GERMANY 2007

Day  13

SUNDAY, June 3

HOHENSCHWANGAU TO

ZURICH

We walked to get tickets to the Hohenschwangau Palace before breakfast at the hotel. We were booked for 10:45 tour. During breakfast we ran in to our  Tennessee friends again and also people from Iowa. After packing up , we took the horse and buggy to the Hohenschwangau Castle. It was much different from Neuschwanstein Castle but very interesting.

Hohenschwangau Castle

One day, while out walking, 18-year-old crown Prince Maximilian  discovered the ruins of Hohenschwangau Castle set beautifully in the landscape. He purchased the property and restored the Castle. Between 1833 - 1837, building on the remains of the medieval structure, he had it converted into a romantic residential palace. The palace, in the form that Maximilian created, has been preserved as an outstanding historical monument of the Romantic age. The  Royal family spent several weeks every year in Hohenschwangau.

We had a wonderful visit to the palace. It was a guided tour that took us into almost every room.  Unfortunately we could not take photos. We began in the Knights Hall, the Billiard Room, the Hall of the Knights of the Swan,Schyren Room – Queen Marie's dressing room, the Oriental Room – Queen Marie's bedroom,Berchta room – the Queens study, and the Ladies Chamber. The second floor was occupied by crown Prince Maximilian from 1848 until his death in 1864 at which time his son and successor, King Ludwig II occupied it. The second floor also had beautiful rooms which included the Banqueting Hall, which displayed a very long table with beautiful candelabras, fruit bowls and other lovely pieces; the Hohenstaufen Room, which was the dressing room for King Maximilian II and King Ludwig II, and King Ludwig II's Music Room;Tasso Room – the

SEE MY MODEL

From the top of the Castle we had a wonderful view below us of our hotel – Jaegerhaus – in the foreground and the Lisle hotel behind it

We left Hohenschwangau about noon, stopping at a McDonald's for lunch as we neared Landau again. We had to return by way of the 4.4 mile tunnel. The GPS did not reconnect fast enough as we came out of the tunnel to get us on the right road. We went through some very narrow backroads. At one point the road ended with a barricade so we turned around and got involved in a bicycle race. The GPS was finally able to get us back to the main highway .

We got off at St. Gallen but couldn't find the church and library we wanted to visit. We later learned that we did not have the correct name and address in the GPS. It was 4 o'clock so we decided just to go on to Zürich.

 Our GPS routed us down a street near our hotel that was partially blocked for construction. We went through a partially blocked entrance and found a policeman waiting for us. We had German license plates which made us somewhat of a target in Switzerland. We showed him our map and GPS, and pointed to the hotel which was directly in front of us. When he discovered we were Americans, he let us go. The Best Western hotel was  about 2 km from the heart of the city. We settled in to a very nice suite and decided to eat downstairs in the garden dining room. We had a delicious meal, I had smoked swordfish and grapefruit, my wife had steak in mushroom cream sauce. We shared a rhubarb tart.

 It had been a long day and we were rather tired, so we went to bed early.

Next Day