Life on the High Plains

I was excited for day 13 to arrive because I was going to see my old friend, Ursula.   We loaded into the rental car and headed to Schnelldorf.   I'm always happy when I see wildlife bridges and the autobahn we were on had several of them.  And yes, that is snow.  Snow seems to follow us everywhere this spring.   Ursula and I worked together at the Dolan Barracks bank.  I hadn't seen her in 25 years, but we recently reconnected on Facebook.     We spent the day chatting and remembering old times.  Ursula made us some homemade schnitzel and this delicious cake.    Last year Ursula's husband died, but she seems to be doing great.  He had COPD for years and she was his caretaker.  Her husband had a small hardware store in a building behind their house.  Ursula learned about all those tools, nails, screws, etc. and she continues to run the store herself.  Very impressive.   The...

Day 12 was for exploring the city center of Munich.  We stayed at the Anna Hotel which was very nice and centrally located near the Marienplatz.   Our first destination was the Residenz which was the royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs of the House of Wittelsbach.  We found these fence posts in the park across the street from the Residenz.  Aren't they cool?   Although it's right in the city center we ended up walking all the way around the complex before we found the museum entrance.  It is a huge facility with the royal residence, a theatre, and a concert hall for the Munich Symphony.  The complex contains 10 courtyards and 130 rooms.   Construction started in 1385.  This is the grotto.  Various monarchs expanded the complex over the years.   It was severely damaged during World War II.  Reconstruction began in the 1980s.   Here's another great hall called the antiquarium, it is ...

We actually slept in a little bit in Munich on Day 11.  Then we got up, picked up the rental car and headed south to visit Hohenschwangau Castle, Newschwanstein Castle, and Linderhoff Castle.   This little church sits down the road from the castles.  It is so picturesque--it may be the subject of a future painting.  Those are the Tyrolean Alps in the background.  We think we have great mountains in Colorado, but they don't compare to these mountains.   We purchased our tickets, at these castles you have to go on guided tours at specific times.  We had just enough time to hike up to Hohenschwangau.   Hohenschwangau was the summer and hunting residence of Maximilian and his wife, Marie of Prussia and their sons Ludwig and Otto.  Otto was declared insane so when Maximilian died Ludwig II succeeded to the throne.  Ludwig had a passion for castles so he decided to build Neuschwanstein just up the hill from Hohenschwa...

Day 10 was a travel day.  Our flight wasn't until late afternoon so we had about half a day to do some more sightseeing.   We started with a tour of the Royal Yacht Britannia. the yacht was in service from 1954 to 1997.  It sailed for over 1 million miles around the world in those 40+ years. In 1997, the Labour party won the election and said that the royal yacht would be retired and there would be no replacement.   I can't say I blame them.  This ship had a staff and crew of 200 to care for the royal family.  We are well beyond the days of the royals needing this kind of opulence.  When it was decommissioned a contest was held to determine where the ship would be housed.  Edinburgh won the contest and has built a mall type area on the harbor for the ship.    There was a place to transport the family Rolls.   The game room. The queen's bedroom.   Prince Phillip's bedroom...