A4 Update - June 2015

Yeah, yeah, I'm a little behind.

Oldest Kiddo went on a three day school trip.  She was completely wiped out from canoeing, climbing, abseiling (rappelling down a rockface), mountain biking, and a whole lot of friend time.  

Holly happily finished working on the school summer fair; it was a full time job for a while.  The school community had fun, and there was plenty of Pimms all around.  

The kids had a day off from school, and we left the city limits to pick strawberries.  

Matt's sister and her husband visited The Manor for a week, and it was brilliant to have them here.  Oldest Kiddo was sick for some of their visit which hindered our ability to tour with them.

London experienced summer with a heatwave of above 85 degrees.  When you don't have air conditioning, it's awful.  Thankfully it only lasted a few days and then we went back to the low 70s.  

Let's see what July brings!

Whatcha talkin' 'bout Weatherman?

Like many days before rain and cool temperatures were in the forecast for today.  I was quite concerned when I got up because the wind was whipping the trees and the rain was coming down.  After breakfast the clouds parted and we saw blue skies and sunshine.  Weatherman, you lie because by the end of the day it was clear blue skies and almost 80 degrees. 

We took advantage of the weather while it was presented to us and jumped in the car for Salzburg.  We needed to stock up on car provisions and pulled into the market.  That's when we remembered that today was Sunday and just about everything is closed.  The gas station is the place for snacks and provisions. 

The drive from Berchtesgaden to Salzburg was only about 20 minutes.  Salzburg is a compact city that is very walkable.  The signs hanging outside the shops are made of ornate iron.

We wanted to tour Schloss Mirabelle but it's closed on the weekends so we explored the Mirabelle gardens instead.  We saw Mozart's birthplace and some pretty swanky closed shops. 

Salzburg from the Mirabelle Gardens

Maria's fountain from the Sound of Music

Wouldn't the kids look sooo cute?!

The next spot on the list for today was Schloss Hellbrunn at the outskirts of Salzburg. 

This palace was originally meant to be a day palace for the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg so no bedrooms were constructed.  The gardens of Hellbrunn are filled with trick fountains.  We got smart as to where they were along the paths and stayed out of the way.  Hellbrunn was an ingenious invention back in the day as no electricity was available to run the trick fountains.  They are supplied with "source water," water from its source, and water wheels help make the things move.  The funniest fountain was the marble table...

 
The chairs (except for the boy in green at the head of the table) and the perimeter of the chairs are rigged with a sprayer.  The Prince-Archbishop would give the signal and a servant would set off the sprayers.  The story goes that it was impolite for anyone to stand up while the Prince-Archbishop was still seated, so they had to sit and endure water being sprayed up their tushes.  The kids did a great job demonstrating it for the crowd.

Even the game is a fountain!

Our final excursion of the day was to Hallstatt. This lake is surrounded by the mountains and is one of the places that will reflect the mountains in the still water. There was a little bit of wind and boat traffic on the lake today so we could not see the perfect reflection but it was pretty darn good. The town was a bit busy and we really didn't want to pay for parking so a short drive to the other end of the lake paid off with free parking and and an empty beach.

 
Hallstatt was about two hours from Berchtesgaden, and we've trusted our Sat Nav up to this point.  Tonight was a bit questionable.  She told us to turn right then an immediate left, which was not out of the ordinary.  However, the immediate left looked to be a one lane road up a very steep hill.  The difference thus far is that we've taken mostly major highways and the AutoBahn  We figured, what the heck, go for it.  This little road gave us the greatest perspective of the German countryside without hotels and guesthouses - kids playing in the yards and guys in Lederhosen raking the grass.   

After dinner we got to Skype with the kids.  I think M was more excited than us.  She sat with us for about 15 minutes.  G was in and out, but we think he was happy to see us.  One more day in the Salzburg region before we start our journey home via London.

Salzburg - Day 2

Hightlight of the day - no rain! 

We had one more of King Ludwig II's castles to see today - Schloss Herrenchiemsee.  This palace is another unfinished palace because King Ludwig pretty much put Bavaria in the poor house trying to build his palaces.  Herrenchiemsee was to be the biggest of the palaces being a direct replica of Versailles, but that was not to be for poor Ludwig.  Only the middle section of the palace was completed along with quite a few fountains. 

Contraband photos!

The main entry hall.  The floors and stairs were marble but the walls were a faux plaster mixture to look like marble.  The funny thing is that the faux marble cost more than the real thing!

The wrong end of the Hall of Mirrors.  The other way was spectacular 100 meters long full of candleabras and mirrors. 

King Ludwig II's blue bedroom and Matt's shirt

This is one Ludwig's porcelain chandeliers.  He made sure the mold was shattered after it was made so no one would have one just like it. 

On our way back we drove over to Lake Königssee which is a beautiful almost still lake.  The boats that move on the lake are either powered by oars or electricity.  The lake looks like a sheet of glass, except when the kids thow rocks to wreck it. 

The weather was perfect for an afternoon swim and the clouds parted just enough late this evening for us to see that we have two previously unseen mountains outside our window.  They made a brief appearance.

I think we are going into Salzburg tomorrow, rain or shine.  We are going to do our own Sound of Music tour!

Ugh...

Rain.  It's really putting a cramp in our vacation.  Today we drove through Oberammergau, Mittenwald, and Garmisch-Partenkirchen.  These three towns would have been great to explore outside of the car, but the rain had other ideas.  I think it could stop now.

Since these towns were a bust for us, we decided that we needed an inside attraction.  Schloss Linderhof was just what we needed.  This palace is another of King Ludwig II's residences.  It is the smallest of the palaces he built, so it was actually completed.  King Ludwig was a bachelor and, from what I deduce, a lonely life.  He was engaged for about six months but broke off the engagement.  The dining room table in his palace had the ability to sink through the floor to the kitchen so he didn't have to see the servants.

Thankfully we explored the palace grounds before our tour.  It truly is a sight to see.  King Ludwig II modeled the palace after Versailles.  The gardens and fountains are quite lovely.

Couldn't you live here?

Another contraband photo!

King Ludwig I's bed. 

When we walked out of the palace the skies had opened up, so yet again, the Munich umbrellas come in very handy.  By the time finished Schloss Linderhof we were spent.  We had a nice long dinner and gelato.  Gelato is one of the more amazing inventions I've experienced.  For less than a Euro and a half you can experience heaven on a waffle cone.  My favorite flavor is Creme Caramel, I've had it three nights in a row.  It's a good thing that the portions are small otherwise my pants would get a bit tighter.  I feel that all the stairs (oh my are there ever stairs to climb) taken in the day more than cover the gelato calories.   

Creme Caramel. 'Nuff said.

Waiting.

Today was the day I'd been waiting for, Schloss Neuschwanstein! This castle is what Walt Disney used as inspiration for Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland. There was another fantastic thing about today, I no longer had to sleep in the hot sweaty bed of Munich. Shockingly I didn't get so hot last night that I was awake for hours, but auf wiedersehen horrible bed.

After breakfast, Frühstück, we set the Sat Nav for Schwangau. I knew visiting Neuschwanstein would be a feat due to the number of thousands people and the hundreds of tour busses that visit each day. Hey, we're on vacation so we were ready for anything coming our way.

Matt had a blast driving fast the approximate 90 minutes through the German countryside. The highlight of the morning was when the Alps came into view. I can't tell you how many photos I took of the Alps! Ranging from really far away to really, really close. I've seen the Rocky Mountains before, but this is just amazing. In addition to that the number of idyllic villages set at the bottom of the mountains; each one had their own church surrounded by little houses and shops. The coolest feeling of the day is when we rounded a bend on the coutry road and Neuschwanstein came into view. Thankfully Matt wasn't on the AutoBahn at that time or we might have flew off the road.

Neuschwanstein from the road

Ain't she pretty?

The next interesting job of the day was to get tickets for the castle tour. Let the queing begin! Of course there is a line spilling out of the que. We could have pre-purchased our tickets, but with the travel involved from Munich I was not confident that we'd be there by a certain time. I've read that these tours are quite stringent about being there on time for your tour. If you are late, you've got to buy another ticket. Our choice of the day was to see both Neuschwanstein & Hoenschwangau or just Neuschwanstein. Knowing all the walking we'd done the days before ad that we'd have to hike a mountain to hike up to the castle, we opted just to tour Neuschwanstein. As of when we bought our ticket at noon, the next available English speaking tour was at 5:30. Yikes! Thankfully we are in a vacation, no worries, kind of mood.

We explored the area between the two castles down to Lake Alpsee (I'm guessing the name means see the Alps?) where we saw a beautiful reflection of the mountains in the water. We found a Beer Garden to have lunch and people watch for a while then started our trek up the really big wanna be mountain to Neuschwanstein. We still had a bit of time to wait, but there were some interesting things to see up at the top. The first was a back view of the castle via a short cliff overhang. I'm sure Matt's dad would be thrilled to go on this :) Next was another view of the castle via Mary's Bridge. I've seen friends' pictures of their visit to Mary's Bridge and it looks like a quiet spot to view the castle. They must have been there on the right days because our visit should have had its own que. Truth be told, I was a little nervous on the bridge for the number of people on it. Of course, that didn't stop me from going on it. I needed to add to my already amassed group of Neuschwanstein photos.
The time had finally come for our tour (yay!). This castle is one of King Ludwig II's projects.  Much of the castle is unfinished as he died during construction, and no further work has been done.  Our tour was short, but I loved it anyway.  Below is a contraband photo from the tour as no photos are allowed in the castle. 

The throne room - pretty, eh?

We had one last trek down the hilly mountain to our car.  We once again set the Sat Nav for our next destination - Innsbruck, Austria!  The two-hour drive through the Alps was a lot of fun.  Again, Matt enjoyed the high or lack of speed limit.  At times I became quite nervous as we rounded corners at the same time as semi-trucks going the opposite direction.  Thankfully we arrived safely.  We grabbed a bite to eat and headed off to bed!