Schwangau, Germany

Mom came to visit us for a week!! It was so much fun to have her here! She played card games and Princess castle with Naomi and we had the most wonderful chats! We had planned to go see the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles this weekend so we set off the next day after Mom arrived. Chris tried to reserve tickets so we didn't have to stand in line the day of the tour to get tickets but we were only able to get tickets to the H. Castle. So we went up to the reservation booth at 8 am to get the ticket, passing up all the other people in the already huge line. After we got the H. Castle ticket we asked about the N. Castle and that we tried but there was a glich when we tried to reserve a ticket. And she said it was no problem and gave us tickets to the N. Castle too!! We thought we'd have to stand in that huge line for the N. Castle so it was so awesome of her to give us tickets to both! Took us about 15 min for the whole process. Since we were there so early we got to enjoy the sights and scenery before the large crowds came. It is so peaceful and beautiful!

We toured the Hohenschwangau Castle first which is Ludwig's childhood home. It was very beautiful! Afterwards we ate lunch and looked at shops while we waited for the next tour. The Neuschwanstein Castle is a small hike from the H. Castle. While on our way we bought a small watercolor drawing of the N. Castle from a very nice older gentleman. When we chose the picture the man took a stamp and stamped the frame of the picture, kinda like a notary stamp, then kissed the picture and held it to his heart. Then he looked us straight in the eye and said, "Yes, it is going to a good home." He explained that these paintings are like his children. It was so and we felt honored to have his drawing.

We toured the N. Castle and it was really pretty! The views were incredible too! It is sad King Ludwig only lived there for 172 days. Part of the castle isn't even complete. His life was not the easiest and he died under mysterious circumstances. The guides said he is said to have been insane but that it was most likely a cover up by the family to explain all his millions of expenditures and visionary ideas. Mom, Chris and I were so interested in his life we spent a few hours reading about him and discussing him. He sure did have a great eye for architecture!

Chris looks like he is in front of a fake backdrop! 

N. Castle from afar. 

H. Castle from afar.

The top is a one side of N. Castle, bottom is the famous view, and under that is the red brick entrance to the castle that isn't shown very often but still beautiful!

After our tours we headed back to our Airbnb but stopped off in Füssen to look around and have dinner. At dinner we met a British couple who loved Fiona and kept laughing and making faces to her. They were so cute! Dinner was delicious and I was glad Mom got to have a traditional meal. We drove around Füssen and then headed home.

Fiona is 10 months

Fiona turned 10 months! I really don't know how that happened so fast. She is just the cutest baby and we all love her. She loves to crawl around on the bed and dive into pillows and blankets. We really have to watch her on the bed because she comes close to the edge. She has two teeth on the bottom and is getting 4 (all at once!) on top. Fiona has been so happy and mellow for our adventure and only once and a while gets cranky about being in a stroller. She loves the Bjorn to be able to look around and smile at people. She is so social lately! She has learned to wave, clap, blow kisses (well, the first part of the action), gives us "five!", and plays peek-a-boo. When she sees dogs or birds she stares and makes funny grunts :) She may be close to walking soon because she loves to walk on the couch and hold on to chairs. She can hold on with one hand and sometimes let's go of the chair to clap and forgets that she needs to hold on and starts to wobble, then she'll grab back on to the couch. Naomi loves to read her books and always brings her baby to Fiona in the morning for Fiona to hold. And Naomi loves to feed her (she even makes the spoon fly like an airplane to Fiona's mouth) but when Fiona makes a mess or doesn't want food Naomi says, "It's so hard feeding babies!"

Fiona loves to sit in a pile of toys and taste them all!

This is one of the shirts we bought in France, it's beautiful! Also, Naomi was my helper to get her to smile and provided licks of her Ring Pop every now and then.

Rothenburg, Germany: Day 2 and Day 3

The weather was cool and wonderful in Rothenburg (a tad on the chilly side if you asked some of us:) so we ventured out to see the sights! We stopped at the famous Christmas shop and it was incredible! There's a giant decorated Christmas tree inside with millions of amazing ornaments. No pictures allowed to be taken or I would have :) We got a little nativity scene in the clearance section because everything was a bid too pricey but still so beautiful. Then we went over to another shop recommended by Rick Steves. When we went in the shop owner said they have better prices than the Christmas shop and Rick Steves recommends them. I said I had read that in his book that we have and he gave us 10% off a Christmas tree music box, a cloth bag with their store name on it and gifts for Naomi and Fiona. Wow! We realized the Christmas shop has 6 stores within a small area but you wouldn't really know it. We ate schneeballen which is kind of like chow mein noodles but sweeter and covered in powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, chocolate, etc. They were so crumbly and scrumptious!

 

  

After walking around the town for a bit we ventured outside of the city to a few more sights. It was such a beautiful walk! And it was nice to see the countryside and be away from the tourist crowds for a bit. We saw Topplerschlösschen which is a small medieval castle-like building built by Heinrich Toppler in 1388 for a get-away outside the city. Since 1861 it has been owned by the Boas family who rented it out as a holiday home until the 1960's. We stopped by the farm to see if we could see it but the farm gate was closed. We just saw it from the road.

   

Here's a painting (I got online) of the Topplerschlösschen from 1915.

We ate another delicious meal in a really cool restaurant and then toured the Crime and Punishment Museum. It was a very informative museum and pretty gruesome to think they actually treated people that way! The last event of the day was the Nightwatchman Tour. It was an hour long tour with the Nightwatchman who's been doing the tour for years. He gave great history and told great jokes! Highly entertaining!

     

Trying to decide on dinner and we were caught on camera by Naomi :)

Our last day in Rothenburg we had to catch a train by 3:00pm so we read scriptures in a cemetery and walked around the town outside the walled city. On the train ride back we didn't have seat reservations and the train was packed! We stood for the hour and 45 minutes in the train doorway. Naomi just watched movies and Fiona did really well for the first hour. Always an adventure!