Saturday Sept. 4: German Castles and a Luge!

This morning our bus took us back across the border into Germany.  Our first stop was in Schwangau, where we toured two castles.

The first, Hohenschwangau, dates back to the 16^th century, but was restored beginning in 1833.  Apparently Mad King Ludwig spent time there as a child. 

We had a guided tour; no pictures were allowed inside, but I quite legally snapped one out a window.

Somewhere along the line Ludwig became a bit obsessed with swans.  I don’t remember what the name of this fountain really is, but I chose to call it the Gargling Swan.

In the environs of this fountain, I gracefully stepped off the edge of the pavement, gracefully fell, and skinned my knee.  As I was trying to ad lib a bandage for my bleeding knee, a Japanese gentleman offered me two band aids from inside his wallet.  He insisted I take two.  That is my favorite memory from that morning—not the fall, but the nice stranger.  Later I was able to pay it forward by passing the second band aid to another woman in our tour group who had an owie on her foot.



After touring this first castle, we reported back to the bus to be issued our sack lunches.  Tom thought the hidden kitchen on the bus was so cool, he wanted his picture taken with it.  (Oooh, look at the microwave:  it looks like there’s a torso in it…. You would think that was my reflection, but it’s not.  Haunted microwave?)

We consumed our lunches at the lake nearby, and said hello to some swans (appropriately) before we started on a 20-minute uphill walk to our second castle of the day.






When Mad Ludwig ascended to the throne he was inspired by his memories of Hohenschwangau to spend his subjects’ money with even more abandon, to reach greater heights of grandeur and conspicuous consumption:  thus, Neuschwanstein.

Fabulous fact:  This is the castle that inspired the design of  Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World.  The best view of it can be had from the Marienbrucke Bridge, which is farther uphill, up the gorge.  So after we took the close-up picture, we kept walking and took this picture from the bridge.

Ludwig began cracking the whip on construction of this castle in 1869, and the project continued until 1886.  At that point Ludwig’s subjects had had enough of him and he was booted from the throne.  Shortly thereafter he was found dead in the lake along with his psychiatrist or psychologist or whatever.  Was it suicide, accident or murder?  The mystery has never been solved.  Anyway, Neuschwanstein was never completed and it was never really lived in.  The completed floors went directly to tourism, do not pass go, do not pour any more taxes into Mad Ludwig’s narcissism.  We got to tour the first and third floors if I remember correctly.  One of the other floors is devoted to a souvenir shop (Daniela called them schnick schnacks.)

Again, no pictures allowed inside the castle, but there was a balcony with a nice view of the bridge we had visited.  Pretty cool, huh?  Very deep gorge.

And looking the other direction, back down the hill, you can see Hohenschwangau (the bright peach-colored spot behind Tom) and the lake where we ate our lunch.

After we hiked back down the hill, it was time to board the bus to head out to the absolute highlight of my day:  a ride on a summer luge!

See the smile on my face?  It’s extremely genuine, and full of anticipation!  Behind me you can see the luge track heading straight uphill—that’s the part where they drag you and your sled up to the top.  If you look closely you can see the downhill part snaking back and forth.

 Tom took this picture as we were being towed to the top for our second run.  On the first run I was behind him, and he was behind a guy who was going too slow, so that was a little disappointing.  But the second run was wide open, and I’m proud to report Tom did not catch up to me until I was slowing down at the end.  I totally had the technique down and I wanted to go again, but alas, Mom (Daniela) made us get back on the bus.  And then it started to rain, so we wouldn’t have been able to go again anyway.

Nothing like a fine adrenalin rush, followed by a rainy bus ride, ending with a rainbow, to wrap up the day!