Ludwigsthal - National Park animal park

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We discovered that where we walked the other day had an animal park in the national park and we hadn't realised it. It was only a short train ride to Ludwigsthal to the well sign posted trail. The problem with having all the signs in German is that they are the only ones who can read them.

We set off up the trail and came upon a neolithic cave inhabited by homo sapiens in the ancient past. They reconstructed it with animal art and had a short video showing inside the cave. This did have the option of English. Further up the hill were large paddocks for hairy beasts like highland cattle and hairy donkeys. This was no doubt because of the cold that they had thick coats. Best of all though was the enclosure for the wolves. They could not be seen until they moved. Their enclosure covered a large area of forest surrounded by high electrified fences. The viewing area was in a high tower or an over bridge where we could look down on them. The whole park was wonderfully set up to be as natural as possible. The headquarters was not open so we missed out on a few things including lynx cats which I'd like to have seen.

We decided to walk back the 9km to Eisenstein. We managed to lose our way for some of it but soon found the trail through another small town, then a hamlet and finally alongside a stream. We got sore feet for our efforts.

At 5pm we headed off down to a restaurant in town to have Christmas Eve dinner with fellow Bavarian Holiday people. There were two English couples, some Aussies from Tasmania, us and 4 children. We had a really nice evening with them and a great meal with bubbly and crackers.

We then Skyped the kids at home where it was Christmas morning. The grandies were enjoying the beginning of festivities for the day.

We completed the day by going to the Catholic Church for their Christmas service. It was completely different than I've been used with a mostly traditional ritualistic service. We couldn't understand a word of it (one or two) because it was all in German of course. However, the singing and trumpet solo was amazing for a small town. Amazingly, Linds came with me. Unheard of.

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Photos

Wolves at the Falkenstein Wilderness Park at Ludwigthal
It was great to see these animals in an enclosure that mimiced their real wild life environment.

Entrance to a cave at Falkenstein
The cave showed evidence of human habitation from very early human history

Christmas Eve dinner with fellow Bavarian Holiday residents
We were all booked in for dinner at the Poschl Stubel restaurant. We included 2 English couples, a Tasmanian couple, us and 4 children.