Jonahs Birthday present............Trip to England!!!

So what do you get your youngest child for his 11th Birthday, who is infatuated with British people, while you are stationed in Germany?  You take him to England for 3 nights!!  Travel here is EXTREMELY cheap, around $350 for the three of us to include a rental car for 4 days.  We cant afford NOT to go!!

 We surprised Jonah at school to give him his Birthday present.

On the plane, leaving for England. Ryan Air was pleasant to fly on even though its a budget airline.

We grabbed our rental car and headed to the 2br Flat that we booked off of www.airbnb.com.  We where on the backside of this building.

 The building was turn of the century so it was a little drafty, but plenty of room.

This is Barney the house cat.

Barney was suggesting websites.  

 After we got the car unloaded we went to go check out the London eye. Our first major site was the tower bridge.   

 It was built from 1886-1894, it is a draw bridge to allow ships to pass.

The upper level was built as a walk way so pedestrians could cross any time of the day, but was closed in 1910 because people didnt want to walk all the stairs. It was reopened in 1982 as part of the payed tour.

Next we went to the London eye to take a ride and see the sights from up high.

It is 443' tall and rotates 10" per second, it is a 30 minute ride to go completely around.  It has some awesome views!

Big ben in the background.

 We dont do pics together often.

 The pods are huge

We couldnt help but take this pic, it looks cool with the trees lit up.

 Cant come to England without Fish and Chips!

The palace of Westminster, which holds the two houses of Parliament for the UK, the clock tower (Big Ben) is to the left.

 The Palace of Westminster, view from the bridge over the river Thames.

 Big Ben is actually the name of the 16 ton bell in the clock tower.  Its true name is Elizabeth Tower.

The clock is so accurate that there is a small stack of pennies on top of the 660lb pendulum, by adding or taking away 1 penny alters the clock by .4 seconds 

At the base of each of the clock dials there is a Latin inscription which translates to," O Lord, keep safe our Queen Victoria the First"

Westminster Abbey, just across the street of the Palace of Westminster and Big Ben.  This is the North entrance.

The construction of the church began in 1245!

The rear of the church, the church was where Queen Elizabeth married here in 1947, as well as Prince Andrews wedding, and recently Prince William and Catherine where married here.

After some other sightseeing we didn't get to down town till around noon so we didn't get to tour Westminster Abbey, the line was streached all the way around the block to get in.

The main entrance on the west side.

Office of the supreme court.

 A trip wouldn't be complete without a pic in the red telephone booth.

 It also smells as if the bums think they are urinals.

 St Paul's Cathedral built in 1675, it was the tallest building in London until 1962.

 The West front entrance.

 The huge front door at the West entrance.

This church is where Princess Diana was married.  We where able to pay and go inside of this church and it was beautiful, the ceilings are amazing. We where not able to take pics inside the church.

This pic i got from google shows how beautiful it is on the inside.

 We made it to Buckingham Palace, Jonah got really excited.

 The huge Victoria Memorial was created in 1911.

Jonah was kind of bummed out when we told him the Queen wasn't at the Palace.  Just FYI the Union Jack is not flown if the Queen is in.  They fly the "Royal Standard" and it looks like this.  We told him we would have to check and see if she was at Windsor Castle.

 We made the hour drive to Windsor Castle, you could see it from the Parking lot.

 Built in 1066 the Castle walls are built upon 13 acres.  Although it is officially only her weekend residence Windsor Castle is the largest inhabited castle in the world and the longest inhabited in all of Europe.

Again the Queen is not in.  I think Jonah is going to wait by the gate until the Queen shows up.

There is a very nice shopping area at the outer West side of the Castle.  We ended up eating dinner and was able to lookout and see Windsor Castle while we ate, what a view.

The next day we drive 1 1/2 hour from London to go see Stonehenge. 

 Cold, rainy and 39 mph crosswinds.  It was still well worth it.

 There is believed to have been activity here as far back as 3000bc.  

The stones are believed to have been placed here between 2600-2400bc

 Even though it is just a bunch of large stones setting in a field it is still awe inspiring.

To think they carved the rocks into long rectangular stones and made them with mortise and tendons to fit them together and at the time had no iron tools to do it with.  That's dedication!

 Before we headed back to the flat to pack we decided to go visit Southampton.  Here at Westgate is where the passengers of the Mayflower walked to get to the ship to sail to America in 1620.

It has been a walled city to protect its port since 840AD, you can even see evidence of old cannon balls that where fired into the city.

 The Mayflower in 1620 and the Titanic in 1912 set sail from here, Southampton is definitely an important port.

 The monument at base of the city walls to commemorate the Pilgrim Fathers.

And I will close this blog with Jonah sitting at the port of Southampton, at sunset, pondering what was clearly, in his words, "The BEST Birthday weekend EVER!"

Trip to Austria, SNOWBOARDING TIME!

For my 43rd Birthday I decided I wanted to do something we havent ever tried before. So we set out on a 3 day trek to Vienna, Austria to do a little sight seeing and try our hand at snowboarding. Lord help me!
I rented our gear from the Outdoor Rec center on post.  Man they have a load of snow gear! Skis, snowboards, snow shoes, all the bindings and boots, helmets, ski suits, everything you need to rent to see if you want to commit to buying your own.  If you have your own gear they also offer waxing and set up service for your equipment.

 It was a 4hr trip from our house in Germany to Vienna.  Once we crossed the river into Austria there was a truck stop where you could get a vignette sticker, You need vignette stickers in most European countries to pay for road taxes, they are priced by length of stay.  In Austria the lowest was a 7 day vignette for €8.50.

We booked an entire apt for the two nights through www.airbnb.com.  It is a great app for phone but has better features for PCs, you can book entire houses, private rooms or shared rooms all across the world, great places in the US also!  So if you travel check it out, or if you live in a heavily visited city and are leaving for vacation try listing your place on the site. We booked this 1 bedroom apt 10 min from downtown Vienna for $57 a night.

We walked around downtown for a little while but had to meet the lady at the apartment to get the key at 6pm so all we really got to tour was St Stephens Cathedral.

 Built 1137-1160 Gothic style St Stephens Cathedral

 The most recognizable feature of this church is the 230,000 colored tiles that adorn the roof.  

 A beautiful church that did not receive any major damage during WWII. The inside was beautiful and statues where everywhere throughout the columns and walls of the church. 

 The main pipe organ above the entrance is HUGE, if you look on the two sides the organ is held up by two Angels.  You cant see it in the picture but the pipe organ has two separate pieces on either side of the entrance as well

 Very detailed columns, and beautiful arched ceiling

 one of the 18 altars in the church, still set up with a nativity scene from Christmas.

 Wiener Neustadter Altar built in 1447, it was restored to its original glory in 1985 and took 20 years, 10 workers, 40,000 man hours and €1.3 million to restore.

 The main Altar.  Its not very clear I had to take the pic from way off because they had it blocked off.

Wider view of main Altar.

We walked thru the huge permanent outdoor market, Fresh Hand made pastas! We passed probably 6-10 of them.

 Fresh anti-pastas, cheeses and smoked meats too.

 The fruit stands where bountiful and very fresh looking.

 A picture of downtown Vienna before we left.

 We got up Sat morning and made our hour drive South East of Vienna to Semmering, Austria. The area was beautiful, the Alps having some decent snow.  I bought mine and Jonahs lift tickets and kim positioned herself for the show.

 Although we fell quite often we soon got the hang of it by watching others.

 Balance is the key.....Snowboarding is NOT like surfing or skateboarding. 

 After an hour or so Jonah and I could go straight and kinda stop........turning was the issue.

 Most of the hill was hard packed but one area had some softer snow and we could turn in it.

 That is a look of pure determination........................and exhaustion!

This is my first try at video upload, we didnt get much video footage but here is a clip of Jonah working it.

We had a great time, I had a fantastic 43rd birthday and we are definitely gonna do this again, maybe with professional lessons next trip.

Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein Castles in Schwangau Germany part 2

After our tour of Hohenschwangau we had about 2 hours to get to Neuschwanstein.  Neuschwanstein Castle was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

This is the view of Neuschwanstein Castle from our drive up to the town.  We had a little lunch before we made the trip up to the second castle.  We didn't want to make the uphill hike in the cold, so we took a more relaxed approach to getting up the mountain.

The horse drawn carts are pretty reasonable at 6 euro each for Kim and I, Jonah was free.  It was about a 10 min, or less, ride up to the top.

 The views of the valley below are beautiful.

I imagine during the spring the lush green of the farmland below is breathtaking.

We had about 20 or 30 minutes to kill before our tour started so we killed some time by taking pics.

The pics just do not do justice of the mountains around the castle.

Castle entrance, its a panoramic shot the pic makes it look curved but its is straight across the front.  King Ludwig started construction of his castle in 1869. The castle was drawn up by stage designer, Christian Jank.  Ludwig was so controlling on the conception of the castle that it is regarded as his own creation rather than that of architect Eduard Reidel.  This was one of the largest castle construction sites in the 19th century.

The view coming thru the main castle gates. In 1882 the castle basement and first floor was completed.  Ludwig had it fully furnished and he moved in to watch over the rest of the construction.

Again, no photography is allowed inside the castle, so Google has been so kind as to provide the photos of the inside of the castle.

The kings study.  14 rooms, only 1/3rd of the castle, was finished before King Ludwig's mysterious death.

Ludwig's living room.  Everything in the castle is just as it was when Ludwig was living here.  The king and his family had a love affair with Swans.  Every room in both castles has some sort of Swan in it.  You can see the border surrounding the room under the ceiling joist has swans facing each other.   

The Kings dining room.  He was a very shy king, so I am guessing that is why the dining room table is so small. Down the hall he also had a telephone installed.  He could call through two lines, one to his parent castle and the other to the post office.

The kings bedroom, the canopy of his bed resembles all the Gothic Church steeples seen throughout Bavaria. The detail of all the hand carved items throughout the entire room are awe inspiring. It took 14 master carvers over four years to complete the canopy alone.

The kings room also had running water from the mountain springs, the water would flow out of the beak of this pure silver swan.  

The Kings dressing room.

Remember the king had the plans drawn up by a stage designer, part of the design was a cave (gratto), it was the hallway between the living room and the study.  It could be lit with different and also had a running waterfall.

The largest room in  the castle is the hall of the singers.  It was never meant to entertain but to be more of a walk thru monument of the culture of knights and the romanticism of the middle ages.

The Throne room was very impressive, the ceiling is painted as the sun and the floor mosaic tiles are designed to showcase the animal kingdom.

The mosaic tile floor is very detailed, they have placed clear plexiglass over the floor so you can walk about the lower portion of the throne room with out messing up the floor.

The Kings Throne, but since the king died before it was finished a throne was never built.  Ludwig saw himself as a mediator between God and the world.  As you can see Jesus is above the throne to watch over the King along with the six sacred kings:  Saint Louis of France, Saint Stephen of Hungary, Saint Edward the Confessor of England, Saint Wenceslaus of Bohemia, Saint Olaf of Norway and Saint Henry, Holy Roman Emperor. 

The castle kitchen had hot and cold running water, a fresh fish pond, a pantry, oven, and built in china cabinet.  The king was able to live here for 171 glorious days before he mysteriously died.  In 1886, the Kings uncle Luitpold, had the King deemed insane with no formal diagnosis from a doctor.  Only 3 days after his diagnosis, the King and the doctor assigned to watch over him where found dead in the waist high waters of Lake Starnberg.  There is still controversy on if the kings death was murder or accidental drowning even though no water was found in his lungs during the autopsy. Only six weeks after Ludwig's death Luitpold ordered the palace open to paying visitors.

 I had just enough light left in the day to run to Marienbrucke (Marys bridge) named after King Ludwig II's mother. I took a couple of pics from the suspension bridge.  The bridge is actually older than the castle it was wood in 1845 and rebuilt with iron in 1866.

From here you can really see the Snow White Disney castle inspiration. Today there are over 1.3 million visitors each year.  During the peak touring season it will get about 6000 people per day.  In 2008 the total number of visitors topped over 60 million people. Just 2004 alone the revenues logged where over 6.5 million euro or over $8.8 million US!  But I have to say I think it was well worth the money we spent. A trip I think that will last in our memories for a lifetime.