Day 15: European Family History Trip: Austria, Lichtenstein, Alps
Austria, Sulzburg, Lichtenstein, St Gallen, Austrian Alps, Fussen in Bavarian Alps, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles.
We stayed overnight in Austria and then went to Lichtenstein via Sulzburg in hopes of finding out about the von Sulz family in either place. No luck. But we did get to add another country and see the outside of the Lichtenstein castle.
St. Gallen Switzerland
From there we went to St Gallen because some of my people were born and/or died there. When I stepped into the main square outside the Kloster Church in St Gallen I had such a surreal feeling. With the blue sky and the huge church I felt as if heaven had opened up and poured out peace.
Staying in the Bavarian Alps
After that we went through the Bavarian Alps to where we are staying in this delightful place in the Austrian alps. It’s so beautiful and really close to two of King Ludwig’s castles. (No, I’m not related to him) but the castles are really cool and well known. We went out to take photos of the castles. We also had dinner at a nice restaurant for Dave’s birthday.
Shout Out to Dave
If you’ve been following along on our European family history research tour over the last couple weeks, you can see how many things we’ve been able to do, research and see across Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria, and Lichtenstein.
I want to give a big shout out to Dave for researching and planning all this. He drove us wherever we went and then each night while I wrote the recap of the day, he booked accommodations for the next day, planned our travel route, made sure that we were able to be flexible from day to day as we followed family history bread trails. He figured out multiple currencies and navigated insane parking situations and super narrow alleys. He arranged private tours of castles and even a belfry. He’s fluent in German — which made this trip possible.
It’s a little too convenient that I’d marry a man who served a mission in Switzerland and Germany who has managed to remain fluent after 40 years and that we’d be able to research my Swiss and German ancestors on-site and retrace many of my mother’s steps from her much-loved time in Germany back in 1953.
It’s a God thing… no doubt about it. And maybe… just maybe… my Angel Mother had a hand in it. 😇
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