Spooky!

Because Halloween is this week, I thought that I would show you one of my favorite places in the neighborhood: Alter Nordlicher Friedhof, the Old North Cemetary. Built in 1866-1869 to relieve the space issue from the Old South Cemetary, by 1939 it was full. Apparently there are many important Munich residents taking up residence there now...the cemetary was seriously damaged in the war, and the old tombstones are something to see. I find that I cut through here on my way home whenever I can.

The cemetary is surrounded by tall brick walls which insulate it from the sounds of the busy streets. On any given day you can find people reading on benches, jogging, walking with children or having picnics on the grass (right on top of someone...). It is a beautiful, lush place, full of greenery and trees, some growing right out of the graves themselves! It seems like a pretty nice spot to get some final rest.

There's only one problem...

Vienna waits for you...

While friends were visiting, the girls decided to take an overnight trip over to Vienna. It is easy to get to by train and took just over 4 hours to reach from Munich central station. We arrived in the late afternoon, and with evening closing in around us, we walked around and took night pictures of the beautiful buildings. St Stephen's Cathedral, the Graben pedestrian area, the Parliament, the Hofburg, the Circus in front of the Rathaus and more.

The next morning we went out to the Schonbrunn Palace and took a tour of the ornately decorated private residence. Wow. These people lived in beautiful surroundings. Part of the tour shows a glimpse of the back servant corridors-where the needs of the family were attended to: food, heat, etc: these servants were definitely not seen nor heard as they scurried between the walls of the palace doing their jobs.

Today, 40 rooms can be viewed on the tour, as well as the expansive gardens and maze. A good portion of the rest of the palace houses civil servants, who can rent apartments inside.

We left that afternoon, but packed the day full! From the Palace, we went to see the Klimt's at the Belvedere Palace museum, including "The Kiss" (which is square, btw...). The day finished with a delicious lunch at Cafe Sacher and a walk around the city. Take a look at the beautiful Opera House.

The next Vienna trip will be with the Hub...it is a perfect place for a romantic weekend get-away. We'll keep you posted....

Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau

Once upon a time, in the late 1800's there lived a boy who would be king. He spent his youth dreaming of a fairy-tale castle that he would one day build, a castle better and bigger than the "hunting lodge" (castle) of his father. This castle was dreamed up and first painted by an artist, not an architect. It would surpass by far the beauty of his father's castle, and his father would have to look at the beautiful creation higher on the hill. That castle is Neuschwanstein, as seen above. His father's castle is called Hohenschwangau and is pictured below:

Beautiful views from Hohenschwangau:

King Ludwig lived in his dream castle for only 172 days....he was declared mentally unfit to rule Bavaria and met an untimely (and highly speculated) death at the Starnbergersee just a few days after being removed from his beloved home. The castle remains unfinished, but what you do get to see on the tour (including hundreds of swans hiding in the decor of both castles) is beautiful. During his life, Ludwig had a fondness for the romantic arts, and was a great patron of the composer Richard Wagner. Many of the rooms are decorated with themes of Wagner's operas.

Neuschwanstein is the basis for the Disney castle...and you cannot take any pictures inside-instead, you can go to the website and see the pictures provided. My favorite room is the gorgeous throne room, with it's animal motif mosaic tiled floor which took over 2 years to complete.

This was an easy day trip, about 2 hours by car from Munich...such beautiful countryside. We opted to hike to both castles, Hohenschwangau took about 10 minutes to reach and it took about 25 minutes up a steep hill to reach Neuschwanstein. We elected to come down the nature-oriented way (ok, we got a little lost...) and hiked down through the Pollat Gorge on slippery steel walkways.

Can dreaming of such beauty for so long drive one mad like it did Mad King Ludwig? That is for you to decide...

Because she's my Mom....

...she gets what she wants. And what she wanted was a few more Oktoberfest pictures...."maybe not the ones with all of the drinking?"...she says, but it seems to come with the topic.

So, here you go Mom: a few more just for you:

Oktoberfest 2009

We have survived a few firsts in the past few weeks: our first Oktoberfest in Munich and our first visitors from the States. These two events overlapped quite nicely in the latter part of September and first weeks of October.

My biggest take-away from our first Oktoberfest might surprise you-yeah, there was a lot of beer (admittedly consumed by my friends and me...), packed trains and tourists....but my main take-away from the Fest is camaraderie.

You don't meet a stranger at Oktoberfest-you share tightly packed tables with people who become old friends within minutes. You sing and dance and eat with your new community of friends. People are happy and jubilant-and it is infectious!

We met people from several different countries-Italy, France, Germany and the US to name a few-who allowed us to pause for a moment at their tables to order a Mass...one of those moments in particular turned into a few hours, where we bought rounds and they bought shots of Jagermeister and a fig liquor that was as sweet as the Jager was medicinal.

We were lucky enough to have tickets for a table on the closing day of the Fest at the Schutzen Festzelt tent-where we met wonderful people-a potential dog-sitter, a few military personnel, a blogger whose blog I follow: each of them new friends.

Our first Wiesen was terrific. Old friends, new friends, a lot of beer and some half-chickens....and, at the very end, a ride on the Ferris Wheel-with a beautiful view.

You don't call....you don't write.....

Dear Readers....(ahem...Mom and Dad).....sorry about the blight in postings-Robert and I have been busy entertaining friends from the States and I have a lot of material to show you....just haven't had a lot of time...I will get some postings up in the next day or two...until then, enjoy these pics!