Beuron, Swabian Alb, Germany

On Monday I went on the second of my language program's two planned excursions, this time to Beuron. Beuron is also situated in the beautiful Swabian Alb region (ie, lots of cool hills) but is much further away. This meant a long train ride, but it was worth it.

First we went on a hike ...

It doesn't look like it, but it was insanely steep climb up a huge hill.

And at the top we found, drumroll please, a Woodpile!!! Woooooo!
We were so excited, the girls insisted that I take this picture.

Then we hiked some more, and got a real view out over the Swabian countryside. After descending out of the hills we visited the abbey at Beuron. It was done in the "regency" style in the early 19th century somewhere between Baroque and Roccoco, and was INSANE on the inside.

Apperantly, all churches in southern Germany look like this:

In the afternoon, we continued with a 10k kayack trip down the Danube. This was actually a lot of fun, and didn't involve too much stuff like "paddeling" and "work" which was good.

We did have to do some portages though, to avoid dams like this:

Ollie was my partner ... here we are looking triumphant!!

And, as should probably be the way in Germany, we rounded out the afternoon with a rest at the, I'm not kidding, Kayack-rental/Archery-range/Beirgarten in the middle of the countryside.

After our day, we really needed this: