When in Rome... Our Life and Adventures in Europe: Epic Summer Part III: Mega Trip--Bavaria

We were home for four full days before we headed out on what we have dubbed “Mega Trip.” That was just enough time to get the laundry done and packed and for S to watch The Sound of Music one more time. We also had company, a good teacher friend from Sandy, so we spent a lovely evening in the center together and A was able to tour the Vatican and Ancient Rome with him. We said goodbye early in the morning and then we were off ourselves.

Our goal our first night was to make it to Bolzano in northern Italy, where Italian culture kind of mashes up with German. Signs are in both languages and we ate dinner at a bier haus that serves Italian and Tyrolean food. Our goal was to make it to Bolzano in time to see their main attraction—a museum that houses the famous “Ice Man.” The frozen man is over 5300 years old and was preserved in ice until he was found in 1991. We saw his body, skin still intact, as well as his clothing and tools. It was a fascinating exhibit and really well done for all ages.

Ötzi, the Ice Man (this is a reproduction of what they think he looked like).

Bolzano, Italy

The next morning we headed into the Alps. We took a cog rail train and cable car up to the top of the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest point. When A and I were in the Swiss Alps on our last trip in ’02 we were met with heavy clouds and rain. We were pretty disappointed because the mountains are much less interesting when you can’t see them. We planned Mega Trip to include Alps at the beginning and end of the trip to improve our odds of clear skies. And right away we lucked out! The views from the top of the Zugspitze were incredible. We could see out for miles, a lot of snowy peaks and I just barely made out Neuschwanstein castle. A trekked over to the true summit with the golden cross, but it was a little too technical for the kids (and me) to handle on this trip. The visitor’s center straddles the border of Germany and Austria, so the kids had fun running back and forth across the border (this is one of the perks to traveling in the EU—the downside is we have been all over the continent and have almost no stamps in our passports). We enjoyed some curry bratwurst und frites while appreciating the mountain views and cool air before heading back down in a cable car.

The view of the Zugspitze from below.

The view from the top of the Zugspitze.

The Austrian part of the visitor's center.

A on the true summit.

Kids' new collection hobby--squashed pennies!

Found some snow!

Straddling the German/Austrian border at it's highest point.

Bavarian lunch

Passing the other car on the trip down.

E's new favorite word. We use it to get him to smile for pics.

We made it into Munich that evening and woke up the next morning ready to explore the city. Right away we felt that we were in a place that is more aesthetically similar to home than Rome. On the plus side everything is more wide open and cleaner than Rome. On the down side there are lots of American clothing and food chains. We figured out the subway tickets and map and made our way into the historic city center, called Marienplatz. This is where the New Town Hall with its famous Glockenspiel. We headed to nearby St. Peter’s Church, where we kept our promise to E to climb as many towers as possible this summer. The top of the church tower gave us a great view of Munich, especially of the New Town Hall and the Frauenkirche cathedral. After leaving the tower we went to see the insides of both the Frauenkirche and St. Michael’s Church.

New Town Hall

The Glockenspiel

Climbing the tower of St. Peter's Church.

The view from the top.

The Frauenkirche is on the left. New Town Hall is on the right.

St. Michael's Church

The afternoon was dedicated to the Deutsches Museum. A has fond memories of this place as child, and was excited to share it with our kids. The museum is huge, and entirely devoted to the sciences, so it was perfect for E. First we toured the mining section in the basement. It is set up as a series of mining tunnels, and the kids had fun exploring the nooks and crannies. Other highlights of the museum were the sections on flight and the U-Boat submarine for the boys, and the musical instrument rooms for S and I. We also spent some time in the math room--another favorite with the kids. We spent over three hours in the museum and our kids weren’t ready to leave. E’s comment, “FINALLY, something worth writing about!”

In the mining exhibit.

We're reenacting the Temple of Doom.

E in front of a real U-Boat submarine.

Cool simulator that lets you see how airplane steering works.

Playing a harpsichord in the instrument room.

We all enjoyed the puzzle in the math room.

For dinner we made plans to meet up with a former exchange student of A’s currently studying in Munich. He took us to a huge biergarten, the world’s largest. It seats over 6,000 people. The kids had their first schnitzel and spezi and loved it. A and I enjoyed hearing about his former student’s current and future plans. It was a really nice evening.

Munich's Hirschgarten, the world's largest biergarten dating from 1791.

The next morning we said goodbye to Munich and headed to Berchtesgaden. A and I had been here before in 1998, but in the winter, so we hadn’t been up to the famed Eagle’s Nest. We hopped a bus for the steep twisting ride up the mountain and then made our way up to the top in Hitler’s famous gold elevator (no pics allowed). At the top we hiked up the hill to get a great view of the retreat, now restaurant, and the kids used our time up there to climb and scramble over the rocks. Again, they were not ready to leave! We quickly walked through the actual building before heading back down the elevator to catch our bus. At the bottom we took a little time to walk through the Dokumentation bunker complex. Because this was area was a military target during the war, the unfinished bunker and Eagle’s Nest are all that survived. It was interesting trying to share the history with the kids. S asked about the Eagle’s Nest, “Why did they give such a big present to such a mean man?” They are definitely not too young to understand, and I’m glad they’re thinking, questioning, and forming opinions while visiting these sites.

A made me take this pic for proof. He loves the autobahn (minus construction zones).

The view from the bus on the drive up to the Eagle's Nest.

The tunnel to the famous gold elevator.

The view from the top. Lake Königssee is in the background.

The Eagle's Nest

Scrambling on the rocks.

Inside the Eagle's Nest, now turned restaurant.

In the underground bunker.

Machine gun holes. Little girl on sentry duty.

Buying lunch in Berchtesgaden.

Then it was time to head across the border into Austria and salt country, but I’ll save that for another post, as we headed back to Bavaria a few days later.

We devoted an entire day to Crazy King Ludwig II and his fairytale castles. We started the morning at Linderhof, the smallest of the three, but perhaps the most beautiful (in my opinion). This was the king’s summer retreat. Everything was opulently decorated in the French style of the day. S said she would like the castle to be her house, but she would take out the pictures of all the people she doesn’t know (French royalty). Ludwig liked to be alone, so everything was designed with that in mind. His dining table could be lowered through the floor into the kitchen and set so that he could dine without any servants present. He also had a music grotto where he could listen to Wagner operas alone. The grounds of this castle are what make it my favorite. When we were here before it was February, so the fountains were all boarded up and there was snow instead of flowers. It was still beautiful, but seeing it in the summer is like visiting an entirely different place.

The gardens and front of Linderhof Palace.

The Venus Grotto. This man made cave used the first electricity in Germany. Priorities, right?

The view of the Palace and gardens from the musikpavillon.

After Linderhof it was time to head toward the big castles (and the masses of people). We toured Hohenschwangau first. This was Ludwig’s home as a child, and his father’s castle. We saw the queen’s quarters and the king’s quarters on the first and second floors (yes, each person had their own floor). I was interested in the designations of the rooms. For instance the queen’s dressing room was only for dressing. Her clothes were brought up from a lower floor each day. She also had separate rooms for reading (which she didn’t do much) and writing. We also were able to see some secret doorways. One was in the floor of the queen’s bedroom and led down to a bathroom. Another was in the wall of her bedroom and led up to the king’s bedroom—the “hanky-panky door.” Another highlight was seeing the walnut piano that Wagner played and composed on when he was visiting.

The view of Neuschwanstein from Hohenschwangau

The view from the castle.

Random thought--this would be fun to build out of legos.

Our final castle for the day was Neuschwanstein. Since it sits up on a rocky ledge you have to get up to it. The line for the bus was long and we had plenty of time, so we just decided to walk. As we watched horses pull carriages of people up the hill I remembered our previous trip when we rode up with the horses, but on a sleigh. (In the wintertime there is so much snow that the horses pull sleighs instead of carriages.) We made it up to the castle, but kept walking up the path to a bridge above the castle. The bridge was there before the castle and you can imagine Ludwig standing here picturing his fairytale dream being built (and maybe Walt Disney as well). This castle is huge, but touring the inside doesn’t take any longer than the others because so much it was never completed. We saw parts of three different floors, including the throne room with a two million piece floor mosaic, Ludwig’s bedroom with some of the most detailed woodwork you’ll find anywhere, and a huge hall for staging dramatic performances. Ludwig’s castle was never finished because less than six months after moving in he was declared insane and removed to a location near Munich. A few days later he was found dead in a lake. We heard the story at all three castles and every time we were told the death was under “mysterious” circumstances, as no one knows if the king was murdered or committed suicide. Six months later the castle opened to tourists and it’s still going strong. Yes, it’s crowded and commercialized, but it is also magical and there really is no other place like it.

The view from the bridge.

We spent the night in Ruette, just across the Austrian border, and spent the next morning driving the Romantic Road to Rothenburg. But first, we surprised the kids and stopped at a really fun alpine slide. The slide was just under a mile long and we all had a blast!

Chairlift up to the top!

The Romantic Road is a road that connects villages and walled cities from Füssen to Wurzburg. We made time to drive a section of it on our way to Rothenburg. The section we drove winds through picturesque farmland. We stopped in two small towns along the road, Nördlingen and Dinkelsbühl. In Nördlingen we climbed the bell tower in the center of town. We were right at bell level when they started ringing! It was about 1:45, so it was a little unexpected. First the wooden floors started shaking and we weren’t sure what was happening and then, wow! The top of the tower gave us very pretty views of the town.

Headed down. The wheel that works the bells that almost took our hearing.

Then we stopped in Dinkelsbühl. Another quiet, and adorable, town.

Crossing the moat into town.

Finally we made it to Rothenburg. Rothenburg is super touristy but also super cute. The town is a medieval museum. We spent the evening joining the Night Watchman on his tour. The town’s Night Watchman, in full costume, leads an evening walk and shares his humorous take on Rothenburg’s history. We learned that Rothenburg is so well preserved because the historically free, wealthy city fell on impoverished times and development of the city literally stopped. The city was frozen in time, until the tourist industry revived it. Now it looks like a collection of gingerbread houses surrounded by a roofed wall sprinkled with towers. The city also does up Christmas, big time. Rothenburg is the center of a huge Christmas ornament empire (Käthe Wohlfahrt). The store is extensive and winds you through displays and trees in dozens of themes. I told the kids I’d get them each an ornament as a keepsake. One kid was super excited and one wasn’t. I’ll let you guess who was who. The next morning we walked the medieval wall of Rothenberg. The kids enjoyed running ahead and we enjoyed the views into the city. It was a pleasant way to end our experience in Bavaria.

Our hotel in Rothenburg, which also used to be the mayor's house.

After 30 seconds in this store she said, "I'm going to have to look the first
time through, then we're going to have to go through again so I can choose."