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!

The Dachau Concentration Camp

 October 16^th, 2023

I checked out of Wombat’s hostel and hopped on the train to the airport where I picked up the car that I had rented for the next 5 days.  My plan was to head a few hours south of Munich to visit a few of my paragliding suppliers, which was the main reason I came to Germany for a week.  I have been running a paragliding school for 9 years now and it would be nice to put some faces to names that I have been dealing with over email for such a long time.

 

I decided to revisit the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial/Museum which is west of the city.  I went there back in 1995 when I was backpacking through Europe after university.  I was curious to see how much I remembered and if things had changed at all.  It also has a whole lot more meaning to me personally now as I have made some Israeli friends over the past 13 years and dated an Israeli woman, Naomi, on and off for a number of years.  We met while I was stuck in India and continue to be in touch today.  Israel has just been attacked by Hamas out of Gaza about 9 days ago so the persecution and troubles for her people unfortunately continues to this day.

 

Before entering the main gate, I noticed a guided tour group near a sign so I wandered over to see what the sign was about.  It was pointing out an SS officer building that resides outside of the walls of the camp.  The guide was a German fellow in his late 50s and he seemed quite passionate about what he was explaining.  I decided to loiter there, not knowing if this was a tour you had to sign up for or whether you could just join in.  Well, I just joined in. 

 

We walked over to the main gate, which was something that I definitely remembered from 1995.  The iron gate had the words “Arbeit Macht Frei” – Work Makes you Free…yeah right.  The interesting thing with the gate was that this was not the original one that I had seen 28 years ago.  The guide explained that someone stole the gate in 2014 and it was later found in a scrapyard in Norway!  They have returned the gate and it is now housed in the main building, behind a glass case.  The perpetrators were never found.

The entrance to the camp:

The main gate:

Dachau was the very first concentration camp and was built in 1933, six years before WWII began.  It was initially used for political prisoners but soon Jews and other supposed lesser races.  It became the model for future concentration camps that sprung up around Germany, Austria and Poland.  It was originally meant to house 6000 prisoners but this number ballooned to over 12,000 by the end of the war.

The main building:

A replica of the original barracks:

The main thoroughfare, there would have been about 9-10 barracks on either side of the trees.

A guard tower:

Needless to say, the living and working conditions were appalling.  It’s hard to fathom how a place like this can exist and how one group of humans can inflict such relentless, calculated and evil treatment on others.  There were at least 32,000 documented deaths at the camp…and who knows how many more.

About 50 people would sleep in these bunks.

And those 50 had to share these two sinks...

And these toilets.

One form of punishment was caning.  The prisoner had to count out loud in German with the punisher, and if they cried out or said the number incorrectly, they would start again.

The original gate:

Our guide was very knowledgeable about the place and the past.  He was not just a mere tour guide, he continues to do research and try to locate and interview survivors. He mentioned that during Covid, when the place was closed to the public, they were able to concentrate (probably the wrong word to use) on filling in some blanks as to some of the past history.

The fake showers, that was in fact the deadly gas chamber.

The Zylon gas would come in from the vents below.

The original crematorium building.

The perimeter fence.

We finished the tour with the gut-wrenching visit to the crematorium.  Dachau was not an extermination camp like places such as Auschwitz, but still thousands died, sometimes faster than they could bury the corpses so a crematorium aided in the disposal of bodies.   After everyone had passed through the crematorium, or at least everyone who wanted to, the tour guide talked about his youth and how his father, who was a member of the Wehrmacht, couldn’t or perhaps just wouldn’t talk about his role in the war (he was not at Dachau).  This caused a rift between the guide and his father.  He also mentioned that it is mandatory for teenagers in the area to come and visit Dachau as part of a school trip…in the hopes that this kind of evil and barbaric scenario never happens again.

It was a sobering and sad afternoon but one that I’m glad I did.  It’s the least that one can do to honour those who suffered dearly and to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Bayern Munich’s Stadium

October 15^th, 2023

From the Olympic Tower yesterday, I could see the Allianz Stadium off in the distance on the north end of Munich.  It is home to the FC Bayern Munich, one of the premier teams in the top soccer (well, really football) teams in the Bundesliga, Germany’s top league.  I’m not the biggest soccer fan but while I was stuck in India, I met a British fellow who educated me about the nuances of the Premier League…who used to play for who, why this manager was good, etc.  And in India, the 3 pm English time games on Saturdays were at 8:30 in the evening in Goa, which was perfect for watching in sports bars while having dinner.  Now, I have to admit that I’ve never really watch the Bundesliga, but I had definitely hear of FC Bayern Munich as they are quite a successful team and are usually in the Champions League, the league that features the top teams from the top leagues in Europe.

 

I decided to buy a ticket for a stadium tour, and I’m glad that I did.  The stadium seats 70,000 people and is the second largest venue in Germany.  The outside is cladded with 2874 foil air panels which stay inflated by a differential air pressure.  Each panel can be independently lit to show either the red for the FC Bayern team or maybe white for the German National team and the stadium can be seen up to 80 kilometres away on a clear night.  The place also boasts the biggest underground car park with 9800 parking spaces.

Before the tour my ticket included access to the FC Bayern museum.  I could have shown up 3 hours before the tour but I was quite sure that I wouldn’t need that much time.  In fact, it was a bit of a comedy of errors to get there.  I walked from my hostel to the nearby Ostbahnhof train station and went to a bakery in the complex to get a chocolate croissant as I had 4-5 minutes to spare.  Well the lady serving helped the guy in front of me, but then helped a few other customers who were congregated in front of the counter.  I wasn’t sure if I was invisible or what.  Of course some older lady ordered a bunch of things and by the time the croissant was in my hands and I was up on the platform, the S8 train I wanted had gone.  Numerous trains ran the same 4-5 stops to Marienplatz so I quickly tried to figure out what my other options were.  I thought I found my solution, ran over to that platform only to watch that train pull away.  It happened a third time.  I resigned myself to catching the next S8 train.

I arrived at the stadium about 45 minutes before my tour.  It was a bit of a jaunt from the train station to the stadium, close to a kilometre.  I was amazed by the size of a wind turbine near the building…I’d never seen one so big!

Approaching the stadium:

A massive wind turbine nearby, I've never seen such a big one:

Turns out the amount of time I had in the museum was just right…I couldn’t imagine spending a few hours in there, but then again, I’m not a die hard Munich fan.  It was impressive how much hardware (trophies) was on display.

Some nice old TVs:

2029/2020 Season when Bayern won all 6 trophies in different leagues and competitions...they won everything that they could!

Their Bundesliga trophies:

Me and Harry Kane:

One of the biggest trophies I've ever seen...it is over 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide!

There were about 30 others in the English tour I was on and our guide was a local guy Patrick, with slightly darker skin and a pretty good afro.  We walked 3-4 minutes through the concessions area to the far end of the stadium.  I couldn’t help but think of the narrow walkway back at the Olympic stadium from the day before.  In comparison, this was like a highway.  We ventured out to the upper part of the lower stands.  The stadium was impressive on the inside.  The roof was not completely closed in but it would protect most of the fans if it rained.  At the far end, the colours of the seats were arranged to form an impressively large representation of the FC Bayern Munich logo.

Walking through the concessions area:

It's a blurry photo as I was trying to take this surreptiously, but I loved this Scandinavian family with all four of them in leather jackets!

Patrick giving us some details about the stadium:

Subsequently we headed down to the seats behind the home and away team benches, followed by entering the bowels of the arena.  First up was the media room, where the managers must deal with the press before and after the game.

Where the press sits:

The hot seats:

We visited the home team’s dressing room and I have to admit that I was a little underwhelmed.  Granted the stadium was built in 2005 but I just thought there would be a bit more pizazz in the room.  Still cool to see.

The physio room:

Next, we walked out onto the pitch.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t take the exact tunnel that the players do, but we still got to stand there and listen to the Champions League anthem which pumps up the players before the game. We were able to sit down in the fancy seats that the players use.  Patrick explained that these were the fanciest seats in the whole arena, even better than the corporate boxes.  Since Audi is one of the major sponsors, they were seats made by them for their high end cars…not bad.

Walking out onto the pitch:

On the home bench...sitting in the most comfortable seats in the house:

The crazy outside wall of the stadium:

The super nice subway train in Munich:

Back in Munich, I wandered over to the Hofbrauhaus, Munich’s famous beer tavern.  It’s a place that feels like Octoberfest every day of the year.  I recall going there on a Sunday in March when I was backpacking in 1995 and I remember it being off the wall.  It was a Sunday again, around 5 pm and the place was packed.  Being by myself, and it was hot, humid and loud in the place, I decided not to stay…and unfortunately, I was only able to get a short video of it before my phone battery died.