Southward the second time

The last day of the trip we went south again, except this time we could not see the mountains. They had ducked under blankets of clouds and snow.

The highlight of the day was an unexpected place. We visited Wieskirche, solely because three guidebooks said that we should. (Makes you wonder - what else would we do if they all recommended it??)

Wieskirche is a church built in a field outside of a small town, on the site where villagers saw a wooden image of Christ crying in 1738. They built a small chapel on the site, and a few years later, the pilgrimage church was constructed. It's built in "Bavarian Rococo" style, which means that it has pink and green marble, gold trimming, and little cherubs everywhere.

The Wieskirche is a UNESCO world heritage site. I had heard of this designation before but never knew what it meant, so I looked it up. UNESCO stands for the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. The world heritage sites have several criteria, check them out here if you like, but basically they designate places that are unique and awesome. The criteria that I would guess Wieskirche falls under is: "to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius". Here's what it looks like:

Oberammergau (say that three times fast) was our next stop. This town is famous because once every ten years during Holy Week, there is a Passion Play there. Since the next one is in 2020, we just shopped and got some lunch.  Brian was going to be Epcot center this week, and the Germany part of Epcot probably looks like Oberammergau (but on a sunnier day):

I had heard a lot about Bavaria, and in my mind I had built it into this warm happy friendly place with birds singing and tuba music playing softly in the background. It is very pretty and interesting, but the people didn't seem so different from the Northerners. During our trip, the people were nice when I talked to them but not outwardly friendly. I am used to that kind of thing in  Hannover but from what I'd heard, I thought people would be more outgoing in the South. They do say a few different words, like "gruß Gott" rather than "hallo" as a greeting and "auf wiedersehen" (it still reminds me of the good night song in Sound of Music) rather than "tschuss" for goodbye. I still am holding out hopes to hear more tuba playing on my next trip.