Germany and Beyond: Ludwig's Bavaria!
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Published: December 16th 2013
Berlin - Bavaria - Paris - Bastogne - Christmas Markets -- our German vacation was so full of spectacular sites, that I just would not be able to fit it all in one blog! Therefore, I will write this in sections, with each major segment of our trip having it's own post. This is segment 2: Ludwig's Bavaria! We have been planning this vacation for years! Well, sort of. My friend and old co-worker, Lisa, is stationed in Germany. Ever since she moved there I have been threatening that I am going to come visit. It was always "maybe in the Fall", then "maybe in the Spring", "maybe just after I graduate"...you get the idea. Well we finally decided it was time and purchased the tickets...no going back now! We planned our trip in the winter on purpose...to coincide with all the German Christmas Markets! We spent 10 wonderful days touring the area, taking in the sights, eating the food, and learning more about their culture! To give you a little overview, we flew out of DC direct to Frankfurt. From there, we took a shuttle to Spangdahlem Air Base where Lisa met us and took us to her home Village,
Dudeldorf. We spent the first night there, then drove to Wittlich to catch a train to Berlin, where we spent 2 nights. From Berlin, we took the train to Munich. We didn't stay in Munich...that will be another trip I guess...but we got our rental car at the train station and drove down to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the Bavaria portion of Germany, where we spent the night. The next morning, back in the car we drove a brief stint in Austria to get to Hohenschwangau (back in Germany) where 2 of Mad King Ludwig's castles are nestled amongst the trees and rocky bluffs of the surrounding mountains. By mid-afternoon, we were back on the road and driving back to Dudeldorf for the night. The following day, we drove to Paris! After spending the next 2 nights there, we drove back to Lisa's, just in time for Thanksgiving. The rest of our trip was spent on day trips; first to Trier, then to Bettendorf and Diekirch in Luxembourg and Bastogne in Belgium, and to Bernkastel for our last night there. (Have a look at the map!) We took the shuttle again back to Frankfurt, and flew direct back to DC. It seems
like a lot, but it really was pretty relaxing. We walked a lot. And ate a lot! And I took A LOT of pictures! Over 1100! I won't post all of them, to save you some time, and I will try to narrate as best I can. Please be sure to notice the page numbers... I'll post this intro on all the entries...in case someone doesn't start from the beginning. 😉
So last post ended with us catching a train to Munich! A little note about the trains over there....they aren't like our trains! They are fast...some can go up to 300km/hr (that's 186 mph folks)! Top speed for our trips was 189 km/hr...about 117 mph! They are a very smooth ride...not like the clunk-clunking of the trains here! We actually got to talking to two German gentlemen as we were waiting for our train in Berlin. They asked how we like the trains in Germany, and what we called them in the states. I said we don't have trains like this, and one of them...the one who spoke German but understood English, made a crack about the Amex clunking along the tracks. So yah....they are waaaaaaay more advanced
Our little car!
This was an Opal Adam...similar to a Fiat I think. Was pretty fun little car! And good on the slick streets!in the train department than we are! However, if you see someone reading an e-reader or iPad, they are likely American or Asian. They read books and magazines still. And no-one walks around with their headphones on...not even on the subway! When we landed back at Dulles, we had to take a tram to customs and it was a real shocker to see all the Americans face down in their phones! I guess I never realized how bad it was, because I was face down in mine too! It's not like that in Europe. No one takes pictures of their food. They don't text and use Facebook over dinner. They don't walk around looking down at their phone. It was such a wake up to not be able to use my phone over there! I am really trying to be better about when I use it now....and trying to make J better too! 😉
Anyway...train to Munich! As I said last post, we had 2nd class seats and they were the vis-a-vis seats with a table in the middle. Again, we had about a million and a half stops before getting to Munich, (ok, maybe it was 7-ish...) but
we got to sit alone at the table for most of the ride. J read, I took some video, listened to music, slept a bit. We had sandwiches from the food car. (the train has a food car, and bathrooms on each end of each car. The bathrooms are like airplane bathrooms and are free!) We were in a quiet car, so most people were sleeping, and this girl across the isle and a row or 2 back was snoring to high heaven! She would wake herself up...we would giggle. lol. Our trip to Munich took about 5 hours I think. (Here's my videos from the train/car, compiled into one video!
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) We reached the Munich hauptbahnhof around 3pm and picked up our car at the rental agency located in the train station. This was by far the easiest rental I have ever done! She gave us a free "upgrade" to the newest model...an Opal Adam. Ya, never heard of it! We had unlimited miles, and she gave us a free GPS. She gave us directions to the parking garage where the car was parked, gave us the keys, and the address in Trier to drop it off, and sent
Our Hotel
Garmisch-Partenkirchen us on our way! There was no walk around, no making a note of all the scratches and dings on the car! They aren't sue-happy there, so they are more trusting. When we dropped it off, they just took the keys and said ok thanks! That was it! J even walked out with the GPS still in his hand and they said nothing! It probably would have been discovered later, and billed to us though. Anyway...we got to the garage and saw that our upgrade was an orange sardine box! (that's what I called it the whole trip!). J had said before hand that he had visions of that movie "Just Married" with Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy where they honeymoon in Austria and have this tiny little car that they get stuck in a snow pile! Ok, our car was not as small as that, but looking at J behind the wheel, you would have thought it was! It was "cozy" in there! But hey, it had butt warmers, was awesome in the snow, and had a USB plug in so I could connect my phone and have music! Plus...it's orange...we would never loose it! Ha ha! It was
a fun little car....really! Only issue was that it would start shaking around 145km/h...so we did not get the full autobahn experience! 😉
We got the car, programmed the hotel in the English speaking Garmin (thank you girl at the rental counter!) and headed to Garmisch! Garmisch is about an hour drive from Munich. The closer we got, the colder it got, and the more snow we saw! It was full dark by the time we got to the hotel, and about 0°C (freezing) and had stopped snowing...mostly. We checked into the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten! This was a more traditional German hotel! I mean, the guy at the desk was wearing lederhosen! How much more authentic can you be!?? The hotel was very quaint! It had all the modern amenities like wi-fi, mini-bar, cable tv, breakfast....but it was still very unique to itself and old-fashioned! The elevator was tiny...and old! Our room opened with a REAL key! Not one of those magnetic cards! And the desk was not manned 24/7. They left at 9pm and your room key would open the front door. I was very skeptical at first with this hotel, but it turned out to be wonderful!
And, coincidently, we discovered it was the same hotel that Lisa and Mike stayed at the last time they were in Garmisch! Funny! The night and morning desk clerks were very friendly! I would guess they are a married couple who own the hotel. They didn't speak very good English though! (That's how you know it's authentic....if it were touristy, they would speak better English! 😉) They assumed, by our name, that Jeremy spoke German. J said "mein Deutsch nein gut" and the guy said, "but your last name is German, yes?" lol! J got that assumption a few times I think!
It was Sunday in Germany, which means that unless it's at a train station, it's closed! Lucky for us, the train station was less than a block away and they had a Burger King. So that was what was for dinner! Foreign countries have a lot of American food chains, but they are never completely the same. This Burger King had a Santa and Clause burgers that were a burger, and chicken sandwich with a layer of onion straws and barbecue sauce on top. Sounds good...but I just had the breaded chicken...and I have no idea what
it was breaded with! Pretzel maybe? I don't know...it was strange! They had a Belgian waffle dessert that I had to try though. It was just a warmed waffle drizzled with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. OMG it was awesome! I wish we had those here! So we had dinner, and stopped at the little convenience shop and tourist shop in the station before heading back to the hotel.
Since we were in Garmisch just one night, we decided to take a drive and see what we could of the town! We found the little "old town" area and it was so perfect! Fresh snow, greenery on the street lights, christmas displays in windows....every store closed! :/ Sunday. Well we drove around anyway, and took some pictures, before heading back to the hotel for the night. Another hard bed. They're all hard. We slept ok though. This was probably my first decent night sleep on our trip! I didn't wake up in the middle of the night wide awake, and it was awesome! The next morning, we had the breakfast. Oh, I should mention this! The hotel breakfasts in Germany consist of many kinds of meat...like lunch meat...and
many kinds of cheese. They have a lot of breads, but not really pastries. More like croissants, bread, rolls, and the like. They'll have a big bowl of flavored yogurt that you spoon out what you want, sometimes they have some sort of cereal, and they always have some kind of sausage, fake scrambles eggs, and some kind of potato! They were good, but I wasn't sure if it was breakfast or lunch with the meat and cheese trays?? Brunch I guess! Oh, and coffee. German's like coffee! And they like it to be very bitter! Just milk or cream, no sugar or sweetener! Ick! Luckily they drink it from very small cups, so I managed to swallow it down!
So after breakfast we decided to drive around town a bit before heading out. We found the Olympic ski jump that replaced the one used in the 1936 Winter Olympics. Why would anyone want to ski off that thing!? Wow! We were trying to waste some time waiting for a gift shop to open, but we finally decided to just go. So we headed out bound for Hohenschwangau! The quickest way to get there from Garmisch is to cut
through Austria, so that is precisely what we did! Even though we only got to see a tiny portion of Austria, I was still excited to add another country to the list on this trip! It seemed like we drove so much because we were in 5 countries and all over Germany! But really, the country of Germany is about the size of the state of Montana, so it really seems more than what it is. What we saw of Austria was so incredibly beautiful! High peaks towering over little snow covered villages! Perfect! You can see from the pictures, it had snowed the night before, so all the tree were freshly shrouded, and it was still cloudy and cold so the snow did not melt at all. It was so perfect! A winter wonderland! At the fairy tale castle!! I couldn't have planned a more perfect visit! The drive from Garmisch, through Austria, to Hohenschwangau took about an hour. It was a gorgeous drive through the freshly covered Bavarian Alps, and then you come around a curve and see the golden Schloss Hohenschwangau perched atop a hill directly in front of you. Wow! I was so excited to see
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
That was a little church on the corner it, and trying so hard to get a good picture, that it took me a moment to notice Schloss Neuschwanstein! It sits on the next mountain over. Both castles overlook the village of Hohenschwangau. I was in total awe!
I first learned of Neuschwanstein when I saw the poster my Aunt and Uncle had hanging in the hallway of their house. They were stationed in Germany when he was in the Army, and had visited the castle. I was young...in Jr. High school probably, when I learned that Disney World's castle was a real castle in Germany! I had wanted to visit it ever since! To say that I was incredibly excited to be there would be a huge understatement! This was literally a dream come true for me! This castle has been a screensaver on every computer I have ever owned! I'm obsessed with it! To me, this castle is perfection! I have wanted so badly to see it with my own eyes, and I never, NEVER thought I would ever have the chance! Some things are just unattainable for some people. I never thought I would be able to travel to Germany and see this castle! Never!
I somehow managed to give myself the life I had dreamed of, without knowing I was doing it! The whole time we were walking around the village, and the castle grounds, and then the castle, I kept telling J that I just cannot believe I am here. I cannot believe this is real. I was in complete wonderment! I still can't believe it was real! lol!
So the village of Hohenschwangau is a small touristy village. Of course it would be with two huge castles and a giant royal museum! It was rich in the traditional Bavarian architecture too, so of course I want to live there! Ha ha! We got to Hohenschwangau around 11am I think, and we bought tickets for the 11:55am English speaking tour of Schloss Neuschwanstein. Tours are offered of Schloss Hohenschwangau as well, but we were on a clock, so just toured Neuschwanstein. We will have to go back and tour Hohenschwangau, the museum of the Bavarian Kings, and the other area castles sometime! The walk to Neuschwanstein is about 40 minutes uphill. Well we had fresh snow and it was very cold, so we opted to take the horse-drawn carriage to the top.
It wasn't much quicker or warmer, but was drier. We got to where the horses let off and found that there was an additional walk up a steeper hill to get to the base of the castle. It was very short...only took about 10 minutes. Just below the base of the castle is the viewing platform. It's a glass enclosed outcrop on the very edge of the rocks where you can get the best accessible vantage point of the front of the castle. Our tour was filled with Asian school kids...huh, English speaking tour is filled with Asians on a school field trip! I don't know what country they might have been from, and I don't want to attempt a guess, but I will say that they were the rudest bunch of tourists I have ever encountered! They don't wait their turn...all turns are their turn. If you are next to stand in the perfect spot to take a picture, they will just come stand right in front of your camera to take their millionth selfie in one of 8 poses that they have perfected over time. It was so annoying!!! Anyway after all the Asians cleared out, we got
our turn in the the glass cage and took my pictures! From there, we walked the rest of the way to the base of the castle. Right next to it! I could touch it! And I did! And people were looking at me wondering why I was toughing it! It was real, for real! lol!
The front face of the castle is red brick, while the rest is the white stone. This was the entryway into the courtyard, where all of the tours began. There was a little hall with an information desk and some warm seating off to the side of the courtyard, and this was the only interior of the castle where photos were allowed. Bummer! No pictures. No video. However, if you Google 'Neuschwanstein Castle" you will find some pictures of the inside. There will always be rule-breakers, but I am not one of them! Ok...some history; Neuschwanstein Castle stands where the old Hinter-Hohenschwangau castle once stood. The Schloss Hohenschwangau (the yellow one) was purchased by King Ludwig's father, King Maximilian II, after it suffered severe damage and disrepair from not being used for over 200 years. He began the rebuilding of Schloss Hohenschwangau in 1832,
and had 14 rooms completely refurbished by 1836. Those 14 rooms are available for tour. King Ludwig II was born in 1845 and spent most of his childhood in this castle. He grew up looking across the Poellat gorge where the ruins of Schloss Hinter-Hohenschwangau lay. He became the Crown King when his father passed away in 1864. The story goes that he was in his father's study and came across some documents that showed his father had planned to purchase the old ruined castle across the gorge and build a new one. So King Ludwig did just that! He had his architect visit Schloss Wartburg in central Germany to makes drawings of the ornamentation. King Ludwig had a passion for the Middle Ages, and wanted his castle to be built in the medieval style, but with the most modern technology and advances. So his castle had electricity to some rooms, and a telephone what would connect to town and to his other castle. He wanted to dedicate the castle to the arts, so each room is adorned with characters from operas and works of literature! There is only one spot in the entire castle where King Ludwig himself has
any mark, and this is in the singer's hall where his families coat of Arms is depicted in a mural on the wall with the inscription "Ludwig II, King of Bavaria, Count Palatine."
So there you have a brief history! Now on with the tour! We started the tour by climbing three castle-sized floors in the circular turret. Man was I dizzy! We start the tour in the vestibule. This is sort of a large open entryway, with a wide arched ceiling that is painted with a repetitive design. The walls have huge murals of scenes from an opera painted on them. I purchased a book about both of the castles that goes into detail the meaning behind all the murals in each room, but I'm not going to write that all here! This room was like a vault. Very large, ornate, murals, carved builtin benches, huge heavy wooden doors...amazing! From here, we cross through some rooms that are mostly empty of furniture, except for the drapes and carpet, and we go into the throne room. The castle was not completed...only 1/3 was completed before Ludwig died, and all work on the castle ceased when he died. So the
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
This was on the edge of town...a huge open field dotted with old cabins and shacks. Not sure what it was! throne was never put inside the throne room. It is a mammoth room, with a giant chandelier that is designed after a Byzantine crown! It's solid brass and holds 96 candles! It can be lowered by a winch to light the candles. The murals in this room are of the apostles, some kings, and Christ with Mary and John. The floor is a mosaic of over 2 million hand-laid stones depicting life of animals and plants of the world! This room was gorgeous! There is nothing I can write to give you a good idea of the size and ornateness of this room! We were led through some more corridors and rooms to King Ludwig's bedroom. This room was done floor to ceiling in dark oakwood! The bed, doors, ceiling, wash basin...were all beautiful carved wood! The book says it took 14 wood sculptures 4.5 years to complete this room! The murals in this room were of the opera Tristan and Isolde. Off the side of this room is a little chapel that had a starry night painted ceiling, and a dressing room with more gorgeous wood work!. The other side of the dressing room brought us through an interesting
faux grotto. It's build to look like a cave, even down to the last detail of the doors! So strange! We were walked down hallways lined with windows that offered spectacular views of the valley below! I wanted so badly to take a some pictures! The tour guide brought us to the Singer's hall as one of the last stops. This was never used during Ludwig's lifetime because the building was in construction, but it has been used since. I think the tour guide said the castle holds a concert in the Fall of every year. This Hall is huge! It has built-in benches along both sides of the hall, huge candle-lit chandeliers, and the murals are of the Parzifal opera. It is a gorgeous room done with the wood carved ceiling and zigzag parquet floor, decorated in gold fixtures and borders! So, so beautiful!
Our tour guide left us at this point, and directed us down the stairs of another turret that led to the kitchen. I was so envious of this kitchen! It was enormous! It had huge island workspaces and so much copper cookware! The stove was in the center of the room and was the
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Typical architectural style in Bavaria size of about 4 old-fashioned wood-burning stoves put side by side! I have never seen one so big! Not even in a restaurant! We continued down the stairs, through some rooms that were unfinished and being used as gift shops, to the exit corridor tunnel. The tour lasted about 35 minutes, and I felt that it was too rushed. There was so much to see! There was no way of seeing it all in that little amount of time! I wanted to study all of the paintings, all the murals, all the carvings...but we just had time to glimpse them as we walked by. :/ I really hope I get to visit again, and I would love to tour Hohenschwangau as well if I do!
We ended up walking back into the village instead of taking the carriage. The clouds had mostly cleared and the sun was shinning, though it was not much warmer. The walk back offered me some great views of Schloss Hohenschwangau! And the trees were still covered in snow and so magical! I could not get enough of them! (as you will notice from my photos!) We stopped long enough to pick up some postcards,
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Painted murals on the sides of houses and fancy scrolls around the windows here was pretty common.
a pretzel, a coffee, and a .50€ potty break, before getting back on the road. We were heading back to Lisa's in Dudeldorf for the night, and wanted to get there before it got too late. We ended up getting there around 7pm and Lisa had been busy making a yummy lasagna! We got our fill of food, told our stories and showed our pictures! We did some laundry and visited the rest of the night. The next morning we were heading to Paris, so we got our bags packed and got a good nights sleep!!
Thanks for reading this far! Paris is the next installment! See you then! 😉
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Kelly
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Spectacular!
Those castles are absolutely breathtaking, as well as the views of the valley. I can only imagine how surreal the whole experience was and how sad it had to be to leave. Too bad you weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside of the castle. I would've loved to see them. It would be hard to travel all that way only to have such a short amount of time to actually soak in everything it had to offer. Thanks for writing the experience and sharing the pictures. They were so pretty. Oh, and the car...so cute! :)