The day we arrived in Munich, we checked into the Vier Jahrzeitsen Kempinski hotel. This was my first stay at a 5 star hotel and I could definitely get used to it. The hotel sits on Maximillianstrasse, which is one of the main streets in Munich. All the fancy designer shops are located a stone's throw away from the hotel. The Hofbrauhaus, Odeonplatz and the English Garden are within walking distance.
The main entrance to our hotel.
We dropped off our bags and headed off for a walking tour of Munich. We met up with our guide, Michael, and off we went.
Our first stop was at the girl and wolf statue, where we received a crash course in the history of Munich. The geographic location where Munich sits dates back for centuries, but it wasn't officially named a city until 1175. As the story goes, Henry the Lion - Duke of Saxony and Bavaria built a bridge near the Isar River, then destroyed the pre-existing bridge owned by the Bishop. Henry then charged a fee for the usage of his bridge.
The top of the statue
The base of the statue and fountain
We then walked around the main city center where we were able to get some of these shots.
The back of the Bavarian state Theater
The Jewish Museum
Passing through the Viktualienmarkt, horse meat anyone? Ick!
We ended our that evening in the Odeonsplatz and a bunch of us ended up eating dinner at a small outside Italian restaurant, Luigi Tambosi. The food was amazing! I could only make out a few of the dishes from the menu, but we ordered some plates of Ravioli and Spaghetti Bolognese.
After dinner, we were heading back to the hotel and saw a bunch of these little cards strewn across the ground and the sidewalk. A series of words caught my eye and what I saw made me giggle.
Nothing in life this happens by chance.
We retired early that night because the next day, we were headed to our final castle of the trip.
On the way, we stopped in the little town of Geingen, which is the home of the Steiff Bear Museum. The Steiff stuffed animals were created by Margaret Steiff in 1880. The first stuffed animal was an elephant and not a bear. In fact, the bear wasn't produced by Steiff until 1902.
As you enter the museum, there are displays of all the stuffed animals Steiff has produced. There's a short play that provides a short history of the Steiff company, then you're taken to the displays.
On the bottom floor, there's the store and I wanted to buy so many stuffed animals, but I settled on a moose. One, because it was made for the province of Ontario, where we live, and two because had Gimli stayed with his breeder, she was going to name him "Moose".
After we left the Kassel, we headed to the city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Rothenburg ob der Tauber means "Red fortress above the Tauber" river.
While in Rothenburg, we visited St. Jakob's Church. This Church has two altars, one on the main floor and a 2nd one on the upper floor. The altar on the second floor is a wood carving by Tilman Riemenschneider. The wood is quite thin and so very detailed, it is awe inspiring.
We were fortunate enough to visit the Bakerei Striffler where we made pretzels.
Later that day, we donned our Medieval dress in the basement of an armor shop. The basement dates back to the 1300s.
That evening, I and the rest of the tour went on the Nightwatchman tour. Mike, unfortunately, stayed at the hotel as his leg was bothering him.
My regret in Rothenburg was that we didn't have enough time to walk around the town. There is the town wall with a walkway built into it that enables you to walk around parts of the city. I would have loved to have done that.
After we left Schloss Waldeck, we headed to the city of Kassel, located in the Hesse region of Germany.
While there, we first visited the Herkules monument. It is a copper statue built between 1701 and 1717 in recognition of the Greek demigod Hercules. The monument resides in a large park, the Wilhelmshöhe Bergpark. Hercules sits atop a pyramid and then an octagon structure. At the base of the structure begins the large water feature.
It's a family site ya know!
When we visited, the water feature was turned off because of ongoing construction of the structure. However, I have found Youtube video of the water running and I'm sure it's amazing to see in real life.
Most of the tour was dropped off at the top of the monument and we made our way down. Mike and a few of our companions opted to remain in the bus to meet up with us later. This was a good idea on Mike's part because I didn't see a ramp for him to use.
We did, however, manage to snag this picture. Far off in the background is the museum.
Here's a picture at the base of the monument.
At the base of the monument we walked a bit further through a small wood, which really made me feel like a character in one of Grimm's fairy tales, to Schloss Lowenburg.
See what I mean?
Schloss Lowenburg was constructed by Wilhelm IX between 1793 and 1800. He constructed this castle to look like it had sustained battles and fighting, even though it never did. He wanted it to look like other castles throughout Germany, but without the nasty business of catapults and battering rams. On the outside it looks like a castle, but on the inside, it is decorated with fine Baroque details fitting with the custom of the time.
The castle keep and dungeon was partially destroyed during WWII fly overs. Over the years since then, portions of the structure have been rebuilt, but the keep remains in ruin.
We were given a tour of the rooms, which now hold armor from the time as well as furnishings and decorations from the era. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures to prevent against theft. Apparently some scoundrels took pictures of items, then delivered them to thieves who broke in and stole said item.
The nerd in me wants to mention that while walking the grounds, I was struck at how much this castle reminded me of the fictional castle of Ostagar from the Dragon Age: Origins video game.
Next up on our tour - the city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
I've had this post in my head the day this happened and I've been hoping I don't forget.
As I've mentioned, we were fortunate to stay at a real castle - Castle Waldeck, which is perched above the shores of Lake Edersee.
When we arrived, one of our guides suggested waking up early to see the mists retreating from the lake. The first morning, we didn't wake up early enough. The sun rises quite early in Germany in July and even though we were up around 6.30, the mists had disappeared.
The next morning however...
Mike was up around 4 to use the washroom and he realized the time. He shook me awake and I hastily pulled on my jeans under my nightshirt, threw on my sweater, grabbed the camera and key and headed out. Mike, however, went back to bed.
I opened the door and the hallway was quiet. The glass walled elevator, which was in a tower, sat in the dark. I pushed the button and the elevator hummed as it climbed up to our floor. When the doors opened, the inside light came on and as I descended, the light came with me down into the darkness.
I stepped from the elevator and into the courtyard. And my breath caught in my throat.
The mist covered everything. I couldn't see the far end of the courtyard and it was deathly silent, except for the clanging of the flagpoles. I walked to the battlements and stood with my hands perched on the side. All I saw was mist, whiteness as far as the eye could see. I turned back and could barely see the walls.
I stood for while in silence. Thinking how many soldiers stood on these battlements standing watch, knowing the enemy was in the valley below, but unable to see them. Wondering if they would survive the fight.
I looked down and it hit me again that I was standing on stone. I was standing in the courtyard of a castle! A real live castle! The lump in my throat came back. I never believed I'd be able to spend the night in a castle. Hell, I never thought I'd make it to Germany. I thanked God, I thanked the Universe for sending this opportunity and for us being able to grab it and run with it.
I took this video just as there was a break in the mists.
I stood on the battlement, thinking and marveling and just drinking it all in, before I realized I had been out for about half an hour. I raced back upstairs and poked Mike until he woke up. I remember saying, "Get up, you need to see this!"
We stayed for a short while later before we returned to our room to get ready for breakfast.
This castle is officially one of my favorite places in the world.
After our day in Alsfeld, we hopped onto the Autobahn and headed to Schloss Waldeck, (Castle Waldeck).
I must admit, though I knew we were going to stay in a castle for a few nights, it hadn't actually dawned on me that this was where we were going to stay.
Legend has it, Schloss Waldeck is the castle on which the Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs story is based.
We arrived in mid-afternoon and we had to park the bus at the base of the hill because there was no way that bus was going to make it up the narrow, sloping road. Of course, if the bus couldn't make it up the hill, then we had to trudge up the hill to the narrow entrance to the courtyard.
Mike struggled and we were fortunate enough that one of our fellow travelers helped push him up the hill because there's no way that I was strong enough!
At the top of the hill, we met up with the King of the castle and he allowed us to enter.
We were taken to the rampart where they had a small area for refreshments set up for us. Then we saw this and my eyes widened.
The body of water below is is Lake Edersee, on which we were scheduled to visit the following day.
We received our room key and headed in to relax and change before dinner.
I'll leave you with some pictures of Schloss Waldeck.
Next in the series is an experience I had that I never expected.
One of the delights we experienced in Alsfeld was the play, "Little Red Riding Hood".
There are local performers that put on various fairy tale plays for the many tour guides that visit Alsfeld. The tour took us through the winding streets as we took up pursuit of the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood aka "Rotkappchen".
Now now Red, don't go talking to strange creatures. Especially men in wolf suits...
Guess who?
No no, I couldn't possibly harm a nice little girl walking by herself in the forest.
Grandma???
Apparently after you eat a little girl, you must drink large amounts of wine.
Red and Grandma are saved, all the while the wolf sleeps with a belly full of stones.
When we last left off on our German travels, we were headed to the quaint little town of Alsfeld. This town goes back to around the 8th or 9th century. It's located on the "Fairy Tale" route that runs from Hanau to Bremen and travels the road where The Brothers Grimm lived and worked.
Yes, the entire town looked like this.
What used to be the market place. In this picture, we are standing in the town square.
This is the town where legend has it, the story of Little Red Riding Hood originated. They even have a fountain erected in her honor. In German, she is known as "Rotkappchen", which translates to "Red capped girl".
The town has expanded over the years as you can tell by the expansion beyond the original stone city wall.
Upon arrival we met with our guide, who led us around the town. We met up with The Brothers Grimm, then Little Red Riding Hood and her entourage.
We were treated to a short play of the story and then lunch. A separate post is coming to cover the play.
We roamed around the town for a bit and looked around St. Walpurgis' Church, (Walpurgiskirche), which dates back to roughly the 11th century.
Amazing.
The organ. If only we could have heard the music.
After our stay, we boarded the bus to head to one of my favorite places in the world, Schloss Waldeck aka Snow White's castle, located above Lake Edersee.
When we first met up with our German adventure guide, Nadine we were discussing how Mike and I had always wanted to come to Germany and that we'd almost honeymooned here. We also brought up that we're big Rammstein fans. She wasn't that big of a fan, but she knew of them, especially since she came from East Berlin, where all of the band members are from.
We didn't really talk or think about Rammstein until this happened in the bus on our way to Alsfeld.
I can honestly say I never thought I'd be on a tour run by Adventures By Disney in Germany, on the Autobahn and listening to one of my favorite bands ever. It's one of those things that you don't think will have an impact on you but it does. The fact that she listened and remembered our conversation and then did this very small gesture is one of my favorite memories from the trip.
To pick up where I last left off, we were due to meet up with our Adventure guides and the group around 5 pm on Monday - July 2nd.
Mike and I spent some time relaxing in our room after our drizzly walk through Heidelberg and met up with our fellow adventurers in the main lounge of the hotel. We were only about 21, which is about half the usual amount of adventurers on the trip.
I was wearing my skele-corgi shirt, gotta represent!
Mike made the introductions for us because I'm a little on the shy side and we got to talking to our fellow adventurers. We also received our first pin and our Adventures by Disney lanyard.
After the meeting, we went to dinner, which was a buffet. I used a few German words here when I told the server, "klein", because he wanted to give me a huge serving of sauerkraut. "Klein" means small in German and he obliged and gave me a very small serving. See, I learned something from Rosetta Stone!
Later still, we hung out with some of our new friends in the bar area before heading up to bed. We had to be up fairly early to eat breakfast before boarding the bus to head up to the castle.
The earliest structure of Heidelberg Castle dates back to around 1214 AD and was later expanded around 1294. It was the home of Rupert III, King of Germany in the 1400s, and he was the one that expanded it and turned it into a fortress. It has seen various attacks during the Thirty Years war in the 1620s-1630s and the Nine Years war that begain in the late 1680s.
When we arrived, we were greeted by our guide for the morning, Lizzie. Because we were on a private tour, there were certain areas of the castle open to just us and not the rest of the tourists. And let me tell you, there were plenty of tourists!
The first area we saw was the main entrance. Notice it's only as wide as a wagon or a caravan. It used to be a drawbridge, but it has since been cemented. Under the archway was the portcullis, which still resides in the ceiling. You can see the large doors that would be reinforced when the castle closed up for the night.
Passing through the archway, we were led to the small museum that held statues and a scaled down version of the castle and its gardens.
After the museum, we walked through the courtyard, which looks like this:
I continued on with the group to see the second floor areas of the castle, while Mike went down to the cellar to wait for us. There were too many stairs for him to navigate and lug his wheelchair up and down them that we felt it best to separate at this point and pick up again later.
When we did meet up again, we were led to the moat. Yes, I said moat. Look at the scale of the people in this picture compared to the height of the walls. Crazy stuff huh?
We continued through the moat and went past the "Powder Tower". This tower as you would expect held the gunpowder and it exploded, leaving it in ruins.
We continued on to the terrace where we were able to get shots like:
Ok, that's enough posting for today, next in the series - Alsfeld!
