Monday, August 9, 2010

Neuschwanstein Castle

this should be the last post. i believe this is the last of the posts i was behind on.

my last saturday in switzerland i went with roberta and the kids to germany to see the Neuschwanstein Castle. this castle has a crazy story and was also the castle that inspired the disney sleeping beauty castle. when we arrived we found this great peak down below of the castle up above{first pics}. then when you go into the area you park down below and take a bus up the hill. then there is a little climb to a great bridge that overlooks the castle. so beautiful. then we walked over to the castle where we took a tour of the inside. it was such a beautiful castle and it is sad that it never was finished. this castle was built in the 19th century and the king, Ludwig II, had built a running toilet in his bedroom...which is a pretty big advancement in that time. i was in a king's bedroom. how often can you say that!?
i really wish i could see this place in the summer when the trees are green and the sky is blue. {check out images HERE} i would love to return someday and revisit this beautiful castle.


this castle below is the castle where Ludwig II, the king, grew up









a quick photoshoot at the castle


after we went through the tour inside, we got hot chocolate inside the castle's little restaurant.
then on the walk down from the castle we found some yummy pastries to try.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

day one & day two

Switzerland. Lichtenstein. Austria.
remember how before i said i had more posts to post that infact i wasn't done with my switzerland blog? well here is one of those i needed to post{which is a 3 post event}.

my dad came to visit! well he came for a business trip that just happened to be while i was there. {he goes about every year to switzerland for a meeting, but he usually goes in the fall.} he spent a few days at his work meetings in burgdorf switzerland so when he was done, i took a train to him in burgdorf. when i arrived, we went on a walk around the village. then we went to dinner with two of his bosses and a co-worker. that was enjoyable. we went to a chinese restaurant and some how ended up ordering waaay too much food. the lady taking our order understood us wrong and ordered us double of what we asked. luckily, dad's company paid for it. look at all that yummy chinese down below. the next day, we took the train with those same people to the zurich airport and while they flew back to the US we rented a car. we drove to my town, Wadenswil where he met the family i had been working with. then we went and bought food for our big day and then made our way to pick up Jachen. Jachen came with us to Lichtenstein and Austria.


i showed my dad the church building i went to when going to church with the family




Lichtenstein.
the castle in Lichtenstein is still lived in by a royal family. they own the country, the small country of Lichtenstein. we walked around the town down below the castle then found our way up to the grounds as well.



Austria.
we pretty much just drove around in Austria. we stopped once for a bathroom. typical.

Switzerland.
we decided to head back to switzerland and jachen showed us a place on the water we could go to eat dinner. we ate our lunch leftovers on water that sat in between us and Germany.

there Germany is across the water.

hey jachen, whatcha looking at?
we returned Jachen to his home, then dad came back to where i lived and he slept the night there with me on a big blow up mattress in my room. the next day was our journey to France and Germany. read the next posts to find out about those trips!

day 3 part one

France.
saturday morning, we made our way over to Colmar France.
just after entering france
french music in france!
boat lock
we put Colmar France, no street name, into the gps and well our gps decided to put in a street for us and took us to a random street outside of town. but it was a nice little adventure to a small french boat lock. after investigating the lock, we found our way to Colmar without the gps. we found a parking spot right away and then made our way to the heart of Colmar after a delicious lunch by the car. dad and i loved Colmar so much. it was so quaint. we spent a long time there and had a hard time prying ourselves away from it. someday i hope to return. here are some of the photographs from our meandering.


















then we made our way over to Germany.