After getting dressed and eating breakfast Poppy went to check on the car. While he was gone I was trying to get the internet to work. I got depressing news: the internet wouldn't work with our computer (not the first time so it's not really depressing just a pain). Poppy had significantly better news. The car was fixed! Ahmee and I breathed sighs of relief as we quickly packed all of our things up. We'd both had the idea that it would take several days to fix and that there was a possibility that it would be so expensive that they'd end up paying (practically) for a new car and then we'd have to cut the trip short and go home. The fact that it was ready before noon the next day made me so happy. I had my stupid grin stuck on my face there for a bit.
We checked out and got in the car and drove through to Austria. When we were on the interstate I wrote, sometimes I couldn't even do it then. We were back in the Alps where the roads were curvy, and where I had plenty to look at (much easier to tear myself away from open fields than it is mountains). Our objective for the day was to make it to a town called Reutte where Rick Steves suggested staying the night. Why did we want to stay there? Well, it's close to a ton of castles. Close to all three of Ludwigs actually. Ludwig II is famous for his castles because that's basically all he wanted to do (was build castles), he didn't spend much time doing anything else.
We found a hotel in outer Reutte and put our things up. This hotel had internet, but what it didn't have was an elevator. Later we'd all really miss this box.
After we put our things up we went out to a town closeby to find the tourist information center. There we got directions to Ludwig's castle. I know I said that he had three. This one was started up right near his childhood home. Turns out the entire castle is dedicated to Richard Wagner (famous composer of music and opera-Ahmee wonders if Ludwig was gay and had a crush on him).
Like all major tourist attractions, this castle drew TONS of tourists. However I think that we actually got lucky. The fog surrounded the castle so that no one could see it clearly until they were 60 feet from it. If we'd gone on a clear day there would've been an absolute mob.
Down below the castle we parked the car in the huge parking lot and navigated our way up through the small "town" where we bought our tickets. I use the quotation marks because it really didn't seem like a town at all. There were no places for people to live there. No buildings were dedicated solely to homes and the shops were so stuffed with items that I suspected that the owners had to use the above rooms as store rooms. However, the town wasn't just a place filled with souvneirs, it also had two hotels/resorts, and what I'll call a "shicky mickey" shopping center. When we'd navigated our way to this shopping center (dodging tourists, horses, horse poo, and buses) Ahmee and I took a look around. This place had several big names but often the big names. I didn't look at these long, I was too busy looking at lace, at cuckoo clocks, at cooking supplies, at little books on King Ludwig II, and the jewelry. These things probably would've made true die-hard shicky mickeys huff at the store and walk out. These things didn't have designer names and they weren't too expensive (unless you got a lot of them-then they'd add up). Ahmee and I didn't buy anything in there (to Poppy's delight) but we both talked about going back in when we came back down (not to Poppy's delight). Immediately after Ahmee and I got out of the shopping center we got to catch the blue bus to go up the hill. While standing in line I heard two Italian voices talking behind me, I turned around and there were two back-pack hauling men standing there talking to another man who was on the train. The outfit I was wearing made me stick out like a sore thumb. I'd decided to dress up that day. I wore a short knit red dress that had a turtle neck on it, underneath that I wore my black shirt (was my slip), my black stockings, and my new black shoes. Course at the time I had on the peachy raincoat as well. I adored the outfit, but I'd been warned that the men in Italy are much more straightforward about things. I hopped on and hurried back with Ahmee to grab seats at the very back. It was astounding how fast we went up that curvy road! While I was sitting there I did a Travis and went, "Whoa! You can see the cliff on this side!" Ahmee's response was, "Hush Rachel! I don't want to see that."
The bus didn't take us all the way up to the top. It stopped at a three-way forking road. We got out and just about followed everyone else but then realized that that went to a bridge, and so turned around. The walk had plenty of gorgeous sights: the leaves were in full blast, the fog made Ludwig's castle appear to be out of a dream, the view of the valley was obscured by the fog, and the people were very interested to watch as we passed by. Here I heard: Spanish, Italian, German, English (not as common as the Italian and German), Japanese/Chinese (are they the same or different? I have no clue), and... one more but I can't think of the proper name for it. As I watched these people and walked down and up the hills to Ludwig's castle I notice one similarity: all of the people I was seeing were wearing backpacks, had on multiple layers, and had on good hiking shoes. In my outfit (that I loved) I was getting a cold chill every now and then (mostly I was fine) and my shoes didn't have the same support as my "ugly" tennis shoes (Ahmee calls her tennis shoes the black uglies and refers to my tennis shoes as my uglies-I like them). My feet slid the tiniest bit in my shoe, not enough for my feet to get hurt, but enough for me to notice. Ahmee says I have a hikers foot and that when I walk up and down hills I know how to make it so my feet don't slide (toes get pushed down). While I walked farther ahead Ahmee and Poppy came at their own pace behind. As we headed up the hill I stopped and walked with them, knowing Ahmee'd want a rest stop every now and then and also knowing that I'd want to get a few pictures.
The castle was gorgeous. The closer we got to it the more I liked it (because I could see more of it). Course, I really shouldn't call it a castle. Ludwig's castle was solely for decoration, it never would have had to defend itself because it wasn't built in a time when neighboring dukes would battle each other for land (or whatever else they wanted to battle over). This castle was a palace, or a fancy home built just for the royal family, or in this case, for Ludwig II.
I say now that it was built for the sole purpose of Ludwig II, because I know now what I didn't know when I was waiting in the courtyard for our tour number to appear. While on the tour I heard that Ludwig II adored building castles, that his psychiatrist had declared him unfit to rule (brain issues), that Ludwig II and his psychiatrist were both found dead (I think I read that they found their bodies in... some sort of body of water). I say heard because I'd already learned this before out of a book. The tour guide didn't tell us much at all as she rushed us through the rooms. We found out that King Ludwig II died before the castle was completed and that the second floor had absolutely nothing (it's now turned into the castles giftshop/cafe). I came to really like King Ludwig II. If construction on this castle had been "completed" then I know it would've been equal in beauty to Buckingham Palace and Versailles.
Actually, I found it interesting what rooms Ludwig included in his castle. He adored opera, and had many rooms dedicated to his favorites. He also adored music and nature. He had one huge room dedicated solely to concerts. This room is incredible to be in, I would've loved to be there during a concert (they have concerts there at least once every year-play mozart and such). The tour guide told us that the great sound of the room was due to the pine ceilings (note to self: if ya want to build a killer theater use pine for your ceiling and make it vaulted). I mentioned that Ludwig II loved nature. One room that I only caught a glimpse of (tour didn't go into this room) was perhaps the one that I liked most. After we passed through a particular room that was dedicated to the theater we went into a hallway that had
been built to look like you were walking through a cave (really really cool!!!). A little door was on the right hand side within or just after this hallway (I no longer remember which) the doorway was somewhat blocked by vines. Through the arched vines you could just make out a table and a chair that were both made completely out of knarled branches. The floor had teeny tiny pebbles that had been raked into rows (Chinese zen looking), in the entryway the letter L was written in fancy cursive (obviously for Ludwig II). Another place where we got to see just how much Ludwig II adored nature was in the concert room-the wall behind the stage had a forest painted.
Even though the tour guide gave me tidbits of new information about Ludwig II (like the fact that he never got married) I didn't like her at all. She moved too fast through the rooms, and she didn't give us enough information. Mostly it was the rushing through the rooms that I hated. Ludwig II's castle reminded me of old drawings I'd done as a kid- fantasy houses where I could dedicate one room for one thing and one room for something else (and then create rooms that had absolutely no purpose but to simply display my love for the object). Personally, I think I learned more from reading than I did from that woman.
After the tour we reluctantly went downstairs where I got to look at some of the sketches of the castles that Ludwig II had wanted, and various plans he had had. As I looked at the plans for the second floor (was going to be a splendid bathroom for the king) and at the plans for the outdoor garden (was going to have a magnificent garden outside-never was completed) I began to think a lot of what ifs. What if Ludwig had lived and his castle had been completed. What if he wasn't insane at all... just a recluse who preferred to live in worlds of his own creation rather than this one. What if his castle had been completed and he'd been able to live there like the Queen does (occasionally) at Buckingham Palace. Would a huge town sprung up around his fantasy castle? Would his castle have become like Edinburghs Castle and had celebrations where the castle was lit up with fireworks-making the original Disney-Land Castle that would be even more wonderful than Disney's (come on-a castle that serves a practical purpose is ten times better than a theme park-this one was already practical because it informed tourists AND fed the imagination, if Ludwig's family had been able to live there then it would've served as an important political building to host all manner of things just like Buckingham Palace does). This vision of the fantasy castle being the center of a bustling city and an important political edifice was incredible for me.
The hill that the castle was on would remain untouched, as would Ludwig II's beloved waterfall next to it (he claimed that that was more beautiful than his castle and built a bridge over it) while the valley below would have a skyscrapers, plazas, opera houses, apartment buildings, old-fashioned building similar to the ones in Munich, and parks. My daydreams of this fantastic city were abruptly ended when I started envisioning garden parties and parties similar to the ones held in Buckingham Palace.
Ludwig II was quite a recluse. He built his castle for one person: himself. I didn't see any rooms that were large enough to house hundreds of political figures, and I know that the garden wouldn't have had room. The idea of Ludwig having a family there was also struck out because I didn't see any rooms dedicated to the potential royal family that might've come up.
Ludwig II was happy being single, was happy alone, and was happy away from the city and the bustle-lifestyle. His fantasy castle was simply too much of a fantasy for it to end up being the important figure I'd been daydreaming of. Buckingham Palace is incredibly fancy, but it's also got rooms large enough for banquets. It's situated in the middle of the city and is plays it's important diplomatic role (only reason it's still so well preserved is it still serves a function for government and politics). The palace of Versailles is more removed, (I suspect Buckingham palace wasn't quite as removed as Versailles), the Kings and Queens there lived in a dream, and were eventually removed (after the tax payers had had enough-beforehand the palace had been large enough to serve an important political role-had several treaties between countries signed there). If the government is too removed then they can't do a proper job.
Ludwig's castle was filled with fantasy, it didn't have large enough rooms for it to play a role similar to that of Buckingham Palace. Still, nice to imagine though. I adored daydreaming up the garden for that palace, and then I adored daydreaming the fantastically dressed elite who walked up those stairs to a dinner party/ concert. Lots of lights, lots of sparkle, lots of beauty, unfortunately not a lot of realism.
While in the first gift shop I didn't find a single thing I wanted (was still kinda disgusted with the tour guide). The second one though I found a lovely print of his castle. On the way back to the hotel I kept pulling this print out and looking at it. It was different from the others in that it was texturized (could feel the castle stick out from the mountain) and it had more color. I'll come back to that more later though.
We had to walk back to the bus area before we could get back to the car. While waiting for the bus we decided we'd go look at Ludwig II's favorite waterfall. The bridge scared me more than the swinging bridge we went on in Ireland. The floor was made out of wood that creaked and groaned when you walked on it and it moved down tons. I can deal with a bridge swinging and bouncing (that's what happens on a rope bridge), but I can't deal with wood that shifts when you step on it, especially when you're standing hundreds of feet above a waterfall. All I could see was down. The fog blocked out all other views.
I hopped from one beam to the next (the beams were underneath the wooden platform but the sides had metal). I clung to the sides as I rushed from beam to beam, disliking the bridge more and more as I went. I must've looked like a right sissy then, but to be perfectly honest I'd never been more scared of heights in my life. I don't like having things that are supposed to be solid and hold you up shift when you step on them. It's frightening. It made my knees shake and my grip get (what I hoped was) tight on the metal framework. I didn't shout, I didn't crumple and cling to the bars, but I most certainly never let go of them, and I most certainly didn't stay on that bridge very long.
Luckily I got much stronger when we went down the hill-I use my balance skills while on the bus. There were no seats and I got to stand up as the bus driver whizzed down the snake road. I didn't stumble, and I didn't bump into anyone. My knees worked with me on that.
When we got to the car I pulled out my gorgeous picture of the castle and admired that. Suddenly I got the idea to pull out my other two pictures that I'd picked up while on the road. Once we got back to the hotel I spread these out on my bed and showed my "collection of art" to Ahmee and Poppy. I had a black and white picture of the bridge with the drunken elite, a painting of Giverny by Monet, and my Ludwig Castle print. I started envisioning these in frames and on my bedroom wall or on my bookshelf. I realized my room was going to be filled with art paintings. I already have a poster of Van Gogh's Starry Night, a poster of Monet's (can't remember the name) that depicts a sillouette of a huge-domed building-in what I'll say is a sunset (even though there's tons of color-not just the oranges and peaches and yellows and reds characteristic of a sunset)-all of which is reflected in a body of water, a painting done by my baby sister (all color everywhere), a painting of a glass window with a pot (I painted), a drawn picture I had done of a coral reef (one of my favorite things to draw there for a while), and a picture of my wee Emma when she was a baby that's been altered to look quite painty and to obscure the lines (Emma had orange-red hair as a kid and in this picture she's got on a royal blue outfit-this isn't my favorite picture but it's my second favorite). Now I'll have these other three pictures to add to all of that. Ahmee said we'd look for prints in Venice and such. Personally, I think I'm probably going to end up creating a huge billboard of color that'll have tons of pictures we've taken from this trip. Oh, I forgot one poster: I've got Harry Potter up in my corner where the wand and the eyes follow you everywhere you go (love it and it's got tons of color too behind Harry).
After displaying these things and picturing my room again with all it's nicknacks, books, art, and furniture (basically loads of things that I think are pretty and that occasionally get over-crowded), I went down with Ahmee and Poppy and ate dinner where we ate, drank, and were merry (tis the typical dinner). Then we went upstairs (groaning from our hurting feet) and got ready for bed and hopped on the computer. I got booted off the internet (we'd bought 2 hours worth and Ahmee and Poppy typed before me). I'd managed to send work and an email to Mr. Owens, and important emails to Momma and to Sara, but I got kicked off just before I could send Iain an email. Very very frustrating. All the things I wanted to tell him were dancing around in my head when I reluctantly went to bed. It was a good thing my body was exhausted and that it forced me to fall asleep in less than ten minutes, if it hadn't been these thoughts would've kept me awake to awful hours and would've only frustrated me more.
Before I end this blog I wanted to type what my favorite picture of Emma is. My favorite picture of my wee sister is of her when she was 2. She was outside our apartment in Indiana (just before my parents split), she had on a jumper suit that clashed with her orange hair (was red with plaid a think), but her hair peaked out from under a popcorn bowl that she was clutching to her head. Instead of the characteristic Elvis smile my sister is famous for having back then (love pictures of her with that too-even tried to draw a portrait of her with it) her face is laughing and mischievous and her blue eyes are bright as she sticks her little pink tongue out at someone out of the frame. It's pictures like these that I love. Pictures that catch a person unawares but show emotions and color (often go hand and hand for people). Also like pics that show my wee sisters true nature: very cutely obstenant bugger (have to love her).
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