Friday 30th August - Ludwig's castles

Our train left the Haufbahnhof at 8:50 today, as we headed for the two famous castles of the 'crazy King Ludwig'. After a slight hiccup in getting to the station, Errol bought the tickets necessary for todays trip. This was again very well researched so he knew what was needed, and corrected the DB lady when she tried to sell us something slightly different! Meanwhile, I found lockers for our bags should we decide to leave them at the station tomorrow if we go to Salzburg.

It is about a 2.5 hour trip out to Fussen, so I made the most of the time and finished yesterday's draft blog ready to publish when we get back to internet connection. The countryside is just beautiful - everything is so green! The houses are starting to look a little more Swiss, or what I expect Swiss houses to look like!

Once in Fussen, it is then a short bus ride on to the castles (this is also covered by the Bayern train ticket). They have hundreds of thousand of visitors every year, and tours run like clockwork. Errol had booked us in for a tour of each castle, and joined the line to collect reserved tickets (1 person ahead of him). The queue for people without reservations had hundreds in it!

The village below the castles is beautiful too, and set beside a lake with swans (there was only one today, but the guide assured me there are heaps of them) and paddle boats ......... just so picturesque. We bought tickets for the bus ride later, and had a quick lunch at the beer garden before climbing to Hohenschwangau (the older of the two castles) for our first tour.

It is hard to describe the rooms, and unfortunately, you aren't allowed to take photos. Most rooms were decorated with murals, painted straight onto the walls that were really just period paintings only not on canvas. We were shown the king's rooms and the queen's rooms, the dining room and billiard hall. Many rooms have small heaters in them. The walls are very thick, and have passages behind them so the servants could access the heaters and add wood without disturbing the royal family or their guests - central heating mach 1!! The king certainly knew how to pick a view - spectacular from most rooms. The tours only run for about 30 minutes - the only way they can get through the number of visitors they have daily, and if you miss your time, you just miss out.

Once finished there, we walked back down to the village to catch the bus up to Marien's Bridge. Apparently Ludwig's wife didn't like sitting and reading, she enjoyed hiking, so he had this bridge built for her for better access to hiking trails. The queue for bus tickets by now was quite long, but as we had already bought ours, we just joined the bus queue. It was a very steep climb up, so I am really glad we weren't walking it. The views were wonderful again, especially once a few of the crowd left. The bridge looks over Neuschwanstein.

Because Marien's Bridge is above Neuschwanstein, it was a downhill walk for our next tour. Ludwig spent so much on his castles that he virtually died bankrupt. I won't mention how he died, wouldn't want to spoil the trip for someone else! But as soon as he did, all construction work stopped, and it has never been finished. Our tour took in 2 levels in one section of the castle. They included the throne room (wow!!!), Ludwig's rooms, including his bedroom (took 4 woodcarvers 3 years in this room alone), the singer's room (for concerts) and servants quarters. Then on the way out we went through the kitchens, but not with the guide. Ludwig's bedroom has a basin with running water (only cold), the castle water comes from a stream above it, so there was enough pressure for the King to have running water in his basin. He also had a flushing toilet, and the castle had a sewerage system - pretty amazing for the 1800's.

We have just about maxed out on the photos today (a few more below, but so many more I could have include) this is a trip I would recommend to everyone. Bought rolls and drinks from one of the food outlets at the Haufbanhof, then back to the unit for a quiet and late dinner.

Thursday 28th August - Munich

We had a slower start to the day today and with breakfast out of the way, walked around the corner to check out Asam Kirche, a Rococco style church built in the 1700's by two brothers. We had seen the outside last night, and wanted to look inside too. It is probably the most ornate church I have ever seen. Not large, but almost every square millimeter is covered with carvings or statues of some kind (photo below).

We had decided to do a 3 hour walking tour today, and chose Sandemans. This tour is notionally free, the guides only earn tips. The company organize other tours that do cost, but these ones do not. We all arrived in Marienplatz at 10:45, and split into different language groups. Our guide was Severin, a cheerful guide, with very good English (the other half of the English speaking group was actually taken by an Aussie!) Severin told us many facts about Munich as we walked around to different sites, and did so with great humor, often using members of the group to help illustrate different things. See photo below where one person is acting the part of the river. Luckily, neither if us were asked to be the bridge! Here are a few pieces of information we learned today:

The New Town Hall, although it looks very old, was actually built in the early 1900's. The Old Town Hall was destroyed during World War 2, and then rebuilt. So really, the Old Town Hall is newer than the New Town Hall!

The glockenspiel in the tower is (and I quote) "the second most over rated tourist attraction in Europe". The bells are all out of tune, and it is very hard to tell what melody they are actually playing.

When the Church of our Lady was being built, they ran out of money, so went to the Pope for help. The Pope had a brilliant idea to raise the funds: anyone who came to this church and confessed all their sins (any sin), then donated a weeks wage would be given complete absolution........they soon had building back on track. Severin noted that the same deal is not on offer today.

Oktoberfest started as a wedding feast for the then king, but everyone enjoyed it so much they decided to have another party the next year .... and they are still doing it.

With the rest of the afternoon we wanted to go to the English Garden. This is not as simple a place as it sounds, it is an inner city park that is larger than Central Park in New York. It features a Chinese pagoda that is used as a huge beer garden, a beautiful stream that flows through the park, and apparently at one end, there is a surfing wave pool (we didn't find it) and a Japanese tea house and garden. The place is huge, it would take days to explore all corners, and we didn't have that much time!

We then decided to venture out to the Olympic village, another short train ride. Errol was delighted as the first thing we saw was the BMW Welt - here they display many models of BMW and Mini, and you can just open the door and sit in anyone of them - who could resist! We could also have queued to do the same with a Rolls Royce. Then upstairs the motor bikes were on display. We moved on to the Olympic Village, which was a major disappointment, it has really been let go. The swimming pools are in use, but several other buildings were in a state of disrepair or under renovation. One of the tennis courts actually had weeds growing in it.

Back on the train - we are starting to get the hang of the trains. Rested up for a bit, then went out for a late tea. It is still light around 7:30 - 8:00 pm, and there are always lots of people out and about.

Wednesday 28th August

Breakfast at the hotel was again of a good standard, and we checked out by 8:30, heading for the station again. Just a few more photos of the outer wall and gate that we didn't stop to take on our way in yesterday. Today we moved on to Munich.

Errol managed to purchase our tickets on the hotel computer last night, so that made it a little easier today. The prices for the trip ranged from 26€ for a Bayern ticket, up to 126€ for a full priced flexible fare! What a price difference!! We had Bayern tickets, and only had about 5 minutes between connections on our changeovers, so had little wasted time.

Once in Munich station, our first task was to chase down that Swiss Half Fare card. The third place we went to proved to finally be the right one, and we are now set for travel in Switzerland. We decided to walk to the hotel to get a feeling for the city. We had been told it was about a 15 minute walk, and that would be a good estimate. We walked through the Mall (not sure what they call it) to Marienplatz - the centre of the city where the centre of attention is the New Town Hall (see photo below). The Mall was filled with lots of big name shops, and heaps of people. There were several fruit stalls along the way too - raspberries 3€ for 250g - I'll be back!!

The Pension Lidner is only a few minutes from Marienplatz, and while it is no 5 star establishment, there is no doubt that the location is wonderful. Once we had checked in and settled, we were off to explore the centre of downtown Munich.

Our first stop was Viktualienmarkt - an open air market for all types of food. Here we hunted through the many stalls with different types of food and drink, but decided it was time to try German sausages.

After our late lunch, we strolled through the mall for those promised raspberries - yummmmm! Then checked out Church of Our Lady a Gothic cathedral, just off the main Mall. It is such a tall building, and is beautiful in its simplicity inside.

We stopped for a while in the park behind Marienplatz, and decided to check out the train and bus services for possible activities tomorrow. Then it was back to Marienplatz by 5 o'clock to watch the carillon on the 'New' Town Hall.

After a short break, we ventured out to the Hofbrauhaus (the largest beer hall in Germany) for dinner. It was VERY noisy and crowded. We checked the menu, but the food was very basic. Decided to have a drink first, and see how we felt. Well, it must have taken 10 minutes before we finally managed to get a waiter to take our order of 1 beer and 1 wine. Then another 5 - 10 for him to bring Errol's beer, and an empty wine glass for me! After another 5 - 10 minutes when we finally saw him again, we asked about the wine, so off he went again, and finally brought back a one serving bottle. All the while the band was playing, the guests were singing and some banging on tables in time, ........ decided we would eat elsewhere!!

On the walk around to the Hofbrauhaus we had passed lots of great looking restaurants and cafes, many with tables and chairs out on the footpaths. We strolled back, and finally decided on a Thai place. German Pad Thai is different to Australian, but still very nice.

......and so ends another very full day.

Tuesday 26th August

Errol woke early this morning, and on checking the emails, found we had a message from DB, the German train company - one of our connections for today's trip had been changed. He spent some time looking at options, but could do nothing until we reached Mainz, and then we would have only a short time to get it sorted or there would be a longer delay.

I have forgotten to mention the name of our hotel, it is the Kranenturm Hotel. It is in a medieval building owned and operated by Fatima and Kurt, who have been there for more than 27 years. The rooms are not large, but they are comfortable, and Fatima certainly takes a lot of care with her guests.

This morning Fatima had breakfast ready early for us, and we were at the train station for our first leg at 8:30. Mainz was busy, but Errol knew what he needed to change, and we made it just in time to catch the next train. The trip was now up to four changes! But the super travelers made it through, and arrived at Rothenburg around 2, only 50 minutes later than we would have done originally.

Our hotel, Hotel Klosterstueble, is just past the Market Plaz, an old building that has been refurbished fairly recently inside. The room is much larger than the one in Bacharach, as is the bathroom. The floor has a definite lean on it, and the doors are only about 6 foot high. The internal courtyard where breakfast is served is covered with a glass roof some 3 stories above the paved floor - it looked lovely.

Rothenburg was not what we expected. Errol has dubbed it 'Medieval World' the theme park for adults! There are so many shops, hotels and cafes, the whole place is geared for tourism. It is not the quaint village that either Bacharach or Braubach are. Many of the buildings have been rendered and painted. There are some authentic old parts, especially the wall and gatehouses, but much just looks more modern.

I had been looking forward to visiting the world famous Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas shop, and it was amazing to walk through, but everything was expensive. Some ornaments were the same as you could buy anywhere, and for the special ones, the smallest started around 12 Euros, and the memorable ones could go up to several hundred.

I did buy a postcard for a friend, then thought - but how will I find a stamp. I was in luck, as the shop sold them too. Went back out to Errol, proud of myself, but he reminded me that Australia isn't a local stamp away!! Silly me!

Back to the hotel for a rest, and we found that Internet connection was impossible, so I couldn't post yesterday's blog, and started this one as a 'word' document to be fixed when we have Internet again.

After resting, we went out for dinner. We had stopped for coffee/wine in the afternoon at a little Italian restaurant - the food looked good, and smelled wonderful, so we went back there. It was lovely sitting at a table on the footpath just taking in the old buildings and the people wandering around. By tea time, the 'day trippers' have gone, most of the shops are shut, and Rothenburg is a much more pleasant place. Perhaps it was just that Bacharach had spoiled us, and this was different than what we expected.

We also joined the Night Watchman Tour just after 8. This local man has been running his tour 7 nights a week, 10 months of the year, for 22 years. He looked like the Pied Piper with a large group of tourists following him down the street. He stops at about 6 different places along the walk to explain (with great humor) what life was like at certain times, and some of the history of the town. It was very enjoyable, and a lovely way to finish the day.

We are again tired out and ready for bed, and blog writing seems to be becoming a job to finish the following morning!

Monday 27th August

After a leisurely start and breakfast at the hotel, our first stop was at the train station where we bought our Rheinland Pfalz pass for the day. With this pass, you can hop on and off any train in the region from 9am on, and this would be our return trip in the afternoon. Also, if you have a valid train ticket, there is 20% discount on the cruise. Then we strolled about the village for half an hour before going down to the dock for our cruise down the Rhine.

The KD boat turned up right on time at 10:15. The boat consists of three decks. The bottom deck seemed to be all restaurants, but it was closed. The middle deck was a restaurant on one side, and Subway on the other. The top deck was largely in the open, with only about a dozen seats inside. For best views, we opted for out in the open on the bow. While this gave us great views of the beautiful Rhine scenery, it was also rather windy and cold. The view was definitely worth it, with quaint towns on both sides of the river, and castles on the hills behind several of them. We cruised for just over 2 hours, and disembarked at Braubach.

Braubach is a beautiful little town. Our purpose here was to visit Marksburg Castle at the top of the hill behind the town.....'we won't have to walk' he said, ' there is a little train we can take up'........ Needless to say, there was no sign of said train, in fact there was no sign as to which direction we should head for the castle. So, along with a German couple who had also disembarked at the same time, we had to stop for directions, then started climbing. The track was rough in places and steep, it took us a bit over 15 minutes. When we emerged at the top, the first thing we saw was 'the little train' just going back down the hill!!

Marksburg castle is the only one on the Rhine that hasn't been damaged by war at some time, so gives a great idea of what a medieval castle was really like. It has been lived in for over 700 years, and construction began in the 12th century. Unfortunately the tour was in German, but we had a booklet in English to read through. It was fascinating, helps make some of those historical novels I like to read come to life. You really do wonder how they built these structures in such difficult locations all those centuries ago.

After the walk up, going down was not a problem, then we made for the train station to find the next train back to St Goarshausen.

The trains are great, generally on time, quiet and comfortable. Once at St Goarshausen, we had to find the Loreley ferry to cross the river to St Goar. Headed for the river, and found it straight away, and it was ready to go. It only took a few minutes and we were off again. We were headed for Rheinfels castle, and I was delighted to see a sign that suggested there was a bus to get there. But, of course, we had no luck finding it, so we walked again ...... Uphill ... at least it was on a smooth footpath all the way.

Rheinfels castle was built in 1245, part of the castle is now a hotel, and much of the rest is in ruins, but it is huge. We had a copy of the Rick Steve's self guided tour, and the ticket office gave us more too. It must have been a magnificent structure in it's day, and much bigger than Marksburg. There is reconstruction work going on, and I would love to see it completed.

You can see a pyramid of large boulders stacked in the third photo down, these were used with a catapult. But as they were difficult to make, once the hostilities were finished, someone had to go out and fetch them back for next time!!

Back down into St Goar town, we had to find the train station to head back to Bacharach. After asking directions, we arrived just in time to jump on a train (what timing!! - the next train would have been quite a wait).

We had a short rest before going out for dinner - tonight at Hotel Am Markt. It was fairly busy for a Monday night, and hence a little slow, but the food was lovely. Back to the hotel to collapse, exhausted. Getting to sleep was not a problem, finishing the blog for the day was!!