At noon, our bus took us to Oberammergau for the Passion Play. This was to be the highlight of the tour. Oberammergau Passion Play is a passion play performed since 1634 as a tradition by the inhabitants of the village of Oberammergqu, Bavaria, Germany. The town's residents vowed that if God spared them from the effects of the bubonic plague ravaging the region, they would produce a play every ten years thereafter for all time depicting the life and death of Jesus. The play, now performed repeatedly over the course of five months during the first year of each decade, involves over 2,000 performers, musicians, and stage technicians, all residents of the village.
Before the play started, Mike, our tour guide, showed us where a few things in town were. We all went to lunch at 12:45 p.m. which was part of our package (dinner was also here). It was a very nice restaurant with part of it built in 1034.
We again had to wait 15-20 minutes to use the restrooms before heading back into the play. The 2nd half of the play was also about 2 1/2 hours. We borrowed a script from a couple who had brought both of theirs; they just shared one and Brenda and I shared the other one. It was much easier to follow along this time. While it was obvious that the town has some definite talent among their citizens, there just didn't seem to be much emotion associated with the play; especially during the crucifixtion and resurrection. I was very disappointed in the play. It evoked no emotions in me at all. For all the "hype" over this play, I expected a lot more!! I was not the only one who felt this way; there were quite a few in our group that were just as disappointed.