This post is especially dedicated to my bestest German/American friend and second mom, Helga Brady. If you do not know her, you should do yourself the favor and get to know her.
My family has known Helga for quite some time. And when I say “quite some time,” I mean like 30 years. At least she’s known my family that long. She worked for my uncle with whom I am close with so we used to see her all the time when I was a teenager. Then, when my dad bought my uncle’s business… well, let’s just say she came along with the package. A super duper added bonus.
I wish I had a picture of her. She is 80 years old now, but acts 30 years younger than her age. She has orange red hair and a thick German accent, but one that is so enjoyable to listen to that you almost don’t notice. She even continues to come in an answer phones for my parents.
Helga is like my second mom. I could confide in her secrets I could never confide in anyone. And she would definitely tell me off (in her thick German accent) if I was doing something she didn’t approve of. But she was so open-minded, that hardly ever happened.
I miss her when I am over here because I think about how this used to be her home. I am amazed at how she could have left such a beautiful place. All because she fell in love with an American soldier, she moved to the States to be with him. I try to send her post cards from all the places we’ve been, because I’m sure she has been to all of them and has a fun time reminiscing. I have forgotten a few times so it’s a good thing my dad bought her a couple postcards from this place to make up for all the times I’ve missed.
She is definitely family… so of course any family of hers, is family of ours. This is why we had to make a trip to see her relatives. This is Ann (Helga’s cousin, Rene’s wife, but they are like a brother and sister to Helga). We visited with Ann and Rene for quite some time, and then she offered to take us on a tour of the city. They live in a city called Bern-Kastel that is about 1 1/2 hours away from me. It sits on each side of the Mosel River.
We were excited, of course, because when we drove in, Fall had painted a beautiful picture for us… the forest we drove through was in every shade of bright orange, yellow and red. And as the forest opened up, we saw the most beautiful German city on the water. How have I not known about this place? I thought. And how have I not come here before? Well, I definitely will be back. Next time: Christmas Market season!
It was a little cold out and Spencer’s pants had become wet. So I had to stay behind with him at a toy store and not take the tour. I knew I could come back (since I live so close) so I sent my parents on ahead. Both my parents were enamored. Buildings built leaning over, from the 1400’s, or ones that have 24 windows… to be opened like an advent calendar at Christmastime. They also loved that almost every person in that town knew Ann and chit chatted with them everywhere they went.
(These pictures aren’t that great. My dad took them with my camera phone because we had forgotten the camera back in the car (which was parked a little far away). But you get the idea.)
I’m not going to write a ton about this place like I did last time we visited. The history and story of our previous trip (click here) gives some more in-detail explanations.
We did this trip the same day we had visited the Ludwig’s Linderhof Castle (see previous post). We got here kind of late so we missed the appointment handouts to see both. These two castles are only down the hill from each other, and possible to view on the same day, as long as you get there in time to put your name in for an appointment. Depending on the size of the crowd (which surprisingly was quite large for November), it could be a few hours’ wait. For us, the last tour was already going. So we had to choose between the two. Unfortunately we were only able to see the first one, and walk to the outside of the second.
The first castle “Hohenschwangau” was King Ludwig’s childhood castle. I hadn’t visited this one when we came before so it was cool to be able to do it this time.
It was a pretty hefty walk up to get there. We had to stop and rest once or twice. Remember, too, we had just come from his other castle (Lindherhof) so we were all starting off a little tired anyway.
There are stories that King Ludwig was a very miserable child here and that’s why he built his other castle up on the beautiful mountain, to be “closer to the heavens” than where his miserable childhood was. I never grasped why he would have been so miserable until I went inside. It was very dreary and unfeeling. I can’t think of the right “era” to term it. The inside has the feeling of the time of the Crusades. Very odd. Not very much gold (that I noticed), but lots of brass (not my favorite).
As you can see, however, the grounds around it were beautiful, especially because the bright fall leaves were surrounding the entire thing.
Random picture of Brian and Spencer but he had just carried Spencer up the entire thing (all steps) on Brian’s shoulders. I wanted to capture this feat for posterity, and to remind ourselves how much of a climb it is for next time.
No photoshop on the color of these leaves. They were really that bright.
Like many castles, you’re not allowed to take pictures inside. But this part was in another building where the gift shop, which used to serve as the servants’ quarters. It gave us a sneak peek inside what the kitchen would have looked like. My dad thought it was pretty cool (of course cuz he’s a caterer) and it sparked some great conversation about how it would have been to live back in that time.
Cute picture of Xoe. I don’t know where Xanthe is though. I need to find a picture of her.
There she is. I wasn’t sure if this was a redundant picture, but we gotta get everyone in this post, right?
My dad caught this picture of us four at nighttime (well, right at dusk) of Hohenschwangau behind us. He titled it, “The Queen and Her Princesses.” It’s not a super great quality when blown up like this, but you can see how pretty they light the castle up at nighttime.
Neuschwanstein Castle
This castle was way too hard to walk up and down the stairs to take a tour. That’s why we decided if we had to choose between the two, we toured the inside of Hohenschwangau and took the horse carriage up to walk around the outside of this one. My mom loved it and thought it was worth the trek up there (once the horse drops you off, you still have to walk a ways.)
I’ll be honest. The inside of this castle, even though the most famous, and one of the most memorable castles anywhere (Disney patterned Sleeping Beauty’s castle after this one), didn’t do it for me. It’s not as amazing as most of the other ones I’ve seen. Only 1/3 of it was finished and it probably never will be finished. I don’t think my parents missed out on anything.
Afterward, we had missed the last horse and carriage (the man was so rude to us and pretty much threw us out of his carriage up at the top. And even though he told us he would wait for us, he took off the minute we were off), we had to walk down the hill. It’s a pretty good hike, and I was worried about my mom and dad’s health but they did pretty well. Xanthe was the most complainy of all of them! And my dad even carried her part way down on his back. He’s amazing!
One of the reasons we traveled to Garmisch is that it was quite close to the castles of King Ludwig. They’re pretty impressive. This one used to be his Hunting Lodge, but it was the only one that ended up finished, so he used it as a main residence. It’s a way smaller version of Palace of Versailles, but just as gawdy. Because it was winter, all of the gardens were covered and all the statutes were underneath boxes. It was fine. The inside was splendid to see! I did a more in-depth post Last year (click on the link) when we took the kids in May 2009. You can go there to see more about the actual castle. But here are a few pictures of all of us having a good time.
Below is the front of the castle. You can see from where my dad is standing (down in front) where the fountains, flowers and statues are supposed to be.
We couldn’t take pictures inside, but look at my previous post (that I linked above) and I posted some published pictures of the inside. Brian stayed outside with Spencer since he would just be CRAZY inside… kid does not like being confined. (Plus, Brian has already seen it twice before.) Once Spencer was finished running around the gardens about 10 times (and they’re not small gardens), Brian gave him the iphone to play his kid games on. Gotta have SOMETHING to keep that kid contained. I just thought this was a cute picture of Xanthe and Spencer. The next one after that I loved Spencer’s bulldog hood and sporting his leather jacket on top.
Spencer LOVED the swans until one came charging after him and bit his hand. Brian had to actually block the swan with his knee. Swan came slamming into him. Spencer wanted nothing to do with him after that.
I’m posting the next few pictures of the girls, because I’m going to start a theme of running pictures throughout some of my posts. It’s going to be called, “Xoe & Xanthe refuse to take a serious picture.” It’s the funniest thing… me trying to snap pictures of them unknowingly but they always catch me and make some stupid face. This time, though, I kept asking them to pose and just take a cool artsy picture and inevitably one of them would ruin it. The first two pictures aren’t bad, but watch the next ones. And then just wait for some Halloween pictures I have that I’ll post at another time. Silly girls. I don’t know why I’m questioning and wondering where they got it from. My whole family can never take a picture without striking some crazy pose or making a face. 
.(refused to turn around)
…then when they did… I got this…
…Xoe was just pretending to be fiddling with her nose, or picking it or something, but she had it there for a good 12 pictures… or she just likes picking her nose! Either way, it’s up on the internet. Booyah, Xoe! That’s what you get for not taking a serious picture!
Don’t worry. I’ll get them back somehow. Muahahaha! I always do. (They’re very big into practical jokes. So we get each other good sometimes.)
Next Stop: Neuschwanstein Castle and Hohenschwangau Castle
