Bavaria

Welcome to Bavaria

2007-05-07T05:21:00.005-04:00

After leaving Greensboro on Tuesday, April 17 at about 7 P.M., we arrived in Munich on April 18 at 10:00 A.M. The Munich airport is vast, and the first challenge was to find our rental car agency, which, unbeknownst to both of us, did not have an office inside the terminal.

As most of you know, we began planning this trip over a year ago and had plenty of time to learn some rudimentary German and carefully plan our itinerary. We dutifully bought language and guide books. Alas, we did not actually read the books.

After wandering around the airport for a bit, we finally stumbled upon an information desk attendant who helpfully told us that our rental car agency was not at the airport. He said the rental agency would have sent a person to meet us at the gate with a sign. Huh. Obviously, we missed that. Fortunately, a quick call to the rental agency from my cell (which worked perfectly in Germany & Austria) and answered by the nice English speaking agent solved our problem. After a short wait, we were whisked away to the agency.

Since I insisted on an automatic transmission, the rental car agency “upgraded” our rental to a full-size, black Mercedes van. For some reason, the van was flying a small Canadian flag on its roof. In retrospect, it was probably flying a Canadian flag because the van was last used to transport the entire citizenry of Canada across Europe. We could have lived in that van. It had three rows of seats and plenty of room left over for luggage. The van was also equipped with a navigation system.

(Note to readers: If you are in Europe, never allow a rental car agency to “upgrade” you to a full-size van; there are reasons people in Europe drive small cars (see Salzburg).)

Finally, we were on the autobahn, free to drive as fast as we wanted. Not. I did at least reach 100 mph or 160 kph, but it made Kevin (and me) too nervous. There was too much traffic, and, contrary to common belief (mine, at least), there were speed limits on certain sections of the autobahn—at least that’s what we think those signs meant; sign meaning was heavily debated inside the ginormous van during the entirety of our trip.

That first night we stayed in Oberstaufen, a tiny little town in west Bavaria. From here we would begin our circuitous route around Bavaria and eventually to Munich. We had a delicious traditional German meal and our first freshly tapped German Weissbier.

Although, not completely planned out at the time, our agenda became:

4.19 Schwangau, Wieskirch & Oberammergau
4.20 Innsbruck
4.21 Salzburg
4.22 Regensburg
4.23 Rothenburg ob der Tauber
4.24 Rothenburg ob der Tauber
4.25 Munich
4.26 Arnsbruck (to visit Weinfurtner Das Glasdorf, old and famous glass & crystal makers)
4.27 Home

In addition to partaking of lots of German bier, one of us ate her weight in sausage, while the other tried to stick to the less artery-clogging meals. See below a meal of spargel (asparagus) and bratwurst and chicken and rice.

Schwangau

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Among beautiful natural landscapes, Schwangau is the home of a number of Bavarian castles. We visited two: Schloss Hohenschwangau & Schloss Neuschwanstein. Although, we were too lazy to look it up, we’re pretty sure by now that schloss means castle or palace.

Schloss Hohenschawangau, which looks like a painted yellow sand castle, was a childhood home of King Ludwig II, son of King Maximilian II and Queen Marie.

The castle was built between 1832 and 1836. Like most of the castles and palaces we toured, pictures of the interior were verboten.

Schloss Neuschwanstein was built by King Ludwig II. Unfortunately, he had only completed 20 out of 70 rooms before he died under “mysterious” circumstances. Prior to his death he had been declared insane, but he refused to abdicate his throne. Construction on the castle ceased upon the Mad King’s death and was, within weeks, opened as a museum. Walt Disney supposedly built the castle at Walt Disney World based on Neuschwanstein.

The interior rooms are stunning and the view from those rooms, as you see here, is equally amazing.

Wieskirche

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The “Pilgrimage Church of The Scourged Savior” was built around a wooden statue of Christ manacled to a post and bleeding from repeated whippings. The statue was a regular part of Good Friday processions, but it was eventually stored in an attic. A farm girl, Maria Lory, asked to take it home. On July 14, 1738, she saw it cry real tears. It was placed in a small chapel, which was soon overwhelmed with pilgrims. In 1746 a new church was built by Dominikus Zimmerman and his brother, Johann. The inside is an amazing mix of pink marble, gilded stucco and incredible frescoes.

The fresco on the ceiling illustrates the Second Coming.

The son of Dominkus, Franz, married Maria Lory.

Oberammergau

2007-05-05T21:57:00.000-04:00

Taking a scenic route back to Oberstaufen, we stopped in Oberammergau. Every ten years, over a thousand locals take part in the reenactment of "Christ's Passion." I have no idea when the next one is. We went there to see the examples of Luftmaerie; during the Counter-Reformation, a period of religious zealotry, people began to paint scenes from the Bible on their homes. Here are a few examples from Pilatushaus:

These people look like New England pilgrims, but the Bible is susceptible to interpretation, I guess.

Of course, if you can't paint...

And then there are those paintings that do not seem very Bible-like, but how would I know?

In any event, the practice gave a new definition to the chore of "painting the house." However, no painted Bible scene could match the unbelievable vista of the Plansee and the Ammer mountain range, which we saw out of the ginormous van's windows as we drove back to Oberstaufen.

Innsbruck

2007-05-05T20:57:00.000-04:00

Innsbruck is at the foot of the Brenner Pass—the lowest pass through the Alps. After seeing the castles of Schwangau and the startling interior of Wieskirche, we were not certain we would see anything any more impressive. We were mistaken.

The heart of the old city begins at the Triomphforte, a monument erected in memory of the year 1765 when Maria Theresia visited the city to celebrate her son’s marriage to a Spanish princess. Her husband, Kaiser Franz I died suddenly during the period of celebration. The north side of the Triomphforte depicts signs of mourning for the deceased and the south side celebrates with scenes of the newly married couple.

The street named Marie-Theresien-Strasse is lined with baroque palaces. It is a neck spinning experience to see it all. One tends to look idiotic, scurrying back and forth across the street, but who cares?

The street ends in a plaza over which sits Innsbruck’s most famous landmark, the Goldenes Dachl, the golden-roofed balcony formerly occupied by Maximilian I. The fresco on the balcony shows Max I with his two wives; the one he loved, Maria von Burgundy, and the one he married for profit, Maria Bianca Sforza (which someone on Wikipedia rudely refers to as "His Whores").

Domkirche St. Jakob is a baroque cathedral built between 1717 and 1724. In the 18th century, baroque was the style of EVERYTHING.

Including Hofburg, Empress Marie Theresia’s former residence, built in 1743.

The houses were heated with these elaborately decorated ceramic heaters. There were spaces in the walls through which servants carried fuel so as not to disturb the residents.

Hofkirche was built between 1553 and 1563 under Ferdinand I and houses the amazing tomb Grabmal Kaiser Maximilians I. The tomb is a huge structure that sits in the middle of the church. It is topped by the kneeling figure of Kaiser Maximilian I. Flanking the tomb are 28 minutely detailed bronze statutes of the entire line of the Kaisers—real and imaged—including König Artus (King Arthur). The white marble structure on which Maximilian kneels is carved with scenes from the marriages, wars and other diplomatic events during his reign. One of the guidebooks indicates that Max I fell out of favor with the citizens of Innsbruck and his remains were not allowed to rest here.

Just guess why the codpiece on the second gentleman to the right is so brightly polished.

Also in the Hofkirche is the Silberne Kapelle (“silver chapel”) dedicated to the love between Archduke Ferdinand and the commoner Philippine Welser. A huge embossed silver Madonna presides over the chapel.

Salzburg

2007-05-05T19:57:00.001-04:00

After a wonderful day in Innsbruck, we drove over to Salzburg. Of course, as I mentioned, we were driving a ginormous black van, and it had a navigation system. So far, the navigation system had done an excellent job of getting us where we needed to be with minimal trauma. Not being able to read the road signs hobbled us a bit, but the navigation system spoke perfectly mannered English.

We reached Salzburg at dusk. It is a large city and traffic was heavy. Somewhere near the center of the old city, our navigation system politely stated, “You have reached your destination area.” Um. What? We were looking for a hotel, not an “area.” Fortunately, we saw a sign for our hotel and we followed it. We turned a corner and found ourselves on a road packed with parked cars that was so narrow that the poor pedestrians had to flatten themselves against the wall for me to drive by. I drove on the SIDEWALK to get by the other cars. Of course, there was no way to go back, so we slowly went forward. This ridiculous road dead-ended to an equally ridiculous road that was also packed with pedestrians! In the end, no one was hurt, but after we were safely parked much beer was consumed. Apparently, the navigation system knew that the road to the hotel was not fully suitable for driving—why couldn’t she say that?!.

Notwithstanding our nerve racking arrival, we had an excellent time in Salzburg, birthplace of Mozart and the von Trapp Family. The Sound of Music was filmed here; so some of the pictures may be familiar to Julie Andrews aficionados. (side note: one of the guidebooks I read said that the descendants of the von Trapp family run an inn in Vermont.)

See what I mean about narrow streets--this is Getreidegasse, now only a pedestrian walkway. It even makes McDonald's look respectable.

I think this is the fountain in the Sound of Music. Historically, it was where the prince-archbishops came to water their horses.

Nonnberg Convent--"How do you solve a problem like Maria?"

"I'm sorry children, Maria isn't speaking to anyone." (or something like that)

It could have been this gate to which the children went to ask the nuns about Maria. I couldn't remember and so we took a picture of both.

Dom - yet another impressive baroque church. This church can trace its roots to 774. Mozart was baptized here.

Even the Franciscan Church adopted a bit of the baroque look to amazing effect.

One of the key features of Salzburg is the fortress overlooking the city. Its origins began in 1077 but was continuously expanded by the reigning arch-bishops.

An even fancier ceramic heater.

Regensburg

2007-05-05T18:57:00.001-04:00

It was our attempts to navigate the ginormous van in this tiny city's parking garage that formed our further refusal to drive into any other city in Germany on this trip. Although we cannot be certain, we believe this is where we lost the little Canadian flag formerly attached to the van roof.

Regensburg, dating back to the middle ages, was full of cool stuff. In particular, this bridge over the Danube, the Steirne Brücke (Stone Bridge), was constructed between 1135 and 1146, an engineering feat unsurpassed in the Middle Ages. According to legend, the builder made a pact with the devil so that the bridge would be finished quickly. The builder promised Satan the first eight legs to cross the bridge (one assumes Satan wanted the souls associated with the legs). To fulfill his part of the bargain, at completion, the builder sent two chickens and a dog across. We crossed it halfway—we believe our souls are still attached to our legs. Just below the bridge is Würstküche, a “fast food” kitchen built to serve the workers building the bridge, which is still serving the same medieval fast food—pork sausages grilled over beechwood with sweet mustard. Of course, we ate there.

Altes Rathaus.

Alte Kapelle: yet another impossibly beautiful baroque church. It may have been in this town that Kevin expressed that he was "sick of churches." The ceiling frescoes tell the stories of Heinrich and Kunigunde, the sainted Holy Roman Emperor and his Queen.

Dom St. Peter: This imposing Gothic monument took 600 years to finish. In fact, on the Steirne Brücke is a statute of a little man sitting on a pillar and staring at the church to see if it's finished (Brückemandl). St. Peter is the home of the Domspatzen, an internationally famous boy's choir (I've never heard of them, but maybe you have.) There are no pictures of the inside of the church because we happened to arrive during mass. Oddly enough, tourists are allowed in the church during services and we did go in, but we sat quietly and listened to mass (really, mom, we did).

Regensburg is the original home of Fürstliches Thurn und Taxis, one of Europe’s richest families. Franz von Taxis was the founder of the international postal system in western Europe. Although not born into royalty, the family was bestowed a number of titles and finally achieved a princedom. The fact that they have a CROWN ON TWO CORNERS OF THEIR SCHLOSS may indicate overcompensation for their lack of royal birth.

Although the schloss was amazing, this was our most tiresome and least enjoyable tour. Because it was a Sunday, the only guided tour was in German. We were provided with a tape recorded tour, but we had to stay with the main group. Our tape would provide about 3 minutes of information per room, whereas the guide would go on and on and on and on, pointing and gesturing at things about which we had no information. On our own, we would have completed the tour in about 15 minutes, but, because we had to stay with the group, we were stuck for an hour and a half. We recovered in the nearby biergarten.

Rothenburg

2007-05-05T17:57:00.001-04:00

[Apologies in advance for the seemingly excessive amount of pictures on this page]

After Regensburg, we thought we would take a break and relax at our resort and do some laundry (I do hate bringing dirty clothes home). While waiting for our clothes to wash and dry, we perused the guide books to determine our next destination. Reading about Rothenburg, we learned that there was a nightwatchman's tour that should not be missed. So much for our break; we packed up and headed NW.

Rothenburg is an incredibly well preserved medieval city that is completely enclosed by walls, and the only entry is through one of its many tower gates. Having learned our lesson in other cities, we refused to listen to the navigation system's (and the hotel's) instructions to "Follow the next right," which we could clearly see would take us on a tiny road inside the city gates. Ignoring instructions to "Make a u-turn as soon as possible," we resolutely parked outside the city and walked in, dragging our bags behind us.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber (on the River) was a prosperous city on a major trade route. However, its excellent location also made it a constant plundering and pillaging target during the Thirty Years war between the protestants and catholics. It was also decimated by the plague. From these events, it never recovered. Because it never recovered, it never modernized and rebuilt and, thus, it retains its medieval city architecture.

We did take the nightwatchman's tour and one of the stories he tells is of the city's near destruction by the Allies during WWII to prevent the city from being occupied by German forces. After Allied bombing had destroyed part of the city, a high ranking US military official learned that further destruction was planned. Having heard fond stories of Rothenburg from his mother, who had once visited the city, he intervened. Instead of destruction, the city was given a choice to allow Allied forces to enter and occupy the city in advance of the German's arrival; they accepted the deal. The part of the city that was destroyed was repaired with donations from people all over the world--their names are located on plaques on the repaired city walls.

Everything in Rothenburg is picture-worthy and we took an insane number of pictures.

Rothenburg is also famous for the Heiligblut (Holy Blood) altar, which houses a cross of crystal that is said to encase a drop of Christ's blood.

Beneath the cross are detailed carvings of Christ with his disciples. Judas, with his bag of gold, is the central figure. His figure is removable, and he is removed from the sculpture for the three days prior to Easter.

Munich

2007-05-05T16:41:00.000-04:00

Being at the end of a long trip, Munich was treated like a third child who's baby book, unlike his older siblings, is bereft of photos. After viewing the obligatory Glockenspiel (over-rated) and eating a traditional pre-noon meal of Weisswurst (poached veal sausages--delicious!), we wandered for a short time around the Marienplatz, snapping pictures indiscriminately.

Were it not for the lovely scaffolding, you might be able to tell that this is the Glockenspiel.

We spent most of the day at Schloss Nymphenburg, certainly one of the most beautiful palaces we had seen thus far. King Ludwig II was born here. The estate was so vast that there were mini palaces on the estate so one could get away from it all.

In addition to a porcelain museum (the estate had its own porcelain factory), the estate also housed the royal carriages. The room in which these carriages were stored was dimly lit, so it is difficult for you to see that these gilded carriages were jaw-droppingly ornate and beautiful.