September 25, 2014--Day 13--Thursday: Neuschwanstein

Neuschwanstein Day was awesome.

We all woke up at 6:30 to get ready and leave the house by 8:00, with all of our luggage repacked. We were pretty tired, but we were pumped to hike up to Neuschwanstein. We each wore like five layers to keep off the chill and we had our hiking shoes on.

We thought it wouldn't be too crowded yet, but even though we got there at 8:00 and it was drizzling rain, the area was alive with tourists and vendors. We fell in love with the hills and mountains around the two castles even before we got to see them up close. It was a gorgeous environment, and Neuschwanstein is glorious even when you just look up at it from the valley floor.

In full-fledged, no-nonsense hiking mode, we ignored the souvenir shops and started up the path to the castle.

Then we passed carriages drawn by huge draft horses, and Dad rubbernecked. We didn't even have to say anything--he just doled out the cash and bought us all a seat in the carriages. We didn't really mind that all our hiking preparation wasn't used, we just enjoyed traveling to the castle in true Disney princess style.

It made the ascent much quicker and easier, and we really enjoyed looking out at the thick green forest and chatting with the Chinese group sharing the carriage with us.

Those hardcore draft horses got us to the castle in no time. They were so sweaty at the end that steam was rising off of their coats. We thanked the driver, said goodbye to our new Chinese friends, and went to see the castle up close.

Even just the exterior was beautiful, and the view was out of this world. The light rainclouds made the mountains so close by look magnificent. The Salzburg fortress was cool up on the hill, but Neuschwanstein is just majestic on its forested mountain hilltop. We couldn't take photos fast enough.

The carriage got us up there just in time for an English tour through the finished rooms of the castle. Not even half of the castle was completed even after 17 years of construction, because each room was given so much attention and the king, Ludwig, died before it could be finished. Luckily, though, the castle was almost immediately turned into a museum, so everything has been preserved.

We met a girl named Clair who was traveling alone, and she came with us on the tour (look at us making travel buddies!). We weren't allowed to take photos in the castle itself (GRR!) so I'll just have to describe it as best as I can.

First we had to club a long spiral staircase up to the floor that had the servants' quarters. They looked like nice little apartments! I totally wouldn't have minded being a servant if I could work in Neuschwanstein.

What we saw on the top level only made me wish even more that I could live there. As if the surrounding landscape and intricate outside architecture weren't enough, King Ludwig designed the most beautiful castle interior. I never imagined it could be so stunning.

We started in King Ludwig's throne room. The throne itself was never built, but I can only imagine how amazing it was going to be to match the rest of the room. It had windows on the back and side wall, letting sunlight shine on the gold accents in the room light up like flame. Every bit of the room was ornate. EVERYTHING. The walls and ceiling had colorful paintings of Biblical scenes, with a painting of Jesus Christ standing above the dais where the throne would have been.

Overhead was a huge chandelier so tall that had it fallen, I could have stood right under it and had the cone shape surround me and not be harmed. And it was so wide, it might have gone around me even if I were sprawled out on the ground. The chandelier had saints worked into it, and colorful glass to resemble gems. Even the floor was beautiful, with millions of tiny tiles making a "Circle of Life" kind of scene on the floor--a huge ring of plants and animals of every variety.

After gaping up at everything in there for a while, our German tour guide took us to King Ludwig's bed chamber. It was the most amazing bedroom I've ever seen. It was both cozy and stunning. The lower half of the walls was all beautiful dark wood panels carved with nature designs. The upper walls had gorgeous paintings forming a series that depicts Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde." Apparently Ludwig was a HUGE fan of Wagner's operas and actually dedicated Neuschwanstein to Wagner. Oh, and Ludwig LOVED swans. There were swan motifs everywhere--in the paintings, in the woodwork, on the fabrics, and in ceramic. But anyways, Ludwig's bed was a little four-poster with gothic cathedral towers on the top. I mean, really. Stunning elaborate woodwork.

The wood panels on the walls disguised doorways. We never would have spotted the door to the water closet had the guide not pointed it out. There was also a door to a little private chapel that had a beautiful altar and stained-glass windows. There was also a window seat behind thick curtains--not really hidden but it looks like the best reading spot of all time. The whole room in general is dark and enclosed and beautiful--the perfect hidey-hole. It's so sad that Ludwig only got to live there 100 days before he died.

Next was the king's dressing room, dining room, and living room. They were similar in style to the bedroom, with dark wood accents, incredible swan-themed fabrics, and Wagner stories painted around the ceilings.

Ludwig was so obsessed with Wagner that he had a cave room made near his living room. It was a legit fake cave in this otherwise-refined castle, complete with a little table and chair by the little window letting in the only light. The more I saw of this guy's castle, the more I liked him!

Especially when we saw the concert hall. In there was the only evidence that Ludwig designed and owned the castle--his coat of arms. The guy didn't want any images of himself anywhere in the building, because it should all be about Wagner. How amazing is that??

Also, the concert hall itself was amazing. It had huge windows along two walls looking out at the mountains. The ceiling was peaked and there was a balcony along the wall opposite the windows, and everything was decked out with Wagner and nature. I would love to attend a concert up there someday! It would be fantastic!

We could have stayed and explored all day, but alas. The tour guide took us down through the unfinished second floor, through a beautiful castle kitchen with bronze pots and pans of all shapes and sizes and finally to an exit gift shop.

What I took from the tour was that castles are amazing, Ludwig was kind of awesome, and if I can't live there myself, I'm totally gonna write a fairytale and use that castle for inspiration.

We exited the castle and parted ways with Claire, then hiked around to this bridge that spans the valley behind the castle. It was kind of cold and the bridge gave me vertigo, but it was worth it. The view was...well I kind of feel like I'm running out of adjectives. Stupendous? Amazing? Beautiful. And awesome. Those words all still apply so well, even if I repeat them so much. We took a million photos up there, until we had to make way for other tourists so much that we were eventually just shuffled off the bridge again.

On our way back down the hill (on foot this time), we passed a vendor selling hot chocolate in souvenir mugs, along with a piece of cake. It was so great. Totally hit the spot, and we got free Neuschwanstein mugs!

After that, we made our way to Swizerland!!! Our last leg of the journey! It was a long drive, but we listened to all of my classical music playlist, and had a truly epic game of "Would You Rather...?" There were so. Many. Tunnels on the drive, which made it hard to see some views, but also meant that when we could see views, there were no ugly highways scarring the landscape. It was an amazing drive. So many waterfalls, and they have villages built right up at the top of cliffs. No idea how they got established up there but it looks amazing!

We were staying in Interlaken for the next three nights, and we all loved it there. It's right by a huge lake, surrounded by Alps, with hang gliders overhead all the time. We stayed in this cute house, in an upper-level apartment. It was like a modern cabin--lots of light woods and rafters and huge windows. There was plenty of space (I had my own room!) with a kitchen and big living room, and heated tiles in the bathroom! I love it.

By then we were starving, so we looked up a good restaurant nearby. It turned out to be a super expensive but super delicious steakhouse just down the road. We got tons of meat, hash browns, soup, and bread. It was probably the best steak I've ever had. SO. GOOD. We all went home happy and stuffed. It was a great day.

September 15, 2014 -- Day 3 -- Monday

Today was an unexpected free day.  Originally, we were supposed to spend most of the day at the BMW plant, taking delivery of a vehicle that we would use for the rest of our trip.  But the vehicle ended up on back order, so we had to make other arrangements for transportation. 

After another yummy breakfast in our hotel, we packed our bags and headed back to Munich to the Olympic park. 

We walked to the top of the highest hill in the park, which has a nice view of the city and of the park.  Then Ashley grabbed a Nutella and banana crepe that most of us shared. 

We still decided to go through the BMW Welt showroom.  It was very fun taking pictures of the cars, and motor cycles.

After the car shopping we went back to the park and ordered some bratwurst and other lunch items. 

Then we drove into the countryside north of Munich and found a roadside flower patch where you can pick your own flowers and pay in a little box for whatever you take.  What a great concept!  I guess they figure that the criminal element doesn’t generally go after beautiful flowers, so why would they need to waste time manning a cash register.

Then it was off to the airport to return our rental car.  And now we are on a bus headed toward Prague.  I’m actually enjoying the fact that I can sit back and admire the countryside and not have to worry about driving. 

The bus is about a third full, so we have plenty of room to spread out and relax.  Maybe I’ll set us up with a similar mode of transport between Prague and Salzburg next week.  I like it!

September 14, 2014 -- Day 2 -- Sunday

 Happy 20th Birthday, Sarah!!!

Everybody got a good night’s rest.  I was up first about 5:30am.  When I first woke up I had no idea what time it was.  My phone still had USA time on it, so I was thinking that I had only slept for a few hours.  But I answered a text to Amanda and she confirmed that it was indeed morning where I was.  That was a relief, because I felt wide awake and didn’t want to still have to try and sleep for several more hours.

Everyone else was up by 7:30am and we all got ready to go to church. 

We drove into Munich and attended the Munich 3^rd ward sacrament meeting.  A nice missionary, Elder Spencer from Oregon, gave us headsets and translated the meeting for us.  We thought, based on the meeting start time on lds.org that we would be attending the entire block, but it turned out that they had sacrament meeting last.  We were kind of disappointed because we wanted to attend classes in another language.  But it was still a great experience for everyone to see the church in action in another country.

One of the sisters in the ward introduced herself to us before the meeting.  She says her father used to work with grandpa Fetzer way back when he was mission president.  I thought that was pretty great.  Her name was Becky, but I didn’t get the last name.

After church we took some pictures outside the building, and then we drove straight to Dachau to tour the concentration camp. 

Dachau has changed a lot since we toured there in 1990.  I remember when we were there before, we drove up to the side of the camp and just walked onto the property where the old building foundations are still showing.  Now, there is a big parking facility, and a major tour set up to educate visitors.  There is a movie and hundreds of wall displays that tell about individuals, both captives and captors, the political changes that occurred during the 12 years it was an SS camp, and many other interesting facts.

They had a lot of information about the political prisoners who were kept there.  Starting in 1933, Dachau was the main concentration camp where the Nazi’s kept all their political enemies.  But by 1936 it started to house people who were just considered unfit….Jews, Gypsies, priests of all denominations, etc.

I guess 1933 was the year that the Nazi party was able to convince the German government to suspend civil rights in the interest of preserving the motherland.  Once freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, the right to bear arms, and the right to have a fair trial before you could be imprisoned were gone, there was nothing stopping the Nazi’s from arresting anyone who was a “threat” to the country.  At first, reports of abuses at Dachau were investigated and there was some attempt to keep things legal, but the propaganda machine was so convincing that the masses didn’t believe the rumors of abuse and murder until it was too late to do anything about it.  Even the international media primarily used the propaganda from the party as their main source of information for several years after 1933.

Anyway, we first went through the main building where the SS kept their “special” prisoners and where most of the torture happened.  There were rooms with double walls and doors to keep any sound from being heard outside the building, and standing rooms that were so narrow, that a prisoner couldn’t even sit down on the floor. 

Then we went through the building where the prisoners were processed upon arrival.  They have most of the wall displays in that building, along with the movie.

After watching the movie, we toured one of the replica buildings where prisoners were housed, sometimes 2000 at a time in a building made for 200.  By the end of the war, so many prisoners were moved from outlying camps into Dachau that there were 38,000 prisoners when the camp was liberated.  It was designed to house 6000.

We then went through the two crematorium buildings and saw the gas chamber that was constructed late in the war, but was never actually used as far as anyone knows.

Two thousand liberated prisoners died after their rescue because they were so emaciated or sick. 

We were all quite humbled by the tour.

Afterward, we drove to Olympic park in Munich and had a late lunch/early dinner at the main restaurant there.  We had schnitzel, chicken curry, spaghetti, and salad, followed by some yummy German desserts.

Then we drove back to our hotel and relaxed for the evening.  It wasn’t much of a birthday for Sarah, but I’m sure it will still be one that she remembers well.  How often do you get a birthday in Europe!?