RTW: Germany and Austria
Nov. 17th, 2007 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seldearGermany and Austria have a lot of history, way more than can be covered in the course of our tours. Probably the main family that dominates the history of the two countries is that of the Habsburgs, and the name that is most notable is Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria. She was the only female empress of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and gave birth to sixteen children, enough of whom survived to adulthood to gain her the name as the Mother-in-law of Europe.
From Heidelburg to Innesbruck was another long day, but notable because of the stops we made. The first stop was Neuschwanstein, where the Insane King Ludwig II built a castle in 1869 and took 17 years to build it. The castle itself is very impressive, but will be otherwise of interest to the Americans because it's the castle upon which Walt Disney based his trademark castle.
It really does look like a fairytale castle, though.
We didn't actually go up to the castle - I'm not sure if you can do tours, or if it's just there for display. One of the issues that a lot of people had with the tour is that it was very much an overview of Europe, with almost nothing in depth, even in the cities where we stayed two nights. Then again, it is supposed to be an overview - to give you a feel for what's in Europe. While I would have liked to have spent more time in some parts of Europe, what I did spend was quite enough.
Daniel and the lunch I had in Neuschwanstein - roast pork with sauerkraut (the mashed-potatoes like thing at the top of the plate, although it's actually pickled vegetables) and a dumpling. Very filling. They like their comfort food in these colder climes!
I took lots of photos of snow-covered mountains while in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Because, well, you don't have them in Australia. And even when you are in the snowfields of Australia, you never have the sense of Big Looming Mountains. One can imagine why these regions produced the Grimm Brothers stories, mountainous Europe lends itself to melodramatic fairytales...
Another house in the village below the castle. It looked so pretty and gingerbread-y.
This may be the castle in which King Ludwig II (who built the original Disney castle) was born. I'm not 100% sure on that, though. Or maybe it's the stables of the castle in which Ludwig II was born... These castles are big and difficult to distinguish after a while.
Another shot of the Disney castle: against its mountainous backdrop.
The second stop was Oberammergau - home of the Passion Play since 1634 - the Easter crucifixion story. I found a postbox to post a couple of postcards from the US portion of the trip, and purchased assorted other postcards, some of which were even posted later!
Jesus riding on a donkey...with Daniel holding onto his stirrups!
The statue was actually in the middle of a fountain, but the fountain wasn't on, so I tiptoed across the empty basin to position Daniel for the photo.
Assorted pictures of Oberammergau.
They're big on painting their walls with designs in Europe. And not the giant murals we saw in Philadelphia, but specific to the design and style of the house and the region. Very gingerbread.
The streets of Oberammergau were crooked. All of them. They twisted and turned and writhed and angled... No highways here!
There were a lot of places that did carvings, mostly religious, but a lot of general Christmas shops and plenty of places selling beanies and scarves and gloves.
Random tree whose shape and positioning I liked. You're going to get quite a few of these.
The theatre of the Passion Play. I imagine this place gets very crowded around Easter. And probably Christmas as well. Either way, it would be utterly picturesque. It was picturesque when we visited, even through the wet and the cold and the miserable.
The energy bills here would suck.
At Oberammergau, two of our number got lost. An Indian couple from Malaysia vanished into the maze of streets and got lost. We ended up waiting around twenty minutes for them to find their way back. But when we did finally get on the road, we made good time and reached Innesbruck around 6:30pm - after sundown, but in time to see the Wilton Basilica. Built in 1765 in the rococo style, it had lots of gold and curlicues and statues everywhere.
I only took a photo of the main altar - without flash...
...and with flash.
And that night, after a reasonable dinner, I walked down into the old town with a bunch of others and looked around. There wasn't a lot to see, and we were going to see most of it the next day, since we weren't to depart from Innesbruck until about 10:30 that morning.
The next few posts will probably be pretty big ones, since the weather and the land got much more hospitable after Innesbruck as we headed on down to Venice. I'll probably set them up on while on the train to York tomorrow.
Speaking of which, if you've asked for a postcard, I sent three from France, and have posted another eight in the last couple of days. I think that leaves only about 10 to go... I'll try to get all the requests out before I leave for York, but we'll see how time and finances work out. And I think that some of you may want pictures of York. Most of you have gotten postcards of Paris, Disneyland, and a couple of people get ones from Death Valley down in California/Nevada. Although I bought a dozen (10p each!) from this little store last night so...
Originally written Friday 16th Nov, but unable to be posted.
From Heidelburg to Innesbruck was another long day, but notable because of the stops we made. The first stop was Neuschwanstein, where the Insane King Ludwig II built a castle in 1869 and took 17 years to build it. The castle itself is very impressive, but will be otherwise of interest to the Americans because it's the castle upon which Walt Disney based his trademark castle.
It really does look like a fairytale castle, though.
We didn't actually go up to the castle - I'm not sure if you can do tours, or if it's just there for display. One of the issues that a lot of people had with the tour is that it was very much an overview of Europe, with almost nothing in depth, even in the cities where we stayed two nights. Then again, it is supposed to be an overview - to give you a feel for what's in Europe. While I would have liked to have spent more time in some parts of Europe, what I did spend was quite enough.
Daniel and the lunch I had in Neuschwanstein - roast pork with sauerkraut (the mashed-potatoes like thing at the top of the plate, although it's actually pickled vegetables) and a dumpling. Very filling. They like their comfort food in these colder climes!
I took lots of photos of snow-covered mountains while in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Because, well, you don't have them in Australia. And even when you are in the snowfields of Australia, you never have the sense of Big Looming Mountains. One can imagine why these regions produced the Grimm Brothers stories, mountainous Europe lends itself to melodramatic fairytales...
Another house in the village below the castle. It looked so pretty and gingerbread-y.
This may be the castle in which King Ludwig II (who built the original Disney castle) was born. I'm not 100% sure on that, though. Or maybe it's the stables of the castle in which Ludwig II was born... These castles are big and difficult to distinguish after a while.
Another shot of the Disney castle: against its mountainous backdrop.
The second stop was Oberammergau - home of the Passion Play since 1634 - the Easter crucifixion story. I found a postbox to post a couple of postcards from the US portion of the trip, and purchased assorted other postcards, some of which were even posted later!
Jesus riding on a donkey...with Daniel holding onto his stirrups!
The statue was actually in the middle of a fountain, but the fountain wasn't on, so I tiptoed across the empty basin to position Daniel for the photo.
Assorted pictures of Oberammergau.
They're big on painting their walls with designs in Europe. And not the giant murals we saw in Philadelphia, but specific to the design and style of the house and the region. Very gingerbread.
The streets of Oberammergau were crooked. All of them. They twisted and turned and writhed and angled... No highways here!
There were a lot of places that did carvings, mostly religious, but a lot of general Christmas shops and plenty of places selling beanies and scarves and gloves.
Random tree whose shape and positioning I liked. You're going to get quite a few of these.
The theatre of the Passion Play. I imagine this place gets very crowded around Easter. And probably Christmas as well. Either way, it would be utterly picturesque. It was picturesque when we visited, even through the wet and the cold and the miserable.
The energy bills here would suck.
At Oberammergau, two of our number got lost. An Indian couple from Malaysia vanished into the maze of streets and got lost. We ended up waiting around twenty minutes for them to find their way back. But when we did finally get on the road, we made good time and reached Innesbruck around 6:30pm - after sundown, but in time to see the Wilton Basilica. Built in 1765 in the rococo style, it had lots of gold and curlicues and statues everywhere.
I only took a photo of the main altar - without flash...
...and with flash.
And that night, after a reasonable dinner, I walked down into the old town with a bunch of others and looked around. There wasn't a lot to see, and we were going to see most of it the next day, since we weren't to depart from Innesbruck until about 10:30 that morning.
The next few posts will probably be pretty big ones, since the weather and the land got much more hospitable after Innesbruck as we headed on down to Venice. I'll probably set them up on while on the train to York tomorrow.
Speaking of which, if you've asked for a postcard, I sent three from France, and have posted another eight in the last couple of days. I think that leaves only about 10 to go... I'll try to get all the requests out before I leave for York, but we'll see how time and finances work out. And I think that some of you may want pictures of York. Most of you have gotten postcards of Paris, Disneyland, and a couple of people get ones from Death Valley down in California/Nevada. Although I bought a dozen (10p each!) from this little store last night so...
Originally written Friday 16th Nov, but unable to be posted.
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-17 03:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-17 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-17 04:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-17 04:57 pm (UTC)You should be able to go up to Neuschwanstein. We visited it when I did a Bavaria/Austria tour 10/12 years ago. Of course things could easily have changed in that time...
This may be the castle in which King Ludwig II (who built the original Disney castle) was born.
- Hmm, looks like it could be Hohenschwangau? I think that's how it's spelt ;)
Oberammergau is very pretty isn't it? Did you chance to see the House with the Golden Roof in Innsbruck? When I went it was covered in scaffolding, so I've wondered what it actually looks like, lol!
no subject
Date: 2007-11-17 06:07 pm (UTC)Actually, one thing I found odd was just how much gold leafing they used. Particularly when we got to Paris: everything had gold leaf on it (or, at least, gold paint).
no subject
Date: 2007-11-17 05:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-17 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-17 06:32 pm (UTC)Sounds like you had fun - I'm so glad!
Heh. Well, I liked the views and the countryside. My health was pretty shocking by this stage, the weather was grey, and the people on the tour weren't seeming too friendly at this stage...
I won't be doing this kind of tour again - not without someone that I like and trust to not only stick with me, but also break out and talk to others. I got a bit tired of being solo after a while...
no subject
Date: 2007-11-17 08:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-17 08:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-18 07:09 am (UTC)B2.