Coming home - via Munich

We were packed and ready to leave our apartment by 9.30am but not looking forward to walking to the station in the thunderstorms which had been occuring since we got up. Luckily they seemed to vanish when we opened the door and it was an easy walk to the local Haunstetten station where we caught a train to Munich.

On arrival in Munich we put our cases into a locker at the station and took the U-bahn to Olympiazenturm and the BMW-Welt (BMW World). We had a great time there looking at some magnificent cars - BMW and also Rolls Royce - and the building itself is quite spectacular.

We took the train back to the centre of Munich and visited the Asamkirche (Asam Church). This was originally the private chapel of the Asam brothers who specialised in decorating churches, so it was their showroom and is quite 'over the top' with rococo decoration. While we were there an organist was practising which really added to the atmosphere.

Next we called in at the Frauenkirche, Munich's cathedral, where we saw some beautiful modern stained glass windows as well as the 15th century windows behind the main altar. These survived World War II because they were taken out piece by piece and stored in safety during the war.

We walked past the huge Residenz palace where there seemed to be some sort of 'urban loungeroom' in the square - people lounging on couches and hammocks, with book shelves scattered around.

We stopped for a cool drink in the Hofgarten and watched a group of elderly men playing boules - they didn't seem to be having much success! Then it was time to retrieve our cases from the station lockers and catch the train to the airport. We had dinner at a surprisingly nice restaurant there - roast chicken and chips for Ian and freshly cooked scampi and spaghetti for me.

The flight home was the usual endurance test, with the best leg being Munich to Dubai when we were in an Airbus  380 - a bit more spacious and more variety in the entertainment program. Dubai airport is so huge that we walked a total of 2km, were carried down several levels in an elevator, travelled on a railway and then for twelve minutes by bus to the terminal where our next plane was waiting!

Sunrise through a porthole on the way to Dubai

Our break in Singapore was only an hour, just long enough to disembark and then return to the same plane. We reached Melbourne at around 7.30am and, although the process through Security and Customs was quite streamlined, it took ages for our cases to arrive. We were very grateful to Jenny and Neil who picked us up from the airport and we enjoyed breakfast with them at Krifi Restaurant.

So ended another wonderful overseas adventure. We both agreed that the highlights on this trip were the medieval town of Rothenburg, the magnificent Rhine Falls, the walk through Partnach Gorge and the joy of catching up with Britta and Frank and their family - although there were also many other contenders for the list. I hope you have found the account of our travels interesting and thank you to those who have emailed comments to me. I have enjoyed sharing the adventure with you!

A Mad King's Dream

Today we visited one of King Ludwig II's creations - the Royal Palace of Herrenchiemsee. Ludwig intended this to be a copy of the Sun King Louis XIV's palace of Versaillles and a tribute to Louis. The rooms at Herrenchiemsee are modelled on those at Versailles including the copying of the interior decoration, but with a Germanic influence. Ludwig began this project in 1878 but his money ran out and, when he died in 1886, only twenty of the seventy rooms which had been planned were completed. He only stayed in the palace on one occasion and that was for only nine days.

To reach Herrenchiemsee we took the train to Prien station, walked along a laneway to the shore of Chiemsee where we caught a boat to the island of Herreninsel, and then had another short walk through woodland to the palace. We enjoyed the boat trip in the  early morning light with a hazy view of the mountains in the distance and a cool breeze. Germany has been having a heat wave this week and, as the day went on, it became very hot again today.

Our first view of the palace was to see it, as at Versailles, with several glorious fountains and landscaped gardens in front of the long  expanse of the building.

The palace interior can only be viewed on a guided tour and we were booked into an English tour at 11.15am. This tour also seemed to include anyone who did not speak German, and notes in Rumanian and Chinese were handed out to those who needed them.

We were taken from the Ambassador Staircase, through the State Apartments and Ludwig's private apartment. The highlight would have to be the Great Hall of Mirrors which is longer than the hall at Versailles and has 52 candelabra and 33 glass chandeliers with 7,000 candles, which took seventy servants half an hour to light.

(Apologies for these photos of postcards - no photography allowed in the palace!)

After a picnic lunch we visited the King Ludwig II museum in the south wing, where we found some  interesting information and lots of artefacts relating to Ludwig and his family. There was also an audio-visual presentation about Ludwig's last project, the proposed Falkenstein Castle, for which plans were made before his death. Ian and  I have been fascinated by this crazy king and his sad story ever since we visited Neuschwanstein in 2004 and we enjoyed seeing some more of his creations.

The design for Falkenstein Castle

This evening, our last before we leave for home tomorrow, we  had a special dinner at the Drei Mohren restaurant at the Steigenberger hotel just down  the road from where we are staying. We went to the outdoor Grillbuffet where we enjoyed all sorts of grilled meat and salmon, as well as salads and grilled vegetables, and several serves each of lovely little desserts like a minature chocolate mousse, a scoop of icecream in various flavours and some berries.

Tomorrow we will be spending the day in Munich, before we go to the airport in the evening. I think it is  unlikely that I will  be able to post the final blog until we are back in Melbourne on Sunday so you will have to wait until  then to hear about the special place we intend to visit on our last day! In the meantime, go Pies - we are looking forward to a win tomorrow!

A restful day at Starnberger See

Although our itinerary listed Oberammergau as today's destination, we really didn't feel like another early start, long train trip and late return. Instead we decided to visit Starngberger See, just an hour by train south-east of Augsburg.

We arrived at the town of Starnberg just in time to join the 11am cruise on the lake. It was a pleasant jaunt for an hour, calling in at two small towns before alighting at Berg.

Berg's claim to fame is that it was there that mad King Ludwig II drowned (either by suicide or murder). It was Ludwig II who built the romantic Neuschwanstein Castle and several other exotic palaces, including Herrenchiemsee which we are intending to visit tomorrow. There is a memorial chapel for Ludwig at Berg but, yes you guessed it, it was wrapped in scaffolding and temporarily closed. There is also a cross in the water just off-shore so we photographed that instead!

The woods on the way to the chapel

The chapel - somewhere in there!

We enjoyed lunch in Berg, but the menu was in German so some of our choices turned out to be a bit unexpected. For example, I ordered a glass of Moscato which turned out to be a liquer!

Back in Augsburg we decided to check out the extensive gardens and park close to where we are staying. There is a large outdoor theatre (a bit like the Myer Music Bowl) where the Blues Brothers are performing for the next couple of nights. We found a lovely garden with big shady trees, climbing roses and beds of herbs where we sat in the shade and read for a while - a lovely way to end our relaxed day.

Innsbruck, Capital of the Alps

Today we took the train across the border to Austria and spent the day in Innsbruck, which calls itself 'the capital of the Alps'. In the Tirol region  and surrounded by mountains on all sides, it is in a very picturesque location and popular with tourists at any time of year.

Our first stop was the Tiroler Volkskunstmuseum (Tirol Folk Art Museum) where we enjoyed the displays of 18th and 19th century arts and crafts including household decorations for Christmas and other religious festivals, costumes and masks, and everyday items for the household and farm. There was a section on 'the parlour' where we walked through original livingrooms from various ages which had been reconstructed in the museum - all in dark wood panelling and with the windows of their age. There was also a wonderful display of Tyrolean costumes on amazingly life-like wooden models.

St Anne (mother of Mary) with Mary and Jesus

Milking stools

Part of a beautiful Nativity scene

Some artefacts in one of the reconstructed parlours

Next door to the museum is the Hofkirche (Court Church) whose centrepiece is the splendid tomb of Maximilian I (1459 - 1519), flanked on its sides by twenty-eight larger than life bronze statues representing the Emporer's ancestors. Maximilian had an imaginative idea of who his ancestors were and included King Arthur and some other unlikely people. Some of the statues were designed by Albrecht Durer and involved bronze casting processes that were ground-breaking for their time.

A tipsy king?

Maximilian's tomb

One of the most famous sights in Innsbruck is the Goldens Dachl (Golden Roof) and we walked through the narrow lanes of the Old City, with their shops selling Tirolean costumes and handicrafts, to join the crowd of tourist photographers.

Goldens Dachl

Window displays

It was then time for a break so we took the Nordkettenbahnen cable railway up above the city to the Alpine Zoo stop where we had lunch in the sunny courtyard of a restaurant. I had a delicious Caesar salad and Ian enjoyed a skewer with grilled pork, veal, chicken and beef.

The Alpine Zoo was interesting but it was rather run-down and reminded us too much of how zoos used to be. We spent some time trying to photograph wild boar, bison, lynx, 'wild cats' and Alpin Ibex who just would not stand still!

A lonely bear

Having earned another break after climbing all the hills at the zoo, we took the cable railway back to the town and visited a cafe we had noticed earlier which sold different types of strudel. Ian had cherry strudel and I had chocolate and raspberry - delicous!

It was a very hot day so we decided to spend the next hour before our train left having a read in the lovely shady Hofgarten.

We caught the 6.36pm train back to Munich but the trip did not go smoothly. After we crossed the Austrian border, we were delayed for over half an hour at Rosenheim while police moved through the train and gathered up a group of a couple of dozen 'African' people and removed them from the train. Presumably they did not have passports. We had experienced something similar on a train earlier this week where our train stopped at an unscheduled station and police alighted with a smaller group of 'Africans'.

Due to the delay, we missed the connecting train in Munich and arrived back in Augsburg after 9pm. We had a lovely walk back to our apartment in the cool evening, with a full  moon and a beautiful view of St Ulrich's church lit up against the night sky.