Mom and Dad's Adventure! Day 3

March 10- Day 3

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Today, we drove back up into the Alps to see Neuschwanstein Castle. The first part of the name means "new swan". The lake nearby was apparently inspiration for Swan Lake. Swans are quite popular in Bavaria. One room of the castle had 100+ swans in the decor. The castle is quite impressive, but also a sad tale demonstrating again that money doesn't buy happiness. King Ludwig II of Bavaria had it built. 200 builders and artisans. In his bed chamber alone, 14 wood carvers spent 4 years. 10 artists spent 7 years painting the amazing tapastries on the walls. The throne room was covered entirely in artistry from floor to ceiling and is hard to describe. There is 2000 pound chandelier in the center. However, there is no throne -- never made it that far. The castle interior was only 1/3 complete when King Ludwig mysteriously died in the lake along with his psychiatrist. The officials in Munich had decided he was crazy and were trying to remove him. He was a recluse. He had a very small dining room because he didn't like company. He only lived in the castle a total of 170 days. Most of the finished rooms are themed after operas by a composer he admired, who never actually saw the castle dedicated to his work. The castle itself is an amazing structure. It never was finished and was opened to the public 6 weeks after his death in 1861, I think. There is a smaller castle nearby that is also available for tours. It is still owned by the royal family. They still live in Bavaria, but have no power or influence. Our guide says they sometimes bring their friends for special tours.
It was still very cold today, but the sun had come out by the time we got up to the castle area. We had to hike uphill 30 minutes to get there. My fingers got numb on the way back down even with two sets of gloves. So glad I had my New Zealand wool scarf (thank you Lisa!) Afterward, we realized we were only a few kms from Austria, so we took a loop up into the Alps in Austria. It was a beautiful drive through more cute little towns up in the mountains. One town on the way back into Germany was teeming with skiers. There were signs up everywhere saying there was a world cup ski event today through Sunday. On the way back, we stopped at the second Bavarian town that had been mentioned in the travel brochure yesterday -- Murnau. A very cute town, but much bigger than Oberammergau. We ate at a greek restaurant. It was very good, but I didn't feel like eating much after the bratwurst and sourkraut I had earlier in the afternoon. When we tried to ask for our check, a waiter kept asking us if we wanted a shot. I don't know if he misunderstood, thought he was funning or generous, but he brought us two shot glasses of something that smelled like black licorice and tried to convince us to drink up...after the trouble we had finding our way into Munich yesterday, we weren't convinced this would be helpful! Hopefully we didn't offend any of them when we left them behind at the table.
We sure feel blessed by the adventures we have had in Germany the past three days. Today was great because Pete could drive fast on the Autobahn while I enjoyed the scenery. I was again thankful that we didn't have a sports car. Ours came with a Goodyear warning not to drive over 210kph. To avoid blowing out our tires, Pete kept it under 200. He actually only got up that high twice, then realized it wasn't nearly as fun for me. You can sure make good time on those roads though. Sarah, do the metric conversion and tell me how fast dad was going. Most of the time he kept it at 160..There were mercedes and BMWs flying past us from time to time. We are thankful for safety, being able to get warm, beautiful scenery and grandparents and friends helping with our precious babies at home... Tomorrow we fly to a warmer climate! Love you all. k and p