Wednesday July 7, 2010

Early, early day! Up and to another huge breakfast at 7 a.m. Then we drove a couple hours southeast to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwagau castles. These are the castles that most people think of, when they picture a castle. The drive there was beautiful!

Neuschwanstein Castle took 20 years to build and King Ludwig only lived there 6 months before he died. He was a genius. Crazy as a loon, but a genius! The whole castle had running water. He also had telephone service! This place is in the middle of nowhere and he had better services than some folks in the Appalachians today! The artwork, detail and craftsmanship is outstanding! The other castle, Hohenschwangau, is a 12th century castle, renovated by Ludwig's father, King Maximillion. The Maximillion family still owns the castle and is royalty, without any authority.


First view of Neushwanstein Castle



Hohenschwangau Castle



Not all the travelers this morning were ready to go!




...I mean, REALLY not ready to go!




One of several buildings, in the tourist reception area,
below both the castles.


When we arrived, we walked up to Neuschwanstein, on a paved road. It was very steep and took about 20 minutes or so. The other castle was a shorter walk, but steeper climb, AFTER we walked back down the mountain! It was a great workout! Hohenschwangau had allot longer tour and the guide was allot of fun.

This photo is zoomed in and believe it or not,
we walked/hiked up to the castle.

...the reason we walked/hiked was the lines for the
horse-drawn carriages were way too long.

This was a waterfall on our little journey up the mountain.

A view from the terrace, before entering the castle.

The front entrance to the castle.

Another view off the terrace

Once you enter the castle, you are then facing
this second fortified entrance.

My first "illegal" picture. No photos are permitted, "inside" the castle.
So, I stuck my arm out the window and snapped this view. Technically,
I was not "inside" the castle

You can see why I wanted to take pictures of the views!

Out of another window, you can see the Hohenschwangau Castle
and a gorgeous lake beyond.

Looking from the terrace, down into a ravine, toward
a river running below.

The Queens and their castle!

The Kings and their castle!

Gorgeous view! (...and the scenery in the background isn't bad either!)

A much shorter, but steeper, climb to this castle!

This is a terrace at Hohenschwangau. They did allot of entertaining
on this terrace, due to the views.

It has more of a Spanish flavor than I expected.

This is looking down on the parking area and tourist reception area below the castle.

Even the ironman  contestant has to take a break!

What was it with fountain maintenance everywhere we went?

I zipped back to the lake to get a couple pictures. WOW!

On the way back from the castles, we stopped at the old village of Fuessen, for espresso and ice cream. Both were wonderful! The water in the river was a very, very bright aqua color. We did some shopping and basically relaxed, after our full morning and early afternoon.

This is a mansion we saw from the road, on our way to Fuessen.

I wish Mom was around to tell her I've now been to Woolworth
stores on two continents!

A real estate ad shows a castle for sale. Pretty cheap too!

At the top of the ridge were structures...ski lifts?

Allot of reading by the kids on the drives all over the country.

I thought this church and its surroundings
were so cool.



When the reading and the road are too much....
...you become the target...

...of your little brother's photographic skills!

We then drove back to Andechs, where our hotel was, and left the kids to play around. The adults went to tour the monastery. Very ornate, as seen in the photos below. Opulent even. We decided to eat in their beer garden, so Matthias drove back to get the kids. We had pigs knuckles, beer, soft pretzels and a cream brie and cheese dip (like we had in the English garden in Munich).

The Catholic church has definitely invested
in their real estate over the centuries!

View from the rear of the monastery.

PROST!

This is where the beer is made.





It's really too bad this beer isn't exported...I know this,
because I contacted the monastery, upon our return home!

Then we went back to the hotel for a couple minutes, to change clothes. It was quite a bit cooler and we were going to an outdoor viewing of Germany -vs- Spain, in the semi-final of the World Cup. Spain won 1 - 0. The atmosphere was truly unique. Young and old alike were there. Beer was flowing. The energy was very high. I had a litre of helles beer, which means "light". (Trust me, it's far from a light beer!) It was really good.

Our room is on the right.



Hard to capture in one photo, but there had to be 300 - 350 people here
to watch a soccer game on a big projection screen.

Let me translate...BEER!

A true fan!

...more true fans...

...and yet more!

Driving into the Bavarian countryside was really cool today! We noticed allot of solar energy panels on homes and barns. Also noticed some homes with rocks on the roof. This keeps the snow on the roof in the winter for insulation. Low tech, but effective!