USO Tour Part 2: Lichtenstein Castle

Part 2 of our USO tour was a visit to the Lichtenstein Castle. The ropes course is located in the forest next to the castle, so it was a short walk, uphill, to get to the castle. We had some time before our tour of the castle started so we enjoyed the gorgeous view from the castle grounds:

And hung out in the sunshine:



The castle that we toured was constructed in the 19th century, which by castle standards, is not very old. Apparently though there has been a castle on those grounds from as early as 1200, but they've been destroyed and rebuilt a few times over. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the castle, but we did get a few shots of the exterior:



Walking across the old drawbridge was really neat! The tour itself was pretty brief and I can't say we learned too much, but we did get to see some really cool armor. The tour guide said that a knight would wear around 50 kilos (110 lbs!) of armor. Yikes!

After the tour ended we boarded the bus to head home; we were wiped out from the ropes course and the castle tour. We had a fun-filled day and can't wait to go on our next USO tour.

If you'd like to view the rest of our photos from the USO tour, please click on this link:
USO Tour Photos

USO Tour Part 1: AbenteuerPark

On Sunday morning at 0830 we boarded the USO bus. We were headed to AbenteuerPark for a ropes course adventure! Neither of us had ever tried a ropes course before, but we were very excited. We pulled up to AbenteuerPark after a comfortable hour ride on the bus. This is what we saw:

After we stowed our belongings in a locker and donned our helmets, we were ready to go!

At AbenteuerPark we received a 30 minute briefing on how to safely snap our carabiners onto the different cables, ropes, and lines. Once we were brief complete they cut us loose to do whatever courses we chose! During the brief we were told that it takes approximately 30-40 minutes to get through each course. AbenteuerPark offers Courses 1-9, the number corresponding to the difficulty level. Course 1 is the easiest and Course 9 is the hardest. Since we were feeling fairly confidant, we started out on Course 6. Course 6 was a great one to start on. There was a little tight-rope walking:



A little zip-lining:



And lots of fun obstacles. After about 35 minutes we were done and ready for our next challenge! We decided to step it up a notch and go for Course 8. Course 8 proved to be a bit more difficult (Course 8 almost bested me on what I like to call "The Rings of Death"), but there was also considerably more zip-lining which was my favorite part. Once Course 8 was under our belts I was ready for a rest, but Brian was itching to try Course 9 (which, incidentally, required another 15 minute briefing prior to attempting). As Brian got his extra briefing I got the camera all ready to capture his maneuvers.

Course 9 started out with a long rope climb (which Brian breezed through like some sort of jungle cat):



Next up was the Double Pendulum. The Double Pendulum was the reason for the supplemental briefing prior to Course 9 (also the main reason I chose to take pictures instead of partake). Please enjoy my Ode to the Double Pendulum:







Success! After the Double Pendulum there were some more fun obstacles. For example, walking across teeny tiny wooden swings:



And skateboarding:



And then finally, zip-lining down:



We lucked out with absolutely gorgeous weather on Sunday and had a blast on the ropes course! After Brian finished Course 9, we grabbed some lunch at the biergarten and waited for Part 2 of our USO tour to begin.

To be continued...

Lucerne

Our USO trip to Lucerne started off bright and early at 0500 on Saturday morning. We drove to base, hopped on the USO bus and we were off! A few hours later we had arrived in Lucerne and started our guided walking tour of the city. Our first stop along the walking tour was at the Lion Monument:

This really cool monument commemorates the Swiss Guard that protected the French King and ultimately died defending him in 1792. We both really loved this monument. It was carved right out of the stone wall in the 1800's and was such a unique memorial.

Next up on the walking tour was the Abby Court Church:

This was a really pretty and reasonably sized Catholic church. The interior was very light (white stone, white arches, etc.) creating a nice heavenly glow. After peeking around the church for a little while we started off towards the center of the city. To get there we had to cross Lucerne's famous Chapel Bridge:

This bridge was built in the Middle Ages and it was very cool to walk across. From the bridge there were some great views of the town! As you can see from the bridge photo the weather was a little foggy, but even through the fog we could tell that this is a gorgeous little city hidden in the Alps. Once we crossed the bridge we visited Lucerne's Jesuit Church, a great example of the "sugary" Rococo style:

Sugary or not, I LOVED the beautiful crystal chandeliers that were hanging in the church! After about two hours the walking tour was complete. We were finally able to go explore and check out the Fasnachts Markt (Mardi Gras Festival)! (We had until 1845, which was when we had to meet up on the bus to head home). Our first need after the walking tour was sustenance. We found this cute little pub right along the river called Mr. Pickwick's. We were sold. Finding a cozy table in the corner, we indulged in Boddingtons, Guinness, and some delicious pub fare. Cheers!

Once our bellies were full we decided to explore the festival. We quickly learned that live music was a major proponent of the festival, marching band style. There wasn't so much "marching" as there was just some really awesome live music. All the bands had their own coordinating costumes and would march over the bridge and up onto a large set of steps. Once in place they would play 4-5 songs for the happy crowd then they'd march out and a new band will take their place. Here's a shot of Brian standing where the bands were playing:

The bands were all SO good! They all played recognizable tunes. We heard: Michael Jackson, AC/DC, Guns 'n Roses, and more. Here's a sample of the great music:



Between the music, the drinks (beer, spiked tea and coffee), and the food, the festival had a wonderfully fun and jolly ambiance. We stood and listened to the bands for quite some time. Before we knew it, the sun was beginning to set. The dimming light cast a lovely glow over the town:



As it drew closer and closer to 1845 we walked around, stopped in at Mr. Pickwick's for a final beverage and then walked back to the bus. On our walk back to the bus, the Chapel Bridge looked so pretty with all the lights reflecting off of the river:

We reached the bus a few minutes early, got settled in our seats and then played a little travel Scrabble on our ride home. The bus pulled back onto base around 2230. Although a long day, we thoroughly enjoyed our time in charming Lucerne.


If you'd like to view the rest of our photos from Lucerne, please click on this link:
Lucerne Photos

Our First USO Trip

Last night we signed up for our very first trip through the local USO (Thanks for the great USO recommendation, Noah and Holly). On February 6th, we will be going to Lucerne, Switzerland...

Image courtesy of World Guides

...to tour the city and visit a Fasnachtsmarkt (Mardi Gras festival)! The trip itself if just one day, we will be picked up on base at 0500 (Yikes) and get dropped back off around 2000. We get to just sit back and enjoy the ride...as well as Lucerne.

We're very excited to take advantage of more USO events in the future. They offer a HUGE variety of outings (day and overnight trips) as well as classes. I'm really hoping to take one of their German cooking classes. The one trip we're sad we missed out on: World Championship Bobsledding. It was a trip to learn to bobsled on an Olympic ice canal sled track. How cool would that have been? We've learned that the trips and classes tend to fill up quickly. We lucked out and bought two of the last three seats for the trip to Lucerne.

Here we come, Switzerland!