Celebrating the New Year at Neuschwanstein

We didn’t waste any time in 2015 before heading out to do something new. We set out for Schloss Neuschwanstein with our guests on January 2^nd – and this time actually went inside!  We had visited the castle in the fall of 2013 but we weren’t in the mood to fight the crowds to take a tour.  Instead we had opted for the more relaxed (in terms of crowds) Hohenschwangau Castle tour across the way. Aunt Ellen and Uncle Rüdiger were more than disappointed in our decision and have made fun of our cultural blindness for the better part of a year.   How could anyone visit the world’s most famous castle and not go inside!?  Well in 2015 we redeemed ourselves! 

Julie’s uncanny planning skills came in handy on January 2^nd.  She motivated us to get out of the house by 7am so we could beat the crowds and the forecasted bad weather.  Upon arriving we found a front row parking spot and already the parking attendant warned us to hurry to the ticket office and secure our castle tour.  They were expecting double the number of visitors because Neuschwanstein is closed New Year’s Eve and Day, and there were plenty of tourists visiting Munich/Bavaria for the holidays (including our 3 guests). 

The drive in wasn't too shabby

After securing tickets for a 12:45 tour and making the 15 minute ‘hike’ up the hill to Neuschwanstein’s entrance, we were initially disappointed to see the trail to the Marienbrücke (Mary’s bridge) was blocked off due to the snow.  This bridge is where you can get photos of the castle in its entirety – and the main reason Julie wanted to come that day (to photograph the castle in snow).  After about 5 minutes of deliberating if we should ignore the fence, we saw a couple come through the barricade from the bridge’s direction.  When they said the path was just fine, we made the decision to duck through the railings and make our way down the trail. 

It ended up being an easy walk to the bridge, even in the snow, and we were able to capture some really great shots of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau in the winter elements.  And we were not the only ones that had ignored the warning signs/gone around the fences – there were a handful of other people with their cameras enjoying the views. 

The castles weren’t the only things looking beautiful under a blanket of snow – the Bavarian countryside wasn’t too shabby either. 

After an early lunch it was time to take the castle tour.  The tour itself was quick and dirty and involved too many people to really absorb much information.  However we were all stunned by how amazingly beautiful the castle was on the inside.  We had expected that because it was technically not finished that the interior would not be very lavish.  Instead the level of detail in all of the architectural elements is incredible and there are some wildly unique decorations including a rainbow, some vibrant blue tiles, and the most detailed woodcarvings I have ever seen.  I guess you will have to see it for yourself because you are not allowed to take photos inside. 

Ok, we took a selfie in the gift shop as proof we went inside.  I think this photo is ok - the only 'artwork' we put at risk were those plastic placemats behind us.

At the end of the tour, we passed by some windows facing the valley.  As we looked out in the distance we were all shocked to see the incredibly long line of cars sitting in traffic all headed to where we were. 

And they weren't even close to the parking areas.

Upon exiting the castle we observed the trend of jumping the fence to go to the bridge had only increased 10 fold.   The crowds were so thick and intense it was quite entertaining to watch people pushing their way forward and essentially falling through to the other side of the fencing.  And when we saw the Marienbrücke from the castle, we could see it was packed full of people. 

The weather had turned cold and rainy (as forecasted) while we were taking the tour, which meant it was time to leave the massive crowds at the castle and make our way down the trail.  We finished up by taking some photos at the lake and then piled into the car for road trip cupcakes and our journey back to the apartment. 

So now we are proud (and relieved) to be able to visit with our aunt and uncle without feeling shame that we have been to Neuschwanstein but haven’t gone in.  This time we took the tour and can honestly say we were thoroughly impressed!  So what is the secret to having nice weather and minimal crowds when visiting Germany’s biggest tourist destinations?  Make sure you have Julie in your group to make the plans. 

Frohe Weihnachten!

Thanks to the wonderful German holidays and vacation time, Noah and I have been off since December 20^th for Christmas.  But while we live in Germany, we still use the weekend after Thanksgiving as our green light to begin decorating the house (and perhaps a dog too).  This means we are rather rebellious as it is tradition in Germany to wait until Christmas Eve to decorate the tree.  Good thing we aren’t German! 

Of course we managed to visit a few Christmas markets in the last few weeks and drink our fill of Glühwein.  My personal favorite is the Apfel Zimt (apple cinnamon) white Glühwein that you can find in the Residence Christkindlmarkt.  This year, it got even more expensive for us to visit the Residence Christkindlmarkt due to the fact that on Saturday when we went (for the second time), there were search and rescue dogs hanging out in Odeonsplatz to raise awareness/money for their cause.  And as I had to pass the dogs twice, and I wanted to pet more than just one, I ended up donating 10 EUR (basically all of the change Noah and I had). 

We made it out to Tollwood on Monday – though this year we were sure to check the opening hours.  Last year, we accidently went 2 hours before it opened, and we had the entire family in tow.  Oops!  We enjoyed some international cuisine in the food tent and found a few new ornaments to add to our collection.  And what would a trip to Tollwood be without buying some sort of winter accessory (this time a new pair of gloves for Noah)? 

Inside the food tent

For Christmas Eve, Noah made delicious green chili enchiladas with homemade white corn tortillas (and I usually do not like corn tortillas).  Sadly they went into my belly too quickly for me to take a photo of them for the blog. 

On Christmas, we started the day off the traditional Steffens way by making my Danish great-great-grandma’s ebelskiver recipe. 

I then forced the family to do a massive holiday photo shoot by the tree, and by the end of it Rita wouldn’t come near me, Sadie was demanding treats, and Noah disappeared into the kitchen. 

I started off with 'couples' photos.  Rita flung that hat across the room soon after the photo was taken.

I switched it up and gave Rita reindeer antlers instead. 

She quickly ran away and refused to come back.

At this point all I had left was Sadie, because she will do anything for treats.

For dinner we invited Aunt Ellen, Uncle Rüdiger, and our Russian friend Max (since Christmas in Russia is in January, so he didn’t go home for December 25^th).  We served up a bunch of traditional American dishes, including a delicious dry brine turkey (seriously – two years in a row it has been AMAZING, here is alink to the recipe), homemade yeast rolls, and an apple pie (my Christmas present from Noah).  There were other dishes, but I listed the most important ones.  We were also given an Ikea star of Bethlehem (or at least it seemed that big) as Ellen and Rüdiger’s neighbor decided she didn’t want it after she got it home.  See below. 

As you can imagine, Rita wasn't going to have any part of this.

After Ellen and Rüdiger left for the night, Max stayed so we could watch Rocky IV.  Because what else do you watch on Christmas night when there are Americans and Russians together?  Spoiler alert – America/Rocky beats Russia/Ivan (it is an American movie after all).  What I found interesting was that the scenes of the cold Russian winter where Rocky trains were actually filmed in the Grand Teton National Park, where my brother lives.  So basically I have a Russian brother.

The day after Christmas, which is also a holiday too), we awoke to snow!  While not technically a white Christmas, it was only a few hours too late to qualify. 

I was too lazy to get out of bed to take a photo.

For dinner Noah and I went over to Ellen and Rüdiger’s for fondue and cake.  I also spent 15 minutes in Rüdiger’s massage chair, and have decided I want one.  Since I don’t have a photo of me in the chair, I’ll put a photo of it snowing from Friday night. 

Now our lives consist of eating leftovers, doing puzzles, and taking the dogs out so they can make yellow snow, and I am more than fine with that.  Though I wouldn’t mind if there was a way to have pretty white snow AND 70 degree weather… but you can’t have it all. 

I miss the winters in Arizona.

Merry Christmas Y’all!

Our Bavarian (white) Easter

Unfortunately for our mental health, it is still winter here in Bavaria.  Though my sources were right in that we had the snowy Easter holiday I was dreading in my previous blog.  However, that didn’t stop us from having a great time with family nor slow us down on our snow covered Easter egg hunt.  After one less hour of sleep thanks to daylight savings, we set out to the town of Benediktbeuern on the edge of the lower Alps with Aunt Ellen and Uncle Rüdiger.  Benediktbeuern is a picturesque little town where Rüdiger’s brother lives, with an apartment with a view of the Alps (or at least Ellen says – the clouds blocked everything out). 

Once we arrived, the brothers headed out into the snow to hide 32 eggs.  When an hour passed and they still weren’t back, I knew we were in for a difficult egg hunt.  Finally it was time to venture out into the woods for my first ever Easter egg hunt. 

And because they use real hard boiled eggs here (not the plastic ones full of money or chocolate that Julie grew up with), the egg hunt felt more like a survival search for food as we roughed it through the snowy wilderness terrain digging for eggs.  Luckily (and unluckily) there were slopes too steep for snow, so this helped (and hindered) finding some of the eggs.

Rüdiger is apparently so good at hiding the eggs that it is pretty much expected 15% of them will be lost forever.  Let’s just say the snowy conditions got the best of me because in the end I only found 3 out of the 30 eggs that were found.  Of course Julie was the winner finding 10 eggs or 33% (and yes, there were 5 of us searching).  Later she told me that she had collected only 6 eggs and was ready to give up searching when the announcement was made that we could not leave until the rest of the missing eggs were found.  We were both afraid we would be out in the woods forever!  As she was rather hungry (always good motivation), she kicked into survival mode and quickly found 4 more eggs while the rest of us just poked around senselessly.   In the end only 2 eggs went missing, a loss of 6%, which was thought to be one of the best recoveries they have witnessed (thanks to Julie's participation!). 

 

At last we were allowed to return home and have our Easter feast of green soup, salad, quiche, and my favorite part- American cupcakes (one of the many sweets options)!

Carving Some Fresh Powder

With all the effort around moving last year, we missed the ski season in the Alps.  So this season, I made it a top priority to hit the slopes as soon as possible. 

The Friday before Christmas break I took a day off and went snowboarding with a colleague.  We set off for a small resort just on the edge of Austria called Seefeld.  There we were - while many others labored away at the office the day before Christmas break - amongst the fresh alpine air home to some of the world’s greatest winter athletes.  This was really the perfect skiing condition- fresh snow and empty slopes.  In fact it was so empty that I would expect the resort probably lost money this day.  I started the day slow, adjusting to the new board, and I was feeling like a real professional out there- perhaps because nobody was around to see my falls.  Eventually my ego got the best of me though, because after a few hours I began attempting jumps (if you can call it that) and maneuvers that were outside my ability and taking some pretty rough falls.  In the end, a half day was enough, considering there were no lines for the lift.

 Having conquered one alpine mountain, I was anxious to take Julie out to the slopes so she could test out some skiing herself.  The other weekend we were invited by one of Julie’s colleagues to join him on a trip to Garmisch (home of the 1936 winter Olympics).  We purchased the Garmisch Ski Express ticket, which includes a round trip train ride plus an all-day ski lift ticket for just 42 EUR- a very reasonable deal I might say.   

We set off early Sunday morning and 2 hours later we were at the base lift and rental shop.  Eager to hit the slopes we rushed renting my board and Julie’s skis, and after boarding the first gondola Julie realized she left her poles back in the lobby.  I guess it goes without saying she is still VERY NEW to skiing.  But no worries, us guys took a quick run back down the mountain to get warmed up and retrieve the poles, and we were all reunited in no time. 

After wearing Julie out on the baby slopes, I spent the rest of the day trying to keep up with Zsolt on the rest of the mountain (who grew up in Canada and is a very good snowboarder).  At one point we ended up on the steepest part of the mountain, which in my opinion deserves a color beyond black, where I managed to slowly slide/roll/tumble my way down to the bottom (while Zsolt rode down pretty much flawlessly).   Later I learned this trail is known as “Kandahar” which is the downhill speed course used for the Olympics in 1936 and other world cup competitions.  At least the views were beautiful up here, and thanks to Zsolt’s new Intel phone, we have some pictures.

One of the surprises of Garmisch was the vast number of English speakers we heard.  It really felt like we were at a ski resort in Colorado and there happened to be just a few German tourists….a very strange feeling.  In fact during our lunch break, I think we heard more English than German!

After some lunch on the mountain and a long break to recover from my Olympic tumble, I joined Julie on some smaller slopes which were serviced by T-bar lifts.  These are the lifts (less common in America) where a T-bar suspended from a running cable drags you up the mountain while the skis/snowboard remains in contact with the ground.  I think this kind of lift is unpleasant for all, but especially worse for snowboarders who must straddle it between the legs and ride up with one foot unclipped from the bindings.  As I was riding it for the first time I encountered a very steep hill when the lift was stopped, which left my straddling this T-bar, dangling from one leg as my back leg was unclipped from the binding, for what felt like 30 minutes at on a 45 degree uphill slope.  Needless to say, I’m not the biggest fan of T-bar lifts after this.

As we were leaving we stopped in a lodge near the base to kill some time before our return train.  We were shocked to see all these random American brands/products and one section was stocked just like a Walgreens or CVS from the States.  Ecstatic that I found David Sunflower Seeds, I rushed in line to purchase them, noticing that the prices were even marked in $USD!   And that is when the cashier politely explained that this was an American military operation, and only those with valid military I.D. could make purchases (or enter the building, but somehow we escaped that notice). It finally made sense why we heard so many Americans on the slopes: we were in the vicinity of a large US military service.  Sadly, I was not able to purchase my sunflower seeds, but I’m just glad the troops aren’t deprived of them (thanks for your service!).

That was our first (hopefully not last) time skiing in Germany!  We both paid the price the next day, and Julie’s grapefruit size bruise on her leg gave us weeks to remember just how much fun we had.