saturday, 7/4as usual, our day of trains started fairly early. i’ve come to really enjoy riding trains…mostly because for me, riding trains=naptime. my other favorite thing is when the announcer lady comes on the intercom and makes announcements. i swear she talks for like 15 minutes in german, then in english says “our next stop is (insert city). thank you for joining us.” we’ve always made our connections, so we just assume she doesn’t say anything super important unless she says it in english too. … we think.
when we got to munchen, we went to the car rental place, checked in, then went to our hotel and checked in. as soon as we dropped off our huge backpacks and {i} applied some sunscreen, we were off.
note: tayte did see about most of the following things, so if you want to get a history/other pictures, go here.
this was our first stop. the orchestra was warming up their instruments, but tayte wouldn’t let us stay to hear them practice.
next up was the church with the devil’s footprint, franziskanerkirche. again, if you’d like to read the history/legend behind this, go to tayte’s blog post.
if you remember/just reread tayte’s post, you’ll remember that they wanted to go to the hofbrauhaus, a famous beer hall in munchen, but it was too crowded when they went. we decided to try it out for lunch, because maybe it would be less crowded. yeah, people like beer at all hours of the day. but we were able to get a table after walking around a couple times.
you can’t go to a famous beer hall and not get some beer.
don’t worry mom. it’s non-alcoholic.
and it’s the most disgusting thing.
even tayte agreed that it’s pretty bad. i mean, we’ve both had worse, but just barely.
quick note about our drinking of {non-alcoholic} beer: i like to consider tayte a non-alcoholic-aholic. he really likes trying the stuff every chance he gets and has found kinds that he likes. i don’t know if i’m supposed to confess this, but he buys it a lot. not like, he has a problem and we should start an intervention. it’s just the cheapest thing here. but i detest it. i think it’s an acquired taste or something. i really wanted to like it, because that would have been awesome. i’ve tried some different kinds, including one that was supposedly “the best kind.”
but they’re all gross.
anyway.
the meal was actually pretty good. tayte got a pork knuckle, and i got a wienerschnitzel. it was all delicious (minus the beer, of course)
and naturally, tayte got a pretzel as an appetizer.
after our bellies were full, we continued on our journey.
this is st. peter’s kirche. i really like how all the ceilings in these churches are similar, but so different.
fun fact: tayte learned an important lesson in this place that day. if you drink water, you will get yelled at in german for what seems like a full 5 minutes.
“ist kirche, ist kirche.”
oops.
tayte really liked all the relics in this place:
yes, these are all bones.
this was the next church we went to. it looks so different than all the other ones. this was one was constructed during the baroque era, which would explain how dark it is.
next, we took an elevator to the top of the neues rathaus. it had a pretty sweet view. here it is:
we had to sign the guestbook.
we saw some traditional bavarian dances, complete with lederhosen and dirndl and stuff.
next on the list was the famous glockenspiel. a few hours each day, on the hour, the glockenspiel will play a song and reenact some stories. on the top half, the story is that of the marriage of duke wilhelm v (founder of the hofbrauhaus) to a lady named renata. the bottom half reenacts a jousting competition in their honor, between bavaria and lothringen. bavaria wins every time.
not the best quality, but the closest picture we have.
next, we walked through the english gardens. it’s basically a huge park next to the river. there were hundreds of people all around, usually in big crowds, just sitting around, eating, drinking, smoking a hookah, jumping in the river, and overall having a grand time.
we also saw people surfing in a river.
tayte said, “i could see your brothers doing this.”
we had dinner at a beer garden.
note: the HB stands for “hofbrauhaus”
note #2: yes this is his second {non-alcoholic} beer of the day. but look at that mug!!
note #3: i tried to convince him to take the mug out of the beer garden.
…he wouldn’t.
we also saw 16 nude people (all old, most sitting alone, mostly male) sunbathing in the park. we decided to not post any of those pictures. (just kidding, of course. we didn’t even take any.)
sunday, 7/5
we woke up early, picked up our rental car, and headed to neuschwanstein. (our phones worked, but i did kinda fall asleep, which didn’t make tayte very happy.)
we got there just fine (aka no wrong turns), parked, got our tickets, and started walking up to the castle. we got there with plenty of time to take all the pictures we could want of the outside, then waited for our tour to start. it was finally our turn, and we went in. tayte had mentioned in his earlier post, (again, you can find it by going here) you’re kinda rushed during the tour, and he was right. some of the people in our {ridiculously small} group {of 11 people} complained about how much they charge us and how quickly they move you along. but if they didn’t, they would never be able to do as many tours.
every time we are thinking about going anywhere we have to pay, tayte compares it to neuschwanstein. it’s been his high ceiling or threshold this whole time. and with seriously good reason. the castle is breathtaking from the outside, and the inside is no different. we couldn’t take pictures of anything inside, but we have pictures from pretty much every angle on the outside. i read a book about the history/construction/decor of the castle, and it mentioned that the guy that commissioned it wanted it to fit perfectly in its surroundings. he did a magnificent job. i feel like it belongs there, at the top of this hill, perfectly nestled in among the trees. and the inside wasn’t gaudy or over-the-top like i was expecting. it was simple for a castle/mansion/palace, but it was elaborate in the details. the workmanship (couldn’t think of another word for it) was stunning. it was beautiful.
prepare yourself for the upcoming onslaught of pictures. i won’t even apologize for it. but i will apologize for the fact that pictures don’t do anything justice.
first view of schloss neuschwanstein!!
view from the walk up to the castle.
travel tip: find a family that has a nice camera and offer to take a picture of the whole family. then ask if they’ll take your picture. that way you’ll get a good-quality picture.
win-win.
view from the
castle.
this bridge will come into play soon.
there was supposed to be a keep and a chapel constructed here, but the king died before it was done, so those things were never built.
at this point, we went in for the tour. after we saw everything and spent a lot of money, we came out and hiked to that bridge from above. here’s why:
money shot.
we shamelessly applied the above travel tip multiple times.
because you have to have every angle.
here’s a view of
hohenschwangau,the castle where the king lived until he had a place in neuschwanstein.
it’s that yellowish building to the left of where i’m standing.
that’s where we went next.
schloss hohenschwangen (at least part of it)
it’s no neuschwanstein, but it’s still impressive.
after we got back in our car, we made our way to the wies pilgrimage church. tayte was worried that he had talked it up too much. but he didn’t. there was no way he could have. it took my breath away. pictures don’t even come near to doing this church justice, so i’ll only include a couple, but it was gorgeous.
the ceiling.
i wanted to get the whole thing, so i tried taking a panoramic picture of it.
yeah i still struggle with panoramic pictures apparently.
this is what you see when you go outside. it's crazy to think that this simple house and that gorgeous church are in the same town.
after the church, it was time to return the car and catch a train. i didn’t fall asleep this time, but tayte was still unhappy because the phones didn’t work. (let’s just say that tayte usually isn’t happy when driving. i call it campbell road rage, or CRR. it’s a thing, trust me.) after only 2 wrong turns, we returned our car and walked to the train station. we were pretty early (like an hour and a half) so we decided to find a mcdonald’s (sometimes you crave american food). after we ordered our food, we realized that there were free refills.
that. never. happens.
literally.
to say that tayte was astounded/excited is an extreme understatement. so naturally, we drank as much as we could, then filled our drinks on the way out the door. but it made tayte sick so he threw his drink away when we got to the station. we got on our train and headed home. after it came to a complete stop in the middle of the countryside and stayed like that for at least 20 minutes, we made it home.
it’s weird to call this place “home,” because i’m in jena, germany, (which i didn’t even know was a thing until a few months ago) in a single bedroom apartment where the bugs think they have an open invitation for always and where i’m constantly sticky, without a car, and without a clue as to how to get to town on my own.
but it’s where the love of my life is, so that makes it home.
I'm glad you were able to diagnose it. CRR is a thing. I can attest to that!
ReplyDeleteYes CCR is REAL! I have experienced it many times while sitting in the passenger seat.
ReplyDelete