Parents' visit - Neuschwanstein, Furtwangen, and more castle hunting

After Munich, I took my parents to Neuschwanstein Castle.  It was a little touristy, but truly worth the visit!

There he stands, in front of the Disney logo inspiration...

The key reason Neuschwanstein is so beautiful is because the parts that are complete are fully finished, designed by the Ludwig II to appear as much as possible to the Renaissance Era.  The catch is that he embellished heavily so it is really more of a Romantic Era setup, but it is still absolutely incredible to see in its present state.  Don't fool yourself though, he bankrupted himself simply finishing the shell of the castle and only one third of the interior.

 We then headed to Furtwangen.  Here is the, almost ski-resort style, hotel we stayed at.  As you can see here, there is almost 2 feet of snow and the ground with no signs of melting.  I kid you not, about a 30 minute drive north, there was no snow at all.

 

For dessert there, I ordered two chocolate ice cream scoops with a "splash" of sherry.  I guess here, a "splash" is actually quarter of a liter.  Needless to say, what is pictured is what I could not finish.

Next, we visited the clock museum.  I thought it was way cool!  We also saw the Triberg waterfalls and then headed home.

This is a mechanized model of Copernicus' theory of planets and their motion.  Included are the Sun and all of the planets from Mercury to Saturn including all visible moons at the time (4 on Jupiter and more on Saturn).

 

This mechanical clock went a step further.  Its features include: star locations for the north and south hemispheres, time, date (day, month, and year), day of the week, planetary locations in the sky, zodiac signs, moon phases, moon location, and I'm pretty sure there was more.  Built in the late 20th century.

Who needs metal?  These old clocks were made almost completely out of wood including wood gears, wood axles, and in some cases, wood noise makers for the quarters of the hour.

Triberg waterfalls.

The last full day my parents were here, my dad and I did some castle hunting.  My dad and I are kinda into castles, at least in terms of their architecture and function.  Needless to say, I have tons of pictures of the castles we saw, but for the sake of brevity I will stick to the main pictures.

Altenbaumburg.  Surprisingly large and in decent condition for being ruins.  We thought the reconstructed bridge was a nice touch.  We thought a lot about what it would look like if restored.

The further north we got, the hazier it got.  This was immediately outside of Koblenz .The Rhine River, a great river to tour for German castles.  I can't remember the name of the castle on the right, but we were unable to easily access it due to construction on the main road.  The tower on the left is part of what we speculate was the old city walls.  Much of present day Koblenz is built right into its old city walls.

A very bad angle of Marksburg.  Ironically, I was trying to avoid this castle because J and I tried to tour this castle earlier only to find it strangely closed.  This time, it actually was open, we just made the last tour in time, and enjoy every minute of it.  This castle apparently is the only castle in Germany that was never sacked and was not damaged during World War II.  It is still lived in, presently by the castle tour director, and is almost fully furnished.  It is also still being actively maintained. 

The next day, J and I took my parents to their last castle on their trip, Hohenecken.  Etsy had a blast running around.

I hope they had a good trip.  Hopefully, they will visit one more time before we ourselves have to bail out.

Parents' visit - Heidelberg, Munich, and Dachau

My parents decided to visit us in Germany about three weeks ago.  This was a big deal for my dad particularly as it was his first overseas international trip ever.  He wanted to see castles.  My mom wanted to see Munich.  J and I did our best to get them to see as much as we could.

They arrived in the morning, so J and I took them to the Spinnraedl in Kaiserslautern for dinner.  They enjoyed it.  Both sides of my family are quite German by ancestry, so all of the food we typically eat is actually very german: pretzels, potatoes, various wursts, red cabbage, pickled beets, and the like.  My parents were particularly taken by the red cabbage.  They can't get enough of it from Germany, so J and I mail some as often as we can.

The next day, we took them to Heidelberg.  A good castle, good view, and good food.  Plus, it's not too far away from where we live.

 

 

We couldn't help but take them to dinner at the Red Ox (Roten Ochsen).  The food is just too crazy good!

The next day, we took them on a Volksmarch.  Honestly, I can't remember the name of the town, but I remember it wasn't too far from where we live.

My dad was keen on this watch tower.  He was musing about how, if given the resources and the time, he would seriously consider building and maintaining one for himself.

 

The next day was a multi-day trip to Munich.  My parents wanted to spend one day at the Residenz Museum and (unintentionally) one day at Dachau.

This was my Mom's favorite piece at the Residenz Treasury.

The Residenz is so large that we actually were there until close, and still did not see everything.

The next day, we went to Dachau.  I found the history there absolutely fascinating, both concerning the plot of land itself and the history provided at the museum.  My personal favorite was the depth they went into leading up to World War II and how concentration camps became an accepted practice, and then after World War II how the area was actually used for prisoners of war and then later refugees. 

One thing that caught me was the sheer size of everything.  The camp itself, at least the late 1930's expanded version of it, was easily 5 or 6 soccer fields in size.

This was taken from the "processing" center, showing the monument erected and the remainder of the main camp beyond.

This was just outside of the two standing barracks.  Each dark line you see by a tree is the foundation of another barrack.

This is the memorial at the end of the picture above.  I hope this gives the idea of just how big the area is.

Now, these pictures thus far are actually only the prisoners' camp...only one third of the entire original complex.  The officers' camp was almost equal in size and then behind the memorial above it originally extended even further out for other components of the camp.

 This is the "new" crematorium.  They actually still had the old one standing as well.

Volksmarch, parent visit, Norway getaway, and gardening

 About a month and a half ago, we were also at a Volksmarch in Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  I thought the wind and snow as crazy, but it didn't seem to bother either J or Etsy.  We also had a good dinner there with the people who invited us in the first place.

About three weeks ago now, my parents visited from the states.   This was a big deal because my dad had never been outside of the states before with the exception of Canada.

Today, J and I just got back from a three day trip in Oslo.  This meant a lot to her has a good portion of her family heritage is from Norway.  You could say that this trip was effectively a bucket-list item for her.

I'll definitely post more on Oslo in the near future.  I'm not sure if I'll post more on the Volkmarch by simple virtue of the fact of lack of pictures.  My next post or two will encompass my parents' weeklong visit to Germany.

On a more local note, J and I have decided to try container gardening.  I used to garden all the time in the states, but that was on my own property.  We want to discuss a few ideas with our landlords, but they have been slow to come over to the house at all.  We've chosen to play it safe in the meantime and use pots instead.  I could make several posts about this, but in short, I'm going to try succession container gardening using our house windows for a winter greenhouse effect.  We still only have seedlings, but I am mostly pleased with our results so far.

Thanks for reading!  I look forward to posting about my parents' trip and our recent trip to Oslo.

Picture in Wochenblatt

So, choir has taken a few developments these past several months.  First, the choir is doing a more aggressive repertoire for the summer.  Second, several choir members have either left or taken a hiatus as the key concerts for the choir are during Christmas time.  This second item has led to the third item which is that I am now a member of the choir board!  My official position is "Board Member at Large."  This essentially means that I have no specific role other than to be an "outsider" in terms of the board members to provide additional perspective on board decisions.

Also, my photogenic side has struck again.  This time, I was in the Wochenblatt, a major local periodical during a photoshoot for the choir.  That's me, in the back row with the beard.  I couldn't really translate the caption for you, but it was supposed to be a promotional for the choir.

Prague (Day 4)

Our last day in Prague was exciting in different ways. 

Prague is known for its crystal.  Now, being a tourist in Prague knowing little about different crystal manufacturers, it was difficult to determine whether any given type of crystal was worth as much as what was being asked for in the heart of old-town.  We decided to venture out for a crystal factory about a 20 minute drive outside of Prague.  It was definitely in the middle of nowhere, but we weren't terribly impressed with the selection presented at the particular factory we went to so, so we opted to buy nothing.

We then headed home...in snow almost as bad as on the way in.  There was even a truck carrying cars that had jack-knifed, blocking the oncoming lanes into Prague.  For those of you who have not seen it, look on youtube for Russian drivers.  Those videos are awesome!  While those videos are crazy to watch, it gives a comparative flavor for the Czech drivers and driving conditions: the occasional crazy fast driver, strange accidents, and rough weather conditions.

The last final bit of experience from Prague was when we returned to Germany.  2 out of 3 German nationals looked at us jokingly after we mention we went to Prague and asked, "...and you still have all of your money?"  The inference being that pick-pocketing is bad in Prague.  We never encountered that issue, but it sounds like it gets quite back in the summer.  We're glad we went in the winter anyway...fewer crowds, prettier views, and a more relaxed environment.