Trip to Germany, Day 1, June 11

Carol and I went to Germany with my brother Bill and his wife Sonya in mid-June, 2010. None of us had been there before. Bill and Sonya are great travel companions, fun, intelligent and good with figuring out things to do. They live in Idaho Falls, Idaho and had to change planes a couple of times. Carol and I left LAX the evening of June 10 and flew non-stop on Lufthansa to Munich. We arrived late afternoon of June 11, ten hours after Bill and Sonya arrived. They spend the time visiting downtown Munich, including the famous gluckenspiel at the City Hall. We rented a Mazda6 station wagon diesel manual transmission and drove to Garmisch. It took as about an hour to get there, but then finding the condo took several minutes because the addresses were not necessarily on the building but, rather, on the fence around the building.

The condo, loaned to us by Wilf and Meka Voge was super nice, comfortable and had a beautiful view of the German Alps and the river that runs through Garmisch.

I was very happy with Lufthansa. There is a little more leg room in the plane and everyone got a pillow and blanket. Further, they did not charge extra for anything. The gate attendants and the crew were professional and seemed to want to help. I took a pill and slept most of the way. The opposite from Lufthansa is Delta.

The top photo is the view out the living room of the condo.

The next photo is edelweiss, planted in front of the Edelweiss Lodge which is on an airforce base. We caught buses for our various tours.

These are the mountains right by the condo and the lodge. The Zugspitze is the highest mountain in Germany.

Here we are chilling out after a hard day touring. Carol on the computer and Bill and Sonya putting together a puzzle.

Trip to Germany, Day 2, Neuschwanstein

One of the advantages of traveling with Bill and Sonya is that he is a veteran. Assuch, he can get us on military bases. InGarmisch there is a wonderful base, the Edelweiss Lodge, designed as an R and R facility. The base had great bus tours and Bill signed us up for several.

On Saturday, June 12, we took the first bus tour and went to Mad King Ludwig's second castle. The name is "Neuschwanstein" which means "new swan castle." This is the famous castle after which Disney's

Cinderella Castle is modeled. You have seen photos of it. Ludwig's symbol was the swan, and there were plenty around the castle. The castle was unfinished as Ludwig was declared insane and his money tied up, such that he could not finish the castle. He then died under mysterious circumstance shortly thereafter. The story of his death is that he and his physician drowned in shallow water in a lake near Munich. Both were good swimmers.

The bus took us to the bottom of a hill and we could walk up, take a shuttle, or ride in a horse-drawn carriage. Bill, Sonya, and I walked up, dodging horse meadow muffins, and telling jokes about the flies. Carol was the smart one waiting for us at a nice cafe.

Inside the throne room of the castle is a painting showing another castle Ludwig would build after he finished Neuschwanstein. Ludwig was essentially the king of Bavaria and had a very large treasury when he started building. The treasury was amassed over generations of kings. Ludwig spent nearly all of it on his castles; that spending, along with his probable homosexuality, and his preference for sleeping by day and wondering around at night, was the reason he was declared "mad."

Photos could not be taken inside, so these are all from the outside of the castle. The top photo is a general view of the castle. We could take pictures out some windows, and the second photo if of a bridge nearby. We had to wait until our scheduled time and we took this picture of the entrance and of Bill and I waiting. The bottom photo is another view out a window and shows the castle where Ludwig was raised. This was purchased by his father, Maximilian II, and remodeled into Schwantstein. Ludwig was not born here, but spent much if his youth in the castle.

Trip to Germany, Day 3, Passion Play

On Sunday, June 13, we went to the "Passion Play" in Oberammergau, the play is really an opera about the life of Christ. Admission is expensive and the seats are padded but uncomfortable and close together and arranged in rows and columns such that you look at the back of the person in front of you. In order to see, you have to lean right or left. Cameras were not allowed, so no photos of the production. You sit there for three hours, take a three hour break, and then return for the final three hours. Finally, the play is in German, and we all know Jesus spoken nothing but English.

We went back to the town a few days later and visited the museum and took these photos. The first is Carol by one of the costumes used in the play and me by another one. During the play, the action would stop and a tableau would come on showing a bible scene, generally one of the Old Testament stories that lead up to Christ such as Abraham's sacrifice. These tableaus are stunningly beautiful, use brilliant colors and are in still life.

The play has been going on for a very long time and those who have produced it are Catholic; however, there has been concerns about the text of the play from time to time until it was finally approved by a group of scholars. The play is fictitious and introduces many characters not in the bible. The third photo shows the oldest know text of the play.

The fourth photo relates the oath taken by the village elders four centuries ago. Here is my oath: having seen the play once, I swear to never see it again.

Trip to Germany, Day 4, Rest

We wanted to do very little on Monday, June 14, as we were very tired from spending six (6) hours sitting on uncomfortable, small chairs at the Passion Play. We suffered too. We spent the day looking for candy and cookies for Kristen (Bill and Sonya's youngest daughter) who had recently gone to Germany and discovered the amazing variety and quality of their sweets. No wonder the Germans are almost as fat as we Americans. My favorite was a lemon flavored cookie that looks like a vanilla wafers we have here.

Here is a picture I took out the window of the condo that day.

Trip to Germany, Day 5, Zugspitze

On June 15, Bill, Sonya, and I went to the top of the highest mountain in Germany: Zugspitze. From there, we heard, you can see much of Bavaria, and into Austria, Switzerland, even Italy. We took a train from a nearby station that took us to the top of one peak and then we took a cabled tram up the rest of the way. We could tell we were very high in altitude, but the weather was very bad, cold, rainy, and we could not see anything, anything at all. We then took a different cable car down, then caught a train to the car.

The top photo is a view out of the tram on the way up. It was raining on top as you can see from this photo of Sonya. The third photo is a shot toward the valley. We took a cable car down and the angle of the cables were close to 45 degree. Looking forward and down, this photo shows us headed toward a fog covered valley.

Trip to Germany, Day 6, Lindonhoff Castle

On June 16, we went to"Mad King Ludwig's" first castle. He build this to honor King Louie XIV, "The Sun King," who Ludwig had befriended and adored. Ludwig modeled this castle and gardens after Versailles, Louie's castle. Lindonhoff is smaller, but very ornate. The main entry is an homage to the Sun King. This is where Ludwig lived when he spent almost his entire fortune on this and his unfinished Neuschwanstein (Disney) castle that we visited a few days earlier.

The bottom photo is the entrance and, yes, it was raining. Above that is a statue of Louie XIV, a photo I was not supposed to take, but did not know that when I did. There are no photos of the inside, except this one. From the entrance you can see the pond with the golden statues and that is where Bill posed. On the way out, we came upon some swans that hissed at Carol creating a nice photo op. Ludwig's symbol was the swan.