Grand Tour to south Germany and Austria
In the morning, we visited a very famous church on an island dating from 1687. People come here from hundreds of miles to either get married or to renew their vows of decades ago. Steve Shock said "The whole place is a post card!" and he is certainly correct. It is impossible to take a bad photo in Austria.
For those wanting to take landscape photos - of a HUGE landscape, we went to the top of the 'needle', the observation platform atop the telecommunications tower where we could see three countries! Look in one direction to Italy and in another direction to Slovenia. One only had to look all around and there was Austria.
US Marine Corps combat veteran Bill Napier wrote this about his experience:
"I had a fantastic time! I best liked the Ulrichsberg
tribute to WW II veterans and going to Dr. Jörg
Haider's speech. My best memory of the trip was
the Ulrichsberg tribute and the visit to the farm.
I can honestly say, except for my Vietnam buddies,
I have never been around a finer group of people
in my life - incredible experience!"
Our bus took us to the nearby airport where the Rescue Corps had their multi-million dollar search and rescue helicopter out for our inspection. The pilot told us all about the chopper, the mission and their training. They save many people on the ski slopes of Austria and surrounding areas. We had lunch there at the airport.
Sharkhunters photo Sharkhunters photo
The pilot proudly shows off his Meaghan Cooper, Kay Cooper meet Dr. Jörg Haider
rescue chopper to Sean Cooper
Then it got interesting! We were specially invited guests of Austrian political leader Dr. Jörg Haider, member of Sharkhunters since 1990, in the Wappensalle. This is the formal room in the city building where political leaders are welcomed - even Adolf Hitler was here on many occasions in the past. Dr. Haider spent some time meeting with our group and naturally, stood for the photos of each of us.
The afternoon was spent at leisure, mostly souvenir shopping, then the highlight of the day - we were the invited guests of Dr. Haider at dinner. The Vice Governor of Kärnten came over to chat with us and then Haider entered. As he walked to his table, right next to ours, he looked straight at us, smiled and waved. Later in his remarks, he recognized "his American friends" who were there.
Please check back soon for more photos - there will be many more.
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