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.

Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein Castles in Schwangau Germany part 1

Like I said in a previous post I downloaded the "Top 100" Germany app.  Created by using the survey results from the Germany National Tourist Board.  My goal in the 3 years we are stationed here is to try to hit them all.  So far this will make the 10th site of the 100 so we are doing pretty good in the three months we have been here.

The trip to Schwangau was only 3 hours.  A VERY foggy trip, we where worried that we wouldn't be able to get good pics of the castles.  They are located at the base of the Alps on the German/Austria border.  With our mild winter this year (2nd warmest winter in 100 years) the ski slopes that we passed where all closed.  But to our surprise the fog cleared up as soon as we arrived into town.  

We payed for parking and bought our combo tickets to the 2 castles.  The only way to see the two castles is by tour only. 

Our first tour was Hohenschwangau Castle,  the childhood residence of King Ludwig II, the home of King Maximilian II of Bavaria.  The site has had a fortress here since the 12th century but fell into ruins by the 1800's.  Maximilian discovered the site in 1829 and in 1833 he began reconstruction of the castle.  The castle served as their summer and hunting residence.  King Maximilian died in 1864 and Ludwig II was crowned successor.  In 1869 he decided to build his own castle within site of Hohenschwangau.  The castle was opened as a museum in 1913 after Ludwig's uncle died in 1912.

Here is a picture from the parking lot. Hohenschwangau Castle.

The walk up to the castle.

Picture from the Castle Gardens.

A view of the town below.

You can see King Ludwigs Neuschwanstein Castle from his parents castle.

View from the castle gardens.

Although pictures are not allowed inside the castle, a little goggling and I was able to get these pics. The castle was never damaged during WWII so all the pictures and furniture are original.  This is queen Marie's living room.

King Maximilian's Bedroom there are stars on the ceiling that are actually opaque glass and candles could be lit in a area above the bedroom so the king would see the stars twinkle at night.  Also hidden in the branches of the tree in the ceiling there was a moon made the same way.  The kings quarters also had a private bathroom with running water and a flushing toilet.  There is a hidden door inside the room that leads to a spiral staircase that goes down to the queens bedroom.

The Kings music room, a great German composer, Richard Wagner would come and stay at the castle.  the piano here is the actual one that he would play on.

This is the guest room that Richard Wagner would stay in on his visits.

A gift to the king, this box has gold plated solid silver figurines and is encrusted with emeralds and rubys.

The castle kitchen had all the modern amenities of the time, with a pantry and running water.

The view of the Alps from the kings quarters.

Leaving the castle grounds.

Overall touring the castle was a real treat.  

A pic from Neuschwanstein castle.

The tour was very interesting, it was our first tour of a castle interior.  More than 300,000 visitors come here every year.  In this pic you can see why Maximilian fell in love with this area.  January seemed to be great there wasn't huge crowds of people.  I am going to split this visit up into two parts.