Landshut, Germany

Our friend, Tania Schmidt is originally from Germany and now lives in Las Vegas. She has become like a sister to us , and Josephine, her daughter, is Isabelle's best friend. They have been in Southern Germany with family for about 10 days, so we met up with them in a quaint town called Landshut, just outside of Munich.

It is in the heart of Bavaria and it is a beautiful place, one of my favorite so far. The downtown area is so clean and the buildings are all painted in nice pastel colors. This is not a tourist town, yet it is picture perfect as if it were made just for tourists. This old part of downtown is closed to car traffic, and during lunch and late into the evening, all of the cafes have tables set up in the street area and they are full of people leisurely dining.

Isn't it so picturesque? It stretches for a mile on both sides of the street like this.

Here is the view of the downtown area from our hotel. We went in the church that you see here, and climbed up to that white fortress on the right to watch fireworks.

This is the bridge from our hotel to the downtown area, a 5 minute stroll. I really thought it was lovely and wished we could have spent a bit more time here.

Isabelle said, "It was really pretty and I looked standing by the water at night and looking at the fountain in the water. I also shopped with Josephine and we had fun trying on clothes and being "girly". I even found a hat and a scarf for 2 euros!"

On Friday night, there was a festival in town. I think the whole town showed up for the first night of a 3 day celebration! It was crowded!

The kids had fun riding the rides and playing some games.

We had some bratwurst and huge pretzels for dinner. We opted NOT to eat the whole fish cooked on a stick!

There were tons of people wearing traditional clothing. Tania said that about 10 years ago, no one younger than 60 would be seen wearing lederhosen and the girls in dirndl but now it has become popular again. People of all ages had them on in different colors and patterns. I felt a little out of place in jeans and a t-shirt!

This was a HUGE tent that served as a "biergarten" and place to sit and eat and listen to the polka band.

We walked up the hill to that fortress to watch fireworks, and it was a nice way to end a pleasant day.