23Apr2009: Day 332: Bavaria, Germany

We actually did get up early today and went back towards where we were yesterday. There are a couple of famous castles, Hohenschwangau and the better known Newschwanstein. When we got there it was quite chilly and cold and I was longing for yesterday’s warm sun. Of course, it didn’t help that we were up in the mountains.

We bought a combination ticket for both castles and were debating whether to walk to the Hohenschwangau or take a horse and carriage ride. We opted to walk. You had to be there on time for your tour number or else you’d have to go back to the bottom and start over again, by buying another ticket for another tour time. We headed up after bundling up some more. It wasn’t too bad of a walk up, a bit tiring but not too steep.

When we got to the top, our tour number hadn’t come up yet so I went into the gift shop. I saw a ring or two, I would’ve loved to have bought but resisted. Plus, I had no money…Chris has it all…smartly. When I went back outside, it was raining, and quickly turning to hail. Not hard hail, but not snowflakes. We were under this tent like thing waiting for our tour number. When we did finally get to go, we had to leave our cart behind. Big pain in the butt! Makenna was tired already and had actually fallen asleep while we were walking up to the castle. We carried her up these steps and got a short tour of Hohenschwangau Palace.

This palace was found by the Crown Prince Maximilian of Bavaria. He happened upon ruins and decided to buy it and restore the castle, which he did from 1833-1837. The colour of this castle is the first thing you notice. Like a shade of yellow. Inside was different in that there were a lot of murals painted on the walls. Only very few pictures were actually painted on canvas and hung. Also, a lot of the murals had depictions of battles but no blood which was common at that time. It had a lot of neat things that were left behind in the castle, mostly wedding gifts that were given to the King and his wife, whether it be a desk or a box. This castle also had ceramic stoves which were pretty and usually matched the décor of the room. I wish I could show you pictures from the inside but they didn’t allow pictures or video at either castle. This picture is one of the stoves and it was at the end of the castle as you left so I didn't feel guilty about taking the picture. But you can see how they look more ornate than just a fireplace or a wood burning stove.

Makenna was pretty good here as she was still trying to sleep, unsuccessfully as Chris and I kept trading her off as she’s getting to be bigger now and our arms get tired pretty quickly. The tour guide was a bit hard to understand due to her accent and she didn’t really seem too happy to be giving a tour as she kept sighing.

When we picked up the cart, it was a bit wet as the guy we left it with just left it out. That was frustrating. We walked down the “quick route” back to the main road where we then had a decision again to walk up to the next castle or take the horse &carriage, or this castle also had a bus that went up to it. Chris first thought we’d do a horse & carriage ride, but there wasn’t one available at the time so we headed towards the buss. Unfortunately, the bus was just leaving. We went over there to stand anyways figuring maybe they come every 15 minutes or so. As we were standing in line, a lady from the restaurant came over to tell us that they weren’t doing any more bus rides due to the weather.

Since the horse/carriage rides can’t guarantee that you will be on time for your tour that meant we had to hoof it ourselves. This was a workout and a half. We only had about 40-45min. to get up there before our tour started, and it takes about 40 minutes walking according to the guide. We had to take turns pushing the cart up this non-stop steep incline. We had to stop a few times too as we were getting really sweaty, even though there was snow here and there along the ground, and just worn out. Of course, when we got up there, we had to leave the cart again.

We finally made it up this hellacious hill and had just enough time to drop off the cart, along with our backpack. This proved to be more of a problem this time as Makenna was extremely tired and took every opportunity to let us know by screaming, running away, spitting, etc.

The castle Neuschwanstein was really nice it was built by Ludwig II who was Maximillians son. This is the more famous castle compared to his home of Hohenschwangau. When Max died, his son Ludwig, at the age of 18 became king of Bavaria. Building began in 1869 and went at least until 1880. I guess King Ludwig II actually had five castles built but only one or two were finished before he died of mysterious causes (they believe he was killed).

This castle was very grand and interesting. One room, the Throne Hall, had blue marble looking columns. I asked the tour guide if these were real and she said no. The materials were “cheap” but the work on them to make them look authentic was not. Speaking of the guide, she was a bit easier to understand than the one for the other castle, but since Makenna was in a miserable tired mood, we couldn’t always pay attention to what she was trying to tell us. She also said that Ludwig II only stayed in this castle about 174 days more or less. Chris reminded me that Walt Disney based Cinderella’s castle on this one.

Another interesting part in this castle was The Grotto. This was an area that was built within the castle to look like a cave. It even used to have a running waterfall within the cave. The guide said that Ludwig wanted it built based on some play that the King was a part of. I think he may have been in the play, or he really liked the play, so he wanted something to remind him of it and he had the cave built.

After the tour was done, we headed outside and had to walk back around to the front to get the cart again. It gave me a chance to change Makenna’s stinky diaper (that was another reason she was such a pain, she couldn’t get privacy to go, so she just wanted to be left behind, which we couldn’t do.)

I insisted that regardless how easy it would be to walk down the hill, we were taking the horse and carriage. Chris agreed. We stopped and picked up a pretzel first. It looked like one of the ones you get from Auntie Anne’s in the Mall but it was disappointingly different. It wasn’t hot and warm, and was almost hard, but not stale, thank goodness. We got in to the carriage and I was showing Makenna the horses and the guy offered for her and I to sit up front with him. This absolutely elated Makenna. She kept saying the “horsie is walking.” After we got to the bottom, she got to pet him and thought that was really neat.

We then headed off to find a couple of churches in the area. We got to “The Wies” (aka Pilgrimage Church of the “Scourged Saviour”.) As Makenna was finally sleeping, Chris went into it first while I took the opportunity to rest my weary legs and stay in the car with her. When I went in, it was another bright airy church which is known for its baroque art and architecture. Chris was the first to mention how these churches were much different from the dark churches of England, but he finally mentioned why today, which I didn’t realize…they’re painted white inside. That’s what makes them so bright looking compared to the dark stone of the ones of England. It makes the colours of the frescos and other paintings pop out at you and seem just more eye catching.

We went on to the next church which was Rottenbuch (aka Parish Church of Mariae Geburt) which is another baroque church. We did the same thing where Chris went in first then I went in. This church also had traces of Romanesque sculptures and medieval decoration but in 1262 & 1322 this church was ruined by fire. Over the years different parts were rebuilt. When I went in, there was a guy playing a trumpet along with the organ which was nice ambiance music.

We left and headed back towards the hotel but looked for somewhere along the way to stop and eat. We found this bar/restaurant and knew we were in for trouble when we couldn’t read a thing from the menu as it was all in German or Bavarian (if there’s a difference?) We tried making out some of the words like asparagus and schnitzel. We asked the waiter if he could help us and he brought someone else who knew better English. The lady asked us if we were looking for something specific or if we were up for Bavarian type food. We said we’d try typical local fare. She suggested a sample platter of sausage, and other meats and another meal of pork schnitzel. We were able to get chicken for Makenna, as usual, along with pom frittes (fries). We also got a salad and it had pickled beets on it. I took a chance and tried a small taste of one which wasn’t too bad. It was a bit sweet and went well with the salad and dressing. Our meals were pretty good too. At first I wasn’t sure I liked the schnitzel too much, which was what was put in front of me, but I got to like it more as I continued to eat it. I gave half of it to Chris and tried some of his different meats. He also had this potato looking thing but we’re not sure what it was. It was really salty and had a strange texture. He thinks maybe it was rice and I thought it had a consistency of a matzo ball. Makenna was just happy as usual to eat her chicken.

Off to the hotel for another swim. Luckily this time the pool seemed a bit warmer and there was no one stripping. Chris was swimming under the water towards her again and she just laughed and laughed. When he came up out of the water she said, “Daddy is so funny.” Makenna will be disappointed as we check out tomorrow and none of our remaining hotels have pools that we know of.

Chris has been enjoying driving really fast on the Audubon and I’ve enjoyed that there have been very minimal motorcycles and a lot less people smoking here.