The Residenz Theater

Marz, almost on Broadway...

I should say here that most of this Palace was destroyed during the war. They have rebuilt most of what once was, but so many treasures were lost. 

The Residenz Treasury

Since we are delayed in Chicago, I thought I would put up another series of pictures. 

This was another of one of my top favorites. Probably because of all the sparkling gems! ;). Fits the inner princess in me... Ha ha ha ha!

Rubies, diamonds, and gold. 

This crown has never been worn... I have a head that would volunteer!  ;)

Cut crystal

If you can see Marz examining the trunk, I will tell you that she is actually examining the three dead babies bodies that are in there!  This religious shrine is from the time of when all the baby boys under 2 were killed around the time of Jesus' birth. I am a little skeptical here...

Forgot what this was and it's really not a great picture, but it had some really big precious  stones in it!!!

A Quick Update...

We are on the plane waiting to take off for home. I am excited to be getting there!  

I guess after the highlight of my trip, the castles, I have forgotten to post any more pictures.

This is the Residenz. The palace where most of the kings of Bavaria lived... More than 50%of it was destroyed during WW II

We could take pictures of these rooms because they were recreated. If they had original items, we usually were not allowed to take pictures. 

Closing the doors to the plane... More later. :)

What Dreams Are Made Of...

This is the day that I have been waiting for for a very, very long time!  We got to go to the Castles!!!

Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau, and Linderhof. 

LOVED every minute of it!!!

Our first stop was Neuschwanstein. 

This picture was taken from the castle. We were standing on this bridge to take the above photo. 

The bridge to the valley below. Our tour guide said before we got out of the car, "Don't worry... It's good German engineering!"  :D 

Walking from the bridge to the castle. 

Up close and personal. This is where we waited for our tour to start. 

Unfortunately we were not able to take photos of the inside of the castle. The biggest disappointment of the day for me. But, I am sure Uncle Google has some if you are willing to look! ;)

Hohenschwangau:

This castle we skipped the tour so we would have time for Linderhof Castle. And unfortunately, Marz forgot to take pictures of it with the phone. :( I have all those pictures on my big camera and will add them when we get back to the states. 

Now on to the best part of the day! (For me that is anyway.) ;)

Linderhof:

This is what every fairy tail is made of!  Beautiful rolling lawns, a manor house, fountains, back drop-Swiss Alps, you name it, I loved the feeling if this place!  Granted, the "castle" was truly not shaped as a castle in the traditional sense but a beautiful palace nonetheless.  I wish I had my book and a blanket with me so I could have curled up and read outside all day long. Someday, I may just have to try that!

Now we have to go by the pictures Marz took because I was busy snapping with the big camera, so we will see what she got...

Well, that was disappointing!!  I think I am going to have to take charge of both cameras from now on! ;D. It looks like these too will have to wait until we get home. But I do promise to get them posted. They are too beautiful to not share!  

To explain the two pictures that we do have though...  The first one is of the Venus Grotto. It is an underground opera house King Ludwig II use for his own entertainment. And when I say own, I mean his own!  There were two seats in the whole place. Both for him!  He changed seats as he needed to to get different perspectives. No one ever watched a performance with him! They say he was C.R.A.Z.Y... ;)

The second photo was the last that we took of the day. It does show an over view of the place, but like I say, my bigger camera has way better pictures on it!  

I don't know why, but I just felt at home here. Maybe it's the inner princess in me, I don't know... Ha ha ha!  ;)

Or like I told Marz, if I ever had to be put in the witness protection program, she could fine me here!  

Did I tell you, I LOVED THIS PLACE!!!

Church of Wies

Or translated "Church of the Valley". 

On our way to the castles today we quickly stopped at a church along the way. And I am so glad we did!  It was gorgeous inside!

I believe this was the first church that we have seen that was untouched by the war. Everything was original!  :)

Deutsches Museum

Yesterday, we spent over 5 hours at this museum and Mersades only took 5 pictures with the phone!  (We are using the phone for easy access to the blog.)  Anyway, here is what we came up with. 

Musical instruments. 

A collection of French Horns. Mersades musical instrument of choice. :)

Mom was not feeling well and needed a rest. They just happened to have massage chairs in the museum. :)

They had a huge mining section. This is the only section we completely went through. Mostly because it was a one way only underground model mine. :)

And that's it!  

My big camera probably has a thousand pictures on it ranging from airplanes to printing presses from mathematical instruments to musical instruments from optics to microscopes. You name it, they had it!  ... But Marz only got 5 picture... ;)

Munich

The view outside our hotel window...  Soooo many churches!

If you notice the building with a green roof on the left hand side of the photo, that is the Deutsches Museum. We spent most of the day there yesterday. 

The Train, The Train, The Train...

I do NOT like the train....

Everyone said the trains were beautiful in Europe, well I beg to disagree!

First off, we missed our original reservations!  Yes, my fault. I wasn't using military time, so 4:12 was really 4:12 AM!  No biggie, there are always trains to Munich. 

So we get the 2:45 or 14:25 train. :). We are in first class... But there are no reserved seats now. Just find what you can. So imagine the two if us dragging our large suitcases and FULL backpacks through the trains cars finding two seats together. IMPOSSIBLE!!!  

So we stand and wait. Finally two seats open up that are somewhat close to each other. Then a kind man gives up his seat so Marz and I can sit together. And then of course fate has it the the kind man sits in a reserved seat and at the next stop he gets booted out by another guy that is holding the seat in reserve!  So we felt a bit sad for the guy. 

So on we cruise down the train track. We get about half way to Munich when we come to a scheduled stop. All of a sudden everyone in the "car" starts to get up!  Since we don't speak a lick of German, we start asking the guy sitting ahead of us what is going on. He says the air conditioning isn't working... No kidding!  We had been sweating our rears off for the last hour and a half!  BUT NOW they make us move out of that car into another one. Well guess what Charlie??? ALL the cars are full!!!  So we move from a car with NO air conditioning but seating, to the "in between" place, where the cars are connected, that has NO seating and NO air conditioning!!!  

Not Happy!

Then we get about 3/4 of the way to Munich and the train has to stop for traffic, I guess...  We sit, or stand, there for 30 minutes!!

Then, because the train attendants felt sorry for all those SITTING in an air condition car, they start to hand out cartons, not bottles, of water to all the passengers.  BUT pass up us poor shlups who are STANDING in a non air conditioned part of the train. 

We finally did get our water and got to Munich. I was never so happy, to get off that train and get to the hotel to take a shower, in my whole life!!  Who said train travel was easy in Europe??? ;)

Now it's time for bed. This traveling makes me exhausted! ;)

Robin

PS. If this is the worst thing that happens to us on this trip, I will be eternally greatful!  I mean you have two blondes traveling together in a foreign country!  And on top of it, we look like we belong here, so everyone speaks to us in German... What possibly could go wrong??? ;D

The Castle Hohenbaden

On our Black Forest tour, we went to see an old castle ruin. The castle is called Burg Hohenbaden. Here are some pictures. 

Here is the castle dungeon. 

And here is the rest of the castle. 

Unbelievable how descriptive Marz was of the castle!  And her language teacher said she was a good writer.... ;)

It's amazing that people used to live there!  I kept thinking what kind of life did they have? Were they rich?  How many kids ran the through the castle?  How many battles were fought outside those gates?  The history is so interesting. Oh to have a peak back in time...

Robin

Off to Munich tomorrow... :)