Snow and slush

It was snowing when I arrived in Munich. At the airport, I had to cross a sort of square to get to the subway (it was like an open air square in the middle of the airport, with the different terminals around it. On the square was a Christmas market...but I only took a quick look and left, since I was freezing (it was awfully cold on the flight as well) and really tired. I didn't cross that square again when I came to the airport for my flight back, though.

Luckily my hostel was really near the train station. Though I took the wrong exit first and came out on a square without knowing where to go. I walked around and came to another subway entrance, upon which I went in again and followed the signs showing the way into the train station...and then the exit to the street I was looking for. Didn't I say the Munich metro was a maze?

The view from my hostel window the night I arrived. It was awfully cold!

The next day, when I went to the Radius Tours office at the train station for the Neuschwanstein tour

We had to take the train (for about two and a half hours) to Fussen, then a bus to Schwangau, where the Neuschwanstein palace was. We had to change trains once on the way there, but on the return trip there was a direct train from Fussen to Munich (2 hours). The great thing about following a tour is that you don't have to worry about which train/bus to take, nor timing, because the guide takes care of all that for us.

expanse of snow (from the train)

There were actually two guides for this tour (there were about 50 participants). So at the beginning they split us into two groups so that each guide would only be taking care of half of us.

the Schwangau bus stop

It was past noon when we arrived in Schwangau, so we took a half-hour break at this shop.

Oh yeah, you can actually see my reflection :P

Our guide said that he had asked the owner, a friend of his, to open it specially that day. Yeah, I guess he has to come by pretty often for tours, so he ends up making friends with the local restaurant owners! This shop is just opposite the bus stop, so I guess it's a good place for the guide to sit and wait for the tour participants to come back!

(Once we arrive in Schwangau and after getting our tickets for the palace tour, we are pretty much free to do whatever we like...they gave us a meeting time at the bus stop (4:30pm). The guides are around, going uphill to the palace with us, overseeing us getting in and waiting for us when we get out so that we can ask them questions ar anything, but we can take our time or go ahead of them if we want.)

My feet digging into the snow on the balcony. You can see that my shoes are still pretty clean...after the hike uphill in muddy slush, it was no longer the case...

A few shots of the town of Schwangau:

I think this is a hotel

The guide took us to see another palace nearby:

Hohenschwangau palace
There's a swan on top if you look carefully.

from a slightly different angle

The guide told us that this was the palace of Ludwig's father (Ludwig being the one who built Neuschwanstein), and so this was probably where Ludwig grew up! For more historical info, go search for it yourself :P

(Oh yeah, he told us that "schloss" was actually "palace", which means it's not fortified. "Burg", on the other hand, means "castle", so it's fortified. And Schloss Neuschwanstein is not fortified in the slightest)

A lake nearby (Alpsee lake, according to my Internet searches); they said that in summer it's a great place to swim. Even on the tour description it said to bring swimming trunks if the weather's warm.

Opposite the lake is Austria, I believe the tour guide said.

a little further on from the lake, this is a spot recommended by our guide for photos

It was after this that our guide gave us our tickets for the palace tour. He told us how to get there and as we had another hour to go before the start of the tour (2:20pm), he told us we could take our time going to the palace.

just as we were climbing uphill to Neuschwanstein

We had to walk about 15-20 minutes uphill...it's not really steep, but what was horrible about it that day was the half-melted snow all over the road, it was so dirty it was brown! Not a trace of white on the road itself, only on the sides where no one walked on. What's more, with slush it gets a bit slippery and you have to walk slowly to avoid slipping.

There are also horse carriages going uphill and downhill (not up to the castle entrance itself, a bit lower down), but our guide said that there was usually a long queue for that, and that it wasn't that quick anyway. Which is true...while coming down there was this carriage behind me, and it stayed behind me for quite some time...while I kept turning around to check whether it was catching up and that I had to move to the side of the road to let it pass.

Oh yeah, and where there are horses, there's horse dung...and with the muddy slush sometimes you can hardly differentiate the two (especially if the dung has been tread on by a horse -_- ) I almost felt like taking a horse-carriage down...

Neuschwanstein from halfway (3 quarters of the way more like it) up
(There's a restaurant right there, which is the little bit of roof you see on the bottom-right)

with yours truly :)

Then another 5 minutes' walk and we arrive at the bottom of the palace (not exactly its gate yet, but where there was a kind of "exposition" (information boards) about the palace. There was this viewing platform built not that long ago (earlier this year, I believe the guide said). It was great for photos, but I guess it's kind of scary, since it isn't standing on anything...


This is what was below the platform:


But I managed to go on it and snap a photo of Neuschwanstein anyway...without standing too close to the edge. :s


Then I was looking around at the people there, wondering who to ask to snap my picture with the palace...when a guy asked me whether I wanted him to take a picture for me. Haha...was I that obvious? :P Anyway, after that he asked me to help take a pic of him with his girlfriend. I guess that's how he knew what I was looking for? lol

So I gingerly moved to the edge of the platform and put my hand on the rail...without leaning against it. (why did thay have to make a platform with transparent sides?!)

Oh, and then we proceeded to the palace entrance.

posters fro sale outside a souvenir shop

That was the place "halfway up"

The plan of the palace, with our guide Mike. He was telling us about the layout of the castle, and about the bridge (which I will talk about later)

from inside the palace courtyard

Now this is Mariensbrucke, a famous bridge where people get to view the palace. But the path to it is closed in winter because it's too dangerous. The guide told us that there were 3 barriers along the route, each one more difficult to get past. He also told us that if we decided to go to the bridge, we weren't part of his tour until we came back safely. lol


Can't spot the bridge? Here it is:

Hehe, I was afraid I'd be unable to recall why I took that photo... :P

We weren't allowed to take pictures in the palace (so I have none to post...except for the kitchen, which is nothing special) But I found Neuschwanstein really beautiful...maybe it was because it looked new since it hadn't really been used? (it isn't completed, by the way...some of the uncompleted rooms were converted into souvenir shops)

Oh, and one thing I didn't like about the palace tour was that it was really quick...there was a guide explaining things to us and sometimes we didn't even have enough time to look at the room before being ushered into the next one. What's more, we were in a big group (this palace tour was with everyone from our Neuschwanstein tour from Munich plus people who had come on their own), so when everyone was in a room, you didn't get to see much of the room itself.

And there was a miniature of the castle on our way out.



And from a small window (which I almost didn't notice, but for some people looking from it)

a view of the lake from the palace

There were swans being sold in the souvenir shops in the palace...this one was displayed in the office at the bus stop. The swan is a symbol of the town, or something like that...

just thought it looked kinda cute :P

Pardon me if I call the palaces "castles" sometimes...I know I wrote a paragraph about castles and palaces, but I always thought of Neuschwanstein as a castle! I tried putting "palace" instead whenever I thought of it, but some "castle"s might have slipped in...

Final light destination

As promised, here's the cathédrale St Jean during the fête des lumières.

We arrived in the middle of the animation, but I've put the photos chronologically (this is a lot easier than it was for Terreaux!)

starts off with some trees? sprouting

vines

(oh and by the way, in a lot of the pics you'll see the moon on the top right; it's not a light for the show :P )

Then the artist puts a candle to light up his worktable.

starts working

I believe this depicts the construction of Fourvière

check out that clamp (on the left) coming down to get construction materials

and another clamp, on the right this time

Then our artist comes back; goodness knows what he's doing...but you can see that the doorway arches are "painted"

some more construction

a "zoom" in on the people

pretty lights

some more

Then our artist (architect?) comes back and starts drawing (you can see the pencil)

a clock?

the unveiling of a masterpiece?

the light "crumbles" away

And that's it. Hope you enjoyed the show!

Anyway, remember the silver thread from the previous post? Here is where it starts, near the cathédrale St Jean:

suivez le fil = follow the thread

and there you go...the way to Fourvière!

Cepat dimasak, sedap dimakan

Today I made baked trout (truite in French...I never knew it was actually trout until I saw the translation on a menu :P ) with potatoes, simply by substituting salmon with trout in a previous recipe I'd blogged about.

Before baking:


Wrapped it up and put it into the microwave...and after five minutes:


Done!

This time I put parsley...because I'd forgotten what I'd written the last time :P But it wasn't bad at all, I guess it works with or without ;)