Paulton's Park

October 27^th, 2023

With the kids and Gemma off from school (Gemma’s an executive head teacher) along with Sid and Sonia off of work, we decided to take the opportunity to go to an amusement park called Paultons Park located near Southampton, about an hour and twenty minutes from Auntie Shirley’s place.  I had been there before with the kids about 5-6 years ago when it was known primarily as Peppa Pig’s World, which was more up their alley at the time.  The park has since added some bigger and more adventurous rides for big kids and adults and the girls had outgrown Peppa Pig.

 

Since it was half term for all school kids, I figured the place would be packed.  It was, but the longest we waited for a ride was 25-30 minutes and most wait times were 10-15.  My cousin Gemma has three girls and her brother Sid has two.  They all happen to be about 9 months apart in age, with Gemma’s oldest Pippa followed by Sid’s oldest Amelie.  Then it is Gemma’s Annabel, Sid’s Penelope (aka Pops) and finally Gemma’s youngest Rose.  You can imagine the craziness that can happen between these sisters and cousins. 

 Rose's chicken impression:

There must have been 3-400 pumpkins laid out in a few fields.

The family by the Cobra roller coaster, which everyone went on.

Amelie, Annabel and Pippa on the Cobra:

Entering the Lost Kingdom:

Me, Rose and Pops on the Velociraptor roller coaster:

Rose ready to go!

Well 7-year-old Rose latched on to me for the day as her ride buddy.  I think I sat beside her for every ride but one.  And she was not afraid to go on anything, including the biggest ride, the Cyclonator.  I was impressed…none of the other adults apart from me wanted to go on that ride!  I really enjoyed that ride too as you experienced a brief moment of weightlessness as

 

Waiting in line for the Cyclonator:

I took a quick couple of sneaky pics before the Cyclonator started:

What the ride looks like.  The wheel spins as well as swinging up and down.

Our brief foray into Peppa Pig Land:

In what seems to be a tradition, at the end of the day the girls wanted to ride on the “Raging River Ride” which in England they call a “log flume”.  Rose begged me to go on it with her but I knew that I would get wet and it was the end of the day and the sun was getting low in the sky.  I didn’t really want to sit for over an hour in the car back to Auntie Shirley’s in wet clothes.  We got to the ride and the restrictions were that you had to be 8 years or older to ride by yourself.  That’s okay for Pops as she’s 8, and Rose said she’d tell the guy that she was 8, but she was rejected…so I had to go…not just once, not twice, but three times!  I didn’t get too wet, thanks to my rain jacket, but I did get a wet butt from the seat.  Still it was fun, a good way to end the day.

Yeah, a bit wet...

Lulworth Castle

 October 22^nd, 2023

I flew back to England from Munich on October 20^th.  I had booked a train from Heathrow down to Weymouth, where my aunt lives.  In some slight confusion, I ended up yo-yoing between Terminal 2 & 3 a few times.  At first, I headed to the trains, got my prebooked ticket from a machine and was then told by a helpful staffer that I had to catch a bus and had to return to Terminal 2.  That seemed odd as I had booked my ticket on Trainline.com and there was no mention of a bus.  I walked there but was told that the bus terminal was back from where I came.  I went there only to be referred yet again back to Terminal 2.  Baffled, I asked a woman wearing a Heathrow uniform and she told me that I had to go about 100 meters back and go between some glass cladding…that seemed odd but sure enough, there were 4-5 bus lanes and I finally figured out the stop for my bus that would take me to Woking where I would get on a train.  I’m sure glad I wasn’t in a rush; in fact, I was early and wondered if I could get on a train that was 2 hours earlier than my scheduled train.  As I arrived at Woking station, my ticket wouldn’t open the automatic turnstiles, but a railway station worker nearby called me over, let me through and told me I had better hurry as the train was leaving in 3 minutes!  I caught that train and there was no problem with the train’s ticket inspector, which was great.  Auntie Shirley picked me up in Weymouth and her son and daughter arrived a few hours later with their families.  It was the start of half term for schools, so their kids had the week off as did Gemma and Sid (my cousins).

 

On Sunday we headed to Lulworth Castle, a 17^th century hunting lodge built in the spirit of a fortified castle, but it was never used for that purpose, mainly as a family home in later years.  It was a lovely sunny day with some puffy, white cumulus clouds moving through the blue sky.  Being close to Hallowe’en, we were first greeted by a pumpkin mascot at the entrance followed by lots of decorations throughout the grounds and inside the castle.

Penelope claimed that she was Boris Johnson!

Cousins Amelie and Annabelle:

Pippa imitating the statue above her:

We started with a wander around the inside of the castle.  Unfortunately, a fire in 1929 gutted the place and it wasn’t partially restored until the 1970s, but they didn’t rebuild the upper floors which made the rooms on the main floor seem cavernous as they stretched up to the roof.  The kids had a mission to find fake skulls with diamond eyes in various rooms in the castle and had to mark their findings in a little booklet to earn a prize (a candy of their choosing).

In the basement:

YIKES!!!

A deadly disco:

An important booklet on display:

If you know me, Rowntree's Fruit Gums from England are one of my favorite candies...here's an old school box of them.

The view from one of the towers:

Looking towards the ocean:

Afterwards we had lunch before heading over to a wooded area where the kids were looking for wooden pumpkin facades with emoji faces which they drew in their pamphlets in order to obtain another candy treat. 

Annabel, a troll in the forest: 

Sid walking with Rico amongst skeletons.

The scary ghost Nala!

There was a zombie house that a few of us wanted to check out.  We were led into the small structure by an older gentleman dressed up as a British soldier.  The premise was that some scientist’s experiment had gone wrong and although it was short, it was pretty fun.  I was impressed with my cousin’s youngest, 7 year old Rose, who braved the action and didn’t seem to get scared.

Being hounded by zombies:

We ended up spending 3-4 hours at Lulworth Castle and the Hallowe’en twist to the place really added to the experience.  It was a lovely Sunday afternoon with the family.

The Nordkette Cable Car in Innsbruck

 October 19^th, 2023

It was about a two hour drive from Fussen to Innsbruck.  The first part of the trip was a narrow, windy road that climbed up and over a mountain pass.  After that, it was smooth sailing on a national highway.  I headed straight to Nova’s office in a small town called Terfens.  Nova is another paragliding manufacturer and I was going to spend the latter half of the afternoon meeting their crew and seeing some of their operations.  I went out for dinner with Kerim, who is involved with international sales, and we got to know each other better.

 

The windy mountain road:

On the way down:

The next day, on Kerim’s suggestion, I headed to the Nordkette Cable Car.  The Nordkette mountain range consists of 30+ mountains ranging from 1700-2600 meters in height.  The main cable car takes you up to 1900 meters and then a second one peaks at 2269 meters above sea level.

On the way up: 

It was windy and quite chilly at the top, but the views were phenomenal.  I really enjoyed watching the Alpine Choughs, a bird in the crow family, having a blast with the high winds.  They soared around, sometimes tucking in their wings so much that they didn’t even look like birds but instead black torpedoes hurtling through the sky.  Supposedly they can reach up to 200 km/h in flight!  I couldn’t help but think of my hang-gliding buddy Bala who loves to mimic the “cahs” of crows and ravens back in Canada.  I could have watched them for hours…but it was pretty cold.

 

Innsbruck:

A near miss from an Alpine Chough:

Alpine Choughs in their glory:

If you look carefully, you can see the 777 meter long Europa Bridge:

The hang-gliding ramp...it would be awesome to launch from here:

The Seegrube station:

Heading down:

At the end of the afternoon I wandered around the old town section of Innsbruck before grabbing a few beers at an Irish pub which was playing some good music…at least of my taste.  I returned to Hotel Edelweiss where I was staying and had an early night as I was flying back to England the next morning from Munich.

Looking back at where I came from:

In town:

Auf wiedersehen Austria.

The Fairy Tale Castles of Southern Bavaria

 October 17^th-18^th, 2023

 

After visiting Dachau, I drove about an hour and a half south to the Bavarian town of Füssen, located a kilometer from the Austrian border.  The main reason I came here was to visit Independence/Skyman, one of my paragliding suppliers.  I wanted to meet some of their staff whom I’ve been working with over the past 8-9 years and also check out their facilities.  I spent three hours there on the morning of the 17^th and it was a great visit.

 

What a beautiful area!

A bonus of staying in Füssen, apart from it having a very quaint, pedestrian friendly downtown lined with cobblestone roads and old buildings, was that the Neuschwanstein Castle was nearby.  The name probably doesn’t sound familiar to you, but I bet you have seen pictures of it.  It is a tall, white castle, with a few towers, situated high on a hillside and it looks like it is straight out of a Disney movie.  As I mentioned in my first post of this trip, back in 1995 after university, when I went backpacking through Europe, I lugged around a thick Lonely Planet book for Western Europe and this castle was on the front cover.

 Neuschwanstein Castle:

Unfortunately, when I had looked for tickets to tour the inside of the castle a month and a half ago while still in Canada, the dates were already sold out.  However, Markus, the main guy I deal with at Independence, fired up the website while I was still at his facility and lo and behold, there were a few last minute tickets for an audio guide that afternoon…sweet.

 

After parking the car, it was supposed to be a 40 minute walk up to the castle.  Well, that must be for real slow pokes as it only took me 20.  It is an impressive building that’s for sure.  I had 45 minutes until my audio tour was to start so I hiked up to the Marienbrücke (bridge), that has a fantastic view back towards the castle and to the flatland below.

On my hike up, I ran into this Taiwanese family that I met the night before at the Il Pescatore restaurant.  They insisted that we get a picture together.

The bridge:

The view of Hohenschwangau Castle and the nearby lake on the hike back down:

Looking back at the bridge:

The castle was built by Ludwig II, the son of Maximillian II who was the King of Bavaria.  Maximillian constructed the nearby Hohenschwangau Castle where Ludwig lived for most of his life, and the castle I would be visiting the next day.  Maximillian past away when Ludwig was only 18 years old so Ludwig became the new young king of Bavaria.  When Ludwig died, under suspicious circumstances, when he was only 40 years old and never saw the completion of Neuschwanstein.

The main entrance:

The inner courtyard:

The view from the castle:

 

Most walls of the rooms inside the castle were adorned with paintings that were painted right onto the wall, not typical canvasses with frames.  They depicted various folklore stories and honestly, not something that I would want in my house.  Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside the castle.  The tour was only half an hour long, so we definitely didn’t see the whole castle.  I couldn’t help but think what a bitch it would have been to heat the place.  I also wondered how you would find someone else in this massive building without the modern technology of a phone or radio!

 

The next morning I returned to tour the inside of the lesser Hohenschwangau Castle.  Schwangau literally translates to “Swan District” and the swan was represented many times throughout the castle, from paintings to tapestry to chandeliers.  The first room that we entered had an amazing billiard table made from oak or mahogany, complete with ivory pool balls.  Once again, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the castle…not sure why.

 Looking up at Neuschwanstein Castle:

I took a photo inside, while waiting for the tour to start, having forgotten about the rule of no photos inside.

Ludwig II grew up in the castle and after his father died and he when he was 24 years old, he began construction of the more massive and elaborate Neuschwanstein castle.  In his bedroom in Hohenschwangau, he had a big telescope, not to gaze at the stars, but to keep an eye on the construction of his fancy new castle!

 

Ludwig was also a patron and friend of composer Richard Wagner and provided him with enough money that Wagner could just focus on writing operas and other pieces of musical work.  Wagner was an occasional guest at Hohenschwangau. 

 

Returning back to Füssen, I walked around the downtown area before heading back to the hostel.  That night I went back to the same restaurant as the night before, Il Pescatore, as the food was fantastic, the wait staff friendly and decent prices.  Tomorrow I’m off to Innsbruck.

At the Il Pescatore restaurant:

I don't normally take foodie pics, but look at this!

Off to Innsbruck!