Christmas in Germany: Heidelberg

It was a little over three and a half hours on the train from Munich to Heidelberg, with one train change. The trains were all delayed somewhat due to the dense fog that restricted visibility to a few feet. Upon arrival, we promptly got lost. Luckily, some friendly German guys saw us puzzling over our maps and helped us orient ourselves. We checked into the Heidelberg Marriott and argued with the concierge over whether it would be ideal to take the city roads to the Old City or the park walkway across the river. He was for the city roads because it was so foggy, we couldn’t see anything across the river if we took the long way around. We took the park walkway across the river, and we were glad we did, despite the fact that both of us had serious pain in our shins from the hike to Neuschwanstein the day before.

We crossed the Old Bridge, erected in 1788, and entered through an original town gate, from medieval times. The fog held; it was only after we had crossed the bridge that we saw the faint outline of Heidelberg Castle through the mist. The old town (German: Altstadt), situated on the Neckar River, is long and narrow. It is dominated by the ruins of the Heidelberg Castle. It was all the more beautiful for being just a hint, a suggestion, a whisper through the fog.

We were hungry after our long train ride, and we immediately ate at the Hotel Zum Ritter. This was a lot fancier than we expected, and we were the only people there. We felt out of place in our jeans and hiking boots. I had a cheese tortellini in paprika cream sauce drizzled with a balsamic reduction and a riesling. Michael ordered the deer steak, but he received the wiener schnitzel. He didn’t realize he got the wrong menu item until he’d already finished half of his meal. Everything was terrific.

After lunch, we took the historic funicular railways up to the castle. It was already almost 4:00 in the evening. These rails went about 45 degrees up the mountain and were a little disconcerting.

We then paid for the audio guides and started walking around the grounds of the breathtaking ruins of Castle Heidelberg. This ended up being my favorite castle in Germany. Perched high above the narrow lanes and picturesque roofs of the old town, the magnificent red sandstone building breathed history. Again, the fog only added to its beauty. Built in the 1100s, the castle was partially destroyed during a few different wars and sieges, mainly in the Thirty Years War in the 1600s.

A cannonball embedded in the wall

The witch's bite - legend has it the king offered to give the castle to anyone who could bite through this ring, and a witch tried really, really hard, but only managed to dent it.

The largest wine cask in the world. It was filled 4 times.

The Powder Turret, split by an explosion, was described by Mark Twain in his 1880 book A Tramp Abroad:

“A ruin must be rightly situated, to be effective. This one could not have been better placed. It stands upon a commanding elevation, it is buried in green woods, there is no level ground about it, but, on the contrary, there are wooded terraces upon terraces, and one looks down through shining leaves into profound chasms and abysses where twilight reigns and the sun cannot intrude. Nature knows how to garnish a ruin to get the best effect. One of these old towers is split down the middle, and one half has tumbled aside. It tumbled in such a way as to establish itself in a picturesque attitude. Then all it lacked was a fitting drapery, and Nature has furnished that; she has robed the rugged mass in flowers and verdure, and made it a charm to the eye. The standing half exposes its arched and cavernous rooms to you, like open, toothless mouths; there, too, the vines and flowers have done their work of grace. The rear portion of the tower has not been neglected, either, but is clothed with a clinging garment of polished ivy which hides the wounds and stains of time. Even the top is not left bare, but is crowned with a flourishing group of trees & shrubs. Misfortune has done for this old tower what it has done for the human character sometimes−improved it.”

After we had seen the castle, we wandered the old town as long as our legs could carry us. We stopped for a glühwein by an ice skating rink and wished fervently that we had a place to stow our camera bag and our legs didn’t hurt so we could skate with the other revelers. But as darkness took the city, we meandered back to the hotel, stopping at every store that was open and enjoying the chilly night. We skipped dinner and returned to the hotel as soon as we had explored the rest of the old town.

Munich: Day Two: The Royal Castles

On our second day in Munich, we rose early and met a coach for the escorted German- and English-speaking tour of the Royal Castles of Ludwig II, the Fairy Tale King.

We were thrilled, as we went south, to spot the Alps for the first time. At the same moment, we turned to each other and said, “Well, we can scratch ‘Go to the Alps’ off our bucket list.”

Our first stop was in Oberammergau, a tiny village known for three things: woodcarvings, house paintings, and its passion play, which it has been putting on every ten years since 1634. The residents at that time swore to God that if they would be spared from the bubonic plague, they’d do a passion play every ten years. So far, no plague and holding strong.

Oberammergau is also famous for its Lüftlmalerei, or frescoes, of traditional Bavarian themes, fairy tales, and religious scenes painted on the exterior of many homes and buildings.

After doing some quick shopping (and having a homemade glühwein), we headed to Linderhof Palace, the royal villa of Ludwig II. Here Ludwig holed himself up, pouting that he couldn’t rule as an absolute monarch. Ludwig was known for wanting to live in a fantasy world of his own making, and he rarely ventured from his palaces to the real world. Rather, he surrounded himself with fairy tales and the stories from Wagner’s operas. Ludwig II was deposed on grounds of mental illness without any medical examination, and he died a day later under mysterious circumstances. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the furnished palace, but we were especially impressed with the Hall of Mirrors and the table that could move through the floor to be loaded with food by servants.

After Linderhof, we rode to the village of Hohenschwangau. From here we could see the two great castles of the Mad King Ludwig: Schloss Neuschwanstein and Schloss Hohenschwangau.

You’ll recognize Neuschwanstein; Disney modeled its castle after the fairy tale castle. We ate at Hotel Mütter. I had spaghetti and Michael had a ham sandwich. Then we hiked a mile up, stopping once for more glühwein, to Neuschwanstein. Here we snapped a zillion photos of the famous castle and admired the frescoes of Wagner’s operas on the exterior.

We toured the inside of Neuschwanstein, with no photos allowed. This experience just reminded me of how glad I was that we were on our trip alone, and not with a group. There were probably 80-100 tourists in our group of people, and all of them were loud, rude, and obnoxious. Especially the Americans. We didn’t have a very good time touring the castle because we were so jarred by the tourists’ behavior.

We rejoined the coach and slept on the long bus ride back to Munich. When we arrived, it was late. We went to Hofbräuhaus, a famous brewery founded in 1589. We sat at a long bench with strangers in a casual, loud setting. Traditional Bavarian music was played on stage, tuba and accordion and all, and all the staff wore lederhosen. Michael had a liter of beer—the smallest portion they served—and I had a riesling as usual. We both ordered the roast pork and bread dumplings and had a wonderful time.

We staggered out some hours later and walked to Marienplatz again just in time to hear the Glockenspiel play again. We took some beautiful photos of the square and then walked back to the hotel.

Munich: Day One

From Nuremberg it was just over an hour train ride to get to the bustling Bavarian metropolis of Munich (German: München). We spent two nights at the Marriott in Munich. To get to our hotel we had to walk past a wide variety of sex shops and table-dancing joints. We passed up on the opportunity to visit them.

We checked into the hotel and by 11:00 were waiting at a bus stop just outside the train station (the hauptbahnhof) for our “hop-on hop-off” tour of the city. We skipped the first stop because it was so late in the day and got off at the Marienplatz. This was the city center with the New City Hall (the Rathaus) with the half-hour-long or more chimes, the famous Glockenspiel. We arrived just in time for the chimes to start playing. They filled the square and transfixed the hundreds of people who were enjoying the Christmas market or going about their business. We bought a glühwein and sipped it while the Glockenspiel went on and on.

When the chimes finished, we bought some street sausages, over a foot long, and ate them hurriedly before getting back on a new bus. The bus wound through several tight squeezes, and we enjoyed the heat it provided.

Our next stop was Schloss Nymphenburg, our first palace of the trip. Although the statues in the garden were boarded up, we enjoyed the snow-covered grounds. Then we went inside and marveled over the gorgeous interior.

After Nymphemburg Palace, we saw the Olympic stadium and got off at Schwabing/Siegestor, where there was supposed to be an artist district and an English garden. There was a lovely victory arch where the bus let us off… and then nothing. We couldn’t find the garden, the Walking Man was too far away, and there was no artist district in sight. So we stopped in at the only restaurant we saw, Mario’s Pizza, and ate an extremely garlicky pizza. We hopped on the bus again, feeling cheated that we skipped some other stops for an area that held no interest.

We went back to the hotel. We talked about checking out some bars or night clubs and getting a feel for Munich’s nightlife. But at 6:30, jet lag finally crashed in on us, and we went to sleep. We slept the whole night through.