To Munich

Sally had a long weekend over Valentine's day and so we decided to take a short trip to Germany. Many people think we are crazy to travel such a long distance for a short period of time but we often have a problem finding the time to travel because Sally works on a set schedule. Fortunately, Sally had a long weekend and several coworkers who owed her comp time, so this worked out for us. We flew from L.A. to Atlanta and then to Munich. The Munich airport was easy to deal with and we were able to get out of the airport quickly. We took the train to the center of town (which was easy) and our hotel was so close to the train station that we decided to walk to our hotel. We only got turned around once and were quickly able to find the correct road. I asked Sally if her luggage was too heavy to drag behind her as we walked to our hotel, which was about 300 meters from the train station. She laughed. Her bags for Munich were lighter than the ones she carries every day for work. It was our first indication that Munich would be a very user-friendly city.

Marienplatz

Our first venture was to the Marienplatz, which is the old part of town. We'd planned to take the metro but discovered that it was within easy walking distance of our hotel. It is delightful in that it is a pedestrian-only walk ways. Despite the cold weather, the streets were alive with people shopping, eating, drinking and socializing. We discovered to our delight that the Germans like heat, and all of the shops were warm and pleasant. We had lunch in one of the rathskellers in the Marienplatz, where we enjoyed a classic German lunch of potato dumplings and pork. The Germans do pork very well; normally we don't eat much of it at home, but we completely enjoyed it in Munich. Along the route are a number of historic churches and other buildings such as the Frauenkirche, the Michaelskirche, the Peterskirche and the Neues Rathaus.The Marienplatz is a blend of the old and the new, with the modern shops contrasting against the historical buildings. We saw more mobile phone stores than we'd ever seen before in one place. There were a few souvenir shops, mostly featuring beer steins of all designs and sizes. Speaking of beer, we found that beer in Munich is an amazing experience. It's delicious. We particularly liked the weisbeers (white beers which contain wheat). Munich is home to several hundred breweries, the oldest of which is the Augustiner brewery founded in 1340. Remnants of the monastery where the beer is still brewed today remain. There are many laws regarding brewing and distribution in Germany. Certain brauhauses can only carry certain brands. Also, beer in Germany is strictly regulated in terms of additives. Whatever it is, the beer is fantastic.

Hotel

We had seen the Kings Hotel on the travel sites and agreed that it looked very nice. We were not the least bit disappointed. We enjoyed a large room by European standards--we actually had room to open our luggage. The bed was large and comfortable and the room made lounging easy. The staff was very obliging, we were close to a number of good restaurants, and the things we wanted to see were all within easy reach. One of the things the staff helped us with was arranging to take a castle tour, something we both wanted to do greatly.

Linderhof

With the help of the hotel staff, Sally and I purchased tickets to visit two of the castles of "Mad Ludwig" and of the town Oberammergua. Linderhof was the first Castel built by Ludwig King of Bavaria. It started out as a hunting lodge but Ludwig transformed it into a palace in the based in part on Louis XIV palace at Versaille. The palace even boasts a "Hall of Mirrors," though considerably smaller than the one at Versaille. The Palace is very ornate with paintings on the ceilings and numerous walls white with gilded woodcarvings. I believe the tour guide said it took woodcarvers 11 years to finish the master bedroom. And this was the smaller of the two castles. The setting was lovely in the Alps, which, we discovered, are really quite wimpy, despite the fact that they're the highest mountains in Europe. This doesn't take away from their beauty and romance, though.

Oberammergau

Oberammergau is a town in Southern Bavaria, about 95 km (59 miles) south west of Munich, that is famous for cookoo clocks, wood carvings, painted buildings and for every ten years putting on a production of the Passion of Christ. This was the first stop on our bus tour. It's clear that the town makes its living from the thousands of tourists who pass through every year; as the town seemed to consist solely of souvenir shops that appeared to be overpriced and not particularly interesting. There were plenty of restaurants but Sally found obtaining a bottle of water to be rather challenging; she had to visit four shops in order to purchase a half liter for 3EU.

Neuschwanstein

Neuschwantstein is located 116 km (72 miles) SW of Munich at the base of the Alps. It's one of the area's primary tourist attractions. Neuschwanstein is King Ludwig's "fairy tale" castle. It is said that Walt Disney based his castle on Ludwig's. Also on the tour was Hohenschwangau which was built by Maximilian II in 1836. Ludwig grew up in the castle of Hohenschwangau. Ludwig was crowned king at age 18. He cared little for the affairs of state and was mostly interested in the arts, especially music and architecture. He was a patron of the composer Richard Wagner; in fact, Wagner's music seemed to be the inspiration for the design of the castle. At times Wagner performed operas for an audience of one. Ludwig built three castles, including the two that we saw on this tour. Ludwig's study, bedroom and living room sport frescoes of scenes from Wagner's operas. At the age of 41 the Bavarian people tired of his spending all their money on building castles and declared him insane, removing him from power. He was found dead three days later, drowned in Lake Starnberg on the outskirts of Munich. It is unclear whether he committed suicide or was murdered.

The bus to Neuschwanstein was a double decker bus. When we got in I asked the tour guide whether it was better to be on the lower or top deck. He told me that he preferred the lower deck because the top deck made him motion sick. Since Sally sometimes gets motion sick we decided to sit in the lower deck which we was empty except for us, the tour guide and two other Americans, John and Robert. John was from Colorado and works as a high school math teacher; Robert is a waiter at the Disney Resorts in Florida. In fact, he works at the same resort that Sally and her friends stayed at 24 years ago as a college graduation present to themselves. It was nice sitting in the lower deck because we got to talk to the tour guide for quite a bit. At first it was a little bit awkward when we started talking about American and Europe because no one really wanted to talk about politics because it would be awful to be stuck on a bus for 6 hours with people who had radically different views. But then we discovered that all of us hated George W. Bush when John broke the ice by saying, "I don't want to speak for anyone else here, but I think Bush is an idiot." We all encouraged him and had a delightful time discussing the states of affairs amongst ourselves and the tour guide. It is a good thing to see how others view us; one thing we are grateful for is that our global neighbors distinguish between the US citizenry and its leadership.

We didn't go into the Castle of Hohenschwangau and only saw it from a distance. When we arrived we ate lunch and shared a table with John and Robert. Then we took off for the Castle. John and Robert went to Marienbrucke bridge which has a beautiful view of the castle. Sally and I decided not to go because the tour guide said that the bridge was closed and blocked by snow. Instead we decided to take a horse drawn carriage to the Castle instead of walking up the steep hill. We'd never taken a horse-drawn carriage and it was a treat. It got quite cold in the carriage, but there were blankets and we were quite friendly with the other riders.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the Castle so I only have pictures of the outside. Despite the cold weather, the tour was quite crowded. The tour guides assured us that this was nothing--the summer crowds are far more massive. There are definite advantages to traveling in the off season. The castle is a wonder--pity that Ludwig only lived in it for approximately a month and a half.

Alte and Neue Pinakothek

Alte Pinakothek contains nearly 900 paintings from the 14th to 18th century. The museum has more Rubens than any other museum in Europe. Also on display are Rembrandts and Van Dycks and Raphaels. The museum was built between 1826 and 1836. The collection was started by Duke Wilhelm IV and under King Ludwig I patronage it developed into the one finest exhibition of art in all of Europe. The museum contains such works as Raphael's "Madonna Tempi", Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna and Chil, Titian's "Crowning of Thorns" and Rembrandt's "Sacrifice of Isaac". Unfortunately the batteries in my camera died as soon as I arrived at the museum and I wasn't able to take any pictures, and I'd gotten ill on the trip and was quickly running out of energy.

The Neue Pinakothek museum was a real treat. This museum houses a number of works by Van Gogh, Monet, Sisley, Renoir and others. This musuem is a must-see for people who love impressionist art. And, the museums were free on Sunday, which was a delight. Many families were present at the museums, but we were able to enjoy the art.

Glyptothek

The Glyptothek was build in the early 1800s by Ludwig I and houses Germany's largest collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. The museum ncludes the famous pediments from the temple of Aegina, two kouroi from the 6th century B.C. Both Sally and I liked this museum which was free to the public on Sunday. Sally loves things Latin and Greek and tried to read whatever Latin script she came upon. It's not as cool as the Greco-Roman Museum in Koln, which we'd seen two years prior, but it was still fun to visit.

Antikensammlungen

The Antikensammlugen is another museum which is across the street from the Glyptothek. The collection grew around the vase collection of Ludwig I. It was originally called the Museum Antiker Klienkunst (Museum of Small works of Ancient Art). The museum has more than 650 Greek vases. The lower level has a collection of Greek, Roman and Etruscan jewelry, glass, bronzes and terra-cottas. This is more Sally's thing; she likes every day items that were used in times past. So, I of course obliged her by visiting.