August 11 - 223/365

18-55mm lens @ 55mm, f/5.6, 1/60, ISO 200

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May 11 - 131/365

18-55mm lens @ 30mm, f/10, 1/160, ISO 200

This was definitely one of my most favorite days in Germany. 1) It was the first completely nice day we had. The sun was shining and it actually felt a little warm outside after days of overcast skies and rain. 2) We got our first glimpse of the Alps, the most magnificent mountain range I have ever seen and with crystal clear water below the most beautiful shade of turquoise blue - you don't expect to see that in a lake. 3) Today was "Mad" King Ludwig castle day. Well, not officially, but for us it was. We were able to tour three of King Ludwig of Bavaria's castles, one of which is the most famous castle in all of Germany, Neuschwanstein. Ludwig was King of Bavaria and LOOOOVED to spend money and build castles. In fact, he spent so much money (which he borrowed and didn't actually have) that his family was forced to declare him legally insane so that they could regain control of his accounts and keep him from spending any more money. His sudden death days after he called off his engagement was shrouded in mystery as he was found dead in a lake with his physician, and no one to this day knows if it was murder or suicide. Craaaaazy! His death left all but one of his castles unfinished inside, but you can still tour the finished parts. The castle pictured above, called Hoenschwangau, was the castle that King Ludwig spent his childhood in with his family. While it wasn't the most magnificent castle we saw that day, I loved the surrounding scenery with the lake and the mountains in this photo the best.

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May 7 - 127/365

18-55mm lens @ 55mm, f/7.1, 1/100, ISO 200

We had spent the past 2 days touring the Rhine Valley in western Germany. After leaving the town of Bacharach, we drove ~1hr north west to another river valley area known as the Mosel Valley. The Mosel had been described as a "sleepier version" of the Rhine. But we went to the region for just one night with 2 attractions in mind - Burg Eltz [another wonderfully preserved medieval castle] and the Nurburgring race track [see tomorrows photo for more on that sight]. I had a tough time choosing one photo for the day, but I ultimately chose this one for a few reasons. First, it gives you a great birds-eye view of the town we stayed the night in, Cochem, and the castle that overlooked the town and the Mosel River below. Beautiful countryside, dotted with vineyard plots growing grapes for the famous German Riesling wine. Second, this image also gives you an idea of the weather we were encountering during almost our entire trip. We had expected to tour Germany and Austria in sunshine with temperatures close to 70F. Well, some kind of freak system had settled over almost all of Europe for a few weeks, and we had almost 3 full weeks of fog, drizzle, rain, and temps around 45F-50F. Not what we had expected.... or prepared for! So this also made taking outdoor photos quite a challenge, and there is a lot of post processing done on many of the outdoor photos to reduce the glare from the fog. But the castle, the Mosel, and the wine were still amazing and quite enjoyable!

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May 6 - 126/365

18-55mm lens @ 18mm, f/3.5, 1/15, ISO 800

Since I will be probably showing you lots of photos of the outside of castles we saw in Germany, I thought it might be fun to show you the inside of one for once. Usually I don't get to take too many photos of castle and palace interiors because they just won't let you, but today we were allowed to take photos in one of the castles we visited, Burg Rheinfels. This particular image is of the bedroom of the Duchess of the castle, decorated in 19th century decor.

I also just want to quickly mention one point about my shooting process for the photos I'm going to be posting from our vacation. I have been doing most of my shooting in Manual or Aperture priority mode over the past few months, during which I have been teaching myself about my camera and how to optimize each photo I take. And as much as I wish I could have continued shooting in that carefully planned manner during my trip, the truth is it just isn't possible. Or at least, not very efficient when we are touring multiple castles/museums and walking miles each day, plus taking tons of photos.... it would unfortunately take me way too long to take each photo and my husband would probably keep going without me. :-P So for almost every shot taken on my vacation, I was shooting in "Program" mode, adjusting minor settings like aperture or ISO when absolutely necessary and doing the remaining editing in the RAW files here at home. I'm still recording the shot details under each photo in case you want to know the nitty gritty, but just be aware that I didn't specifically choose each of those settings like I usually do.

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May 5 - 125/365

18-55mm lens @ 32mm, f/10, 1/160, ISO 200

After our arrival into Frankfurt, Germany, we spent our first few days in the Rhine Valley, an area known for its many castle towns dotted along the Rhine River. This picture is of the castle town that we spent 2 nights in, called Bacharach. The castle that overlooked the town is actually now used as a hotel, and down in the town below the buildings line the edge of the town, overlooking the river. Each town we visited along the Rhine those 2 days had quaint cobblestone streets to wander around in and a castle at the top of the hill to hike up to - a beautiful and peaceful area!

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