Rob61

You have already sojourned with us into the interesting world of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and his fairy tale castle of Neuschwanstein. After spending the better part of the day with Mad Ludwig and the gift shops clustered in Hohenschwangau, Vanda and I couldn’t let the rest of the day be squandered on a void in the itinerary. So a quick check of the Rick Stevens tour book disclosed that the Wieskirche pilgrimage church was 30 or so minutes away. Naturally, we beat feet for it. I remembered this church from my days in Oberammergau and that it was located in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere. Sure enough, my memories hadn’t dimmed after 40 years. Upon arriving in the middle of nowhere, there was this huge church - the Wieskirche. ... read more

Transport yourself back to yesteryear. It's Sunday, 7:00 pm. The family is sitting around the TV. The images appear on the screen. The familiar music and song begins: When you wish upon a star Makes no difference who you are . . . Tinker Bell waves her wand, pixie dust is scattered over the screen, the fairy tale castle appears and you are transported into the land of dreams. Where did Walt Disney find this castle? Did it exist? Lo and behold, the fairy tale castle does exist and it is located near the town of Hohenschwangau, in the state of Bavaria, in the land of Germany. It was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria between 1869 and 1886. He never finished it because he died under mysterious circumstances at the age of 40. He ... read more

The Romantische Straße (Romantic Road) is one of several German tourist routes designated by different themes. This one runs from Würzburg to Füssen in Bavaria through several extremely charming and picturesque towns dating from the Middle Ages. Rob and I visited three of these towns (Rothenburg ob de Tauber, Dinkelsbühl, and Nördlingen), as well as visiting the King Ludwig II castles. Rothenburg ob der Tauber I had been looking forward to visiting Rothenburg ob der Tauber not for its historical significance, but for the Christmas shopping! As soon as I saw the town, however, I was amazed and fascinated - Rothenburg is a genuine medieval walled town with gates and towers and a moat, just like the pictures in storybooks. I didn't know anything like this still existed. It is not like Williamsburg; there were no ... read more

I'm picking up where I left off with the story of our trip to Leingarten. I have already uploaded the photos that we took there. I'm typing this as Rob is driving on the A8 autobahn from Salzburg to Munich. Traffic is heavy and it is raining; there are a lot of trucks. My laptop is fully charged and ready to go. Herr Krieger drove us to the other side of Leingarten to the town museum, which he called the "Archives." It is housed in the former town hall, Rathaus, of the village of Schluctern. Schluctern and Grossgartach were merged into one municipality around 1970, when according to Herr Krieger, the German government had many small villages combined into new entities with new names. So the historical artifacts from Grossgartach are in this museum in old ... read more

Here we are again. It's now Wednesday evening and we are still feeling the jet lag. This morning after checkout from the Hotel Pfaff, Vanda and I were off to see the highest waterfall in Germany. It was located just across the street from the hotel, a nice uphill walk. The scenery was beautiful, very green, lush and misty, and it was absolutely worth the free admission. Due to time constraints, we chose not to hike to the very top. After the waterfall we had a big decision to make - visit the Triberg city museum or go to Furtwangen and visit the German Clock Museum (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum). Why was this a big decision? Because I wanted to buy a cuckoo clock in the worst way and Vanda wasn't nearly as keen on the idea. We ... read more