Oberammergau + World Cup = Awesome!

In 1633 the village of Oberammergau was suffering from the plague that was sweeping through Europe; however, the people in this village got the idea to pledge to God that they would perform his Passion every decade if they were spared from the plague. As it turns out, once they performed this, not one more death due to the plague occurred!! So today, 4 centuries later, the play is still being performed on the decade.

The train ride to Oberammergau was under 2 hours, and today the village numbers 5,000 and over 2,400 of the residents are involved in the play in some way. What is even more interesting is that if a person wants to participate, they need to have lived in the village for 20 years!! If it is a baby participating, their family needs to be in the village for 20 years. The village itself is BEAUTIFUL - a typical Bavarian village with quaint shops and beautiful little houses. We are staying with the Fux family, who own 2 "hotels". We are in the "apartment" style house, where we get breakfast each morning, plus our OWN bathroom (once you spend time in Europe, you will know that a private bathroom is rare) and bedroom. I have taken pictures and will post them eventually. We also have dinner and lunch at the Hotel Fux, which is owned by the brother-in-law of where we're staying. We got to pick our meals, so we're not eating pasta. Again. Oberammergau is famous for wood carving as well as the passion play, and there are so many pretty handmade things around.

Now....the World Cup....Germany was playing Argentina today and we spent the afternoon watching the game on a big projector screen in Hotel Maximilian, which is the fabulous (and only) 5 star hotel in this village. Germany won, and Justin wore a "rally cap" and we both cheered along with the other screaming fans during the game. Since Germany won I can hear dozens of cars speeding around the village honking their horns as I write this; they have flags hanging off their cars and all sorts of other obnoxious paraphernalia but it's very fun to watch.

Tomorrow we are attending the passion play, which begins at 2:20 and runs until 5pm. There is a 3 hour dinner break, and then we head back to the play from 8:15 until 10:30pm. No cameras are allowed, so you will need to watch the video we posted, or just take my word for it.

Happy 4th of July! Watch some fireworks for us!!

XOXO ~ C & J