2 Exhausted 2 Write Quint-ennial
Vacation
"Sometimes
it's better to lose your map anyway
You may end up where you were going
Instead of where you thought you were"
– kendall brown
I printed 42-page itineraries for Gramma, the twins, and Alan and I so everyone would know where we were going and where we had been. The first page was headlined with the above quote. When I told people about the itineraries I was pouring so many hours and effort into, I said I knew God was laughing as I laid our plans. What I didn't know was that the angels watching me over God's shoulder as I laid our plans were laughing so hard they wet themselves.
April
28 - April 30, 2006 | May
1 - 3, 2006 | May 4 - 5, 2006 | May
6 - 7, 2006 | May 8 - 9, 2006
May
10 -11, 2006 |
May 12, 2006 | May
13, 2006 | Mother's
Day, May 14, 2006 | May
15, 2006 | May
16 -17, 2006
European
Hitchhikers We Picked Up '06 | Europe
2006 Archive | Newsletter Archive
So here's how it went down from May 6 to May 7 (You don't have to read any of the words! You can just look at the pictures. There will be no test.) :
SATURDAY MAY 6
Edward Gibbon (1760) on the qualifications for a traveler "He should
be endowed with an active, indefatigable vigor of mind and body, which can...
support, with a careless smile, every hardship of the road, the weather, or
the inn."
(All
May 6 photos here are Kilory's.)
We approached Hohenschwangau
Castle in the afternoon as it threatened rain under cloudy skies.
Crown
prince Maximilian of Bavaria had the ruin of Schwanstein Castle rebuilt (1832-1836)
in neo-Gothic style.
This is where King Ludwig (loot-vick) II spent his childhood.
Ludwig II (1845-1886), king of Bavaria (1864-1886), son and successor of King Maximilian II, born in Nymphenburg. He aided Austria against Prussia in the Seven Weeks' War in 1866 but assisted Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. In 1871 he consented to the inclusion of Bavaria in the German Empire.
A notable patron of art and music, he subsidized the early career of the German composer Richard Wagner. He also was responsible for the construction of many lavish buildings.
In 1886 Ludwig was declared
insane, and his uncle, Prince Luitpold, became regent. 
Within
a week of his deposition, Ludwig supposedly drowned himself. Oddly enough,
a psychiatrist "drowned" with him. Hmmm.
One has no choice but to walk up to Hohenschwangau Castle, but it's not too bad a walk.
The walk to nearby Neuschwanstein
Castle (seen at left above my elbow) is a hefty hike. We chose to let horses
do the hiking for us! This is Heidi and Diana (dee-AHnuh), who hauled us up
the hill as thunder grumbled.
Neuschwanstein Castle,
royal palace in the Bavarian Alps of Germany, the most famous of three
royal palaces built for Ludwig II of Bavaria, sometimes referred to
as Mad King Ludwig. It was constructed near Hohenschwangau Castle. Begun
in 1869 and left unfinished at Ludwig's death in 1886, 
the
castle is the embodiment of 19th century romanticism with rooms representing
music by Wagner. 
In
a fantastical imitation of a medieval castle, Neuschwanstein is set with towers
and spires and is spectacularly sited on a high point over the Pöllat
River gorge.
"Neuschwanstein...is spectacularly sited..."
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's BEAUTIFUL!
Yes, Disney copied it, it was so beautiful. But I did think Ludwig was insane throwing so much money into it. The expenditures were crazy. No economy whatsoever. Crazy, nuts. You bet he was insane (financially).
Then
I saw the view out the back window. 
This image isn't even a good view of The View out back. This is a lousy photo of it!
The View
out back is so, so, so, breathtaking, so flabbergastering, so, so, so...
One is struck dumb with awe.
One is bereft of breath and speech, looking out on two lakes mirroring the Alps above them.
One's flabber is gasted.
I
would sell my mother as a galley slave for such a view. Ludwig was no longer
crazy in my view. I understood him now. I would have loved to have stayed
at the best window view until all the thunderclouds had dissolved into the
blue enamel skies which we enjoyed on our trip down the hill.
And then we were off to Augsburg. I could be quite happy in Germany. Dandelions everywhere! Wind generators and solar cells on rooftops everywhere one looks! It seems to be my soul mate country. It's where I ought to live.
We didn't stay exactly in Augsburg, but in Gersthofen, at Senefelderstraße 17.
SUNDAY MAY 7
"I am so convinced
of the advantages of looking at mankind instead of reading about them, and
of the bitter effects of staying at home with all the narrow prejudices...that
I think there should be a law amongst us to set our young men abroad for a
term among the few allies our wars have left us."
– Lord Byron
Augsburg
(owks-boork): Bavarian city at the confluence of the Lech and Wertach rivers.
There were two Geocaches at a medium-sized lake on Augsburg's edge. Gramma and I let the blondes bushwhack while we enjoyed coffee and strudel lakeside.
Augsburg
boasts of, among other things, St. Mary's Cathedral (at right?), with altarpieces
by the artist Hans Holbein the Elder and the world's oldest examples of stained
glass; and the Mozart Museum, birthplace of Leopold, father ofWolfgang Amadeus
Mozart. Engineer Rudolf Diesel, was also a native.
The city takes its
name from the Roman emperor Augustus, who founded it about 15 BC. Augsburg
became one of the leading money markets of Europe. It was also prominent in
the arts, noted for fine gold and silver products and as a principal workplace
of Hans Holbein the Elder and his son, Hans Holbein the Younger.
Many important diets (assemblies) of the Holy Roman Empire were held in Augsburg.
During the Protestant Reformation, the Augsburg Confession, a basic statement
of faith of the Lutheran church, was drawn up here in 1530, and the Peace
of Augsburg,securing religious liberty for Germany, was signed at Augsburg
in 1555.
Speaking
of diets: for lunch I'd decided I'd get a nice salad. They brought out a plate
of veggies that could have fed a small farming community. Nikki and Kilory
shared a bowl of soup. Gramma insisted they spoon feed each other the soup
for this photograph: she'd better not put THEM in charge of pulling/not pulling
her "plug" someday as they have sworn vengeance.
We walked around and past a church where Luther once preached.
Then it was off to Rothenburg (ROE-ten-burg). In the Middle Ages, when Frankfurt and Munich were just wide spots on the road, Rothenburg ob der Tauber was Germany's second-largest free imperial city. Today it's her best-preserved medieval walled town, enjoying tourist popularity without losing its charm. Rothenburg was occupied and ransacked several times in the Catholics-vs.-Protestants Thirty Years' War, and it never recovered — which is why it's such a well-preserved time capsule today.
I'm
not entirely sure that we took enough pictures in Rothenburg. It was certainly
not from a lack of trying.
We arrived in Rothenburg barely before the shops closed for the evening. It is a town with a photograph worth taking at almost every turn and the other four were quite intent on doing so the moment they stepped inside the walled city.
But
Rothenburg is not only "the king of medieval German cuteness":
it is the home of Käthe Wohlfahrt’s world famous Christmas
store: a Mecca for Christmas ornament addicts like me. And it was going
to close within minutes!
During the day, this ridiculously festive vehicle travels the cobbled streets, picks up Käthe-Wohlfahrt-ites wherever they hail it, and deposits them on Wohlfahrt’s doorstep. But day was done so it didn't come for me.
I
implored my group to follow me tout suite to the Promised Land, but
there were too many pictures to be taken. They dawdled. Throwing my hands
up in the air I told them I'd meet them at either Käthe Wohlfahrt’s
or the picturesque town square in an hour. I turned tail and ran down the
cobbled streets.
Heaven. I was in Heaven. They were closing up and vacuuming around me, but I was in Heaven. *sigh*
Having
arrived too late to see the Christmas store of all Christmas stores,
they continued photographing the city of now-closed-stores, this time with
me happily in tow, carrying my Käthe Wohlfahrt treasures. *sigh*
Or rather I floated dreamily along behind them...
One
can walk the medieval fortress walls all the way around, but we only did a
side and a half while the sun was yawning its way toward the horizon. We were
quite ready for bed, too.
April
28 - April 30, 2006 | May
1 - 3, 2006 | May 4 - 5, 2006 | May
6 - 7, 2006 | May 8 - 9, 2006
May
10 -11, 2006 |
May 12, 2006 | May
13, 2006 | Mother's
Day, May 14, 2006 | May
15, 2006 | May
16 -17, 2006
European
Hitchhikers We Picked Up '06 | Europe
2006 Archive | Newsletter Archive
We hope you enjoy your visit.
