melted smoosh

(read part one here !) next they were off to Slovakia to visit  Ľubovňa Castle. what a life! I think this visit will be especially memorable to Cece during this upcoming school year, as the third grade history class always does a unit on medieval castles and the children create their own out of boxes and paper towel tubes. on their way to the next stop, the group made a quick stopover in Fr. Aron's ancestral hometown and surprise his cousin. his cousin speaks only Slovak but the joy and emotion was palpable when she opened the door to find him standing there. I just love these photos!  then the bus drove on to Hungary, where they had a traditional dinner of scones, goulash soup, potatoes, pickles, bacon, and fried gypsies (similar to ribs). and finally it was time for bed!  the next morning they visited St. Stephen's basilica and took a walking tour of the Budapest, including the famous market hall. that afternoon they spent a few hours at the Szechenyi mineral baths, and...

finally, the very last day of our trip had arrived -- Monday, November 5. our flight didn't depart out of Munich until 7 PM, so we were determined to squeeze every last drop out of the day. however, i may have done a happy dance of delight as i packed up our suitcases and we loaded the van for the very last time. photo credit: Angel photo credit: Angel we drove through the beautiful little town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and began climbing the hills toward Oberammergau. Oberammergau is famous for its Passion Play, which is performed once every ten years. the earliest documented performance was in 1613, so in 2013 they celebrated their 400th anniversary. they are actually performing again this year (2019) - i'm not sure why it's only a six-year hiatus this time! even though we wouldn't be able to see the play, we wanted to see the town and the woodcarvers. in particular, Father Aron was on a mission to buy a cuckoo clock. as we drove, we discussed our plan of ...