Luzern to Munich

Sadly it was time to depart the Seeburg and leave our lovely view of Lake Luzern. But happily we are off on a new adventure! Our first stop was to be the Benedictine Monastery in the village of Einsiedeln to see the famous Black Madonna. After about an hour's drive we arrived in the village and found that an"Iron Bike" race was in progress. While this presented a challenge finding a parking location for the bus it made an interesting backdrop to the visit.

Mass was being held inside the basilica when we entered. Good timing! We arrive right when they were taking the collection and the ushers weren't bashful. Hope that means we got credit for attending church! It was Sunday. The Madonna is contained in its own separate little chapel area and while the mass was being said in the main area of the church, there were some worshipers saying prayers in front of the Madonna. Unfortunately we could not photograph inside the basilica, but it was quite a thing to see.

Leaving the church, I watched the race for a bit and then took off trying to find the "World's Largest Nativity Scene". It was in a museum that hadn't opened for the day yet. A little further down the road was the Panorama, a 360 degree painting depicting Jerusalem during the crucifixion. A very nice lady working there let me go in to see if it was something the group would be interested in. Better yet, she offered parking space for our motor coach! So I departed looking for the group to tell them what I had found. As it turned out, most of them were coming down the road toward me. I then went up to find where the bus was parked and bring it down to where I had found these two sites.

The Panorama was less spectacular but the intricacy and detail of the Nativity scene was really amazing. It may not be the biggest interms of physical size but mostly has the largest number of individual piece, with hundreds of individually carved characters with moveable limbs and dressed in real cloth garments.
Departing Einsiedeln,we drove through the remnants of the beautiful eastern mountains of Switzerland and into Germany, where the land slowly flattened out. Munich took a long time to traverse en route to our hotel due partly to the Oktoberfest crowds. People seemed to be stumbling about all over the place and Marina had to take care not to hit any of them.

The Hotel Prinzregent is located about 9 kilometers outside the center of town in a somewhat residential area. Although it has a really homey, comfortable feel, all the while everything is done in a top notch way. The rooms are immaculate and spacious, by European standards, the bathroom floor is heated which is really nice stepping out of the shower. There is a friendly bar, an outdoor eating area and a nice private dining area for our group. The maître'd met me before dinner to suggest a couple of wines to accompany our dinner menu. I tasted the wines suggested and found them to be
excellent.

Prinzregent Bar

Our private dinner room

Before dinner we enjoyed some conversation and beverages in the bar. We had a wonderful meal, one of the very best I've had touring with a group. We had Marina join us one last time before he was to return to Switzerland early the next morning.
It had been a rather long day and those comfortable beds with their fluffy duvets were calling!