Things I Love About Bavaria

We will be moving back to the States in less than a year. Although we are ready to move back and enjoy all the modern conveniences again, like 24 hour grocery stores, 7-11's on every corner, hundreds of TV channels to choose from, American restaurants! There are so many things about Germany we are going to miss; Like hopping in our car on Friday and spending the weekend in another country. Or how the Catholic Faith is celebrated everywhere. It's beautiful here!

I just wanted to show you a few things that our family loves about Bavaria. Hotels, buildings and homes around Bavaria are not afraid to show beautiful images of their shared Catholic faith. This is an image found above the door of a hotel in Ettal, Germany. Firehouses usually have an image of St. Florian, patron saint of firefighters, painted on the side of their buildings.

There are shrines all over the countryside in Bavaria. Shrines to Mary, shrines to Jesus, Stations of the Cross. As you are walking along, it is not uncommon to come across several different shrines during your walk.

I love the flowers that hang from every building in Bavaria during the Spring and Summer and early Fall! Above is a hotel on the Chiemsee Lake. Below is a Gasthof (kind of like a guest house) just outside of the Vilseck Army Post. The photos do not do either of these buildings justice! The Gasthof Stroll is a historical building in the Vilseck town. On a side note, all of us Americans start out the Spring season by planting numerous geraniums, petunias and other hanging flowers but ours are never as beautiful and full as the Germans. I have since learned their tricks; first, they use a weekly flower food. And then they use rain water and not water from the faucet to water everyday. Faucet water is so high in calcium here in Germany that all those minerals just kill our flowers. But the Germans will set a large barrel under their drainpipes to collect rain water so they can water their outside plants and flowers. There are many more things we love about Germany and Bavaria and I will save those for later posts so you can journey with us this Winter!