This Castle 'Twas Home

Tuesday morning, it felt like we were really going on vacation!  We had five whole days with no work, no coming back to Basel for church responsibilities before Sunday, no worries, and we were headed to one of our favorite places----Bavaria!

We got out of here in pretty good time.  DJ had swapped company cars with someone who had a Volvo SUV with more leg room and more cargo space.  We could have had that car for our own, but it was a "bugger" to park so we opted for our smaller Audi for our everyday use.  The Audi was okay for our little day trips with the kids, but we needed some room for this one given the fact that there were five of us and lots of "stuff", and we were going to be on the road for up to five and six-hour stretches. 

After driving through a lot of Switzerland and a slice of Austria, we made our way to Schwangau where we checked into our hotel and then headed to Hohenschwangau, the summer residence of Maximillian II.  His son, Ludwig, is the one who built Neuschwanstein (I gave you a history lesson about him here).  We had time to tour the castle before supper and did just that despite drizzly weather!



A view from the village below



A view from Neuschwanstein the next day

A few shots from the courtyard outside before we went in:

When we went inside, we found that just like Neuschwanstein, there is a "no photography" policy.  So... this shot of the door is as close as I could get!  I found the inside of the castle to be the most "homey" of any we have seen so far.  Not that it wasn't large and spacious.  Not that it wasn't filled with beautiful and expensive things.  But because it was decorated with the things that the family loved and because there were evidences of the family that lived there (like family portraits and busts of their two sons on the mantle), it made it feel like "real" people lived there.  There were places for them to worship.  The telescope that Ludwig used later when he was watching Neuschwanstein being built is still there.  Gifts from other royals were there as well, denoting some kind of a relationship with them (maybe that's good, maybe that's bad).  It was almost as if you could "feel" the presence of those that called the castle home.  I almost felt like they might come home at any minute and catch us invading their private spaces!



Back outside:

We had a beautiful walk down the back of the hill and near the shores of Alpsee, a beautiful mountain lake.

One last shot as we headed for dinner



Loved our day despite the fairly long drive and the rain.