! And a tiny elevator! It took several trips. But the view was so worth it! We have a beautiful Airbnb! Here you can drink from the fountains  The flowers all around are so beautiful  A view from part of the town’s 700 year old fortification wall A lovely ride on Lake Lucerne  An evening stroll through the town. This town has very little on the way of night life. Alpine cows The 700 year old chapel bridge and the police chief’s tower Tom and Lisa on the train from Basel to Lucerne  The view from our balcony Evening stroll The view from our Airbnb overlooking the lake A 1957 Chevy - now electric! Talking about our day in our TV ro

 October 14 We had a great day in Breisach and Colmar.  Blueberry vine on our way up the steep path to St Stephens church. A traditional Bavarian dinner with our Maitre  D, Christian. Colmar In front of the oldest house in Colmar from 1400s Beer, wine, and German Shoes in Breisach Our table for our traditional Bavarian dinner Tom and Lisa in Colmar

 October 13 We had a magical time in Strasbourg! The Alsace region is my favorite part of France!  White storks nest here in Strasbourg  The still working astronomical clock in the cathedral. Every 15 minutes the figures walk past the skeleton (death) to show the passage of time.  Beautiful half-timbered houses. In the main square David and I toured the Mercedes Benz factory!  Tom and Lisa under the weeping willow 

 October 11, 2022 This morning was very foggy, but we boarded a bus and drove to the city of Koblenz, seeing some sites and hearing a lot about the history of the city from our guide Julia. Once there, she gave us a tour of her hometown before giving us an hour to explore on our own. An artist’s interpretation of Koblenz’s history! Really cool fountain. The 24 windows on top of the town square act as an advent calendar during December. I would love to see that! Many of Koblenz’s historical residences, including the three grandsons of Charlemagne who divided up the realm after his death while here in Koblenz. A bronze statue of Wilhelm I at the Deutches Eck (German corner) where the Rhine and the Mosel rivers meet. Three slices of the Berlin Wall honoring those who died defending freedom.  Marksburg castle and Koblenz  David in a town square where Johan Lutter (Augen Roller) lost his head in 1536. He supposedly rolled his eyes and stuck out his tongue before he was beheaded for robbery.

 We arrived in Vons and were bussed to Cologne. Our guide walked us through the streets to the Dom. He took us around the old town area, however 97% of the city was destroyed in WW2. The reason was that the Germans heavily bombed London and so the Allied forces chose Cologne as the retribution city and put it in the news. The thought is that the spires of the Dom acted as a wind break for the missiles and so the spires survived. Germany moved all of their troops across a bridge but left one tank and a few soldiers behind them blew up the bridge. The Allied forces captured a German tank and drove it into the region. The German soldiers thought it was one of their own and didn’t fire - to their demise. The Germans, knowing that Cologne was going to be bombed, moved many of the stained glass windows and other artifacts to secret locations and were able to rebuild the cathedral and replace the windows. The relics of the three kings in the Cologne cathedral  Standing on their feet means you