Given the fact that it is perched atop a rocky outcropping with sheer drops on three of its four sides, the castle is indeed a sight to see.
King Ludwig’s II retreat from the world
The castle Neuschwanstein was actually called Hohenschwanstein a hundred or more years ago until King Ludwig II of Bavaria switched the names of the two.
The surrounding area from this castle’s aerie is breathtaking, especially when looking at the German and Austrian Alps toward Schwangau. Schwangau is the larger and more proper town of the two which includes Hohenschwangua, the latter of which essentially acts as a tourist trap and jumping off point for the 1.5 kilometer trek up to the castle.
Overlook with Schwangau and the Alps
Unfortunately, you cannot take photographs inside the castle and the face of the entrance and some rooms were under renovations while we were there. However, though the tour is kind of short, around 20 minutes, it is still worth it.
From Hohenschwangau
There is also a path to a footbridge that affords a better view and perspective for photographs. Unfortunately, it was jammed with other tourists who instead of climbing the hill took the bus up and were dropped off right in front of the path to it, creating a long line for which we lacked the time to stand in due to our castle tour time slot.
Hohenschwanstein castle
The other prominent landmark in the area is Hohenschwanstein which is where King Ludwig grew up. Less ostentatious and functional, right down to its painted walls, it remains more of a curiousity than a tourist destination. The history of Ludwig’s upbringing is very interesting and his separation from his father during his childhood is shown in the very design of this castle. Whereby the children lived on the right side as shown in the photograph above, and the King ruled on the left.
Ericka, Tristan and Patti along the Alpsee
Luckily the spring weather was great and made for a most enjoyable day.
Tonight we enjoyed dinner at the Nürnberger Bratwurst Glöckl am Dom, that again offered the bratwurst platters and other regional specialities.
Die Frauenkirche, München at night
The restaurant lays at the foot of the Frauenkirche. It is of course kind of a tourist trap, but the food is good.
My bavarian dinner
I ordered the Schweinhaxe and a side salad. The boiled dough is fairly heavy, so I could only eat one. But the meat was very good and the side salad has a potato salad surprise at the bottom.
My Bavarian dinner, consumed
As you can tell, I didn’t enjoy it at all.
Regardless, we decided on dessert and ordered Apfelkücherl with cinnamon and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. This of course forced us to pay before we ate anymore and then walk all the way back to the hotel in order to settle our stomach, even though we possessed a train group pass for the next few days.
The Nürnberger Bratwurst Glöckl am Dom in the evening
The subject restaurant is an inconspicuous hole in the wall that one would never think noted for its food. But it is worth every star it has on google and trip-advisor.
The quaint and cozy atmosphere inside is by no means palatial, it is made even smaller looking by all the woodwork. The confused decorum adds to this feeling, perhaps the owner’s attempt to appeal to the cafe, beer hall (evident by the pull down screen and beamer) and restaurant crowds.
Tristan waiting for food
However, for simple fare with an authentic chef’s twist it is difficult to beat!
Erick and Tristan’s Würstchen platterPatti’s Leberkäse platter
The wurst platter with sauerkraut and potato salad was just what a sausage lover would be looking for in a satisfying dinner. The Leberkäse, a regional speciality, turned out to be a bit less exciting and compared more to a meatloaf made out of hotdogs. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
My preferred route to a diabetic coma – Apfelstrüdel
The Apfelstrüdel was of course a triumph and paired with a Macallans, I enjoyed every mouthful.
4.5 stars ?
Erick and Patti at Lollo Rosso – photo taken with my old selfie-stick arm
Today starts Ericka’s vacation and we are on our way via train to Munich, Germany.
This starts out with our tickets to the main train station, Frankfurt Hbf, using the regional line. Once there we had a quick bite to eat and jumped on our ICE train (high speed, hmmm, er not quite) to Munich.
Patti and Ericka relaxing
Patti and Ericka settling in for the three hour ride. Ericka was actually on her phone more than reading that book! ?Well at the moment we have run into a bit of a problem, after Aschaffenburg a fire somewhere ahead has broken out and delayed our train. In the meantime they have backed our train up a bit and stopped at Laufach, so that we may stretch our legs.
Laufach unscheduled stop
Yeah, its not Würzburg or Munich.
Our doomed ICE 623
While outside we had some time to enjoy the beautiful Spring weather.
Train tracks at Laufach, direction Würzburg
Our stay at Laufach was just around an hour long.
The gorgeous countryside just outside Lohr am Main reminds me a lot of Copake and the Berkshire mountains. The Main river down here reminds me more of a stream than a river. The one thing I did forget was how many tunnels were on this line when I last took it five years ago..!
Well we have to switch trains in Nürnberg, thank you fire.
Nürnberg Hbf platform, was expecting a roof at least
Though technically not the one they told us to take. It is an ICE train and it’s headed to München Hbf!
München Hbf
Finally, after five and a half hours, München and the promise of a hotel room and beer!
Als ich durch die Gassen und Strassen von Sachsenhausen, Frankfurt und Offenbach geschlendert und an jeder Strassenbahn- und Busshaltestelle gestanden ist die nachfolgende Gedichte mir immer ergreifend. Enjoy!
The passed few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity finding an apartment in Turin and moving in. There were not only the customary contractual things to take care of, but also cleaning and furnishing the place to our liking. Luckily, we found something that mostly fit our desires while still being in the central part of town (Via Giovanni Giolitti.) However, it took several trips to IKEAand other sojourns to bring it to a point where we could move out of our AirBnB.
Just this past Friday, fairly exhausted, the three of us, Patti, Tristan and I left Turin for Frankfurt, Germany, after finally getting the apartment halfway straightened out and liveable (there will be another blog entry on that later once we have it completed.) The trip from Turin to Milan was more or less uneventful, although happily very fast and on time, thank you FrecciaRossa!
Leaving the Swiss Alps behind as we enter Thun
As we have in the past, we decided on taking the train from Milan to Frankfurt instead of flying. A seven hour journey between the two points (perhaps two hours more than flying), but relaxing in first class with its beverage service and other amenities, made the trip all that more enjoyable. Riding through the Italian and Swiss Alps, especially after the recent heavy snows, also made it a memorable site-seeing trip.
Train platform at Thun
Though of no particular importance as an attraction, the platform sign for Thun is shown above.
My fascination with this train stop has more to do with the John Le Carre’s 1982 BBC series “Smiley’s People“, than with any real, first hand experience of the place. In the movie, a soviet diplomat assumes another identity while in Thun, to remove money from a bank account setup by his Soviet operatives. Since I had never heard of the place, I became curious about its location and then subsequently surprised when one day a train that I was taking actually passed it! I guess it demonstrates just how small the world really is in a way.
Oberschweinstiege Restaurant and Blockhutte
After spending a relaxing weekend with our daughter Ericka, we decided to visit one of the restaurants that we enjoyed immensely on our last visit. After having snow flurries that morning, and a very intolerable forty something degrees that evening for North Carolinians, we took the regional train from Offenbach am Main to Frankfurt Süd, and subsequently Strassenbahn 18 to the park. Unbeknownst to us, Strassenbahn 18 dropped us some 2 km distant from our objective, which forced us to walk for an additional twenty minutes through the park.
Trails in the Naturpark in Frankfurt am Main Süd
The Oberschweinstiege, nestled in the naturpark in Frankfurt am Main Süd, sports a long tradition of local cuisine. It is also repleat with local history and traditional, which anyone can find and read with a proper internet search.
Tristan and Patti’s Rumpsteak vom Argentinischen Rind with vegatables and grilled potatoes
As can been seen by the photograph above the rump roast was thick, juicy and tender. Complimented with a Pauliner Hefe or local wine, an enjoyable meal anywhere.
Oberschweinstiege-Pfanne
I, on the other hand, decided to go with the establishment’s main dish. A hot frying pan of rendered pig with spaetzle!
Rinderroulade nach Großmutters Art
Lastly, Ericka had the grandmother’s roast beef roladen with red cabbage and spaetzle.
Of course, no meal is complete without dessert. But this of course was nothing special since each went to their own comfort food. I chose the apple strudel, Ericka chose creme brulee and the others chose ice cream. All in all, a great evening of eating, compounded by our success getting on Strassenbahn 17, the correct train, which picked us up, but a few hundred meters from the restaurant’s door, instead of a mile away..!
Well it has been a while since we last gave an update on what’s going on. And the fact of the matter is, not much, even though Patti and I are exhausted. First things first and consider it preliminary, retirement is just f***** awesome. But we’ll talk about sleep patterns and dreams later at another time.
View from bedroom window, into courtyard
Aside from doing a lot of work cleaning our new apartment and all that entails, and of course shopping for those things you don’t have, but just need, we have been desperate for food every afternoon. Most places open for lunch at 12 or 12:30 and again we have turned to pizza as our salvation occasionally.
Pizza Ad Hoc – thin crust pizza
Pizza Ad Hoc is right down the block from us and offers a simplified menu which includes great tuna salads, piedmontese hamburger (read no bun here, but really good bread) and an especially thin version of pizza seen above that is just awesome. This happens to be my preferred kind of pizza, short on the dough, tall on the fixings.
Of course as I have already alluded to, shopping has been a major time waste lately. Including, but not confined to traveling just outside the city to IKEA.
IKEA with the Italian Alps with fresh snow in background
After several shopping excursions here and several online, we abandoned future trips, to more accessible stores closer to our new home. Including a cheaper, but nonetheless excellent pizza place three blocks away, called Pizza Vittorio, its pizza is comparable to Red Baron pizza, in thickness.
Pizza Vittorio personal pizza – YUM
Served as a personal-sized pizza, around 10 or 12 inches, it was served with whatever toppings you want, if on the menu. For example, wurstel is hotdog and margherita is with tomato sauce, basil and cheese. Though the place was very simple, probably for the younger crowd since the walls had places to write on with chalk, it was quite good. All in all another great place to eat, which I would definitely recommend. Our total bill for two, including beer (1 liter Becks), came to 13€.
Yesterday we took an Irish respite after a long walk to eat lunch at a pub on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II called The Huntsman. The weather was somewhat on the cool side, but we still availed ourselves the great open air store fronts many restaurants have in Europe, and this pub was no exception.
The Huntsman main bar
As with anything Irish, the inside didn’t look like much and we were not disappointed. The main bar was well worn and the tables and surroundings showed years of vigorous use. Either the Italians themselves allow for a good Irish pub night out regularly, or there are plenty of international travelers of Northern European and U.S. persuasion visiting the area, or a bit of both.
In any case having been to Ireland, our somewhat home away from home country, one of us felt it incumbent to test the veracity of the Guinness. We were actually wondering if the silky chocolate texture and flavor would survive dispensing from an Italian establishment. For such an analytic task, Tristan agreed to take one for the team and give it a try.
Tristan enjoying an authentic Guinness moment
After some delay, Tristan noted the bartender getting our drink order together. He remarked, “Let’s see if they draft the Guinness like they do in Ireland?” He even noted the long pause they allow the brew to settle there when we visited the factory last year. As can be seen by his first gulp of the viscous beverage above, he confirmed and was not disappointed with the results.
I on the other hand went with the Grimberger Blonde. A safe bet, when considering every other time I have had it, it always tasted great. Aside from the fact it does not depend on nitrogen to be dispensed correctly like Guinness, it always comes through with a nice clean taste and finish. Though I will say, when dispensed properly you cannot beat a Guinness!
The rest of experience only consisted of typical Irish pub food. A mixed salad for Patti, a hamburger and fixings for Tristan and I stuck with the panini with a side order of fries. All in all worth the 3.7 the tavern is weighted on google.
Given all that goes on in America, the day to day political bullshit, Libertarianism ad nauseum, paranoia, narcisistic behaviors, etc. I have found our trip to Europe and Italy in particular more than liberating, I find it refreshing. I would like to use the term mind-cleansing, the act of ridding one’s mind of all past day to day perceptions and cares.
Yes, for sure, the European Union have their own minority stupid asses that hold sway over the majority, with Brexit and other less public referendums. But at least the Brexit has the EU fixated for a change. That they even gave the Brits a relaxed scheduled to leave actually astounds me. As any American would say, if you want to go, please go already. My own opinion is mixed on the matter, but the short of it is, the EU ought to let them fall, and fall hard if they want to. Its best for children to learn from a bloody nose and by extension countries as well.
This brings me to interesting sidewalk art I happen to find. In an effort to clear my mind’, I have allowed my once astral senses to turn earthwards, streetwards to be specific, instead of to the sky and the cosmos they so dearly love. Turin at least seems to be filled with an assortment of strange, if not 12 monkeys, related kind of street art.
The above was found low on a building’s foundation of a common thoroughfare. Of course I am not certain of the objective of the depiction, but imagine it has something to do with turning off your TV. The caption or title seems to read “skene”, which I don’t think has anything to do with the female anatomy, but rather the name of a group publishing their rhetoric.
The next image above appears to perhaps have something to do with the zombie apocalypse. Obviously a young woman in thin bandages stopping us from entering or proceding further. To what end? Or perhaps something totally different. Since I am not part of the society here, merely an interloper, I cannot know for sure. But it appears to be a sincere rejection of something.
Lastly, something I can appreciate. It took great pains during my tenure NOT to become an authority. For some, a cop out for sure, for others an understandable, even allergic reaction to becoming that which one detests. Apparently, our Italian brethren have the same mistrust of the Yale graduates and American elite we do. Once I read this my mind no longer felt as clean as I thought it should. Geography in the 21st century is apparently no longer the cognitive antiseptic it once was.
For a proper mind-cleanse, some far off mountain range, or perhaps even Antartica is more appropriate. I at least, have found the streets of Turin invigorating and its street art interesting but not enough of a distraction for a proper mind-cleanse.
Interested by some literature, we happen to read in our apartment, we decided to visit the Madama Palace on via Giuseppi Garibaldi at piazza Castello. The entrance fee was 10€, 8€ for students, which included a map.
Fine wood engraving
Some of the amazing historical items I found in there were the wood carvings. The one example I found the most compelling, was the depiction of Christ’s birth in the manger as shown above. There were other similar carvings and most were done on choir screens or benches. Most of these were reliefs, as well as all of the pictures and stained glass, were, or course, for the benefit of the illiterate part of the congregation.
Erick in front of decorative church panel
The museum is filled with many other artifacts and itself is built on an ancient castle or other ruins from the Roman times, as is evident within one of the stairwells. Ascending to the parapet on the roof provides an excellent view of the city.
