Munich Part 3

Part 3 of Munich is pretty simple.  AY, AN and I went to the zoo.

It was a fun time.  The zoo is very pretty and has lots of animals.  Some of the animals were not there and since out German is not that good i could not understand all of the reason why.

One of the highlights was seeing the polar bears.

The polar bear was looking at AN in this picture.

Being the mom that I am I had to have a picture with her and the polar bear since he had been interacting with her.

They had a petting area and the girls loved feeding the goats and petting them.

This is peacock with its babies.

It was a great day.  Just a relaxing day and we love to visit zoos in all the cities we live and visit.  I think it may be one of the nicest zoos we have been to.  There is lots of trees and it is an easy place to walk around.  The girls had lots of fun and it was great to ride the train in again.

Have a great day.

Melanie

Munich Part 2

Nymphenburg Palace

Side Building

Closer View of Palace

This is truly a palace.  The place is so big it would take days to see it all.  This was the Bavarian Rulers favorite summer residence.  The palace took years, to be exact centuries to build.  It was started in the 1600 and continued through the 19th century.  King Ludwig II was born in the palace.  We were there for hours and probably did not see half of the palace.  We walked around the grounds and were amazed at the beauty that we saw.  They really loved the greek gods.  There are statues of the gods in the garden and a beautiful fresco in the main hall of the gods.

T loves taking pictures and while we were waiting on her to look and take pictures, the rest of us sat on some benches in the main hall to look at the ceiling.  I was trying to understand the painting, but my son had it figured out.  He amazed an american who was there and also trying to figure out the painting.  N could tell him about the gods and what they were the god of.  The man said we were the first smart people he had met in Germany.  I don't really believe that, but N is smart and knows his mythology.

The palace was a great place to visit.  I wish we had more time there, but as things go we had to make a train to get back to Oberammergau.  If you make it to Munich one day visit the palace and the glockenspiel.  You do not want to miss either one of those places.

Come back next week for Munich Part 3.  Yes we went back another day, but just me and AY and AN. The other children we busy at church camp in Switzerland.

Have a wonderful day.  

Melanie

Munich Part 1

This day we started by taking the train from Oberammergau to Munich.  It was a nice trip on the train.  When we arrived at the main train station in Munich we then had to walk to the main square with the glockenspiel.  It was quite a walk.  Munich has changed in twenty years and there was lots of construction.  We made it there and got some lunch and secured our spot to watch the clock.

Glockenspeil

This is the glockenspiel in Munich, Germany.  It only chimes three tomes a day.  It is a large cuckoo clock.  The knights go around jousting and then one wins.  The court jesters dance around.  It is truly a things to see.

It is amazing the number of Germans that have never been to Munich or have seen the glockenspiel.  It is fun to see, but I think the kids did not find it as interesting as the castles that we saw.

When the show was over, it takes about 11 minutes for the clock to do everything, we boarded the underground train and headed for the Palace Nymphenburg.

I will post about this palace next week.  It will be longer than i want for this one.  So please come back next week to see pictures and our adventure in the Palace Nymphenburg.

Melanie

Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau

Hohenschwangau

This castle has been here in some form since the 12th century.  The Knights of Schwangau originally built this castle.  The Schwangau Knights died out in the 16th century and the castle fell into ruins.  It was purchased in in the 1800 by Prince Maximilian who later became king and was the father of King Ludwig II.  It was restored from 1832-36.  King Ludwig II spent lots of time here and had visits here from Richard Wagner. 

This castle was very interesting.  There were secret passage ways for getting to different rooms and the staff could even keep the fires going in the furnaces without bothering the people in the rooms.  We found this to be a favorite for us because it had so much history.  

The castle is right next door, so to speak, from Neuschwanstein.  You can look out the window and see Neuschwanstein.  

If you visit one you should visit the other.  You can get a ticket to cover both.  We had the 14 day pass that covered Neuschanstein, so we only paid for Hohenschwangau since it is still privately owned.

Neuschwanstein is probably the most famous castle in Germany.  It is the one that Walt Disney based Cinderella's castle on for the parks and the movie.  It is truly a very romantic castle.  The castle is huge, but only a few rooms were finished before the king died.  In June of 1886 the king was found drowned under mysterious circumstances.  He had, just days before, been removed from office.  It is said that he was spending too much money.
This castle had many painted scenes dedicated to the works of Richard Wagner.  It is an amazing place to visit, but we decided that there were others that we liked better.  This is a castle to visit, but I think that it's fame is due to the size, the location (which is unbelievable) and of course Disney.
It is fun to imagine what it would have been had Ludwig II been able to finish it.  You can also see that it would be very expensive to finish.  Many of the rooms are in use for other things like offices, gift shops and exhibits of artifacts.
I think it is worth a visit, but I really loved some of the other castles for their beauty and architecture.

Come back next week for a look at the royal palace in Munich.

Guten Dag,

Melanie

Linderhof Palace

When we moved to Norway taking the kids to Germany was on our bucket list.  This summer we spent two weeks in Germany.  I have already posted about the Hohenzollern castle, so the next few weeks are gong to be about the other castles that we visited.  All of the castles that we visited were ones that i had not visited when we lived there many years ago.  There are many castles in Germany to visit.  We bought a 14 day pass that would get us into many of the castles.  It as 40 euro and well worth it.  We visited 5 castles total and only three were included, but entry into one castle would have been 40 euro.
One of the castles on the list was the Linderhoff.  This was built by King Ludwig II.  This was his favorite residence.  He built 4 castles during his time as king.  This castle is small in comparison to other  castles.  He never married or had children so there was only on bed chamber.  The castle is very interesting because it moves in a square.  There were no hallways and one room led into another room. The dining room had a table that could be lowered to the kitchen for the servants to put the food on and the raised back up to the dining room.  Ludwig was a very private man and did not want the interaction with others.

He had a cave on the back of the property.  The cave is man made.  It is amazing.  He had this boat made and would ride around in the cave in the boat.  He loved the composer Richard Wagner and this was suppose to be a place to hold concerts.  No one knows if that ever happened.  The cave is very fascinating, like a dream world.  There is a beautiful painting on the wall.  This place is definitely something to go see.

Fountain in Front of the Palace

The trip to this palace was just me and the younger girls.  As you can see they had a good time.  Next time you see them ask them about it.  I thought that this was going to be something that I would only enjoy, but they listened and can tell you all about the palace and King Ludwig II.  

So if you visit Germany someday, and are in bavaria visit this castle.  It is so worth the trip.  

So as they say in Germany,
Guten Tag
Melanie

Hohenzollern

This is the Castle Hohenzollern from the road.  It is a very magnificent sight to see.  There is just little towns around.  It is south of Stuttgart, Germany.  The castle sits atop a hill which it makes it great from the stand point of defending.  Which when you visit places like that with a military guy you get that kind of information.

This is a view from the front as we drove up the hill to the entrance.  You had to stop at a parking lot and either walk or take a bus to the top.  It was a very steep walk to the top.

We could not take pictures of the inside of the castle, but let me assure you it was amazing.  We had to wear slippers over our shoes to walk on the floor.

The castle is the ancestral seat of the Hohenzollern family.  The family became the German Emperors.  The history is that of Prussia rulers that took over during the 1800.  It is has many historical artifacts at the castle.  It has ties to England.  One of the Kings married a princess from England.  Not long after the King died.  They had a child and he also died at an early age.  She continued to live there.  She was a very good artist and painted pictures of her son before he died.

The castle is still privately owned.  If you are ever in Germany I highly recommend visiting this castle.

If you get a chance look it up on the internet.  They have lots of pictures and information about the castle.  If you homeschool it might even make a great lesson on prussia, swabian and german rulers.

Come back next week for a trip to another castle in Germany.

Auf Weidersehen,

Melanie

New Computer

So I now have a new computer.  I have been posting form my iPad, and that is not the easiest.  I hope to do more posting since I now have a computer.  I have much to tell everyone.  I hope to post about our vacation in Germany and how the rest of the summer went and the first month of school and fall.
Please check back to see how things have gone for us over the past few months.