"Exploring Austria and Germany" is beautiful during the Christmas season in a winter wonderland. Visit around Vienna and Salzburg. Take a river boat up the Danube to Nuremberg. Travel overland to Munich, Oberammergau, and Rothenburg.

"Exploring Austria and Germany" takes you on a magical tour of the cities and countryside during the Christmas season. It starts in Vienna with tours around the city to palaces and churches, before going to the Monastery at Melk and on to Salzburg, home of Mozart. Join a river boat for a trip up the Danube River to Nuremberg, stopping at lovely towns along the way. Visit Nuremberg during the Christkindlesmarkt and see the mechanical clock in the main plaza.

Travel overland to Munich. See the Nymphenberg Palace, a former summer residence of the Bavarian princes and kings. Not far from Munich is the former concentration camp, Dachau, now a memorial. Travel the Romantic Road, stopping at Linderhof Palace built by King Ludwig, the second. Nearby is the town of Oberammergau, famous for its Passion Play. A stop at Wieskirch, in an alpine meadow, is made before continuing up the Romantic Road to Augsburg and the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary. Visit Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber to see a perfectly preserved medieval town. A final stop was made at a German Beer Hall to listen to the German music.An educational and entertaining DVD.

Average Customer Review: ( 2 customer reviews )
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I was hoping for some local culture in the way of people, dress, food, drink, customs, festivals, and tourist attractions, including some of the beautiful churches that were shown, but not that many. All in all - disappointing, for the most part.

7 of 7 found the following review helpful:

DisappointingDec 25, 2004
By Tracy Rowan "dargelos"
Had this not been subtitled "A Winter Wonderland" it would have rated three stars from me. While the production values are iffy (The sound levels are all over the place so that you'll have to ride your remote control constantly to be able to hear the narrator but not be blasted out of your seat by the music track. In some places, the narration was actually drowned out by the music!) there's a lot of material in this rather short travelog.

However, when something bills itself as a travelog about winter in Germany and Austria, I really expect more than a shot of the Christkindlmarket in each town visited, and some gratuitous snow shots right at the end. Instead of a film about the beauties and pleasures of winter in Germany/Austria, this is a pretty standard, and not particularly well-done travelog about some of the nicer spots in those two countries.

Given the amount of territory they try to cover, it should have been about three times as long, and the narration should have been a bit more exciting. Everyone watching this at my house fell asleep! Cuts are abrupt and disconcerting. We go from a somber segment on Dachau to a startlingly cheerful bit about Munich. Frankly, there are far better travel films on this subject.