Chickens and Shamrocks (Day 6 of Germany)

Screw it. Youc an deal with the spelling errors. There's really a good chance I'll never fix them. :)

Friday, May 29th, 2009.

BRRRRRRR!!!!!! Seeing as how our bed and breakfast was atop a mountain in the Bavarian Alps AND the fact that we slept with the windows open, it was effing COLD in our room when we woke up that morning. It's all good though. It caused us to snuggle a little at night which is never a bad thing (unless it causes you to sweat like crazy...then, it kind of sucks).

6am, as usual. We decided that since the showers were community, we'd skip out on a full on bathing and just do the brush your teeth thing this morning. It was a little hazy this morning but I suspect that was due to the temperature and the altitude at which we were. We got everything ready to go fairly quickly today and got everything out to the Punto before having the usual breakfast of meats and cheeses. The restaurant part of the B&B was pretty neat. It had windows but it was wide open and there was plenty of natural lighting to keep the place bright enough to not need any artificial lights. We were the only ones in the restaurant at breakfast which was sort of nice. That way, people weren't staring at us like the tourist Americans we were.

Today, we were heading back to Frankfurt, as our flight leaves the next evening. We had plenty of time to do what we wished, though so we headed into town (Hohenschwangau) for a bit more tourist activity. The good thing about the next 2 nights was that I had already booked these nights months in advance (that night in Frankfurt and the following night in London).

We parked the PUnto in the same little gravel lot that we had parked in the night before and proceeded to walk to the ticket building again to purchase tickets for Schloss Hohenschwangau. After buying the tickets, we were waiting outside of the building and I read a sign that had a brief history of the two castles. Schloß Hohenschwangau had actually been the original Neuschwanstein but when König Ludwig (King Ludwig) had the new Neuschwanstein built, he had the name changed to fit his liking. The Schloß Hohenschwangau (as it is now known) was a meeting place for the Knights of Schwangau (Swan order) as far back as the 13th century. It had been attacked and burnt down by Napolean centuries later, and then rebuilt by the Bavarian Royal family. As far as castles go, it was fairly small and was considered more of a vacation home for the family.

On the way up the hill to the castle, we stopped to take a couple pictures of a couple of giant slugs. She had never seen slugs before and of course I grew up torturing the little bastards but these things were HUGE! I had my wife put her hand next to one while I took a picture so you could really grasp how large these suckers were.

Anyway...that wasn't too awfully important but I wanted to throw it in there.

We arrived at the top of the hill and at the castle gate well ahead of our scheduled tour so we walked around the various small courtyards that surrounded the castle. Of course, it was adorned with many variations of swans, some of them serving as fountains. Again, the fountains ran on the natural pressure running water from the mountain streams. There were also many paintings on the structures, many of them with a blue and white themed background. Bavaria's colors are blue and white. Perhaps you've seen the checkered pattern. Heck...look at the BMW symbol. Why do you think it's Blue/White checkered? BMW = Bayerische Motoren Werke(Bavarian Motor Works). Nice cars. But I prefer Audi.

The tour started right on time and once again, we were instructed not to take pictures INSIDE the castle (but could take them through the windows). This castle was by far my favorite of the two. The rooms were all painted with elaborate pictures. They usually were portraying a legend or fairy talke of some sort. Some them represented actual historical events. They were all painted int he romantic ers though, so even the battle scenes on the walls had no blood depicted. The romantic era was good for that. There were family portraits, gold dining sets, stone floors, windows everywhere... The entire place also had a network of passages for the servants to move through so they would not have to be seen by the inhabitants of the castle. One of the guest rooms was my favorite. Apparently, Ludwig was fascinated by Wagner's music. Wagner used to come and stay with Ludwig on occasion and play piano for him and his family at the castle. The piano was still there as well as the linens from when Wagner stayed there. Very cool! While Neuschwanstein was being built, Ludwig chose to live at Hohenschwangau instead of in Munish where royalty normally stayed. His wife had her own room just above his in the castle. Funny thing...they had a secret staircase that ran between the two rooms so they could have a late night rendezvous, if they needed to vent some frustration. :)

Yes, Schloß Hohenschwangau was my favorite. But the tour was over and it was time to walk the town a little more before heading back to Frankfurt. We stopped at a couple different gift shops. She got a purse, got the kids some things. Got my mom and her mom some things. I was seriously debating getting an authentic Bavarian Style hat. I changed my mind because the cost was just too much for how often I really would have worn it. Looking back, I should have just bought the damn thing. I'd wear it if only to be goofy. I'm good at that, I've heard. I thought baout getting some real lederhosen too but that would have been a little extreme.

Seeing as how we were litterally only 2km from Austria (östereich), I thought we may as well dip down into another country, even if it was just to say we'd been there. On the way down, we decided to pull off on the side of the road where there was a small waterfall so we could take some more pictures. It wasn't the waterfall that had our interest piqued, it was that damn light green/pale blue water that was just odd. Above the little fall, there was a bust of King Maximillian carved into the stone. Maximillian was Ludwig's father. He was well known for traveling the world and being the first German to really establish a good relationship with Mexico (of all places). He even had his own manor in Mexico and it was due to this relationship that the Mexicans learned to brew beer in the European style. Most "Mexican" beers are really variations on the German and Czech styles, by the way. And if you wonder why they call it cerveza, it's because Spanish is one of the Latin languages and the Latin term for yeast is Saccharomyces Cervisiae. Anyway....so there was Maximillian.

Back into the car and down the little stretch of road into Austria. The state was called Tirol, if I remember right. Driving in the European Union is like driving between states in the U.S. There was just a little sign indicating we were in Austria and that's it. Austria is a German speaking country so the road signs were very similar to the ones we had gotten used to over the past week. The only real difference is that some of the signs weer different color schemes than in Germany. We took a couple pictures and then turned around to head back into Germany. That's it. Just to say we'd been there. :)

We decided to spend a little more time in Füssen to see what else we could discover. That really only lasted about 30 minutes. I had a bratwurst and a cola light and we took off.

I input the hotel in Frankfurt into the BlackBerry and off we went. This time, however, it had us going through some back country roads. I figured I would trust it and go with it. The twists and turns were a little crazy though, especially getting out of one of the tiny towns just outside of Füssen. But in that little town we were able to confirm the age old question: Why did the chicken cross the road? I had to slam on my brakes at one point because there was a chicken that ran out in front of me. There were no other chickens on the opposite side. No food, nothing chasing it. So, why did it cross the road? To get to the other side. I feel as though I've made a startling discovery (or confirmation) and my life has meaning.... ok...bad joke. But we both had a good laugh at the time.

Through the little town we went and the road we were on was making me ask whether or not this road actually went anywhere at all. It was a no-lane road through some fields and woods. We faced no oncoming traffic and had nobody behind us for miles. Finally, we came upon another road that looked a little more travelled. Yep, we had gone the right way. Oh, little BlackBerry, how did you know this road was here but you jacked me up on the Autobahn, yesterday? Que sera, sera. In a few miles, we were finally led to the Autobahn that would take us into Frankfurt.

I won't dwell too much on the Autobahn trip, this time. I was so pissed off on this drive. We were in stop and go traffic the entire freaking day. I mean I was livid. I'm an impatient person and I had suspected that I suffered from anxiety (although I've only recently confirmed that with help) so traffic gets under my skin like you would not believe. Of course with me being stressed out, my wife gets stressed out, and then we're stressed with each other. Not comfortable at all.

After we finally get to Frankfurt (I thoguht we'd never make it), we find the hotel again, drop off our bags, and head into the city. We were hungry and I wanted some beers to wash away the stress from the day. We settled on this fairly large pub style place right across from the gigantic train station in downtown Frankfurt. It was called O'Malleys, or O'Charley's or something like that. It was definitely an Irish name. Aside from the Dunkin Donuts we had in Berlin, we really had eaten only local dishes wherever we had gone so when I saw they had loaded nachos on the menu, I was quick to order a big plate of them. I was jonesin' for some food like that. The place was PACKED with Irish guys. They were all taking a train to somewhere but I'm not sure where they were all going. There was a soccer game on between Ireland and one of the Island teams so they were all drinking and having a good time. The waiting staff seemed to all be Irish and British, too. It was actually a very nice environment to spend our last night in Germany.

On our way back to the hotel, I thought I had remembered the way without question. Well, I did alright for not being from the area. As usual, the train tracks and the road shared the same real estate. I didn't really pay attention to that after a while but perhaps I should have. After a few minutes, I noticed there were no other cars on this particular part of the road. SHIT! I was on the train tracks and there IS no road, here. I was smack dab in the middle of a very large train stop. You know...the kind that has the higher platforms for easier passenger loading. Well, there I was. In the station. I didn't know what to do so I stepped on the gas and hauled ass past the train that had stopped to pick up passengers. Oh, we got some stares. Even the conductor was looking at us like WTF are they doing? The hairs on my neck were on end (I don't have any on my head) and my heart was racing but of course, as soon as we made it through, we were both laughing our asses off. It really was good time.

We found our way back to the same hotel we stayed at the first night. We checked in and while my wife was bathing (we had not done so in the community showers earlier) I went down to the hotel bar for a couple of beers. There were two couples sitting there having beers as well but it was otherwise quiet.

Paid my tab and went upstairs. It was definitely time for bed.