I will start by wrapping up Sunday's activities which included the BMW Museum in addition to the Deutsches Museum.
Of the three car museums I have gone to (Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW), I would have to say the BMW Musuem was a bit of a disappointment. I got the feeling the marketing department played a bigger role in this museum than the historians.
It seemed like the museum was more about branding than the history of BMW. Very glitzy and really lacked substance. There were many historically significant cars in BMW's history which didn't make the cut like the BMW V12 LMR which scored an outright victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Got some nice snapshots of the museum building itself as well as some of the more interesting cars inside such as the well known (to fans of sports car racing anyways) racing example of the 1988 M3 (I own one of those but not the race version although it is lightly track prepared). Pics, as you probably figured out, are posted on my flickr.com website.
It was actually lucky that a lot of stuff I wanted to do on Monday was closed. Otherwise, I would have never made it to Schloss Neuschwanstein, which was one of the highlights of my visit to Munich.
Before I left for the castle, I wandered through the Deutsches Jagd Und Fischerei Museum (Hunting and Fishing Museum). There was a lot of taxidermy displays which were ok. I really enjoyed the weapons displays which was the entire 3rd floor. I saw cross bows from 1550, blunderbust from 1660, and countless flint lock as well as powderhorns and a collection of spiked collars for hunting dogs (to protect their necks from being bitten by prey they were taking down). The older firearms were really something. All hand made and each one a work of art with inlays and metal carving. I tried to capture some of that in the pics I took but it was hard because everything was in glass cases and reflected natural light as well as the flash. Jodi's Dad, Jerry, would have really enjoyed this museum.
On to the castle. The castle was about 100 km (60 miles) away and my navigation system took me through some winding country roads and small Bavarian towns. As my beautiful wife would say, "stop and smell the roses, slow down and see something besides the highway". I didn't smell any roses but I did see a few (baby steps, right?).
As I approached, you could see the castle off in the distance many miles away up on the mountain side. It was like something out of a fairy tale. In fact, it is said that this castle inspired Walt Disney's design of the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disney World and Disney Land. 1.5 million people visit this castle every year.
Before I go any further, I will tell you that we were asked not to take any pictures inside the castle. To see pics of the inside, click here:
http://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/palace/index.htm (I know english is spelled wrong, but that is how it is in the address) and then click on "tour of the castle"
Once again, I was blown away by what I saw and pics cannot capture how incredible this place was. Look at the pics of Ludwig II's bed room. Notice all the elaborate carving of the items in there? The tour guide told us that 14 wood carvers worked for 4 years just on this room alone.
The throne room has an elaborate mosaic tile floor. Each stone tile of the mosaic is about the size of your thumbnail and over 2,000,000 of these little tiles were hand laid. The chandelier found in this room weights 2000 lbs.
The castle itself was built between 1869 through 1886 as America was rebuilding from the Civil War. I parked in the town (Hohenschwangau) at the base of the castle and walked about 3o minutes up a fairly steep road to get to the castle, which overlooks Schwansee (Swan) Lake.
I saw every one of the finished rooms in the castle which is only 1/3 built out inside. Ludwig II died under mysterious conditions before the castle was finished and all construction halted.
Ludwig II was a deeply religious person and this is reflected inside the castle and there are no pictures or references of him in the castle except in one small spot. He wanted the interior of the castle devoted to religious figures. He was also a big fan of Wagner and this is reflected in the "singers' hall".
One thing that struck me was that every wall surface is covered in wood or a very detailed and large mural.
There is actually a lot of technology (for that period) incorporated into the castle. It has running water and central heating as well as a castle sewer system.
I encourage you to go to wikipedia and do a search for more info. There are a lot of details I haven't covered because the blog would get too long.
I finished up my trip with heading out to a concert venue to see one of my favorite bands, Social Distortion. Social D formed in 1979, hailing from Orange County, CA, and has been at it ever since. They are often credited with as one of the leading bands of the 1980's hardcore punk explosion.
They have mellowed a bit over the years and call Johnny Cash and Hank Williams some of the musicians that influence them.
It was a really good show and I got to hear the usual set (seen them about 6-7 times) and was treated to a couple of new songs and a couple of songs I have never heard live.
Well, I think that about does it for my trip to Munich. Hope everyone has a great week.
Of the three car museums I have gone to (Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW), I would have to say the BMW Musuem was a bit of a disappointment. I got the feeling the marketing department played a bigger role in this museum than the historians.
It seemed like the museum was more about branding than the history of BMW. Very glitzy and really lacked substance. There were many historically significant cars in BMW's history which didn't make the cut like the BMW V12 LMR which scored an outright victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Got some nice snapshots of the museum building itself as well as some of the more interesting cars inside such as the well known (to fans of sports car racing anyways) racing example of the 1988 M3 (I own one of those but not the race version although it is lightly track prepared). Pics, as you probably figured out, are posted on my flickr.com website.
It was actually lucky that a lot of stuff I wanted to do on Monday was closed. Otherwise, I would have never made it to Schloss Neuschwanstein, which was one of the highlights of my visit to Munich.
Before I left for the castle, I wandered through the Deutsches Jagd Und Fischerei Museum (Hunting and Fishing Museum). There was a lot of taxidermy displays which were ok. I really enjoyed the weapons displays which was the entire 3rd floor. I saw cross bows from 1550, blunderbust from 1660, and countless flint lock as well as powderhorns and a collection of spiked collars for hunting dogs (to protect their necks from being bitten by prey they were taking down). The older firearms were really something. All hand made and each one a work of art with inlays and metal carving. I tried to capture some of that in the pics I took but it was hard because everything was in glass cases and reflected natural light as well as the flash. Jodi's Dad, Jerry, would have really enjoyed this museum.
On to the castle. The castle was about 100 km (60 miles) away and my navigation system took me through some winding country roads and small Bavarian towns. As my beautiful wife would say, "stop and smell the roses, slow down and see something besides the highway". I didn't smell any roses but I did see a few (baby steps, right?).
As I approached, you could see the castle off in the distance many miles away up on the mountain side. It was like something out of a fairy tale. In fact, it is said that this castle inspired Walt Disney's design of the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disney World and Disney Land. 1.5 million people visit this castle every year.
Before I go any further, I will tell you that we were asked not to take any pictures inside the castle. To see pics of the inside, click here:
http://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/palace/index.htm (I know english is spelled wrong, but that is how it is in the address) and then click on "tour of the castle"
Once again, I was blown away by what I saw and pics cannot capture how incredible this place was. Look at the pics of Ludwig II's bed room. Notice all the elaborate carving of the items in there? The tour guide told us that 14 wood carvers worked for 4 years just on this room alone.
The throne room has an elaborate mosaic tile floor. Each stone tile of the mosaic is about the size of your thumbnail and over 2,000,000 of these little tiles were hand laid. The chandelier found in this room weights 2000 lbs.
The castle itself was built between 1869 through 1886 as America was rebuilding from the Civil War. I parked in the town (Hohenschwangau) at the base of the castle and walked about 3o minutes up a fairly steep road to get to the castle, which overlooks Schwansee (Swan) Lake.
I saw every one of the finished rooms in the castle which is only 1/3 built out inside. Ludwig II died under mysterious conditions before the castle was finished and all construction halted.
Ludwig II was a deeply religious person and this is reflected inside the castle and there are no pictures or references of him in the castle except in one small spot. He wanted the interior of the castle devoted to religious figures. He was also a big fan of Wagner and this is reflected in the "singers' hall".
One thing that struck me was that every wall surface is covered in wood or a very detailed and large mural.
There is actually a lot of technology (for that period) incorporated into the castle. It has running water and central heating as well as a castle sewer system.
I encourage you to go to wikipedia and do a search for more info. There are a lot of details I haven't covered because the blog would get too long.
I finished up my trip with heading out to a concert venue to see one of my favorite bands, Social Distortion. Social D formed in 1979, hailing from Orange County, CA, and has been at it ever since. They are often credited with as one of the leading bands of the 1980's hardcore punk explosion.
They have mellowed a bit over the years and call Johnny Cash and Hank Williams some of the musicians that influence them.
It was a really good show and I got to hear the usual set (seen them about 6-7 times) and was treated to a couple of new songs and a couple of songs I have never heard live.
Well, I think that about does it for my trip to Munich. Hope everyone has a great week.
I wish I could have seen this with you but I am glad you are experiencing these things for both of us. I love you. YELW
ReplyDeleteIt is only half an experience because the woman I love is not with me.
ReplyDelete