Two show castles and one real castle

After taking the Romantic Road to its furthest point South, I spent the day visiting castles.  The first two castles are the big tourist ones, Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein.  The last is Ehrenberg in Reutte, Austria.  The first two are the castles of King Ludwig II, King of Bavaria from 1864-1886.  They are in Fussen, Germany, near the Austria border, on the feet of the Alps. 




Hohenschwangau was built by his father as a summer retreat / hunting lodge.  It is from the time that the 13th century castles and nights were most romanticized.  It is filled with paintings of castles, knights, dragons, and such.  It is filled with lavish, but usable furniture.  It is fancy, as befitting of kings, but was used to live in and entertain in. 

On the other hand, Neuschwanstein was the fantasy castle created by Ludwig II as his most idealistic, extravagant, castle of old.  It was designed first by stage designers, then by architects. It is the castle that Disney based his castle on.  It was built from 1868 until Ludwig's death in 1886.  (note, this is the same time the Eiffel tower was built...)  It was never finished.   It is over the top in all regards.  Ludwig was good friends with the composer Wagner, and all of the rooms are filled with paintings from Wagners operas (all knights, ladies, castles, dragons, etc).  There is even a replica of a cave in the middle of the castle.  You are in a lavish room, you go through a door, and suddenly it feels just like you are in a cave, with realistic walls, stalagmites, stalactites, and a cozy little corner with a table.  Apparently it is the scene from one of Wagner's operas.  You then walk out of another door, and you are back in a lavish castle room.  Kind of crazy. 

His bedroom had elaborate carvings filling the room.  The bed was all carved, with a big canopy, the entire top of which was this elaborate castle scene with turrets and such.  They said it took 14 master wood carvers 4 years just to do the carvings in that one room along.  You look at it, and you can see why.  (oh, on a side note, in hisbedroom in Hohenschwangau, he had something neat.  He had glass dots embedded in the ceiling, which was painted a purplish-black. The servants could light a lantern in the room above his bedroom, and all of the glass bits would sparkle and flicker like stars.)  Everything was just ridiculous.  And, he had built 3 other castles before this one, and had plans for another castle, that would be even more elaborate that this one. 

However, he was officially declared insane and the next day, both him and his doctor were mysteriously found dead in a lake.  Was is murder, suicide, or an accident?  We will never know.  But, all work on the castles stopped, and Neuschwanstein became open for tours within a few weeks. 

After seeing these elaborate, extravagant castles, I then crossed the border into Austria, to see a true 13th century castle.  The ruins of this castle are on a hill, with turrets and all, but this one clearly was made to defend against attackers, and had to do so several times.  Reading the signs around the ruins, it was clear that not all of knighthood in those days was as romantic as the Wagner operas make it out to be.  This one was free of the hoard of tourists at the other two, and was quite peaceful. 

After the day of castles, I headed back to Freiburg to hang out with Danni and Johan again, then headed to Colmar, France.  More about that in the next post! 

Rothenburg and the Romantic Road

What a delightful place! 

On Monday morning, I rented a car, to drive out to Rothenburg, the Romantic Road, and the castles of Mad King Ludwig in Fussen.  See below for driving woes! 

Rothenburg is a medieval walled town, with its earliest traces from the 900's, but its biggest time was from 1150 to 1400s.  It is a walled city, with walls, towers, moat, and everything!  It was a strategic stop on important trade routes, and at 6,000 people in those times had one of the largest populations in the entire area of the Roman Empire.  Thus, they had enough money to build beautiful houses, a grand square, and neat churches.  It hit a low point a few hundred years ago, with essentially no development for 300 years, leaving it well preserved until tourists discovered it in the early 1900s.  It was partially destroyed in WWII, but the main buildings were unharmed, and the rest was rebuilt. 

It has since grown up into tourism, which can be a bit overdone, but is charming none-the-less.  All of the old stately houses are now gift shops with Christmas decorations, beer steins, coo-coo clocks, and more (the best year-round Christmas shopping in all of Germany).  A shoppers dream (not mine), but the historical bits are the real charm of the city. 

I started by finding my hotel, Gastehaus Raidel, which was a charming old place filled with carved wood banisters, carved furniture, quaint wall paper, etc.  It was a great place to stay.  I then did a self guided walking tour, seeing some of the sights and history.  I walked the city walls in the early evening, wondering what it would have been like to walk those walls hundreds of years ago, looking through the slits for attacking enemies! 

The event to see there is the nightly tour by the Nightwatchman.  He dresses up like the watchmen of old, carrying a lantern and weapon, and gives an entertaining 1 hour tour in giving history of the city, ranging from the huge financial success that made it so grand, and the woes of living in those times (foul smells, harsh laws, attacking enemies, etc). He pointed out numerous small features on buildings that are fascinating bits of history, that you would never notice or understand without having someone tell you about them. For example, the houses all have hoists at the top, for hoisting grain into the attic, as all houses were required to have at all times a year's supply of food in case the city was under siege.  Another thing, which Freiburg had too, is that all of the old cities had their own units of measurement, since there was no universal standard.  In the main square, there are always iron bars indicating various lengths (usually one several meters, one about a foot, and one somewhere in between), and circles cut into the stone for the standard size of things like bread.  That way traveling merchants can know to use and expect that city's units.  If you were a baker, and made your bread smaller than the city's standard, you would be punished! 


The next morning, I headed to the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum, with a large amount of items from and history about the medieval criminal justice system. 

Everything from torture and execution devices to items to draw ridicule at the gallows to laws regarding weddings and property.  Horrible and fascinating at the same time.  This museum, like many sights in Rothenburg, was explained very well in English.  I think I heard as many tourists in Rothenburg speaking English as German, which made it easy to get around that town. 

I then hopped back in my car, and headed down the Romantic Road to Fussen.  The Romantic Road is named after the Romantic period, not the love it inspires, but I am sure if John were here, it could have been romantic like that too.  It is a drive that goes through many old walled cities, all of which were along the very important North-South trade route.  Most are not as touristy as Rothenburg, some of which still are mostly just used by locals for daily life, keeping farm animals in their yards within the walled cities.  The stretches between the walled cities were beautiful bits of German countryside, with rolling hills, covered with farmland, dotted with small towns with old houses and a central church.  What a wonderful way to spend the day!  Several times I just had to pull over and smell the air.  (Unfortunately, it only looked inspiring - in reality, it smelled like cow dung.  But, it was true, honest, out-in-the-middle-of-German-farmland cow dung!) 

A few comments on driving and food...

Unfortunately, all of the cars here are manual, and I hardly ever drive stick.  Thus, I was trying to navigate a foreign country, while trying to remember how to use the clutch, start driving without stalling it, and remembering to shift gears.  I only stalled a few times, and fortunately the first one was not until I was out of eyesight of the rental place.  I was afraid they would see how bad I am at driving stick and take the car away!  (By now it is going fine).  As far as navigating, thank goodness for GPS!  To even get out of the rental place to a main highway, as well as to find Rothenburg, I was completely dependent on it.   If it was taking me the wrong way, I would have had no idea, since all I had was the very generalized, hand drawn, not-to-scale maps of Rick Steves. 

On the other hand, as long as I didn't mind a few small adventures, driving the Romantic Road was better without it.  It can get you somewhere the fastest way or the least distance, with or without highways, but it cannot find the most scenic ways.  Thus, attempting to follow the signs for Romantische Strase was the best way.  A couple of times, I accidentally ended up back on the main autobahn, then somehow got back on the scenic route.  Either way, it got me here!  Once I got near Fussen, I again counted on the GPS entirely to find my hotel!  Thanks John for getting it for me with the European maps!  You are the best! 

As far as food, I have had some wonderful food here.  For dinner I had potato noodles baked in cheese and crunchy onions, along with a dark beer.  Yum!  My hotel had a tasty breakfast, which I ate with a few of the other people staying there, while comparing travel notes.  For other meals, I again stopped at small shops and put together picnic food, perfect for eating while either people watching from the main town square, or cow watching along the road.  The best thing I had was this amazing salami which contained truffles.  It was truly delicious.  The other thing that must be mentioned is Schneeballen, a traditional food of the area, found in shops all over town.  Despite Rick Steves badmouthing Schneeballs, I thought they were quite yummy, though I could only eat half of one of the regular sized ones at a time.  How do you describe them?  Imagine the same stuff that waffle cones are made out of, but a bit thicker.  Take that dough, and cut it into strips, then scoop up a tangled bunch of those into a metal sphere to fry them until they have the taste and texture of waffle cone, only in the shape of a tangled ball.  The traditional ones are dusted in powdered sugar, but you can now get them coated in chocolate, caramel, cinnamon, and all sorts of flavors. 

Tomorrow I will be seeing the castles of Mad King Ludwig! 

Freiburg with friends

After taking a train to Freiburg, Germany on Saturday, figuring out how to get to the local station by my friend’s house, I was greeted at the station by my friend Danni.  It was great to get off the train an immediately see her smiling face! (I only stepped onto the wrong local train once, after someone had pointed me in the wrong direction.  Fortunately when I asked “Zahringer?” I was immediately told, “no, no, no” and pointed to the real train before the first one left the station.)  We then met up with her boyfriend Johan and dropped my stuff at their apartment. 


We spent the day wandering around Freiburg, which is a delightful town.  The church, which is from the 1200’s, was in part sponsored by the local guilds, so at the bottom of various stained glass windows, there are the logos of the guilds that paid for that window - a stained glass boot for the shoemakers, a stained glass pretzel for the bakers, a pair of scissors, and several other things.  It is quite fun to see.  Not many fancy huge old churches have stained glass pretzels in their windows!  The gargoyles and statues around the outside are much more playful than in Paris too.  (see above picture)  There is a market all around the church, which was closing down as we got there, but we were there in time for me to have one of the local sausages.  The sausage stand sold 10 different types of sausages, but Danni steered my toward the one that is most typical for the region.  Although I am not a huge sausage fan, these were quite delicious. 

We went up to the tower on the hill overlooking the city, which was a good hike up, but beautiful views.  We then wandered the city more. Throughout the city there is flowing water through little channels built into the street.  They are only about a foot wide, 6 or 8 inches deep, and have only about 2 inches of water flowing.  They were originally built centuries ago, to help prevent major fires.  Other cities would have a large area burn down if one house caught fire, but with this, there was always a steady stream of water to every building so they could put out a fire quickly before it became big.  Now, it is used mostly for kids to play in on hot days.  All over the city, kids were splashing on the channels.  Stores sold little toy boats, rubber ducks, etc for the kids to play with in the water.  The other fun thing the city has is the stonework sidewalks. 

All of the sidewalks are paved with stones that are 1 inch by about 3-4 inches.  In front of each business, there is a circle of stones, with a logo made of stones for each business.  A pretzel for bakers, a diamond for jewelers, a book for the library, etc.  These date back to ancient times, but are updated for current businesses, so most are accurate. 

 

On Sunday, we slept in, had a breakfast with many jams, then went to Staufen, which is a cute town just South of Freiburg, which has a hill with the ruins of a castle.  It is surrounded by wine country.  It was beautiful and relaxing up there.  We had a picnic lunch, then juggled a bit in the castle ruins.  We then enjoyed Bioade and Vitamalz which are traditional German beverages, and went back to Danni and Johan's apartment, where they cooked a marvelous Swedish dinner for me (Johan is Swedish).  Meatballs, potatoes with onions, a yummy sauce, salad, and chocolate balls rolled in coconut.   Yum! 

Tomorrow I am off to Rothenburg, the Romantic Road, and Fussen for historic towns and castles!  Yay! 

Experiencing Paris

Today I did not see a single museum!  Though I did decide I really want to see the Pompidou Center, with the Musee National d’Art Moderne, filled with Picasso, Chagall, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Henri Matisse, and more.  But I did not have it in me to see another museum today, so I’ll go with John when I am in Paris with him at the end of the trip.   

Today, I simply experienced Paris.  I went up to Sacre Coeur in Montmarte, saw the beautiful views and the various entertainers.  I had packed a lunch with me, of bread, blue cheese, fruit, and a macaroon, all bought from different little shops near my hotel, and all wonderful.  I enjoyed this on the steps of Sacre Coeur, while enjoying the spontaneous shows.  I then wandered the Montmarte area, gawking at all of the artists doing their work.  It was filled with people and had a very fun vibe. 

Next, I wandered the Marias neighborhood, spending quite a bit of time people watching.  I had a long dinner, consisting of multiple courses, all of which were wonderful.  I spent a long time talking to the older French couple at the table next to me.  He spoke a little English, she spoke pretty good Spanish, and I speak very little French.  So, we conversed mostly in Spanish, with us using either English or French if we came to a word we didn’t know in Spanish, then tried various synonyms and pronunciations until the other person could understand what we meant.  We were able to discuss quite a bit about life in that way.  Who said language barriers are really a barrier? 

Second day in Paris

What did I do today?  I walked, and walked, and walked, and walked.  And then I sat for a bit.   And then I ran into Donn Spight (see below)??!?!?  I am sure glad I wore my good shoes today instead of just sandals!

This morning, after waking up really early, since my body thought I was just taking a post-call nap, I eventually got up, bought a pastry and some cheese from some shops just outside my hotel, then hopped a train to Versailles.  The palace is the opitome of opulence.  If you had a large chunck of the money of the wealthiest country in Europe in the 1700's to spend on a palace, this is what you would spend it on to.  (maybe not). 

Oh John, after seeing Versailles and the Louvre, I have a few decorating ideas for our house, once we get little details like a roof and some walls.  At first I thought it would be pricey, since it would involve buying a lot of marble, and befriending or hiring and amazing sculpture artist, not to mention someone to paint the frescos.  But, no worry.  I found out that you can make the sculptures that are embedded in the walls out of plaster or wood, and paint them to look like marble.  With a 40 foot ceiling, no one would ever notice.  Oh yeah, and we don't need to find someone like Michelangelo to lay on scaffolding under the ceiling. It works to paint the opulent pictures of Greek and Roman gods with our faces on the gods and cherubs and angels all around onto canvas at floor level and tack it up to the ceiling later.  Thank goodness. Much less worker's comp for that. 

After learning about decorating, I then walked through the gardens, which were amazingly huge.  30 minutes to walk straight from one end to another.  A horse would have helped, but the royal stables are no longer in use.  These people had way too much money.  I then visited the Domaine de Marie-Antoinette.  In addition to making the smaller palace in the periphery of the grounds all her style, she built a little hamlet of 11 thatched-roof cottages, each with a beautiful garden, and an entire farm nearby. Thus, when she got tired of all the pomp and circumstance of the French Royalty (which was all the time - can you blame her?) she could go tend her gardens and brush her sheep in the little (fake, but pretty) hamlet behind her house.  I don't blame her for hating the nobility, but again, too much money.  Eventually they got beheaded for all that opulence.  At least the French nobility eventually saw the area as a "tribute to the greatness of France" and opened it to the public...

After Versailles, I went to the Orsay museum.  Sometime in the 1800's the Louvre got full, so they don't have anything more modern (either that, or it is not their taste.).  The Orsay museum takes off where the Louvre leaves off.  I have to say, after Versaille and the Louvre, the genre of brilliant figures, with breast exposed, with unhealthy light, and surrounded by angels and cherubs, was sort of getting old.  I admit, those paintings are stunning, but after a couple thousand of them (the Louvre has even more than that), I was about done.  Fortunately, the last couple of centuries have involved variety, using themes like real people (not gods or Kings), water lillies (go Monet), pointalism, impressionism, etc.  It was refreshing.  Too bad the Picasso museum was closed, and i ran out of energy before the Orangerie, which houses some Picasso and similar works.

After being museum-ed out, I headed to the Tuileries gardens, where I had some food, wine, and about 1.5 hours of people watching, and my aching legs were happy again.  I then walked through Champ-Elysees, saw modern day opulence, and went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, for amazing views of the city.  I then was headed toward the Eiffel tower, not anywhere in particular, between anything worthwhile, and who do I almost ram straight into on the street, but Donn Spight (young, friendly, laparoscopic attending at OHSU).  Totally bizzare.  He is travelling Paris and some of Germany with a friend.  We stopped and had some food and drinks.  Small world.

After that I headed to the Trocadero (plaza in front of Eiffel Tower) and to the area under the Eiffel tower to enjoy it lit up at night. 

Hung out, met and talked to a few people, discussed the political history of many centuries leading to the current mindframe of France, then headed home.  I did not go up the Eiffel tower, since I'll do that later in the trip when I am here with John.

As of the end of the day today, my Museum Pass expires, so I no longer need to fit in as many sites as possible in as small as a time as possible.  So, no big plans for tomorrow, just planning to wander some fun neighborhoods, relax, and eat some good food.  Good night, and thanks for reading!

Tired but smiling in Paris

After leaving home in Portland at 5:30 AM, flying to Chicago, landing 2 PM Chicago time, and leaving almost 6 PM Chicago time, I made it to Paris around 9 AM Paris time.  Which is midnight Portland time.  I really didn't sleep on the plane, since sleeping is hard when your body thinks it is 4 PM.  But, fortunately, 6 years of surgery residency has me trained well for 30+ hour shifts...  It's 8:30 PM (11:30 AM Portland time), and I still probably have a good 30-60 minutes left in me.  Just enough time to write this blog!

Paris is wonderful so far.  I went to Notre Dame (didn't go to the top, since the line was too long, but may go tomorrow if I have time), Roman and other ruins under the plaza in front of Notre Dame, a Holocost memorial, the Latin Quater & St Michel (where the revolution, and every other major protest in France began), Sainte-Chapelle (a very cool church with a ridiculous amount of amazing stained glass), the Conciergerie (the prison that has been in use for hundreds of years, where Marie Antoinette and all of the 2,600 others who were beheaded by the guillotine were imprisoned prior to growing a foot shorter). Oh, I even saw someone in handcuffs being brought in by police to an entrance on the other side of the Conciergerie - I guess they still use parts of it as a prison! I walked some streets, had some great food, and then spent several hours in the Louvre!

The Louvre - I knew it was big and had a lot of art, but until I was there, I had no idea of just HOW big it is.  It is incredible.  You can walk for ever through room after room after room, and never pass the same place twice.  And the building itself is amazing.  It alone is an incredible work of art, with painted frescos on the walls and ceilings, carved reliefs from marble or stone, metal sculptures, etc all built into the walls of the building in addition to all of the art it contains.  Another neat part - when they went to remodel it a couple of hundred years ago, they found the remains (semi-intact) of a building under it from 1200's, and you can walk through that.  All together awesome. 

Other fun things I have learned - 1) The better way to get to where I am staying, as suggested by the guy who was sitting next to me on the plane (who is from Paris but just spent a few months doing an internship in Indianapolis [and for some reason found that city more interesting to him than Paris???]), is only better in terms of not needing a metro connection and being a pretty walk, but was a 2 mile walk with my bags instead of a 2 block walk.  2) There are a couple of different ways to get from where I am staying to the sites around Notre Dame or the Louve, and one way, one of the metro lines is closed and is replaced with a very inconvenient bus.  Fortunately there are other ways, now that i know to avoid that one.  3) There are a bunch of amazing cheese, bread, wine, and other shops right outside my hotel, but they close before dinner, so my thought of "I've been up for 30 hours, with severel meals in there, I can just grab a snack, only worked if I had left the Louvre earlier.  Fortunately, a delicious Crepery came to my rescue!  4) The Paris museum pass is awesome.  If you every travel to Paris and plan to see a lot of sites, get it!  5) The more tired I get, my already horrendously poor French gets even worse (if at all possible).

Tomorrow, I will be see Versailles, the Champs-Elysees, and perhaps some other museums or Montmartre or the Eiffel tower - I'll see what I feel up to after the other two.  I'll post this, but I'll see if I can get some pictures to add on!

Itinerary

Aug 17  -     Fly to Paris
Aug 18-21   Paris
Aug 21 -      Train to Freiburg, Germany
Aug 21-22   Freiburg with Danni
Aug 23-25   Driving Rothenburg, Romantic Road, Fussen, Castles! 
Aug 26-27   Colmar, France
Aug 28-29   Switzerland (likely Gimmelwald)
Aug 30-Sept 1 Cinque Terre, Italy
Sept 1 -       Fly to Barcelona
Sept 2-4      Barcelona
Sept 4         Train to Madrid
Sept 4-6      Madrid
Sept 6 -       Fly to Athens
Sept 6-8      Athens
Sept 9-10    Hydra (Island in Greece)
Sept 11 -     Fly to Venice, 12 hours in Venice, Train to Ljubljana
Sept 12 -     John meets me in Ljubljana, Slovenia
Sept 12-14  Adrenaline Check outdoor adventures in Slovenia
Sept 14 -     Night train to Split, Croatia
Sept 15       Split, Croatia
Sept 16-17  Korcula, Croatia
Sept 18-19  Dubrovnik, Croatia
Sept 19 -     Fly to Paris
Sept 19-21  Paris with John
Sept 21-      Fly back home to Portland!

New blog for my trip to Europe!

Hi!  I am designing a blog for my trip to Europe, so I can keep in touch with everyone back home.  I will try to keep it updated with where I've been, what I've seen and done, who I've met, and what things I recommend!