AC Travels
Mörlbach, Germany
We stayed in a small castle in a very small village called Mörlbach, about 30 minutes from Munich. We met an interesting woman from the Netherlands who has been living here for eighteen months. She speaks Dutch, German, English and is learning Hindu!
The castle was not quite what we had expected. The land it probably used to have has houses of different ages around it, so the best view of it would be from the air. Our room was fine, but the shared kitchen area was quite small for the number of people trying to cook a meal. The residents we met were very nice, but an American woman found it difficult to understand that others were not going to stop their cooking to allow her to do hers!
We did speak to her later as she had managed to do some cooking in the kitchen we were using and some more in the kitchen downstairs. She, her two children (aged 3 and 5), her two younger sisters, her friend and her one year old had been travelling through Europe for a month. They had visited 12 countries in that time! We do wonder how clear their memories will be in the future about where they were when certain events occurred!
We visited Neuschwannstein Castle today, having no idea about how things are organised here. When you buy a ticket, you are allocated a group ( you can chose English or German or an audio tour in another language). You can only visit in a group and the tour lasts about 30 minutes. You need to be on time in the courtyard at the castle for your group number and can only enter with your group. We bought our tickets at about 1.30pm and we were lucky to be the last two for the English tour at 3.25pm! (Group size is probably 50 people - glad we weren't visiting in summer, it would be horrendous!) Tours start every five minutes, so you can just imagine how many people visit the castles each day! We also found out just before buying our tickets that the buses weren't running (roadworks, but we know that there are strikes on in Germany at the moment), so our options were walking or in a carriage. The queue to go up in a horse and carriage was quite long, so we decided to walk.
The walk uphill to the castle took at least 40 minutes, then we walked on towards the Marien bridge (another 15 or so minutes). I took a rest when confronted with the last uphill stretch while Craig went on up to get the best views of the castle. Back we walked for another 10 minutes to get a drink before going back up to the castle to be on time. A bit of a marathon! After a few stops along the way, we needed two hours to get to our tour time on time!
The castle was definitely nothing like the other castle we saw in France (built for defence). This was the expression of a man's love for Wagner operas and Byzantine art and German decoration (lots of heavy carved oak doors and furniture, decorated arches)- an unusual combination! Some might call the castle a very large folly! It was certainly ornate -every door was different, different elements of swans were incorporated into the decoration, different chandeliers in each room all looking like crowns, with mod cons like plumbing and hidden steel for strength (Ludwig II died in unusual circumstances at about 40). It is certainly memorable, despite many rooms never having been completed before he died!
I don't know how you could manage to see the castle he lived in as a child, the museum and his castle in one day! And, after all the walking to get there, you walk up and down several flights in the corner towers during the tour to visit the rooms that were completed. Stamina required, and you would need to be sure the buses were running!
No photos were allowed to be taken in the castle, so I bought a small book about this castle and the castle he grew up in (Hohenschwangau).
Before we set off to Inzell (southeastern Germany) we went for a cruise on Lake Starnberg. It was a very pleasant three and a half hours on a catamaran that can take up to 800 people! It was Mother's Day and I sent off an email for Mum and Charles before we left. It was a very pleasant few hours and when we finished our cruise it was later than we had expected. After finding a late lunch and eating it, we decided that it was too late to go into Munich to the English Gardens. We headed off instead for Inzell.
Five Nights In One Place
We are looking forward to this! We are staying in a small village (again) in a second floor apartment in a chalet in Inzell with a balcony, facing south. Now all we need is some lovely spring weather! The view is just spectacular! We look out towards the mountains across some lower hills with a couple of paddocks of alpacas and a few houses beyond them. Picture postcard view!
In the evening when we went to a local event "Frühjahrskonzert" by the Musikkapelle Inzell group. Our hosts told us about it when we arrived and we thought it an opportunity not to be missed. Others staying in the flats attended too. While we were speaking to Anika, she told us that her daughter was studying in Australia for a year starting in June. Her daughter's boyfriend is an AFL boundary umpire, living in Melbourne!! You never know who you will meet!
We were in the local hall in a scene reminiscent of Tanunda's "Melody Night". Even the tables were set out in the same way. However, the food was missing, beer flowed and this was a much more serious event. The brass band was very good, however, and we have purchased a CD of their concert in 2007, celebrating 250 years of the Musikkapelle Inzell! Tanunda has a few years to catch up on....
We had our first day off today - three weeks and one day in to our trip and we needed to stop for a day. It was nice not to go anywhere, the sun was shining and we were very lazy!
Lake Königsee was our destination the next day. Another cruise, on boats holding about 50, with several places along the way to get off and explore before joining a later boat. Along the way the guide played a trumpet solo at a point where, depending on the weather, the echo repeats once or twice. As the commentary was all in German, it was a moment we could enjoy and know what was going on! We enjoyed a 20 minute walk out to Lake Obersee from Salat. The Röthbach waterfall was running and it was very picturesque. Again the weather was kind and it was a pleasant walk there and back to the jetty to board another boat.
Our next stop was at St. Batholomä and we enjoyed the beer garden for a while under the shelter of some shady trees before catching a boat back to Königsee. It was a very pleasant day on the water!
Ann Watkins
17 chapters
Chapter 12 - Still in Germany
May 29, 2015
Mörlbach, Germany
We stayed in a small castle in a very small village called Mörlbach, about 30 minutes from Munich. We met an interesting woman from the Netherlands who has been living here for eighteen months. She speaks Dutch, German, English and is learning Hindu!
The castle was not quite what we had expected. The land it probably used to have has houses of different ages around it, so the best view of it would be from the air. Our room was fine, but the shared kitchen area was quite small for the number of people trying to cook a meal. The residents we met were very nice, but an American woman found it difficult to understand that others were not going to stop their cooking to allow her to do hers!
We did speak to her later as she had managed to do some cooking in the kitchen we were using and some more in the kitchen downstairs. She, her two children (aged 3 and 5), her two younger sisters, her friend and her one year old had been travelling through Europe for a month. They had visited 12 countries in that time! We do wonder how clear their memories will be in the future about where they were when certain events occurred!
We visited Neuschwannstein Castle today, having no idea about how things are organised here. When you buy a ticket, you are allocated a group ( you can chose English or German or an audio tour in another language). You can only visit in a group and the tour lasts about 30 minutes. You need to be on time in the courtyard at the castle for your group number and can only enter with your group. We bought our tickets at about 1.30pm and we were lucky to be the last two for the English tour at 3.25pm! (Group size is probably 50 people - glad we weren't visiting in summer, it would be horrendous!) Tours start every five minutes, so you can just imagine how many people visit the castles each day! We also found out just before buying our tickets that the buses weren't running (roadworks, but we know that there are strikes on in Germany at the moment), so our options were walking or in a carriage. The queue to go up in a horse and carriage was quite long, so we decided to walk.
The walk uphill to the castle took at least 40 minutes, then we walked on towards the Marien bridge (another 15 or so minutes). I took a rest when confronted with the last uphill stretch while Craig went on up to get the best views of the castle. Back we walked for another 10 minutes to get a drink before going back up to the castle to be on time. A bit of a marathon! After a few stops along the way, we needed two hours to get to our tour time on time!
The castle was definitely nothing like the other castle we saw in France (built for defence). This was the expression of a man's love for Wagner operas and Byzantine art and German decoration (lots of heavy carved oak doors and furniture, decorated arches)- an unusual combination! Some might call the castle a very large folly! It was certainly ornate -every door was different, different elements of swans were incorporated into the decoration, different chandeliers in each room all looking like crowns, with mod cons like plumbing and hidden steel for strength (Ludwig II died in unusual circumstances at about 40). It is certainly memorable, despite many rooms never having been completed before he died!
I don't know how you could manage to see the castle he lived in as a child, the museum and his castle in one day! And, after all the walking to get there, you walk up and down several flights in the corner towers during the tour to visit the rooms that were completed. Stamina required, and you would need to be sure the buses were running!
No photos were allowed to be taken in the castle, so I bought a small book about this castle and the castle he grew up in (Hohenschwangau).
Before we set off to Inzell (southeastern Germany) we went for a cruise on Lake Starnberg. It was a very pleasant three and a half hours on a catamaran that can take up to 800 people! It was Mother's Day and I sent off an email for Mum and Charles before we left. It was a very pleasant few hours and when we finished our cruise it was later than we had expected. After finding a late lunch and eating it, we decided that it was too late to go into Munich to the English Gardens. We headed off instead for Inzell.
Five Nights In One Place
We are looking forward to this! We are staying in a small village (again) in a second floor apartment in a chalet in Inzell with a balcony, facing south. Now all we need is some lovely spring weather! The view is just spectacular! We look out towards the mountains across some lower hills with a couple of paddocks of alpacas and a few houses beyond them. Picture postcard view!
In the evening when we went to a local event "Frühjahrskonzert" by the Musikkapelle Inzell group. Our hosts told us about it when we arrived and we thought it an opportunity not to be missed. Others staying in the flats attended too. While we were speaking to Anika, she told us that her daughter was studying in Australia for a year starting in June. Her daughter's boyfriend is an AFL boundary umpire, living in Melbourne!! You never know who you will meet!
We were in the local hall in a scene reminiscent of Tanunda's "Melody Night". Even the tables were set out in the same way. However, the food was missing, beer flowed and this was a much more serious event. The brass band was very good, however, and we have purchased a CD of their concert in 2007, celebrating 250 years of the Musikkapelle Inzell! Tanunda has a few years to catch up on....
We had our first day off today - three weeks and one day in to our trip and we needed to stop for a day. It was nice not to go anywhere, the sun was shining and we were very lazy!
Lake Königsee was our destination the next day. Another cruise, on boats holding about 50, with several places along the way to get off and explore before joining a later boat. Along the way the guide played a trumpet solo at a point where, depending on the weather, the echo repeats once or twice. As the commentary was all in German, it was a moment we could enjoy and know what was going on! We enjoyed a 20 minute walk out to Lake Obersee from Salat. The Röthbach waterfall was running and it was very picturesque. Again the weather was kind and it was a pleasant walk there and back to the jetty to board another boat.
Our next stop was at St. Batholomä and we enjoyed the beer garden for a while under the shelter of some shady trees before catching a boat back to Königsee. It was a very pleasant day on the water!
1.
Chapter one - Paris
2.
Chapter 2- Paris
3.
Chapter 3 -Paris
4.
Chapter 4 - On the Road!
5.
Chapter 5 - The Dawn Service
6.
Chapter 6 -Amiens
7.
Chapter 7 -Some WW1 battlefields
8.
Chapter 8 - Reims
9.
Chapter 9 - The Vosges
10.
Chapter 10 - Vosges to Strasbourg
11.
Chapter 11 - Germany
12.
Chapter 12 - Still in Germany
13.
Chapter 13 - Germany (with a bit of Austria)
14.
Chapter 14 - Austria
15.
Chapter 15 - Switzerland
16.
Chapter 16 - Italy
17.
Chapter 17 - Back in France!
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