2016 Germany: Hohenschwangau
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| The lake at Hohenschwangau |
After leaving Munich, several hours later than planned, Oma
and I made our way through the beautiful German countryside and into the
enchanted village of Hohenschwangau, our scheduled destination for the first
two nights. I had made reservations for us at the Villa Jagerhaus, an historic
hotel at the base of the Neuschwanstein Castle.
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| Villa Jagerhaus |
Since we were late, the hotel
office was already closed by the time we arrived. Fortunately, there was a note
guiding us to another hotel office that would give us the keys for our two
rooms.
Our rooms were amazing. Oma got the room that had perfect
views of both King Ludwig’s Castle and another view of the Neuschwanstein
Castle.
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| King Ludwig's birthplace in the background |
Neuschwanstein Castle is the castle that Walt Disney used for the
inspiration for his Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland.
By the time we settled into our rooms, it was late and the
local restaurants had already closed for the night. We were able to get some
dessert at the hotel restaurant across the street from our hotel. I had the
Bavarian crème; the most amazing food to ever cross my lips. All I knew was
that no matter what it took, I was going to bring Liz here!
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| Best dessert ever |
Jet lag is a strange state of being. How is it that one can
be so exhausted and still can’t seem to fall asleep? Oh well, by 3:00 am I finally
fell asleep. In the morning, we went into the village and found a bakery, “backerei.”
The woman behind the counter, rude as can be, served us up some of the most
delicious fresh baked pastries and delicious coffee.
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| My first German backerei |
This was my introduction
to real German pastries….. I must say, they are the best in the world. For the
next month, finding a backerei and sampling everything became my morning
ritual. No wonder I put on a several pounds.
In addition to our planned travels and
adventure, I had an additional reason to be in Germany. I wanted to see if I
could find my half-brother, Herold Ziegler. I have never met Herold and know very
little, practically nothing, about him. Before my parents met, my dad, as a
teenager, joined the US Army and was stationed in Germany. He and his German
girlfriend had a baby together. Whether my dad ever saw his son is unknown and
I suppose the answer went to the grave with my dad. All I have is a single
picture of Herold as a baby. I even set up a website, Searching For Herold
Ziegler at heroldziegler.com hoping that someday he may see it and contact me.
The fact that my mom would help me find my dad’s little
secret speaks volumes to the kind, loving, and warm nature of my mother. For
some reason, my mom thought that Herold may have been born in a town close to
Hohenschwangau so we went there to the local city halls in Oberamergau and
Garmisch Partenkirchen to see if they had any records of his birth.
Birth records are not kept as well as they are here in
America. For years, the German churches kept the birth records. As years went
on, the local city halls, called “rathaus” recorded the births. Of course, I couldn't help but to think that to an American, "rathaus" sounds like "rat house." For some reason, thinking of a government building, like a city hall, as a rat house just seemed somewhat appropriate.
In many cases, birth records still remain as hand written entries in old journals and have not been
digitized and stored in electronic files. In Garmisch Partenkirchen, they were
able to search their records and found nothing. In Oberamergau, a perfect
quaint Bavarian village, we met a very kind woman, Frau Pichler, who offered to
search through all of their old journals and records but told us it would take
a few weeks. I agreed to return in two weeks.
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| Such a wonderful woman. I saw her again two weeks later. |
Oma and I spent the rest of the day sight seeing and enjoyed
a traditional German lunch of bratwurst and kartofel salat, German potato salad,
at a street café in Garmisch.
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| Oma reppin' Sierra Madre. Notice Sleeping Beauty's Castle in the background. |
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| Lunch in Garmisch |
In the later afternoon, it started to rain. Regardless of the
weather and not wanting to miss a thing, I decided to hike up to the
Neuschwanstein Castle while Oma took a nap. The road was steep and became hard
to walk up as the rainwater started to gush down the steep road. To make
matters worse, I was wearing my Locals, Hawaiian rubber beach-walkers. When it
started to hail, all I could do was slip and slide taking one step forward and
sliding a step backwards.
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| Hail on the road to Neuschwanstein Castle |
Of course I was in a tee-shirt and short pants too. I
don’t think I have ever felt like such a stereotypical American tourist in my life.
FYI, it
gets cold quick in those German mountains! Cold, wet, and looking like a fool,
seeing the castle up close was worth it. No wonder Walt Disney used this as his
model.
What an amazing first day.
