Sunday, December 27, 2015

Schloss Neuschwanstein


As I recall there was no flash photography allowed inside the castle and as I didn't have a Digital DSLR camera back then I have no good photos to show, except some taken of the outside countryside through an open window. The  interior shots you'll see were taken from the Wikipedia entry on the castle.

The rooms were dark due to the narrow windows and heavy tapestries on the walls. Furniture was ornately carved in an "over-thetop, I'm the King after all style". The King spent little time living in the castle between 1884 when it was furnished (but all the building not completed until 1892) and June 1886 when he drowned in a lake nearby under mysterious circumstances.

Here's where you enter the castle-the Gatehouse




Waiting to go in for our short tour...as the castle gets up to 6,000 visitors a day in small guided tour groups, tours are under 45 minutes and you are kept moving along.


The hallways are flooded with light


The Royal Bedroom


Dining room


The Study


Drawing Room


This next one is the "Singer's Hall" a reference to the Wagner opera Tannhauser...



The Throne Room


Throne Room detail


I took a couple photos from the hallway windows...here are the Austrian Alps in the distance. it would be 5 years until our first Austrian vacation....



Looking over the rooftops of Hohenschwangau


As it's all downhill from here we decide to walk back down to the village and take one last look over our shoulders at the castle...


After 20 minutes or so we are back to ground level and ready to pay a quick visit to the other castle-Hohenschwangau the summer home of King Ludwig II...yes that's our hotel in the bottom right hand corner.




Now for lovers of Wagner music this is the better of the two castles to visit. Reason being that Wagner actually stayed here and the King had a room set aside for him. So there's a piano that Wagner used to play the King what he had been writing or whatever the King asked to hear from his favorite operas. One of the most interesting rooms is the dining room where the large banquet table could be lowered to the kitchen below where the food would be added to the plates and bowls and then hoisted back up to the diners without footmen getting in the way of the guests.

This castle is also more of a home and less garish and ornate in the interiors, which appeals to me.

The day is wearing on and it's now approaching noon and we have a long drive ahead. We just give ourselves time to walk through the village and down to the lakeside....


We pack our luggage in the hotel and prepare for today's drive up the Romantic Road to our next stop-our first visit to Rothenburg. Down in the street the car is waiting...


Saturday, December 26, 2015

Tuesday morning, Hohenschwangau

A good night's sleep. Not a sound outside until  was awoken by the sound of horse's hooves.....


I looked out the side window....looks like a beautiful morning for castle visiting


Time to get showered and dressed and go down to breakfast. There was an ornate wood carving of King Ludwig II with swans at his feet. At the time of his meeting Wagner his favorite opera was Lohengrin, which features a "swan" (actually a young Prince turned into one by a sorceress). If you want a potted history of Wagner and Ludwig there is a film by Britain's Tony Palmer starring Richard Burton (in a star-studded European cast) that is worth a look. It's about 9 hours long but you can take a break every hour or so. It's (not surprisingly) called "Wagner".




We ate in this room with a view of the castle....


After a fine German breakfast of meats, breads and cheeses, washed down with great coffee, it was time to step outside and enjoy that sunshine!


Looking back at Hotel Muller- our side view was from the two top right windows under the roof line.


We had timed tickets for a guided tour in English for Neuschawanstein as you can't just walk in and most around by yourself. This way you are kept moving and avoid being in a crowd.
You can walk up the long steep hill or pay for a ride in a horse and carriage which you share with other tourists. We're not walking up!


This would be our view on the way up the steep hill


Our driver


The driver takes us as far as he can and we walk the rest, enjoying the fresh morning air and the scent from the pine trees.


We say aufweidersehen to the horses


We're walking uphill and getting our first close-up look at the castle (Schloss in German) Of course part of it is being renovated....


Next up....the castle.

Friday, December 25, 2015

Hotel Muller

We've had a very pleasant morning and afternoon driving leisurely around the country roads of Bavaria. Now we have arrived at our hotel in Hohenschwangau, the village that hosts two of King Ludwig II's castles;  Schloss Hohenschwangau where he grew up and Neuschwanstein which he had built after he became King in 1864 at age 18, the same year he came to his favorite Opera composer Richard Wagner's financial rescue.

So the car gets to relax on the street in front of the hotel. You can see Neuschwanstein castle in the distance, top center of the photo.



No more driving today.  We checked into Hotel Muller and to our room which had a balcony looking at the castle and windows on two sides. This was at a time when I shot more video that photos and as the video back then was not on a digital format I can't share interior room shots with you. We did convert them to DVDs for our own use at home so I guess if you want to see them you'll have to come over and visit....suffice to say the room was large and comfortable with a huge well-appointed bathroom and if ever in the future we visit here again we'll stay at the Muller. It was impossible to not just stand on the balcony in the sun and look up at the castle.....




The sun is getting low now and we have "magic light"



Losing the light


Dinner in the hotel restaurant was excellent-simple German cooking, meat (pork roulade) and potatoes washed down with huge steins of beer in a cosy atmosphere, with a view of the castle floodlit at night.
Cars were going up the steep incline for a private event happening up there. Tomorrow we would take a carriage ride up. Today's daytrippers had left via train and motor coach  and Hohenschwangau was a very peaceful place once again.


A heavy German dinner followed by a walk around the quiet village without meeting a soul...such a relaxed place to be. Tomorrow we would visit two castles and then set off an a long drive to the medieval town of Rothenburg. A busy day lay ahead so an early night was a good idea.

Hohenschwangau was quiet and still, so a good night's sleep was guaranteed.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

On the road in Bavaria

There is no road better to drive a car on than a German Autobahn. A smooth surface, banked bends allow you to drive at the speed you are comfortable with without fear of potholes. Speeds are limited when other roads feed onto it and cameras are in place to make sure you slow to roughly 120 kph (75 mph) then release you to higher speeds beyond. Drivers around you are focused with two hands on the wheel and no legs hanging out the window. Drivers aren't texting or drinking from half gallon tubs of Coca Cola. They're involved in the serious (and fun) business of driving.  I am never nervous driving in Germany.

After a scamper down the Autobahn we left it and rode through the Bavarian countryside on our way to Fussen. I'd stop for scenic smoke breaks now and then.










                      It is never hard to find a scenic spot to take a photo in Bavaria...


Each scenic mile along country roads, taken at a leisurely pace, brought us closer to the castles of King Ludwig II and our home for the night in Hotel Muller, Hohenschwangau nearby to Fussen which is the gateway for daytrippers from Munich. As you can see the weather was beautiful that day.

We took a detour to visit the town of Mittenwald where we would have lunch in this hotel....


As has always been our experience in Germany we had a fine hot lunch.This was at a time in my life when I didn't photograph every meal that came my way. Now I do.

Another pretty Germany town, Mittenwald is known for it's many violin makers and it's beauty at the foot of a mountain. 




Mittenwald has many examples of "Luftlmalerei" or murals on buildings


After an hour or so we were moving on again towards our goal. We would know we were close to our destination once we saw King Ludwig's castle Neuschwanstein-the most visited tourist site in Germany.


And there in the distance it was...


We figured (correctly) that the castle would still be there in the morning and so we headed to our hotel-Hotel Muller