Two Castles and a LOT of Walking
So today we set off to see Hohenschwangau (do not fault my spelling, please!) and Neuschwanstein castles. They are such attractions that a small dorf has sprung up at the base camp to both of them and they now sell tickets to both together (because otherwise the more historically significant castle did not get any traffic while everyone visited the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Disney castle.
We had to climb up a hill for about 10 minutes to get to Hohenschwangau and my kids complained all the way. The Isaaks are very chipper about everything, or are better at peeping and muttering under their breath than our family. We had to promise Maddie and Will ice cream when they climbed the hills.
Tomas and Sebastian were not into the tour, but it turned out that it had been an important castle, Luther hid there, Napoleon demolished it, then Maximillian came upon the ruins and decided to rebuild. Crazy King Ludwig grew up there with Max, mom Mary and brother Otto. our favorite part was the bedroom ceiling where stars were painted above and the phases of the moon could be shown by lighting a gas lamp in the floor above it. Pretty cool!
Then we had to stop and regroup the kids and give them cookies and much encouragement. We made a terrible tactical error by not taking the shuttle bus up to the entrance (or at least closer to it). Instead we hiked up the mountain for half an hour carrying both two year olds and listening to others whine (ours). The thing to do when Curtis does this is to take the bus up to the Marienbrucke and look at the castle from afar, then walk DOWN to the castle entrance and cruise into the tour. Much better.
Having said that, all three adults agreed that we enjoyed the tour and castle more than we had before, even having a forty pound boy asleep on my shoulder during most of it. I hiked up to the Marienbrucke to take some far away shots (this camera has been so much fun to use, because it takes good pictures even if you are a dingbat -- thanks for the recommendation Jeff and Saydi!) and ran into the group of 8 students who came down here on the train. The others were busy having lunch and the much-complained-over ice cream, but even Maddie and Will admitted that life was pretty good after going through the castle. Rob made each child pick out their favorite room. Maddie liked the bedroom with all the woodcarving (took 14 carvers more than 5 years to do it) and Will loved the cave room. Either Liam or Chloe liked the great throne room for which the throne was never finished. It was a great and very brief tour.
We brought the kids back to walk at the lake and swim in our little pool. Then at 6:00 we walked up to the farm across the street where they had two dozen cows all greedily eating hay and getting milked. They all had names over their stalls like Sandra and Flopsi and Alma and Betti. We watched some of the milking (which wasn't that interesting to me after using a breast pump) and the kids played on their swingset and Sebastian kept sneaking blackberries from their bush. Then we brought over our little litre containers and the farmer stuck them into the big metal canister and filled them up. It is incredible milk. Katie agrees that we mean to take just a little sip and end up emptying our cups!
We decided that we would forego visiting Linderhof because of tired children (Will was acting up and I said "watch out! if you're not good we'll make you go see another castle!) and Rob will take the students there tomorrow morning while Katie and I take the kids down to the lake here and mess around and play. It is gorgeous and it is one more place that we would not mind staying for a week. Is it my imagination, or are things here just more beautiful?
We had to climb up a hill for about 10 minutes to get to Hohenschwangau and my kids complained all the way. The Isaaks are very chipper about everything, or are better at peeping and muttering under their breath than our family. We had to promise Maddie and Will ice cream when they climbed the hills.
Tomas and Sebastian were not into the tour, but it turned out that it had been an important castle, Luther hid there, Napoleon demolished it, then Maximillian came upon the ruins and decided to rebuild. Crazy King Ludwig grew up there with Max, mom Mary and brother Otto. our favorite part was the bedroom ceiling where stars were painted above and the phases of the moon could be shown by lighting a gas lamp in the floor above it. Pretty cool!
Then we had to stop and regroup the kids and give them cookies and much encouragement. We made a terrible tactical error by not taking the shuttle bus up to the entrance (or at least closer to it). Instead we hiked up the mountain for half an hour carrying both two year olds and listening to others whine (ours). The thing to do when Curtis does this is to take the bus up to the Marienbrucke and look at the castle from afar, then walk DOWN to the castle entrance and cruise into the tour. Much better.
Having said that, all three adults agreed that we enjoyed the tour and castle more than we had before, even having a forty pound boy asleep on my shoulder during most of it. I hiked up to the Marienbrucke to take some far away shots (this camera has been so much fun to use, because it takes good pictures even if you are a dingbat -- thanks for the recommendation Jeff and Saydi!) and ran into the group of 8 students who came down here on the train. The others were busy having lunch and the much-complained-over ice cream, but even Maddie and Will admitted that life was pretty good after going through the castle. Rob made each child pick out their favorite room. Maddie liked the bedroom with all the woodcarving (took 14 carvers more than 5 years to do it) and Will loved the cave room. Either Liam or Chloe liked the great throne room for which the throne was never finished. It was a great and very brief tour.
We brought the kids back to walk at the lake and swim in our little pool. Then at 6:00 we walked up to the farm across the street where they had two dozen cows all greedily eating hay and getting milked. They all had names over their stalls like Sandra and Flopsi and Alma and Betti. We watched some of the milking (which wasn't that interesting to me after using a breast pump) and the kids played on their swingset and Sebastian kept sneaking blackberries from their bush. Then we brought over our little litre containers and the farmer stuck them into the big metal canister and filled them up. It is incredible milk. Katie agrees that we mean to take just a little sip and end up emptying our cups!
We decided that we would forego visiting Linderhof because of tired children (Will was acting up and I said "watch out! if you're not good we'll make you go see another castle!) and Rob will take the students there tomorrow morning while Katie and I take the kids down to the lake here and mess around and play. It is gorgeous and it is one more place that we would not mind staying for a week. Is it my imagination, or are things here just more beautiful?
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