The Munchkin's Notebook

Neuschwanstein Castle from Mary's Bridge (it was very misty) Today we went to the most famous castle in Germany, Neuschwanstein Castle , better known as the fairytale castle. (Also the one Disney used as the model for the Disney World Castle). We had a private tour of the castle, before it was open to the public for the day. The castle was never completed, due to the king’s death.  However he did stay there for 127 days during the construction then returned to Linderhof Palace.  We saw the completed rooms which included the bedroom, the throne room, the study, a few ancillary rooms and the theater room.  Most of the castle is done in a Gothic style except the throne room which used Byzantine styling and architecture and done in bright royal blues and golds with a mosaic floor. The throne room resembled in my mind a church with the pictures of the Apostles, the Saints and Christ around the throne. The bedroom was definitely Gothic styling with dark wood paneling and o...

Today we slept in, well the rest of the group might of slept in I woke up with the 6:00 AM church bells.  We had a late breakfast which included a sweet waffle but with the sour berry compote worked just fine. Afterwards we took the hour drive via the autobahn to Munich. View from the New Town Hall Munich was completely destroyed during WWII, however they chose to rebuild using the historic architecture, which is why the still have an old looking town center. We walked around St. Mary’s square and went up the new town hall tower (which looks older than the actual old town hall) and got nice views of the city. Mind you it was still cloudy and drizzling off and on.   Then went to the Viktualienmarkt (Victuals Market) and had sausage and beer in a traditional beer garden.   We then met our guide who gave us a walking tour of the city. We toured the Residenz (Royal Palace) which is now a museum.   The Residenz was mostly destroyed during WWII however they had ...

Today was cold, wet, and rainy with bouts of ice and snow. I really blame this on the curse I inherited from my mother, but I digress. Even though mother nature was being moody, we carried on like the postman or like determined tourist. At the top of Mount Zugspitze we look so European Our first stop was Lake Eibsee, which was pretty except for the fog and the rain. We might of walked around it was raining and slowly turning into slushy rain. It also did not help that our traveling companions did not pack rain gear. So we headed up the mountain. We took the cog railway up to the top of Mount Zugspitze , which is Germany’s highest mountain peak. There is a gondola that will take you to the top in 10 minutes compared with the trains 30 – 40 minutes, but the gondola was undergoing maintenance. The only down side of the train is you spend about 20minutes in a tunnel and pop out right before the peak. At that point you get out wander around a bit and look at the glacier then take a...

Today we left Baden-Baden and traveled to Oberammergau via the Black Forest. The trip was only supposed to take five hours, but that didn't seem to happen.  When we left Baden-Baden it was slightly raining as we left the city and entered the Black Forest. Then it got very foggy and started pelting us with slushy rain drops. We attempted to see Lake Mummelsee , but all we saw was about 5 feet of it because it was so foggy and rainy. We might have walked around but it was also cold, so we just wandered around the little shop (tourist trap) and picked up a Smokey (like a SlimJim) and some liquor and a hat.  The Smokey is pretty good, but sadly I don’t think I could get them through customs or I would bring some home.  After eating in a little town along the way we rejoined the actual autobahn to travel to Oberammergau. View from our hotel room in Oberammergau The car’s GPS indicated it would take about four hours from our lunch location, but with traffic and ...

Today we drove up to Heidelberg, to see Heidelberg Castle and to Konigstuhl (Kings Throne) which is 1,800 feet above Heidelberg. We rode the funicular, which is a cable up to the castle and then to Konigstuhl. Out first stop, was at the castle which dates back to the 15 th century and is part ruins and partly being resorted. We did not take the tour so did not get to see the inside of the area that has been resorted.  However, there were several photo opportunities around the outside of the castle, which was rather interesting. We walked most of the grounds and visited the apothecary museum inside the castle.  We also go to see the view from the top of the largest wine barrel in Germany, made of 130 oak trees and holds 58,500 gallons of wine. If you’re wondering why they needed a wine barrel that big it is because they used wine to pay taxes and had to hold it somehow. On an interesting side note we had a random person from Kent State talk to us while on the castle grounds b...

Today we traveled into France to see the Maginot Line and visit Strasbourg (yes it is in France).  The Maginot Line bunker we visited was interesting we walked 3km (~2 miles) of tunnel to see everything in that particular bunker to include the living area, power plant, hospital area and of course the munitions and guns.  It is about a constant 15C or around 60F in the tunnels and bunker. To transport items they used electric powered mini trains which ran down track inside the bunker tunnels.  The living quarters were kind of tight especially if you were not an officer.  The power generators were huge and used multiple large inline 6 cylinder engines (the cylinder were close to a foot in diameter) to produce the power needed.  The counter weights to move the turrets up and down are impressive and still contain all the necessary the gears to move the turrets.  I also determined that medium caliber munitions racks would double nicely as a wine rack (I need to...

Unfortunately I did not sleep at all during the 8 hour flight over to Frankfurt, so I have been awake for over 24 hours and I’m tired.  The flight was smooth and arrived a little early, and we made it through customs without any problems.   We were met by the travel agent after clearing customs and baggage claim. It was nice to see someone holding a sign with our name on it and also nice to meet the person I have been coordinating with for the past few months. She went over the whole itinerary, any questions we had then got us to the train station and proper plat form. I think that is where our journey really began. We had first class tickets (a separate compartment) for the high-speed train to Baden-Baden. There we were met by the second travel agent who picked us up, gave us the rental car, an overview of German traffic signs, and a quick driving tour of Baden-Baden before taking us to the hotel.  We are staying at a nice four/five star hotel. The room is huge...