Europe Trip, Part IV: German Castles

After spending an amazing 10 days tromping around Switzerland, it was time to say goodbye and enter Heather's birthland: Germany.  We first started out by visiting Linderhoff Palace.  The palace was actually much smaller than we were expecting, but the inside was very lavish.  King Ludwig the II of Bavaria, who was a king then in name only without any political power, built the palace.  He was infatuated with French nobles and King Louis the 14th in particular, and tried to style certain portions of his palace after Versailles.  Beautiful building, and incredible scenery.

Rochelle performing an artistic dance in honor of Ludwig's eccentricities

Just the girls :)

For some reason, it was popular to build a grotto on the grounds.  So Ludwig built a Venus grotto and themed the interior decoration after one of Wagner's works.  The lights in the grotto could change from deep red to bright blue.  Very strange.

One of the highlights of the trip was our tour of Neushwanstein castle, another work by King Ludwig.  This castle more than lived up to its hype.  The structure itself as well as its surroundings were breath-taking enough.  But the decorations throughout the castle was even more incredible.  Too bad we weren't able to take pics of the interior.  Well worth seeing if you are anywhere near the castle.

The complete designs for the castle were never fully realized due to the untimely and mysterious death of Ludwig.  In the picture above, for example, there were plans to build an enormous chapel directly where we were standing.  In addition, behind the abbey (which is the building behind us), there was going to be a series of patios and landings that would create space for a garden.  He was also going to add one or two more towers.

The interior was also unfinished.  Many of the rooms in the abbey, including Ludwig's personal room, throne chamber, jester's hall, servants quarters, dining areas, and other places, were finished, however.  And they were amazing!  The paintings and murals on the walls and the designs on the floors and ceilings were incredibly intricate.  Ludwig spared no expense for the highest quality of everything, and no space was considered too unimportant for decoration.  

On the way down from the castle, we enjoyed a pleasant little horse carriage ride.  Elli and Sienna loved it, and it was a fitting end to their experience touring a real princess's castle.

Europe Trip, Part III: Lucerne, Bern, Return to the Alps

Here we are at Hergiswil Glass Factory, in Switzerland.  They had a lot of water activities, a glass museum, a mirror maze (which Elli just loved), and a big playground.  You could also watch them making different items of glass. It was fascinating to watch the glass like lava as they shaped it and cooled it.  

Lucerne was such a beautiful place. We had a relaxing afternoon strolling along the riverfront, crossing over the famous bridge, grabbing a yummy pastry, looking at gorgeous churches, and reflecting in front of the lion monument.  We finished Lucerne by sitting next to the lake and eating seriously the best Nutella and banana crepe I have ever had.

We ended the night with a fun yodeling and dancing group.  Rochelle was nice enough to take Sienna home so that we could do this late little rendezvous with just Elli.  It was a late night, but we had a fun time enjoying traditional Bavarian music.  

The city of Bern was another delightful little Switzerland city.  Delightfully fun and as always, not so delightfully, expensive.  Despite the expense though, we found some great little eats and great sites.  

One of our favorite statues was one of this little goblin thing eating children above.  Apparently, children were told if they tried to go over the city wall, the goblin would eat them.  The little bottom hanging out his mouth is the testament to their threat.  We thought we should reenact it for modern times!

There was a great little water fountain area that Elli had a blast playing in right in front of the capital building, shown above.  Sienna was a little more wary of the water though.  Luckily I had brought extra clothes because they were soaked afterwards.  Elli's pure glee at water shooting all around her was definitely worth it.  

Overlooking Bern  

We decided to go back one more day to Lake Thun to enjoy the beauty of the Swiss Alps from the lake.  We started off the morning leisurely exploring Thun, picking up another pastry, and seeing Thun castle.   Ro met up with us later with the babies, so we got to spend some fun time with Elliana without our big stroller!

From Thun, we hopped on a boat and sailed over to Oberhafen Castle. Being on the lake with mountains and cute villages and castles all around was really worthwhile.  Elli loved the boat ride!  She looked so cute in her little hat too! Rochelle looked very stylin' in her own hat as well.  I have such a cool friend!

Wouldn't you just love to live in this castle!?!

One of our last hikes in Switzerland was the Heidipfad Trail.  Of course, being in Switzerland, we simply had to do a Heidi trail in honor of the book and movie,  and this one was complete with little stories about Heidi all through out.  In addition, each stop had an activity to do that related to Heidi and a goat that stamped a special card they gave you.  Elli loved having the goat eat the card!!!

We went early in the morning and it was a tad chilly.  Notice my Heidi braids; I thought they were fitting!

Of course, Heidi loved to explore the forest and have fun on trees, so did we too.  

Beautful! 

I love my husband, and it looks like the braids are working for him too! 

Schoggiland Chocolate Factory Tour
We couldn't leave Switzerland without going to an authentic chocolate factory to see how the magic is done.  They didn't let us take pics inside (secret recipes I'm sure) but I can tell you that the tour started out with us all getting to taste test as much of these mini chocolates as we could grab (without looking like crazy chocoholic Americans).  I definitely went back for seconds claiming "my kids" were asking for more.  And I got it, and I mean "I" because I don't think the girls ate any of that batch!  The tour was okay after that, could have been better if Sienna wasn't screaming half the time of course!  We ended the tour with more chocolate taste tests, so I say it was still a success!

Switzerland we love you.