Neuschwanstein & The Alps

We took a couple of days to explore some of Southern Germany, and one stop that we just had to make was Neuschwanstein Castle, in Schwangau. We'd heard all about this place from John, and some other friends as well, and I can tell you now, it is not to be missed. As we approached Schwangau and the southern border, the hills around us slowly grew taller and taller, until we were starting to see the beginnings of the Alps to our south. Everyone who travels with me knows how much I love mountains, and I was really looking foward to this!

Neuschwanstein is... breathtaking. This castle is seriously straight out of a fairy tale. And that's understandable, because a lot of fantasy castles have been based on this one! It was built by King Ludwig II, and it was never finished before he mysteriously died, so most of it is not open to the public, as it was not completed. Photography was also not allowed inside the castle, but I snapped a shot or two before I was yelled at to put my camera away. Eep!

We climbed some hills behind the Castle, up to Mary's Bridge which crosses a ravine. John naturally vaulted ahead and off into the woods up the cliffs while Amber and I were taking photos, but we eventually caught up with him and dear lord... that had to be the most spectacular view I have ever seen in my entire life.

Approaching the Alps

A quaint village we drove through.

Hohenschwangau, a castle near Neuschwanstein.

Neuschwanstein, in all its glory.

Mary's Bridge, behind Neuschwanstein in the foothills.

Jason poses with his future summer home.

We were reminded of what a small world it is when we ran into some L-S Grads while we were hiking behind the castle. They had graduated this year, and were on a tour of Europe, in celebration. Amber recognized them, and one was a younger brother of a guy she knows. Crazy!!!

L-S Grads! What are the odds!

One of Neuschwanstein's towers, overlooking Schwangau.

Another shot of the outside of Neuschwanstein.

A Chandelier which weighed over a ton.

There were views like this out of almost every window in the entire castle. Can't complain!

I don't think that hat fits, Amber!

John "accidentally" orders two dinners, and proceeds to eat them both.

A small church near Neuschwanstein.

Jason just cannot get enough of this place!

John makes a friend!

We stayed at a great little place nestled in the village of Schwangau. Even the views out of our window were captivating. At one point I went outside to read on the terrace, but the sun was setting, and the last rays of sunlight were just kissing the tops of the mountains behind the Castle... I totally forgot about my book and was just staring for at least an hour. Yeah. I was happy :)

The sun sets on the mountains behind Neuschwanstein.

"Katherine, Katherine, wherefore art thou, Katherine?"

Weiss Kirchen, or, "The White Church."

Inside of Weiss Kirchen. So ornate, your eyes almost begin to water.

The next day, we decided to take a roundabout way home that would take us through some of the Alps themselves, and down around into Switzerland briefly. We intentionally got lost in the back roads and villages in some of the mountain passes, and at one point I spotted a tramway lift going up into the mountains and shouted, "THERE! DRIVE THERE!" My favorite activity in the White Mountains of New Hampshire which we used to visit every year was taking the tram up to the top of Canon Mountain... and let me just say, this put that to shame.

We tracked down the Tram, but were unlucky enough to arrive just after 12:00, and everyone was out to lunch. Only in Europe does an entire place shut down and become a ghost town during lunchtime! They finally returned, and I was aghast when John told me he'd "wait in the car," because he was tired. I really wanted to slap him. "Hmmmm, nap, or quick hike in the Alps? Hmmmm."

So, Amber and I went up the mountain, and proceeded to gawk and oogle at the surrounding mountain ranges for the next hour or two. One thing that I did not expect was to find cows at the top of the mountain... but cows there were, and hundreds; all with cowbells on them, so that the only sound you could hear was the windchime-esque ringing as they slowly moved around the mountain fields, grazing. Very interesting!

There was also a wonderful garden up on the mountain, that was being kept by an old couple, and we were able to wander around the twisty paths therein, and eventually up to a peak where the views were the most amazing I'd ever seen. I can't even begin to describe it. The photos I took can't do this an ounce of justice.

Amber and I wanted to stay up there forever, but we know John would be ornery if we were too long, so we continued on our way.

We also checked out a church on our way home, the Weiss Kirche. I've seen some ornate decorations before, inside Neuschwanstein Castle being one such example... but this church took it to the next level. It was almost hard to look at it was so ornate. Gorgeous, but maybe a bit much!

Only in Europe, will you see a Ferrari Gang.

A shot from the top of the mountain which we took the tram up. These pictures will not even come close to doing this justice. Use your imagination!

These views are looking south, with the really tall Alps further in the distance.

Amber is squishing your head!

There was one of these crosses at the peak of every mountain we've seen in the Alps so far. Very interesting.

A valley in the mountains, frequented by the hundreds of cows up there!

A local resident of the mountain we were climbing around on.

The houses here in Switzerland are exactly as I'd imagined them to be...

Jason, for the second time, managed to dump all of the noodles into the sink while straining them. D'OH!

Well, we're back at Headquarters now, planning our next trip: Paris! We're thinking of taking the train, but we'll have to see how prices are. We must also do some research into what things not to miss while in Paris!

Independence Day!

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

John, Amber and I spent the evening on Rammstein Air Force Base, where John works. Apparently Rammstein is the biggest American community outside of the US, with over 50,000 Americans calling it home. It's quite a site to see! ...Unfortunately, they don't allow casual photohgraphy, so I won't be able to share the experience here.

While it's an awesome experience being in Europe, where every facet of life is so subtly different from America, at the same time, it's also nice to be able to hop over into a place like Rammstein and feel right at home.

We weren't able to see Transformers the Movie today after all. Apparently it won't come to the english theater here until August. Guess I'll have to wait a while! *sigh*

But, at least I got to enjoy some splendid fireworks! It was a surprisingly high quality display, but then, it is the Air Force ;)

Heidelberg

We visited Heidelberg yesterday, which is an amazing place. It's a beautiful little city, full of excruciatingly touristy things to do, but the real gem is Heidelberg Schloss, the ruins of a huge castle that overlooks the city and the river that runs through it.

A view of beautiful Heidelberg.

The Schloss overlooking a square in Heidelberg.

The Heidelberg Schloss is not a resored castle, so most of it is as it was after being destroyed in the wars of ages past. There are whole areas that are too dangerous to let people explore, but plenty of it is open to the public, and the gardens within it are still maintained. They also cleaned out one section of it and made it into a museum, and another section was turned into a concert hall, where they have many theatrical and musical performances.

The views of Heidelberg from the Schloss were intoxicating. Absolutely stunning. A river runs through a valley between the hills, and nestled around it are the streets of Heidelberg, with the castle on one hill, overlooking the entire valley. We didn't explore too much of Heidelberg itself, just some tourist traps and pastry shops that we could not ignore. There was also some beautiful pipe organ music that we heard, and eventually tracked down to a wonderful old church which we slipped into for a time to listen. Hearing Bach's Toccata and Fugue being played on a 3-story tall pipe organ in an ancient European church was DEFINITELY on my list of things to experience in this lifetime.

A view from the gardens within the Schloss

A crumbling tower overlooking the gardens.

Jason gapes in thirsty awe at a mammoth-sized keg.

Yes, this keg is even bigger. Definitely a German castle!

There were many of these lion busts, each with its own whimsical expression and unique personality.

John defends us from the invaders.

What do you get when you give a $5 tourist-stand umbrella to John? A broken umbrella.

"Carved in mystic runes upon the very living rock, the last words of Ulfin Bedwere of Regged make plain the last resting place of the most holy grail!"

A section of crumbling tower that we actually got to climb around inside, thought I don't think we were supposed to.

Downtown Heidelberg, with more American tourists than German citizens.

A pastry shop. I had an Amerikaner, Amber had some sort of strudel, and John had... everything else. So good!

Some tourist junk, but still fun to see. Amber bought the one on the lower right.

Another view of Heidelberg from the Schloss.

I want to live in this house!

All in all, a wonderul little day trip. Next up: Fourth of July! Woohoo!

Yardwork?!

Well, not all of a long vacation can be fun and games. We had to help John with some *extensive* yardwork this week, because his landlady was going to come by, and apparently she is Satan.

And John, in his infinite laziness, had not done anything with his yard for, oh, nine months or so. The grass was up to my chest in places, literally. It was so long that it was nearly impossible to mow, but man did we give his mower a run for its money.

We got it to a reasonable state, and his landlady showed up, and complained that the inside of the house was too messy. Go figure.

John tries to mow a forest.

To Berlin!

The road to Berlin was long, but it flew by at mind-boggling speed as we zipped across the German countryside. John definitely loves driving, and what a place to do so! We only got held up for a while during some construction, but otherwise it was an uneventful drive. Once we got close to Berlin, however, John asked me, "So, you wrote down the name and address of our hotel right?" To which, I blanched and slowly turned to him to reply, "Uhh... no? I thought you did that..." Fortunately, we remembered the street that the hotel was on, and so, the hunt for our mystery hotel began!

We stopped at the first hotel we came upon, and I ran in to ask if our names were on the reservation list, praying that the receptionist spoke english. And wouldn't you know it, by some stroke of SHEER luck, we'd found our hotel on our first guess! What are the odds?! We weren't up for doing much but having dinner, so we crashed early.

Jason, smacking himself for forgetting to write down the name of the hotel.

Amber, clowning around at dinner.

Some butter I accidentally dropped into the candle when trying to soften it.

We set out early the next morning, hoping to squeeze as many activities into our day as possible. We fairly quickly figured out the subway system, and mapped out a few key sites that Amber had done some research on and figured would be worth checking out while we were in town. Obviously we could spend WEEKS in Berlin and still not besatisfied, so we decided that just a select few would be good enough for now, and give us an excuse to come back again someday!

Bear Hug!

We wandered along the river towards the Reichstag, or Parlaiment Building. The Brandenburger Tor was beautiful, in a square near where a section of the Berlin wall once stood. We meandered over towards Parlaiment, and decided it might be cool to go inside and head to the top, where there's an amazing view out of the dome. Plus, parlaiment was currently in session, and that could be interesting as well. But apparently, everyone else had this idea as well, and after about 45 minutes of waiting in line, we gave up and headed for our next destination.v

The Parlaiment Building overlooking the river.

What a bunch a' troublemakers!

Some of Berlin's beautiful architecture.

Ditto.

The Brandenburger Tor

When lost, we consulted this sewer drain cover for directions.

The Parlaiment Building

These were some extremely creepy performers, all controlling a very large marionette-esque doll that would walk around and dance with people. VERY strange.

John figured that, if the view from Parlaiment was out, what better way to get a nice glimpse of Berlin than from the "TV Tower," Berlin's tallest building, which has a rotating restaurant at the very peak. So, we got ourselves an audiotour, and ate lunch while learning some about the history of the area around the Tower. Berlin's not a very *tall* city, so from the top of the tower, we were able to see for countless miles in every direction, and it was quite breathtaking!

The TV Tower

Lunch in the Clouds!

One of a hundred beautiful views from the top of the tower.

The Berliner Dom, a church.

Chillin'. Ohhhh yeah.

A face only a mother could love.

Unfortunately, our next stop was just as much of a bust as the Parlaiment building, because the Berlin Guggenheim Museum was apparently closed for renovations. So, we decided to head to a different gallery, the New National Gallery, which was a treat. It had on display many beautiful and reknowned paintings, including some masterpieces of some of the more famous artists of the Impressionist, Neo-Impressionist, Modernist, and many other artistic movements. I could tell Amber really wanted to spend a lot of time in there, but it was a modestly sized gallery, and we were able to see most of the works before we'd gotten hungry and decided to continue on our way.

We wandered around the city for a while, enjoying some Bratwurst and other local cuisine, before heading back to the hotel and turning in.

John nearly jumped out of his skin when this sign next to him scrolled suddenly.

We saw some awesome cars on display at the Bentley dealership in a Car Mall. Yes, a shopping mall, full of car dealerships.

Another zippy ride.

"I want that."

The New National Gallery

John dwarfed by a Lego Giraffe at the Lego Learning Center

The Sony Center, a plaza completely covered by a very cool roof.

"Nothing satisfies my thirst like an ice cold Shwip Schwap! Ahhhh!"

I could not pronounce this street name in the morning, by night, I think I could have managed. It's funny what you pick up after only a day!

The next day, Amber and I were really interested in seeing the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, or Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, in central West-Berlin. This church was mostly destroyed during World War II, and a new church was erected around its ruins, symbolizing Berlin's resolve to rebuild after all the horrible destruction. It was really a sight to see, and we really appreciated the contrast between the archaic and the modern.

While we were in the area, Amber was really anxious to explore the Breitscheidplatz, which is apparently one of the hottest shopping spots in Berlin. It was very posh, but we had fun wandering along the streets and observing all of the different european fashions.

A cool statue near the Kaiser Wilhelm Church.

The old Kaiser Wilhelm Church.

The New Kaiser Wilhelm Church.

Knowing that we have a million things we'd like to do on this vacation, we didn't plan on spending too much time in Berlin. I'd love to come back here sometime and truly explore all of the museums and art galleries with Amber, but for now, our overview served to give us a tempting taste of the Berlin culture and history.

It's been a long couple of days, but also an amazing experience. Now it's time to rest up for a day or two before our next adventure. We might go to visit Neuschwanstein, or explore the Rheine countryside, as our next excursion, but we want to be back in K'town for the 4th of July, not only because there will be a big celebration at John's base, but because we want to see Transformers: The Movie :) I know. Geeeeeks!

Stay tuned!