The Woods

Thursday, January 03, 2008

2nd Jan - Tour Day 6

Neuschwanstein Castle was on the menu for today, we arrived last night in temperatures from which zero could only be seen in the distance, and today is no different. The ground was covered in thick snow, and when q'ing to get up the hill for the tour of the castle the ladies and kids almost froze.
Its about a 2.5 Km walk uphill to the castle from our hotel, we decided that it would be best to get the littlies up the hill in a horse cart so that there would still be enough humor left in them to make it through the castle tour. Cold and tired don't go well with little people.

If you enlarge this photo, you can see Neuschwanstein better

Neuschwanstein from a distance

The walk to the ticket office and pony terminal

This is Hoenschwangau - where Luddies' parents lived, and his childhood home

Pierre and I did the walk up - it was great.

One of the horse buggies on its way up.

Way below zero, I should have had thermals on under the jeans, if we hadn't been walking fast up that hill we may have just snapped frozen like statues on the way up. The streams coming down the hill were all part-ice and the snow-squeeks underfoot of all the pedestrians was a constant sound.
After some drama at the horse cart queue (like a 2 hour long queue), and a resulting change in tour time, the rest of the family joined Pierre and I at the castle where we scampered a lunch and rushed off to make the tour.

Neuschwanstein castle, literally "New Swan Stone" built by Ludwig the II is a beauty. Huge pity it was never finished, but what's here is well worth the look.

The view from one of the windows in the castle - Hoenschwangau visible on the right

It must be simply surreal to call a place like this "home" or, more precisely, "one of them" if you're a Bavarian King.

Ludwig sounds a little like a 19th century Michael Jackson, living in a fantasy land and building homes to match. The castle is themed in many parts after Wagners works. Caves as they appeared in some opera, painted scenes from others.

There are 2 things that should be allowed here 1) unguided tours where one can just browse and absorb the place, and 2) access to the unfinished bits of the castle. No photography as usual here, the art is degraded by light. Well OK, that and it boosts sales of the tourist books containing all the authorised photos at the end of the tour.

Some photies on the way out...

There was snow falling from the boughs and being caught in the afternoon sunlight - the larger view does a little more justice. This is in the woods just outside the castle.

The Woods just outside the castle... he he... I kill me!

Q: How can you be sure that it's cold out?

A: When your breath freezes on your whiskers...

Kiddies all packed up and ready to make the trip down - the men joined in on this ride

After the castle was done, we had quite a long ride ahead into Austria. Scheduled to stay in Bregenz, on the shores of Bodensee we stocked up on some groceries at a local store and hit the road.

Not more than a few km's out, a funny thing happened...Well, it wasn't funny at the time, and though I expect (hope) it will be funny at some point in the future, it is still not funny now... not to me anyway. Coming out of Hopferau I changed into 3rd and couldn't change out again... the gear lever was stuck, jammed, immovable, unbudgeable. Sensing that there was trouble abrewin, after announcing the observation to the rest of the family I pulled off onto the shoulder and we tried to work out what was going on...

It was still flipping freezing outside and while Pierre jiggled the gear stick inside the car I looked into the bonnet to see if I could locate where it connected to the gearbox and there look for any obvious signs of trouble. But it was already dark and there was just no seeing into the engine compartment. We called the car rental company in Prague, told them of the news and after a little to-and-fro-ing on the phone, they informed us that there was a serious problem and that we should seek accommodation for the night, arrangements and so on would be investigated to get a solution sorted and they would call us.

Synchronicity again had provided abundantly, and as it turned out, I had pulled off on the shoulder in the driveway of Gastof Engel...

I tell you...

So there we were, sorted! They had all the room we needed and were the most accommodating people ever. Gabby (the owner) took care of us, helped us call other car hire companies, let us use her phone, spoke to the operators when they couldn't sprechen Englisch etc. What a lady. Eventually the car hire co in Prague said that they would send a replacement vehicle to us in the morning and that they'd be there by 12:00.... it's bed time...

P.S. Today is Darryl's birthday - Happiness Flee!

Click here for the previous day - 1st Jan

Click here for the next day - 3rd Jan

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

1st Jan - Tour Day 5

Today we are on the Romantic Road...

we have no plans, but to drive through slowly, stopping wherever the mood takes us, doing whatever seems to be the best thing to do... We're sleeping near Neuschwanstein Castle for an early start tomorrow, but that's our only commitment.
As it happened, we felt obliged to stop and make this solitary tree famous...

I don't know why... it was just standing there all lonesome by the side of the road so we stopped to make it feel special!

Passing no small amount of time at "the tree" the next place that just had to be stopped at was Landsberg am Lech.

Apart from the Bayertor...

Which is the old city gate...
The town is very ornate and detailed - it definitely belongs on the romantic route! This place must be stunning in summer.

The great, grey-green, greasy... river Lech was all set about with ice and snow and swans and forts and was just too pretty to pass by.
A random stranger providing a dot of color in a stark scene...

The swans, ducks etc... looking one way up the river...

And then looking the other way towards the tower in mid-frame

PPaw and Amma, in deep conversation... or is Amber eating snow...?

This is the scene on the walkway - there will be a snow-fight here soon!

... what can you say?

Bugz and Saz self-portraiting...

Sisters? Bugz and the rasta Cat

The clan minus Mandy who is holed up in the van keeping warm - it really is cold out there!

The Mutterturm - the tower in the centre of one of the above shots...

Just as we had we loaded up all the peeps into the van, the first cries of hunger came forth from the kids. Earlier than the big people would have liked, but they were relentless! We threw everything edible we had at them, (figuratively speaking) and no sooner had they hoovered up the lot, more cries issued forth... after 15 minutes of the "I'm starving, going to die soon, my tummy hurts..." chorus in 4.0 surround sound, we made for this little beauty of a stop for lunch.

Perched high up on a hillside directly overlooking the river, this place (who's name is long forgotten) is a must do - the food is good, but the view is even better.

Have a look here to see where it is.

They have a small playground for the bambinos who have now forgotten about being hungry and want to get very cold and wet in the snow...

We had window seats overlooking the river and a couple of bird feeders.

Even the birds have a table with a view...

A great many photos of birdies were taken, and just in case you're interested - this is what a braking budgerigar looks like...

Nosh is happening...

The road into Schwangau... nearly there

Theeeeere, in the misty distance is Neuschwanstein perched upon a hill...

We got to our hotel in Hohenschwangau around dusk, not late in the evening you understand, the sun is still setting at 16:30... so there wasn't a lot that we could do - except that is, make good on a promise to build a snowman with the kids. There certainly was enough of it around, but it was of the non cohesive sort, that, do what you may, won't make a snowball, let alone a snowman.

Ingenuity lead Pierre to dig a cylinder out of some of the ploughed snow, which had been standing long enough to solidify, with a snow shovel and adapt it to look (vaguely) like a snowman's body. This, with a head similarly hewn and shaped, and with liberal artistic license, passed off as the completed body. Various sticks were broken off a nearby shrub to form facial features and hey presto... a snowman is born.

Frosteee the snowman, had an impressionistic flair...