Day One - Saturday - The Farmer's House

Happy New Year January 2013 Hello everyone!

     Hello Everyone!  What a way to start the New Year - Huge Congratulations go to Lulu who has graduated from Boston College - such wonderful news, and we are proud parents. Bill decided we needed to do something spectacular to celebrate, and thus in 3 days he put together a whirlwind trip to Heidelberg and Munich in southern Germany - a side trip to Salzburg, Austria - and concluding in Berlin. Lulu and Bill begged (?) me to accompany them, and so here I am with a new travel blog and my Nikon! By the way, this trip was organized by dollie face painter Laura Schy, a fantastic and very patient travel agent (laura.s@travelstoreusa.com)

     We took off from LAX on Friday afternoon, and landed 10 hours later in Frankfurt, Germany on Saturday mid-day to mild weather - in fact after having everyone tell us to dress for frigid weather, it turned out to be only 40 degrees with not a flake of snow to be found. The gentleman on the plane across the aisle from me said in the 25 years he has been coming to Frankfurt to visit family in January, that this was the first time ever that there was no snow on the ground. hmmm...Global Warming?

     A little history here as to why Germany --- in fact a neighbor in the 'hood did declare, "Germany in January? What was second choice?" Well many years ago when Bill was just a high school fella (40 short years ago), he and his brother Peter and a very close friend of theirs Joey, spent the summer working on a farm in the tiny village of Habitzheim, just outside Frankfurt. The farmer who owned the small farm was a friend of Bill's Dad's nanny, Schatzi. Schatzi raised Bill, Sr from the age of 8 due to the untimely death of his mother. The farmer Jochim Uebler and his wife Hedwig have 4 lovely daughters, and thus they were all excited at the prospect of 3 young bucks from New Jersey spending the summer helping them out with the heavy labor involved in running a farm. As the years have gone by, stories continue to pour forth from Peter and Bill as to their experience of milking the cows, carting the milk by a tractor pulled wagon into the nearby small village, visiting the local pubs, and generally immersing themselves in the lifestyle of a far away country. What an adventure it must have been for those NJ boys, especially at a time where there were no cell phones, internet, air conditioning, or television!

     In 1992 Joekim and Hedwig visited us for a week in LA - it was during this visit, after being married to Bill for 16 years, that I discovered my husband was fluent in German! From LA the Ueblers went to New Jersey to spend a second week with Peter and Janet. Two years ago Joekim passed away, but Bill was able to be with him towards the end of his life when, after visiting Kenya on a mission trip with Msgr Torgerson, he was able to take a detour up to Frankfurt.

     Hedwig is now 82, and as joyful and active as ever. A testament to the closeness of their family is that all 4 daughters still live nearby with their own families, and the entire extended families gather at the farm every single Sunday afternoon for cake and coffee with their mother.

                  Here is a photo of Bill and Lulu with Hedwig and part of her wonderful family.

                                 Here is Bill riding down "MEMORY LANE" in the tractor!!

                                           

Lulu with just a few of Hedwig's grandchildren.

     After a delicious mid day meal of lentil and sausage soup, topped off with apple pound cake and coffee, we said our good-byes. Lulu took the helm of our car since she was the only one who could figure out the GPS…and maybe another reason she insisted on driving was she had heard about the “no speed limits” on the Autobahn! We headed south to Heidelberg, and truth be told Lulu was a very careful driver at 90 MPH, where she was being passed left and right by other cars – mostly Mercedes – roaring by! eeeekkkkk!!!

As we drove into Heidelberg, it was dark and very misty. We were happy to get out of the car and into a warm and inviting Inn, the Hotel die Hirschgasse. After dropping off our luggage in our overly pink chinz filled room, we headed down the creaky stairs to the wood paneled dining room.

     At 8pm as the only guests, we were seated at the best table in the room next to a small fireplace. We ordered a simple meal of green salad and buttered noodles, and just took in the charm of our surroundings. The Inn was still decorated for Christmas, with red and green balls hanging down from the ceiling, pine boughs wrapped in red ribbons, and small Christmas trees spread throughout the room full of sparkling lights, straw stars, and red and white felt heart ornaments.

     After dinner we were exausted what with all our travel and the time change, so up to bed and slumberland we went. Only, at midnight with the peeling of bells from the nearby tower waking me up, I could not go back to sleep. I was 100% wide awake. I tried reading the Fodor travel book Denni bought us… I emailed back and forth with Colleen who was on the beach in Thailand and John who was at home disputing he ever owned a pair of leiderhosen…I tried doing some needlepoint, and checked in on the room refrigerator more than once…until finally something resembling sunlight peeked through the curtains and I knew at that point all was lost and I needed to head down to the dining room for a strong cup of coffee as a new day had begun.

Day Two - Heidelberg and Beyond...

     By the time everyone got organized, it was already noon, so off we went to explore Heidelberg. The town is a few hours south of Frankfort, and is a university town where students make up most of the population.  But the students were no where to be seen during our walk around the town, as it was Sunday, and most were probably home for the holidays (or inside studying?...or at church? )

     To get to the Old Town, one must cross a very large bridge which was part of Heidelberg's medieval fortification. As one approaches the end there are two tall Spitzhelm towers (the top of each resemble old German helmets) - inside the towers there used to be (3) dungeons where they tossed the "common criminals" .

     As it was Sunday, and you know Bill, our first visit was inside the Church of the Holy Ghost (started in 1398 - finished in 1544) which is a Gothic structure full of gargoyles that the tour book describes as "sheer ugliness" .

     The church is in the center of Heidelberg's main square where during the Middle Ages, persons accused of witchcraft and heresy were burned at the stake. Above the huge baroque fountain, until 1740, there was a rotating, hanging cage where minor criminals were imprisoned and "exposed to the abuse of their fellow citizens". Imagine back then passing by those poor folk on your way out to a mid-day lunch. Today, the fountain is decorated with Christmas decorations!

     Usually at this point you would hop onto the funicular to head up the hill to the Schloss (Castle), but seeing as we were running late, we drove up to the top. It's sheer size is amazing to behold...indeed it looms over the village and this morning with the heavy fog it was quite beautiful and mysterious. We spent a lot of time just wandering around the oldest parts which date back to the 15th century.

View from the castle

     Afterwards, we got back into the car and drove out of the Neckar Valley to the walled town of Rothenburg, arriving too late to really appreciate its beauty, but the Christmas lights everywhere did give the village a lovely glow. We were told there is a costumed watchman who gives a nightly tour leading the way with his lantern, but we didn't come across him.

     Lucky for us, just before we headed out, we were able to pay a visit to the huge Christmas all year round store, "Kathe Wohlfahrt", where we made a few purchases just as they were closing...

Onward to Munich!

Day Three - Dachau

     Today we visited The Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, located just outside of Munich. Over 700,000 people a year visit this memorial. Dachau was the very first "state concentration camp" built, and was used as a model for the others. It is the only camp to have existed throughout the entire 12 years of Nazi rule (1933 - 1945). Opened on March 22, 1933 on the site of an unused munitions factory from the First World War, its first purpose was to house political prisoners ...this same year Hitler became Reich Chancellor, and the National Socialist dictatorship was established. It was a sobering visit and we are still processing what we saw and learned during the time we spent walking the grounds, and looking at the exhibits. The writings of the prisoner's first-hand accounts were especially powerful.

    

     You are not allowed to visit Dachau if you are younger than age 12. Our tour guide, who grew up in Munich, said when he and his classmates toured Dachau in elementary school, it was one of the darkest days of his life and he suffered nightmares for years afterwards. He said to this day, when women who live in Dachau give birth, they go to a hospital outside of town as they don't want that city's name on their child's birth certificate.

The entry gate (viewed from the outside in...)

Just before you enter is this sign..

This is one of only two housing barracks which remain on the memorial site

Here is where the many other barracks used to be.  A watchtower is in the distance.

A contemporary sculpture outside one of the memorial buildings.

     As described in Fodor’s “The former camp has become more than just a grisly memorial; it’s now a place where people of all nations meet to reflect upon the past and on the present.”  Indeed there are several religious shrines at the far end of the camp to honor the dead.

One of the religious memorials, this one is Catholic.

Day Four - Castles Here and There..

     When in Germany, you must visit the castles...there are so many who can choose?

This morning we set off with our driver Thomas (a native from Munich, but he lived in Sydney for over 10 years) and the sun was out and the skies had cleared and it was a cold and beautiful day! Even though there was no snow in the city, you can see the abundance of snow on the Alps far off in the distance.

     Our first stop, a few hours outside Munich was the famous Schloss (Castle) Neuschwanstein, one of several castles built by the some say crazy, but Thomas said, "No, we prefer eccentric" King Ludwig II. In 1864, at the age of 18 1/2, Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, son of Maximilian II, ascended the Bavarian throne. One of the books I scanned said of him, "The unusual lifestyle and passionate building plans of the lonely King led to the creation of the "Fairytale King" legend." He was obsessed with the composer Richard Wagner and was a life-long patron of his music. This is the castle Walt Disney used as the model for the castle in Sleeping Beauty, and later for the Disneyland castle itself.

     NORMALLY at the time we were visiting in early January, the castle would look like this (see the postcard below) but alas today there was no snow except high up in the mountains.

     To get to the castle, you could either walk a 15 minute hike up a winding road, take a taxi, or ride in a horse drawn carriage. We decided to walk up, stopping at the end to try on some hats, and eat the MOST DELICIOUS "hot outa the vat" powered donuts.

I tried to persuade Lulu to buy this hat, to no avail...

  

   Once inside you were absolutely not allowed to take any photos, so we paid attention to the rules (despite Bill's urging to ignore them) . Suffice it to say, there were murals, silver, gold, statues, china, heavy fabric, you name it everywhere. This guy decorated more along the style of "throw it up and if it sticks, it stays".

Afterwards we took the horse drawn carriage down the hill...

                                                  and then ON to the NEXT castle!

     We drove for another hour or so on a back country road that normally this time of year would be closed due to the snow, but was wide open for us. We saw very few other cars, and felt like we were climbing the Alps all by ourselves. I started to doze off, but Bill woke me up as there was beautiful scenery out the window. I got out of the car to take this photo, and stepped into a big pile of snow roadside.

   













We soon arrived at Schloss Linderhof. "Set in sylvan seclusion in Graswang Valley, high in the Alps" this castle was built on the site of King Ludwig II's father's hunting lodge." It is noteworthy that Linderhof was the first of his building projects, and in 6 years was the only one to be completed during his lifetime.

Backside....

Frontside...

    

     We took a tour but the guide only spoke German, and she was not interested in us, so we kind of dragged our feet and when she had moved on to a new room, we snapped a few interior photos!

Below are Bill and Lulu in the King's reading room.

The enormous bed...King Ludwig II was 6'2" ... quite tall for his day.

     It was about 6pm now, and we were hungry! So we drove on to Oberammergau, where Bill and I had been back in early 2000 with Msgr. Torgerson, Msgr. Connelly, Colleen & John Morrissey, and Mary & Jay Flaherty to see the once every 10 year production of The Passion Play. If you want to see it, the next production is in 2020. It has 16 acts and takes 5 1/2 hours on a partly open air stage against the mountain top. Over 1500 residents of Oberammergau participate in the play's production. The role of Mary was only given to an unmarried girls (many would postpone their wedding in the hopes of getting the coveted role) until 1990 when "amid much controversy" a 31 year old married mother of two was given the role.

     This small town is on the touristy side (there were lots of coo coo clocks for sale!) but it was great to be back and walk along the streets lined with painted houses. Many of the stores are owned by master artisans in wood working (a craft that has flourished here since the early 12th century), and Bill has been known to purchase a few wood carvings in his day. We had a hearty meal of spaghetti with meat sauce that "hit the spot", topped off with apple strudel.

And that was our day of castles. Tomorrow - Salzburg!

Day Five - Salzburg

     Today we set off by train to Salzburg. It has returned to a typical January day of overcast and a tad gloomy, but this does not dampen our spirits as everyone has told us what a charming and beautiful city Salzburg is.

     In fact, I was there on Easter Day many moons ago...when I was in my Oak Park River Forest high school madrigal choir we traveled to a few European cities one of which was Salzburg and that was back in 1972, SO I was wondering what would look different some 40 years later... good news is not much (that I can remember anyway!)

     The trains in Germany are so efficient - on time, clean, and comfortable. Upon arrival, our guide, Richard picked us up and took us on a quick "look see" tour of the city. First stop was the Maria Plain Church which sits on top of a hill and normally would have offered a beautiful view of the city, but it was still early and the mist was heavy. But the inside of the church was ornate and striking. This church is also known as the place where Mozart played one of his most famous compositions, "Grunungsmasse".

     Then off to a nearby hotel (used to be a castle… can’t remember the name, who can keep track?).  Our guide led us to a secret terrace which overlooked the city, which provided a breathtaking view of all of Salzburg, especially the old part.  As we were there the church bells from a number of surrounding churches pealed, signaling 12:00 Noon.

    

  See the ancient fortress in the background – we left a tour of this for a future visit!

     Then off to ANOTHER castle, this one Schloss Mirabell, which played prominently in several scenes of “The Sound of Music” as when Maria was frolicking through the covered arched trellis..  This was a beautiful garden evening January.  I can only imagine how magnificent it must be in the spring and summer, filled with flowers.  The opera house for the Salzburg Music Festival is located close by.

    

  ONWARD to The Leopoldskron Palace, where in The Sound of Music movie you will remember the Countess was drinking pink lemonade on the porch overlooking the lake.  

The Gazebo where the two lovebirds were singing, "I am 16 going on 17..."

.. and another castle, Hellbrunn, and even more – gorgeous even in January – gardens.  This one was built by a catholic Archbishop who was more powerful than the Emperor of Austria…

     

Me and our tour guide Richard...aren't his red glasses divine?

    

 Enough castles!  On to shopping down Salzburg’s version of Rodeo Drive, Getreidegstrasse!  No cars are allowed on no only the street, but within the entire area known as Die Alte Stadt, The Old City.  This area includes a number of beautiful squares, as well as the living quarters of both Mozart and Frans Schubert.

Teens look the same the world over..

There is a store which sells millions of ornaments, all made on Egg Shells…

     

     After doing some needed retail therapy (Bill’s schedule had not allowed much time for this previously) we stopped for lunch.  Bill (the vegan you will remember) and I enjoyed a heart lunch of Beef Goulash, while Lulu sensibly had lentil soup and salad.  Then Bill (the vegan you will remember) insisted we partake in a regional favorite… when in Salzburg you MUST have “Nockerl”.  It is like a meringue concoction… see below… and we finished it!

Back on the train to Munich!   zzzzz……