Themen'

Three themes have emerged in our first few days. I am certainly not the first to notice, but I thought I would post about it anyway. (I will add pictures later, as I am on the bus on our way to Venice.)

The first theme is Churches. There are Churches everywhere! Every small village has a Church, usually it is the largest and tallest structure in the area. Lot's of the towns have multiple churches and you can see their spires from miles away. From the Cathedrals in the bigger cities like we saw in Cologne to small country chapels that just appear on a hill side. You can even see a church at the top of the Alps in one of the pictures from Pilatus! You can hardly travel anywhere without seeing churches, large and small, in town centers and on apparently inaccessable hills.

The second theme is Castles! There are medieval castle ruins, castle hotels, castles guarding rivers and passes. It seems that everywhere someone built a castle! They show up unexpectedly, usually as ruins poking out of the trees in a hill or cliff. Some, like the castle in Leichtenstein are inhabited by their owners. One of the things that makes it fascinating is that these structures (churches and castles) predate the European discovery of North America!

The third theme is tunnels! Yes, tunnels. We have been through short tunnels, long tunnels, very long tunnels, half tunnels (only closed in on 1 side and some with windows), and even some with exits. I am sure the tunnels make this type of trip possible. I can't imagine how much time it would take to travel through the alps on twisting roads with a bus!

I just thought you might like to know :)