Germany: Day 5: The Castles

Warning:  This post is picture heavy.

Day 5 was the day that we did a lot of uphill hiking to help move the lactic acid out of my muscles after climbing rocks sideways the day before.  It was actually pretty effective; however, if I stopped moving for any amount of time, I walked with a gimp until my muscles warmed up again.  The gimp actually elicited a lot of sympathy from Rachel.  And it convinced me that I need to start training now because 

she. 

is. 

coming. 

home in August and whatever we do then, I don't want to be as much pain as I was in Germany.

Yes, fear of my little sister is what motivates me to exercise.  What motivates you?

Sunday we spent touring the two castles, Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein, that are super famous in Bavaria.  Sadly, picture taking inside the castles is strictly verboten (I think I heard that some one/entity owns the rights to all pictures taken inside?), but I took a few *ahem* outside.  

Hohenschwangau was the summer palace of King Maximilian II.  It is a lovely castle.

But of course, it is up a hill.  So the question becomes, how do you get up the hill? 

Well, if you are Rachel, your boyfriend who is much taller and has a great deal of experience carrying a ruck sack, carries you up to the castle.  Several of the tourists walking by thought that this was quite "romantisch."

Rachel tried to give him a break, but that didn't work out as well.

But, they did jump for joy when they made it to the top!

Between high school and college, I have taken 5 years of German.  Which makes it all the more embarrassing that it took me quite a while after hearing the name of the castle and seeing the statues in the garden to figure out that the theme here is SWANS (Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein).

I do have to say that I found the fountains in Germany a little amusing as the animals were always spitting out water

We had a few minutes before our tour time, so we spent some time in the gardens admiring the view of the surrounding areas.  It is easy to understand why Max built his castle here.

A lovely view at the Jaegerhaus below.

A lovely view to a nearby town and lake.

And another gorgeous view of the Alpsee a little bit later on.

I loved how the Germans just paint right on the walls.

This was evidenced both inside and out.  The interior of the castle was covered in amazingly vibrant murals of Germanic mythological characters and battles painted right on the walls.  There is apparently quite a bit of controversy surrounding the issue of whether or not Max's son, King Ludwig II, was mad or not.  Personally, I think one would have to be a little bit daft after spending one's entire life surrounded by romantic era paintings of battles and epic heroes.  Imagine eating your pork knuckle and dumplings with sauerkraut while people are dying on the walls around you.  

You might have some issues, too.

The only picture taking inside the castle is a picture of the view outside the castle, the Alpsee:

After touring Hohenschwangau, we had a bit of a hike ahead of us to the castle "next door" - the famous Neuschwanstein.

Neuschwanstein is HUGE.  Which partly explains why it was never completed.  Poor Ludwig II bankrupted the Bavarian people building two castles simultaneously, and this was only one of them.  His dream was to build yet another castle more elaborate and expensive than this one.  

It is perhaps not too surprising that he was declared incompetent on medical grounds.  Also not too surprising that was also found dead in shallow water with the physician who made the diagnosis.  

Once again, picture taking was forbidden.  It turns out that Ludwig was a big fan of Herr Wagner and many of the rooms are painted with a theme from the Wagnerian operas.  The paintings and woodwork were gorgeous and made me a little sad that I know so little about Wagner.  So the images did not evoke any particular stories for me as they would have for Ludwig, but were still gorgeous.

The only picture I took inside Neuschwanstein:

She looks so pensive because Calvin and I refused to do the hiking required to visit the Marienbruecke (Marie's bridge?).  Just kidding.  I think she would have been good to go, but we generally ran our trips like a democracy and the majority ruled.  In this case, the majority just wanted to sit down and enjoy the view for a while.

A view of the castle if I had a helicopter and it was surrounded by glass:

After our hikes, we took a stroll (I say stroll because it was downhill and we weren't on a schedule) to the Alpsee.  Bavaria is truly beautiful and becomes more so the further south one goes.  This lake was beautiful.

Isn't she cute?

Here is Calvin contemplating the astounding blue color of the lake.  I haven't ever seen anything quite like it.  A few minutes after I took this picture, Calvin stripped down to his underwear and took a swim out to solve the mystery.  All he could tell us after his brief trip is that it was cold and tasted clean.  We truly appreciated his sacrifice.

Just so beautiful!