Schloss Linderhof

Since Thursday was a German holiday and Laura's office was closed, we took advantage of the morning (until I had to be back for work in the afternoon) by getting up early and driving 1.5 hours to Ettal, Germany - the site of King Ludwig II's Linderhof Castle (Schloss Linderhof). This was a very similar drive to the beginning part of our drive to Innsbruck last week, but unfortunately it was cloudy and rainy so we couldn't see the tops of the snow-covered mountains. Nonetheless, it was still a very pretty drive (mostly through Austria, entering back into Germany where the Castle is close to the border), especially when we drove along a lake's edge for the last part of the drive.

Schloss Linderhof, built beginning in 1868, is the smallest, but most ornate of Ludwig's castles. It is also the only one that was finished, as he died before Neushwanstein or Herrenchiemsee were ever fully completed. We basically had a private tour, only two other people were there for the English version, and we learned quite a bit more about King Ludwig II of Bavaria on this tour. We have now been to two of Ludwig's castles (this one and Neushwanstein), as well as his birthplace (Nymphenburg Palace in Munich) and childhood home (Hohenschwangau Castle right by Neuschwanstein). Ludwig was definitely a strange guy, a collector of vases and a big fan of the musical dramas and writings of Richard Wagner. He had three ridiculous castles built for him, which got him into some financial trouble and led people to believe he was going crazy. He was very private and shy, but really enjoyed his elaborate castles and private plays, rarely surrounding himself with others, even to eat dinner. Unlike most king's castles, there are not even any portraits of him in any of his castles. Ludwig never married or had any children, leading many to believe he was gay. Rumor has it, King Ludwig II was the "only queen in the kingdom." It's still a mystery how he died - whether he was murdered, committed suicide, or was an accident while out on Lake Chiemsee near his Herrenchiemsee Castle (East of Munich). Because he had no heirs, his successor was his younger brother, Otto I of Bavaria.














As I said, this was his smallest, but most ornate castle. Although much smaller, it was inspired by Versailles and Ludwig's idol, King Louis XIV of France. Laura even made the comment, "it looks smaller than Greg's house." But the land and gardens surrounding the castle, as well as the elaborate decorations inside made this castle very impressive. Maybe it was because of the private tour we got, or maybe it's because this one was actually completed, but we enjoyed the tour inside this castle more than Neushwanstein. While the gardens and fountains were very nice, I still don't think it stacks up to the beauty of the surrounding area in Schwangau (although we couldn't see the mountains here either, because of the cloud coverage). Schloss Linderhof was actually considered Ludwig's hunting palace, and was his favorite residence during the last 8 years of his life, spending about 14 days per month there. His main residence during his rein was the Nymphenburg Palace and Residenz buildings in Munich. To reach Linderhof, he had to take a train part of the way, and then pick up a horse and carriage ride the rest of the way in. This took him about 6 hours, as compared to the 1.5 hour drive now.














Scattered around the gardens and grounds of Linderhof were a couple other buildings ("Tea Rooms" and hunting huts), as well as the Venus Grotto up the hill from the castle. This was an artificially created cave built for the king, as an illustration of the first act of Wagner's Tannhäuser. This might have been the coolest part of the tour for us. In the grotto was a small "lake" and a golden-shelled boat that Ludwig liked to be rowed in across to his one-person balcony to view his private plays in this artificially illuminated grotto.

The Week in Kempten

We finally got internet at the apartment this week. After giving up on the hotel for a solution (although they did finally come through with our last request - a couch...pretty little, but nice to have something other than the bed to sit on), Laura's company got her a satellite wireless stick that can be used anywhere in Germany. Since Laura doesn't need it during the day while she's in the office, I can now use it to work from the apartment, giving me a bit more freedom. It also keeps me from being locked up in the smoky hotel lobby all day. With that, I've been able to use some of my time in the mornings to update the blog. I know, I've been writing way too much. But while Laura's at work in the morning and I'm waiting for my co-workers in the eastern time zone to wake up, I don't have much to do aside from go for a run, plan our weekend trips, update the blog, etc. I'm planning to do something nice with this when the trip is over, so documenting everything as I have been will be a nice thing for us to be able to look back on.

The other thing we had been putting off for a couple weeks was laundry. But we were finally out of the necessities and had to do something about it. It took me about a week to get a straight answer from the hotel about where we can do laundry. They kept saying they had a laundry service, but when I saw the prices I knew something wasn't right - it was all for dry-cleaning. And we really don't need to pay several euros per item to have socks, underwear, and t-shirts dry-cleaned. So they finally found us a do-it-yourself laundromat. It was quite an adventure for us. And this being my first time ever doing coin-laundry, I was shocked that it cost us about 15€ to wash and (partially) dry two loads of laundry. It was a bit of an adventure, since everything was in German, but we were able to figure it out. After two hours in the laundromat, we finally gave up on paying 1€ per 15 minutes on the dryer that wasn't getting anything totally dry, and laid the damp stuff out all around the apartment to air dry overnight. Having the wireless stick paid off on it's first night - I brought my computer and we used it to translate some of the German words on the washing machines, and also to work on some of our trip planning - especially to plan out our route for 8 nights in Italy as the finale to our trip.

Another big event for us this week was meeting another couple for dinner Tuesday night. Last week when I was working from the lobby, I met a young couple staying at the hotel - Benedikt and Ashlee. They were also here for work, but only for two weeks. As it turns out, they are from Kennesaw, Georgia - not too far from us. Benedikt is actually German, but has lived in the US for a few years and recently married Ashlee. He works in the Atlanta area for a logistics company headquartered in Germany, so they sent him over here for a couple weeks to meet with some of his German counterparts. After seeing him in the lobby and talking with him a few days last week, I told him that the four of us should all get together for dinner this week after my parents were gone. It turned out to be a great evening. When we met them in the lobby they had already picked out a spot, a traditional Bavarian restaurant close by called Meckatzer Bräu Engel. The food was good, and I also enjoyed a couple of their home brews. It was nice having Benedikt there, a native German who could translate the menu and also give us general tips on Germany. It was also very interesting to get Benedikt's view on Germany, having grown up in a small town in East Germany. He seems to be very Americanized by now, and he gets just as frustrated as we do with the German way. Afterward, we found an open ice cream shop where they treated us to some ice cream. They are a very nice couple. It was so nice to spend a night here with another couple, and getting to know some people that we may even see again back home. It's unfortunate they aren't here longer, they leave tomorrow.


Thursday was a religious holiday in Germany (Corpus Christi), so Laura's office was closed. In the morning we took the opportunity to visit the Linderhof Castle, and when we got back earlier than planned we decided to check out the Kempten Residenz building. My parents went last week and highly recommended it. They clearly had a better experience than us, and a guide who gave the tour in both German and English. Our tour guide spoke about enough English to take our money for a little brochure that explained the rooms in English, but that was about it. We walked around, not knowing a thing she said, just the little guide in English to read along the way and guess at which rooms we were in. We also had to put on some slippers over top of our shoes, to preserve the wooden floors. I was more interested in just looking through and leaving, but we couldn't find a break from the tour. The building is huge, but kind of deceptive because the middle is all a big courtyard. In my opinion, it's a bit cheesy on the outside with the 3D-painted window frames. The inside rooms that we saw are very elaborate, but a little over the top for my liking.

A little history on the building.....The site of the Kempten Residenz was originally a Benedictine Monastery, founded in 750. However, it was destroyed during the Thirty Years' War. In 1651, they began rebuilding the church and residence on a massive scale. It was the first monumental baroque monastery complex to be built in Germany after the Thirty Years' War. It was over a hundred years later before all the detail and art throughout the rooms were completed. The building served as residence for the Prince-Abbots, and part of it is now open for tours, while other parts seem to be offices.

After visiting the Residenz, it was back to the apartment to work. After dinner, Laura was itching to walk around a bit and grab some ice cream. So despite the cold, damp weather, we walked up to our little ice cream spot. My curiosity got tome, and I had to at least taste the Red Bull & Vodka flavored ice cream. It was right on, tasting just like the drink, but a small sample spoon was enough for me.


Time to pack, off to London tomorrow.

Nymphenburg Palace - Munich

After saying goodbye to my parents, we were a little reluctant to head right home, in case they missed their flight. So, at their suggestion from their time in Munich, we went out to the Nymphenburg Palace. We were so close to it and it wasn't that late. Although we are planning to spend a weekend in Munich at the end of May, we figured we wouldn't make it out to this palace because it's not right in the main city area - but while we had a car and some time to kill, why not check out another place we wouldn't have otherwise had time for. My parents loved it when they were there the week before, although they didn't go inside - they just walked around the gardens, which were very impressive and seemed to go on forever. It was still raining, and we purchased a Bavarian Castle Pass a couple weeks ago that included the Nymphenburg Palace, so we didn't have to pay anything extra to look inside the palace. The palace, which was built beginning in 1664 (and known as the birth place of King Ludwig II in 1845), was very nice inside, but the gardens are definitely what makes these grounds so impressive. Because of the rain and after a long weekend, Laura wasn't up for too much walking around the gardens after, so after we gave my parents enough time and hadn't heard from them, we headed back to Kempten.

Dachau Concentration Camp

Since the rain prevented us from going to Hitler site (Eagle's Nest), we chose another one on our way back from Austria - The Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. It is only about 25 minutes from the Munich airport, so we were able to squeeze in one last activity before dropping my parents off to head back to the US. The depressing weather was fitting for this depressing site, which probably wasn't the best way to end my parents visit with us. But we had a couple hours to kill, and although depressing, it was an interesting place to visit and get a better understanding of the history of Hitler's rise to power, and the Holocaust. There was so much to read in the museum, but we started to run out of time, so we cut some off at the end and didn't watch the 30-minute video. I had also been to Dachau a few years ago during my trip to Germany, so I knew the layout of the place and rushed my parents through to see some of the barracks, the crematorium, and the execution chambers. It is sickening to see what was done to these people, and a strange feeling to be on the site.

A little history on this particular camp....On March 22, 1933, a few weeks after Adolf Hitler had been appointed Reich Chancellor, a concentration camp for political prisoners was set up in Dachau. It was the first concentration camp opened in Germany, and served as a model for all Nazi concentration camps that followed. In the twelve years of its existence, over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries were imprisoned in Dachau and its subcamps - more than 43,000 of them died. There were 32 barracks at the camp, although only a few remain for the memorial site. In 1940 the SS had a crematorium built because the number of dead had risen so dramatically. That area was located outside the prisoner camp and only accessible by passing through the SS camp. In 1942/1943 a second large crematorium (called barrack X) with four furnaces and a gas chamber for mass extermination was built, but it never was put into operation. On April 29, 1945, American troops liberated the survivors. In 1965, the camp was opened to the public as a memorial site.

After we walked around the camp, we raced off to the Munich airport to drop my parents off. Going directly from the concentration camp, it was a bit of a strange and rushed goodbye (they were running a bit late) to what was a wonderful trip with them. We really enjoyed having them visit, and appreciate all the things they did for us while they were here.

This might be a shocker to some, but I had not seen the movie Schindler's List before. I had always heard it was a really good movie (not so much the story, but the way it was put together), and Laura and I brought several movies with us to watch while we were here - that being one of them. So that night when we got back to Kempten, it was a fitting time to watch the movie, while it was all still fresh in our minds.

Innsbruck and Salzburg, Austria

After Laura got home from work on Friday, we took off for the 2 hour drive down to Innsbruck, Austria. Again, the views on this drive were absolutely amazing. About 30 minutes into the drive, we crossed into Austria, and drove through the Tyrolean Alps all the way to Innsbruck. Very little of this drive was on the Autobahn, so it was a couple hours through winding roads and tunnels to get past the mountains. Unfortunately, we stopped for gas before we crossed into Austria, because we were told it is more expensive there. I think we were mis-informed. While gas may be more expensive in Switzerland, it is almost a dollar cheaper in Austria than it is in Germany. Oh well, we learned our lesson and filled up in Austria on the way back. Along with the impressive snow-capped mountains, there were several castles (some still in good shape, some just ruins) that we saw on the way. We could have stopped for photos every ten minutes on this drive, but we limited it to just a couple times, as you can see with the pictures of the Ehrenberg Castle in Reutte, Austria (very close to the German border) and Schloss Fernstensee (schloss is the German word for castle), just after we went through the main mountain pass.

We arrived in Innsbruck at about 7:00pm, in time to catch a couple hours of daylight before dinner. But we wasted quite a bit of time trying to find a place to park. Our hotel was on a pedestrian-only road, so we had to find street parking elsewhere. After two failed attempts with parking in illegal spots, the hotel receptionist felt bad for us and told us to just go in their garage a couple blocks away, and they waived the fee. We stayed at a very nice bed & breakfast-style hotel (more because of location, nice hotels are all relative in Europe) called Hotel Weisses Kreuz (White Cross), in the "Altstadt" (Old Town)/main square of the town. We were on the top floor, with a balcony out back that looked out over the mountains. The hotel is also proud of the fact that "Leopald Mozart and his son Wolfgang Amadeus stayed here on their first journey to Italy in 1976," as described on the plaque by the front entrance.

The feel of the city in Innsbruck was outstanding. It had the typical European narrow cobblestone streets, and with the weather still nice enough, plenty of tables setup for outdoor dining, bars, and cafes. The city felt very quaint, though large enough (population 125,000) to be a two-time host of the Winter Olympics - in 1964 and 1976. I have yet to figure out why they had the Olympics there twice in just a 12 year span, but with the mountains literally right there in Innsbruck, I'm sure it made a great host city.

After dropping our stuff in the hotel room, we tried to keep up with my Dad's fast-pace to see some of the sites in the city before it got dark. My mom was persistent enough to check every single door, but we couldn't get into the main cathedral, the Dom Saint James. Right on the main square by our hotel was the City Tower, and the Golden Roof, two of Innsbruck's major tourist attractions. I'm not sure I quite get the significance of why they made the roof gold, but it's a building that really stands out on this street, and was built in 1420 as the residence of the Tyrolean sovereigns (Innsbruck is the capital of the state of Tyrol).

After just wandering around the quaint streets of Innsbruck for a bit, it started to get dark and we were ready for dinner. We had a great meal, outside at a traditional Tyrolean restaurant called the Goldener Adler. The Goldener Adler is also a hotel, and they too have a plaque outside commemorating the stay of Mozart, along with Emperor Maximilian. After dinner, my parents wanted to get some ice cream, but Laura and I opted to sit at one of the outdoor cafe's and have a drink. This allowed us a bit of time alone, and for me to sample one of the local brews (Zipfer was on tap here) in a very nice setting. But they started shutting down all of the cafes at 11:00pm, so we weren't there too long before heading back to the room.

We had a long day planned on Saturday, so we got up pretty early and took advantage of a pretty big breakfast buffet at the hotel. The Ricker was a bit antsy in the morning, and he had already been out exploring more of Innsbruck before we got up at 7:30am. He went to the cathedral that we got shut out of the night before, and said it was quite impressive. So after checking out of the hotel, the rest of us took a look inside the cathedral for a minute before hitting the road. There was actually a service going on, so it was a bit awkward to be in there, but it was nice inside.

After that, we drove to the outskirts of the town to see a couple of the old Olympic sites. We found the Bergisel Stadium, which is where they had the ski jumping events. They still use the ski jump annually for other events. I would say it wasn't all that worth it to go up there, except there was a great view of the city from up above. We also drove past the Olympic Ice Sport Center, the arena that held events for hockey, figure skating, etc. back in 1964 and 1976.

We also saw the soccer stadium, which I am hoping to be back to visit again next month. Austria and Switzerland are co-hosting the Euro2008 soccer tournament beginning in June (http://euro2008.uefa.com/index.html), a huge event here in Europe between the top 16 national teams in Europe (well, not necessarily the top 16 - really the 16 teams that qualified, England not being one of them). There are host sites in various cities throughout Austria and Switzerland, Innsbruck being one of them. As you can see from the picture with the countdown, and the many flags, etc. all over the city, they are very excited about the event in Innsbruck (our next destination, Salzburg, is also one of the sites, but they didn't seem to be as excited for it as Innsbruck). Anyway, if all goes as planned, I'll be meeting my friend Brad in Innsbruck next month for a match between Russia and Sweden. It's not the most exciting matchup, compared to some of the other countries involved, but it is a good meeting spot for Brad and I, since he will be living in Florence, Italy by then and hopes to have a week off from work. I won't know for a few more weeks whether or not he can definitely come, but it should be cool if he's able to. I also have no idea how we'll get tickets, so it could just be us meeting there to take in the atmosphere, and then hopefully he'll come up to Germany from there. Innsbruck is such a cool town, so I'm really looking forward to going back to spend more time there. What I'd really love to do is go back in the winter time, when everything is covered in snow, and it's ski season!

The main point in going to Innsbruck was for my mom to go to Swarovski's Kristallwelten tour/museum, in nearby Wattens. My mom is a big collector of the Swarovski crystal figures, so I promised I'd take her there if they came out to visit. So after looking at the Olympic facilities, we drove about 20 minutes out to Wattens, stopping quickly at the Schloss Ambras (pictured here) on the way there. To put it nicely, I would not recommend anybody I know to visit this tourist trap. Kristallwelten was the biggest waste of time and money I've witnessed in a long time. I guess I should've taken my friend Carl's advice on this one (he went last year and gave a big thumbs down), but it looked so neat on their web-site, and my mom really wanted to see it - but even she was disappointed. For 9.50€, we walked through the lamest exhibits, which were only partially using Swarovski crystals, before getting funneled out to the unimpressive Swarovski store (the one in Innsbruck looked neater to me). The only room I thought was remotely worthwhile was the dome pictured below. The "Giant" at the entrance wasn't even as large or impressive as the web-site made it out to be. Also, Kristallwelten uses Primavera Life (Laura's company) essential oils in some of their exhibit rooms. So, there was no history of the company, and no tour of the manufacturing plant next door. I had to ask at an information booth why we couldn't see the plant, and he told me it is all top-secret, and he has never even stepped foot in the door. Apparently, it's so secretive and no other company has figured it out how to cut the crystal the way Swarovski does. So only a few of the higher-ups in the company know the entire process - even the plant workers are only able to see the part of the process they work on, their badge won't allow them into the other rooms. Because my mom is a Swarovski member, we were invited into the VIP lounge at the end of the tour, which is really just a hospitality room so you can take your time to look through the catalogs and purchase the over-priced crystals. Really, it's more expensive to buy this stuff (partly because it's in Euros) at the store right next to the plant than it is to buy it in the United States. We did, however, take advantage of the snacks and champagne for a bit in the VIP lounge before heading out, but my mom wasn't even interested in purchasing anything there. As overrated as Kristallwelten was, I guess I can say I'm glad we went, because otherwise we probably would not have discovered what a great city Innsbruck was. Innsbruck turned out to be mine and Laura's favorite part of the weekend trip, and I would recommend it to anybody - I wish we would've spent more time there, instead of going to Kristallwelten.

After Kristallwelten, we got back in the car for the two hour drive east toward Salzburg, Austria, another city my mom really wanted to go to because it is the scene for The Sound of Music, her favorite movie. We had actually planned to visit Berchtesgaden National Park (in Germany, only 30 minutes from Salzburg) on the way, but it was very cloudy and threatening to rain, so we opted to just go straight to Salzburg, and try for Berchtesgaden the next day (which also didn't happen because the weather only got worse). I had actually been to Berchtesgaden (and Salzburg) a few years ago when I visited Europe, and thought it was something worth bringing them back to. At the top of one of the peaks is the "Eagle's Nest," one of Hitler's vacation homes that was built for his 50th birthday. The view from Eagle's Nest, looking at the Alps and lakes in all directions, is amazing, but I didn't think it would be worth it unless it was a more clear day. Below is what we would have seen, a picture I took in 2005.

After bypassing Berchtesgaden, we drove directly to our hotel, Haus Lindner, in a mountain suburb with views of Salzburg. The hotel was really just somebody's private residence who rents out a few of their rooms to tourists. It was nothing special, but was cheap and we had a car to get us the 15 minutes into the city. Nobody was there when we arrived, just a note on the front door and a set of keys. So we dropped our bags inside, and went into town. We drove around a bit to find a place to park, then walked across a bridge over the Salzach River, into Salzburg. It was actually nice to park a bit away, because the view of Salzburg walking along the bridge was outstanding. When we got into town, we ran right into Mozart's Geburtshaus, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in 1756. There is also a town square called Mozartplatz, where there is a stature of the famous composer. We then walked toward the Residenz and the main cathedral, which we went inside to look at the impressive architecture. Outside of the cathedral is a town square where we saw a game of life-size chess being played.

The Ricker was again on a mission, trying to check things off his map as we'd seen them. The main thing I remembered from Salzburg a few years ago that I recommended, was to go up to the fortress that towers over the city, the Festung Hohensalzburg ("High Salzburg Fortress"). To get up the cliff to the fortress there are two options: take a cable car, or walk. Guess which option the Ricker chose? Much to Laura's displeasure, we walked up the steps to the fortress, saving a few euros each, before we hit the entrance gate. Lucky for Laura, entrance to the fortress and the museums includes a ride down on the cable car. The views of the city from the fortress were just as spectacular as I remembered. After stopping at a couple of lookout points and taking some photos, we went through some museums that are a part of the old town within the fortress. For some reason when we were there before, we didn't go into any of these museums, so it was all new to me and we spent way more time there than I had expected. Parts of it were interesting, but to me the views were still what going up there was all about.

After we saw all we could see at Festung Hohensalzburg, we descended via the cable car, and then walked around the town a bit. Salzburg is known as a very musical city, but they also had some music festival going on in a couple of the town squares. It started to sprinkle a bit, so Laura and I opted for the Biergarten under an umbrella in front of one of the stages setup for a concert (which conveniently went on break once we sat down). I got to sample a local Salzburg brew (Stiegl), while my parents wandered around, in pursuit of finding some of the scenes from The Sound of Music. They apparently found the Abbey which played an important part of the movie, although I've never seen the movie so I wouldn't know. Anyway, it made my mom happy and the nuns were singing in the Abbey so they stayed and listened for a bit. After they came back, we tried to find a couple other things, but then just kind of wandered around some more of the very nice pedestrian-only streets. By the time it got dark, all the shops that were booming earlier in the day had closed. I was in search of another outdoor restaurant on one of the streets, but apparently those are tougher to come by in Salzburg. While Salzburg is a very nice city, and we really enjoyed it, Laura and I just got a much better feel about Innsbruck. Nonetheless, we found a little Italian restaurant where we could eat outside, on a side street alley. It had been a long day, and we were all a bit grumpy, so the food really hit the spot. The walk back to the car gave us a great view of the city at night. After that, it was back to Haus Lindner, where there was again a note on the door saying they were gone, but to pay for our stay next door in the morning.

We planned to wake up early again the next morning so we could see Berchtesgaden, before heading back to Munich to drop my parents off at the airport. But the weather, again did not cooperate so we changed our plans again. Before heading to Munich, we did find a couple more of the sites from The Sound of Music, one of them being a church where the characters in the movie got married. This one was about a 20 minute drive east to a town called Mondsee. A church session was just getting out, so we had to battle our way inside for Nance to get a look at that scene. From there, we went back into the outskirts of Salzburg, where we were able to find The Sound of Music Pavilion and gazebo from the movie. Then it was off toward Munich.