Andar como burro sin mecate.: Deutschland

Sorry I am such a slacker, but I am too busy loving Germany! It’s so green and full of quaint, little towns. I’m told it’s like this everywhere in Germany, so hands down it’s the prettiest country. All the towns remind me of ski villages, which means I’m basically in heaven. And I’m with family now. Yup, heaven.

Gert and Wanda’s home is beautiful. They’ve been so welcoming. I couldn’t thank them enough for letting me stay with them and showing me around. They live in a little place called Neuötting (pronounced “new-urting”, roughly), which is right next to Altötting (alt-urting). Together they have about 25,000 people. Just right. These two towns are located in the German state of Bavaria, about twenty minutes from the Austrian border (which means I’ll spend a little time in Austria too!).

Neuötting was an important trade city, especially for salt, and trading would take place right in the middle of the square. They were also allowed to mint coins here, which only the really important cities had the right to do.

Coining house.

While Neuötting is the trading city, Altötting is the religious capital of Bavaria. There are like five churches or chapels around the town square. This town is famous for the black Madonna, which resides in a small chapel in the square. Tradition says that this small statue has miraculous healing powers and thousands of people pilgrim (is that even a verb??) here to pray for healing. Whenever someone is supposedly healed by the Madonna, they make a little plaque and hang it in the chapel. The walls are COVERED in these plaques. It’s really cool.

After showing me around the two towns, Wanda took me over to the Burghausen Castle, the longest castle complex in Europe (over 1000 meters, or 0.64 miles, long). It’s made up of the main house and six courtyards, where people still live today. Those people can actually say they live in a castle. Lucky ducks! Wanda and I renamed the castle: Wanda and Emily’s Castle. I know, real creative. It just came to us, I guess. So feel free to come visit us in our castle. There’s obviously plenty of room!