Oberammergau.

We have returned from a wonderful holiday taking in the Oberammergau Passion Play and Austria. I have wanted to do this trip for a while and, as the play is performed only every 10 years, this was the year to go. The theatre itself has a capacity of 5,000 and the play is performed over 100 times from April to October. The actors, actresses and all others associated with the production have to either have been born in the town of Oberammergau itself or have lived there for at least 20 years. In some scenes there can be as many as 200 on stage at the one time!
The houses in Oberammergau are very ornate with many murals.
Houses everywhere in both the Bavaria area of Germany, and also Austria, are beautifully decorated with many window boxes and balconies displaying colourful flowers. It makes our own country look drab in comparison. They must spend a lot of time watering their flowers as the overhang of the roof extends out over them.

This was our second hotel - the Hotel Alte Post in the small town of Fieberbrunn in Austria. It was in the main street so the shops were convenient and there were lots of lovely walks around and along the nearby river.
Not far away, and also within walking distance, was the Fieberbrunn cable car. We went up to the first level where we had an icecream and sat in the sunshine to admire the view.
In the nearby village of St. Jacob there was a special celebration called the "almabtrieb" which is when the cows are brought down from the mountain pastures to the farm building for the winter. All the animals are decorated with colourful flowers on their heads. There were musicians and plenty of food and drink on offer. As you can see by the symbols, there is a religious connotation to this as well - I suppose you could liken it to our Harvest Festival in Autumn.
When we had the city tour of Salzsburg, we saw this stately mansion where some of the "Sound of Music" scenes were filmed.
The weather there was lovely with a lot of sunshine.
Unfortunately, when we returned home, it was cold, rainy and blustery. I think the summer short sleeves will have to go away until next year.