And now for the history and fun facts... again :)

Munich -

Munich's location is just north of the Bavarian Alps and is the Capital of Bavaira, Germany. It is home to about 1.3 million people and is the 3rd largest city in Germany. The native name Muenchen, comes from the old german word Moenche, which means 'monks'. It gets its name from the Benedictine order who founded the city. 1158 is the assumed foundation date which is the earliest it was mentioned in documents. The city plays host to one of Germany's largest festivities known as Oktoberfest. (yes I do realize I spelled it with a 'k', that's how you spell it in german) If you don't already know what Oktoberfest is, it's basically just a huge fest where people from all over the world come to Munich over a period of 2 1/2 weeks to drink a lot of beer. Approximately 6 million people attend the fest every year. Munich is known world-wide for it's beer-brewing business and nowhere is it taken more seriously than in Munich. Bavarians are said to be the world's biggest beer consumers. The average intake is about 240 litres of beer per person. yuck!!

Frauenkirche (in Munich)-

This church is one of the main, if not the main site of Munich. The site of the church was originally occupied by a small chapel that was dedicated to the virgin Mary and was built in the 13th century. But about 200 years later a much bigger church, Frauenkirche, was built there by architects Joerg von Halspach and Lukas Rottaler. It was finished in 1488 but the very distinctive copper onion domes were not added until 1525. It is now one of Germany's largest Gothic structures. It can hold a congregation of approximately 2000 people.

Frauenkirche

Oberammergau-

This is the small little village that we stopped at during our tour in between the two castles. It was such a cute little town and I loved the setting of it right in the mountains. I couldn't find much information about it except that it is famous for its production of a Passion Play and is used in a popular german tongue-twister. The Passion Play resulted from a vow made by the people of the village that if God spared them from the effects of the bubonic plague then they would perform a passion play every ten years. It started in 1634 but is now played in years ending in zero, which means it will be performed this year. It consists of about 2000 actors, singers, musician, and technicians, most of which are residents of the village.

Oh yeah and here is the cute little tongue-twister (remind me to say it for you when I get home)

" Heut kommt der Hans zu mir, / Freut sich die Lies/ Ob er aber ueber Oberammergau, /Oder aber ueber Unterammergau, / Oder ueberhaupt nicht kommt, / Dass ist nicht g'wiss."

Translation- Hans is coming today/ Lies rejoices/ Whether he's coming via Oberammergau/ or via Unterammergau/ Or not coming at all/ that is unknown. :)

King Ludwig II-

King Ludwif II took the Bavarian throne in 1864 at the age of 18 after the death of his father Maximilian the II. He led an unusual and solitary lifestyle. His unique style, and passion for building castles led to him being known as the 'Fairytale King'. He was fascinated by the composer Richard Wagner and devoted himself to ensure financial security for the rest of Wagner's life. He spent most of a lonely childhood in Hohenschwangau, which little prepared him for the adult world where his word as king was a key factory in the course of his country. His desire for absolute monarchy came in conflict with the Munich court which led to him slowly withdrawing himself into his own childhood-fantasy world- a world reflected in the works of Wagner and which produced the Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee Castles. He strove to create a world far away from reality all the up up to his death in 1886.

Neuschwanstein-

This castle began being built in 1869 on Swan rock above the beautiful Alpsee Lake. It's tall slender towers give it the image of a fairy-tale castle. It is 5 stories high and was built in a Romanesque style. Sadly, the king died during the construction of the castle causing it to be left unfinished. It took roughly 18 years to build what you see today and in total the king only spent about 172 days there. The tour of the castle takes you through all the finished room, which only takes about 30 minutes. The completed rooms include the throne room (minus the throne because it was never built), the dining room, bedroom, living room, study, and kitchen... which is hardly anything considering the size of the whole castle! Just as a fun fact... the barely-used bedroom had so many intricate wood carvings that it took 14 wood carvers 4 1/2 years to complete!

Neuschwanstein (taken from the internet) :)

Sorry it's sideways.... really hard to get a good picutre... because it's HUGE!!

Taken from the village of Fuessen just beneath

Hohenschwangau-

This wasn't actually a part of the tour but it is located right below Neuschwanstein. It sits right in between the Alpsee Lake and Swan Lake and was owned by King Ludwig II's parents . His father Maximillian II bought the ruins in 1832 and had them rebuilt and decorated in the style of the middle ages. Ludwig most of his childhood here.

Hohenschwangau

Linderhof-

Ludwig II had the Linderhof built in the mountain landscape in the years 1870-1878 as a tribute to the absolute Monarchy of the French Kings. He got the idea to build the caslte after a trip to Versailles in 1867. The location was chosen and purchased by Ludwig near a hunting lodge that was owned by his father. It was built in a rococo style as a reflection of the Burbon Kings. This was a private sanctuary where Ludwig could go and retire in seclusion.

Linderhof Palace

Courtyard of the palace... the boxes are covered statues.

Christmas Vacation

Considering that I've been home from my big Christmas trip for over week now I suppose it's time to update the blog. This year for Christmas break I had the option of either going with the family to an Austrian ski resort for a week or taking the week off and doing my own thing. Seeing as how I'm a fan of personal space and just happened to be in desperate need of a break, I opted out of sharing a room with 4 kids (with no escape) for a week, and decided to take my own trip. So the week after Christmas, on Tuesday the 29th, I hopped on a train and headed to the Bavarian Alps (in southern Germany in case you didn't know) to escape the space-invading duties of nannying and to fulfill a dream of mine to see the Neuschwanstein Castle.

My trip began with a short 4-hour train ride to good old Munich, Germany. After arriving I had the lovely task of navigating myself through an unfamiliar and large city to find the hostel I would be staying at. As it turns out, I'm getting really good at navigating myself through strange European cities, so finding it wasn't the problem. However, as easy as it was to find, it wasn't nearly as close as I had hoped and expected which made for an extremely NOT fun and tiring trek through sketchy streets while carrying my luggage (which wasn't that much but just to enough to make my back want to snap in half). A million blocks and silent prayers later I finally found the hostel, Easy Palace, where I checked in and hunkered down for the night in a room with 5 other strange girls (but at least they weren't crying kids) - 3 from Brazil, 1 from Singapore, 1 from China.

The next morning I had to be at my tour bus (for the castle tour) at 8:00 so I set my alarm for 6:30 which would give me just enough time for a shower and breakfast before I had to be to the bus. But, thanks to my ability to sleep incredibly deep, I slept right through the alarm and woke up just in time to throw on some clothes, grab my stuff and sprint back down the million blocks to the train station where I would catch the bus. Thank goodness I made it just in time jump on the bus and get a fairly decent seat on the upper level of the double decker bus. :) Of course I felt like a complete dork being alone on a tour bus full of old british people, and rich american parents who had to force their spoiled kids to try and enjoy the vacation... but to be honest I thoroughly enjoy being a dork. I loved the warm, cozy bus, and the nice tour guide who was a perfect medium between helpful/informative and pesky/annoying. The tour took us from Munich to the beautiful Bavarian Alps and would take us to two beautiful Castles built by the Bavarian King, King Ludwig II, and a beautiful little village in the mountians. Our first stop was the smaller of the two castles called the Linderhof Castle. After our rather short guided tour of the Castle and a little postcard shopping, it was back on the bus to head to the pretty village of Oberammegau. There we were able to take a while and do some souvenir shopping and just enjoy the scenery and atmosphere of small town Germany. After that we were finally on our way to the highlight of the trip, the Neuschwanstein Castle. Along with the castle itself, the setting and surroundings of the castle are so incredibly breathtaking. I could hardly believe that I was actually there, like I had just stepped into the picture that is still hanging on my wall in my bedroom back home. (that is if Penny hasn't taken it down) :) The castle has a very 'disney fairy-tale' feel to it. While inside, I half expected the furniture to move and talk, and I even peeked around the corners for signs of 'the Beast'. :)

There isn't much to report after the tour because the next day I just spent the day in Munich sightseeing and basically killing time. But after a couple hours I had come to the conclusion that I really hate Munich. There are few cool things to see but other than that, the only thing to do there is drink beer and eat pretzels. I'm not complaining about the pretzels, they were positively delicious, but the amount of beer consumed by the people in Munich is horrifying and disgusting.

But all in all, it was great to have a few days to myself and check another dream off the list. :)

View of Neuschwanstein from the "village" of Fuessen. I put village in quotations because it's pretty much a joke, it basically consists of souvenir kiosks and a hotel. :)

Remember how I mentioned the castle being like a 'fairy-tale' castle? Well while I was there I found some pixy dust that Tinker bell had left there on her last visit to see Belle and the Beast, so I took it and used it to take this picture of Munich from above.

Ok really I just paid 1.50 to go to the top of a bell tower of one of the churches to be able to look out over the whole city.

The ever-so-lovely hostel room... my bed is the middle top one.