Neurishawnstien and Munich

We started the morning off with a 2 hour drive to Schwangau in Bavaria. There is the "Disney Castle" that Ludwig II of Bavaria built. He was born in Munich in 1845 and was the heir of Maximilian I, King of Bavaria. During his childhood he was educated as if he was already King which caused him much stress (poor kid...NOT). He became King of Bavaria at the age of 18, which all of the educators in our group agreed was WAY too young to be in charge. He didn't care much about running the country (shocking) he was more interested in building things and the musician Wagner. He built the castle to look like a fairy tale castle. He was suppose to marry Sophia (sister of Austrian empress Sissi) but he backed out at the last minute. It is believed it is because he was a homosexual. Because he had no heirs and had not done much to help the country other than build castles the court decided to declare him insane. The commission that was developed to determine this fact never actually met him but they did indeed declare him insane. He left Munich and disappeared and later found dead under suspicious circumstances in 1886. Some believe he had been assassinated by drowning while traveling with his psychiatrist. It is interesting how different guides describe Ludwig. I've always heard he actually was insane. Carla seems to believe that isn't the case. This is why I love history!

Side note -- apparently there is a very good old movie about her the sister of the jilted bride...Sissi, 1955.

Now to the adventurous part of the day...first we have Randy's bathroom adventure. Randy, who for those that don't know is married to Dad's 1st cousin Jamie so this is a family trip in a way. Randy has been most worried about the bathroom situation since we planned this trip. I have told him to not worry that Go Ahead caters to adults and know we need bathrooms! Well today along a winding road Randy tested out guide (he has learned 2 cups of coffee is not recommenced at breakfast). Randy told Carla he needed a bathroom stop. After a convo with the bus driver she told him she had a solution that he could go to the back stairway of the bus and use the bathroom. Randy thought she meant to use the water bottle in her hand and said "no way"!. What he didn't realize is there is an actual bathroom in the middle stairway of the bus. Buses are built different in Europe and the bathroom is actually under the middle section of seats. Randy before the realization:

Randy realizing the bathroom exists:

Our group was tested today with our trip to the castle. In 2008 I walked up the mountain. Today we road a bus since there was no ice to prevent buses from running. We crammed twice the amount of people that should fit on a bus in and lets just say a few of us felt places of each other maybe we shouldn't have! Once we reached the top we actually had to walk quite a bit down a long path to reach the castle which proved rough from some. To quote Ron "damn that was fun"! The tour of the castle also included quite a bit of stairs. Though I think we all enjoyed the castle we were all ready to get back to the bus. Most of the tour group chose to ride the horse and buggy down but 4 of us, including Wendy and I, walked it down. Once back on the bus we all took our turn at snoring.

We had quite a bit of a rough check in at the hotel with half of our rooms not being documented. Long story but it ended in free drinks for the group and Wendy and I (after walking in on 2 other group members room) even got our mini bar for free! Traveling with this group is fun even when there are snafus!

For Lee:

Breakfast: Too much coffee, bread, bacon, eggs, fruit, and I walked around town to get a Coke Light

Lunch: bratwurst, weird hot dogs with no buns, pork knuckles, potatoe soup, cabbage and black forest cake

Dinner: a weird combo of German buffet and Chinese buffet with a dessert table to salivate over

lichtenstein and Innsbruck

Our first stop was Vaduz, Lichtenstein which is the 3rd smallest principality in the world. It became an independent state in 1815 because the surrounding countries of Austria and Germany couldn't decide who to claim them. The Prince of Lichtenstein is one of the richest in the world with a 4 million dollar per year income. Residents here do not have to pay taxes but it is very expensive to move to the country. 

We moved from Lichtenstein to Innsbruck. Carla explained a little about Austrians on our bus ride. Bullet points:

• Very trustworthy people. They have many "self service pay" stations for newspapers, public transport, etc. They all pay without anyone having to double check behind them.
• There are appox. 10 million people
• They don't like Germans. This comes from a history of when Austria was an empire and Germans were just farmers.
• In 1938 the anschluss occurred with Germany. I always wondered what Max was saying in the Sound of Music when he told the Captain this happened peacefully...now I know it means annex!

We arrived to beautiful Innsbruck in the early afternoon and enjoyed a walking tour of the city with our city guide Christian. We started with the famous golden roof that was built by Maximilian the I. It is actually made of copper with a thin layer of gold on top of it. Max built it to show wealth that he didn't have. We also had a chance to checkout a courtyard built during medieval times. Houses were built very narrow but also very long. They had bay windows on the front to keep the light coming in and the courtyard to bring light to the inner rooms. We also visited St. James Cathedral which was quite beautiful. I was spoiled by seeing St. Peter's in Rome as my very first church in Europe but I will say this one ranks high up with it's beauty. Sadly much of it was destroyed during WWII but they managed to save the artwork and restore the church. Innsbruck itself was almost 60% destroyed during the 22 bombings it received during the war. We ended with a visit to the Swarovski store as this is the home of Swarovski crystals.

For Randy's son Lee wanted to know what we eat:

Breakfast -- bread with butter or jam, deli meat & cheese, bacon, and eggs

Lunch - we stopped at a roadside cafe and sandwiches, pastries, and cokes (Randy just had the coke)

Dinner - a delicious noodle soup (similar to Chinese soup), roasted chicken, zucchini, and potato pancakes. For dessert...apple strudel. 

Our group of 35 is all getting along so well! We have made new friends and are enjoying spending time with them...especially at the beer garden in the old city center of Innsbruck!

Lucerne and Mt. Pilatus

Sorry to say that my Chromebook is no longer accepting my SD card from my camera. This does prove Apple is superior to Chromebooks for travel. The iPads and Macbooks I have traveled with have never let me down. If I can find a cheap HDMI cable we'll be back in business but until then sorry guys you'll have to make do with what I upload from my phone on Facebook.

This morning we started out with our wonderful local guide Corinne for a city tour of Lucerne and it's beautiful lake. Switzerland is not part of the EU and has quite a different system of democracy than the US. Each citizen can start a referendum to be voted on by the entire country if they get 100,000 signatures. This might prove to be a bit chaotic in the US :-)

We stopped first at the Lion's Monument which is a beautiful stone wall with a crying lion carved out in the center to commemorate all of the solider's who have lost their lives for Switzerland. One thing I learned on this trip was there is a tiny pig carved into the bottom of the lion's nose. This was done by the artist as he didn't feel the Swiss paid him enough for this artwork.

Next we visited the chapel bridge which is a wooden bridge that was originally built in 1333. Sadly a party boat exploded near it in 1993 and burned it down. They have rebuilt it to the original settings and no longer allow party boats :-)

Bullet points:

• The Lucerne concert hall, which is new, cost 226 million (there are only 80,000 residents here!) but boasts bringing in some of the best orchestras in the world in their summer and spring festivals.
• The village was started around 300 AD when a group of fisherman saw lights around this side of the lake and decided to visit often. An angel visited them and told them to but a chapel and village in this spot.
• Lucerne is Catholic, unlike most of Switzerland, because the in the middle ages most of their income came from mercenaries in wars. To switch to protestant they would have to give up that practice so they remained Roman Catholic.
• The Jesuits came to Lucerene to help the citizens with reforms and setup the first college. They were sent away when they educated the population a little too much.

After a brief shopping stop (treats for EVERYONE) we continued on to Mt. Pilatus via a beautiful boat ride in Lake Lucerene where we boarded the world's steepest cogwheel to the top. It was foggy so we couldn't see a darn thing! Instead I introduced our group to "high gravity" beverages. There was yodeling involved. 

We are about to head out and find some FONDUE!!!!

Black Forest, Rhine Falls and Arrival in Lucerne

Today we left Heidelberg and drove south toward the Black Forest. While on our way our guide, Carla (who is Italian but studied in Germany -- jury is still out on if she is a really good guide) gave us a bit more German history. Bullet points again (Carla is a bit of an ADD historian so pardon this skipping around...I'm too tired to organize it) :

• Germany has only been a unified country since 1871
• Prior to 1871 there were many separate states (such as Bavaria) and each state has a prince that elected an emperor of the German empire. Generally speaking they elected someone from the Hapsburg family so that person also served as King of Austria and Hungary
• Traveling back in time the area that we are now traveling in came under Bavarian rule after the fall of the Roman empire in 476 AD UNTIL the French King Charlemagne restarted the Roman Empire and it became the HOLY Roman Empire since he was Christian and wanted his empire to be recognized and crowned by the Pope.
• Charlemagne split his empire between his 3 sons (some did good, some not so good)
• France
• Central Europe (including Germany)
• Southern Europe 
• Germany is the most inhabited country in Europe with 82 million people
• There are 16 regions
• They have a federation style government with the Reich Stag (parliament) being in Berlin.
• Each region also has their own parliament
• Unlike other European countries the regions select their holiday times so they are staggered therefore the whole country isn't off the month of August 

Carla talked about Eastern Europe prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It reminded me in many ways of our guide in Russia who spoke of St. Petersburg before and after the fall. It took quite some time for those very used to communism to learn the idea of capitalism (including you have to work hard to be appreciated and nothing is free).

We stopped for a visit in the Black Forest to see how coo coo clocks are made (not all entirely different from any other clock), grab a quick bite and take a quick hike. Wendy and I took a VERY quick hike making our Apple Watches very proud of us. But we were rewarded with great views to share with you!

We left the Black Forest headed on toward Switzerland. After crossing the border we stopped by the Rhine Falls to see where the Rhine River meets the Rhone River (which is the only European river to flow north toward the North Sea).

We had a little bit of drama on the trip with one of our fellow travelers from Texas fell ill. My cousin Jamie put her nursing skills to use to help calm her down until we got her to a local hospital. After being checked out she is fine and will continue on our trip.

We ended the day with arriving at our AIR CONDITIONED hotel right in the heart of Lucerene. Tomorrow we head UP THE MOUNTAIN!

I have tried for 30 minutes now to get my SD card to read on my Chromebook. It won't work. It is 12:05 p.m. and I am tired. Sorry!! Will have to hope it works tomorrow like it did yesterday!

Heildburg

The first mention of this ancient German city was in 1196. It has been well preserved mainly because of a Allied General who had studied at the city's university and claimed it had no strategic bombing advantage. The university here is the 3rd oldest in Europe (behind Italy and France) and has roughly 40,000 students. The city itself is about the size of Jackson, MS....yet it has a wee bit more charm than our capital city!

We had a wonderful local guide Isabel, who despite her bag lady looks was quite amazing!

One of the last princes of the city was Karl. Turns out he was friends with Benjamin Franklin and saved the famous castle in the city from even more ruin by putting lightning rods on top of it! Apparently the castle had been bombed by the French, who ruin lots of things, and he rebuilt it only for it to be struck by lightning. Well ole Ben helped a German out by sending him his plans for the lightning rods! Another interesting fact about ole Karl...he had 255 illegitimate children.

Somewhere prior to Karl and after the first 3 or 4 Fredrick's there was a Prince named Fredrick that married a French woman named Elizabeth. For her birthday he built the following arch in ONE night and surprised. Included in the arch were hidden surprises...for each one she got a kiss and nine months later an heir. Sidebar: there was a school trip here where every kid was trying to find the surprises and all of them were taking pictures with their school issues iPads minis. Cool stuff!

A few more bullet points:

• Boys had to wear skirts until the age of 7 due to "accidents"
• Professors were paid per year with a cart full of wine barrels
• Catholic churches have crosses atop them. Protestant ones have roosters. If they have been both they may have both.
• Mark Twain spent quite a bit of time here. Check out his books The Innocents Abroad and The Tramp Abroad

A few in our group toured some gardens while a few more stayed behind and sampled more local beer and goods. I'll let you assume what group I was in!

We ended the night at an outdoor restaurant with ALL local food (despite how good that Texas burger looked) and are ready to head to the mountains tomorrow. I'm the only one in the group who has seen the Alps. I CANNOT wait for them to get their first glimpse...truly amazing.

Arrival in Frankfurt

I have been transported back to the days of taking students to Europe. Only this time my students are older than me. It has been comical to watch my dad, his neighbors, and his cousins experience overseas travel for the first time. On the plane Dad sat next to Wendy and I. He was simply amazed at our "process" of preparing for the long haul flight. Neither one of us realized we had a process. It is just something I guess we have perfected over the years. As usual on a first transcontinental flight the newbies slept none. Both Wendy and I got several hours of blissful sleep in!

We arrived to Frankfurt, Europe's 3rd largest airport, at 9:00 a.m. which is the kiss of death when it comes to jet lag (we have to stay up ALL day with some having no sleep). The very first thing the adults did was check their phones to see if there was free wifi. It was EXACTLY what our students did when arriving! After collecting our luggage and eating the most delicious bacon and cheese pretzel EVAH we headed off for an unexpected tour of Frankfurt while waiting on others in our tour group to arrive.

Frankfurt is the fifth largest city in Germany, which up until the 1990s the population included some 30,000 US troops. While taking our city tour and trying desperately to stay awake I took a few notes:

• Germany actually invited Jews to make new communities after WWII. Frankfurt has the 3rd largest community
• Turkish people are the largest immigrant group in Germany (yes we heard about the bombing. Yes we are being aware. Yes we feel safe).
• There are 4 million Muslims, 25 million Catholic's, and 31 million Protestants in the country.
• Two former EAST German's are in charge of the government, one being President Angela Merkel who is the daughter of a pastor
• President Kennedy visited Germany in 1963 and apparently it was a BIG, and I mean BIG deal. He drew huge crowds, they are still talking about it and a plaque was placed on city hall.

• They have apple cider gardens here instead of beer gardens. It is served with lemonade or water.

We visited the cathedral in downtown that isn't really a cathedral but has an honorary mention. Odd yes.

We transferred to Schwetzingen where some took a nap and Wendy, Dad, and I set out to visit the quaint city center for a refreshing beverage.

Our group enjoyed dinner at a restaurant back in the city center of some salad they all deemed the best ever, wienerschnitzel, and ice cream and then it was time for BED! 

I promise to get better at the blogging but it has been a LONG 48 hours and this chick is tired!

Renewed Travel 2016

Dad asked me last weekend if I was going to blog during our upcoming trip. I told him I had decided I just couldn't commit to it. I am one of those "12 month" education workers and our summer is BUSY. Sidebar...all educators work 12 months some of us are just lucky enough to be paid for all 12 of them (props to teachers). I'm also teaching 2 online courses for Hinds and wrapping up a hybrid course for Belhaven. Translation: This trip isn't all play...I still have work to do while I manage to have a bit of fun.

Tonight, in between a great visit with a good friend, I've been watching the Sound of Music to prepare for the Salzburg portion of our trip. I found myself wanting to know the names of the places where they are in various scenes. I'm Googling them. I realize yet again travel is about learning. Many times I have referred back to a blog post when asked questions about the places I have visited. Therefore I am committing to blog again. Read it or not...this blog is for me. I can't promise a nightly update but I do promise myself and those that care to read it that I will learn from our local guides and soak up the vivid history of the places in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland we are visiting.

If only I could do trips without packing and airplanes....