 1 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 After many days of rain, the sky finally cleared and we could finally appreciate the magic of this place. |
 2 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 In the garden of the Guest House, there is a water feature and in the background is a rustic old woodshed. The grass is lush, flowers are in bloom and the trees have a new mantle of foliage. This compares with . . . |
 3 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 . . . last year when it was none of those things. The wood pile is much higher and freshly sawn because the guest house uses wood for heating. Wood heating seems strange to us but wood is so freely available here, and it grows faster than it can be harvested, that it all makes sense. |
 4 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Since our previous visit , the guest house has been fitted with south-facing solar panel arrays to generate electricity. |
 5 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Our plan for today is to visit Tegelberg, a mountain very near the Neuschwanstein Castle. Today's journey was a massive 85kms that required 1½ hours driving. I really like there being so much to see and do in such a small area. |
 6 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Our intention is to ride the Tegelbergbahn to the top. The weather is perfect, no wind, blue sky and pleasantly warm. |
 7 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 We leave the car in the parking area at the Tegelbergbahn and see a common sight for this time of the year: dairy cows grazing in the lush meadows. They spend the other six months of the year inside a barn feeding on hay and doing poos. |
 8 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 I hate people like this; I am so jealous. They catch the updraft created by Tegelberg and soar for hours. |
 9 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 When I buy the tickets for theTegelbergbahn I do it mostly in sign language. "Two, up and back". The girl replies in perfect English, "A car leaves every twenty minutes. Walk through the gate to your right, etc, etc". Every now and then I forget that they speak English here and it is not like being in a foreign country at all. |
 10 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 From ground level, we have an interesting view of the Schloss Neuschwanstein. |
 11 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 As the Tegelbergbahn starts to rise, we get a good look at the older of the two castles, the Schloss Hoenschwangau. |
 12 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 The border between Austria and Germany runs along the tops of these mountains. |
 13 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 From the cable car, with my telephoto lens fitted, I can take shot after shot of the castle. Here we can even see the crowds gathered in the courtyard waiting for their tours to start. |
 14 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 The castle is a 19th-century Gothic Revival palace on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen. |
 15 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 King Ludwig II of Bavaria commissioned the palace as a retreat and a homage to Richard Wagner. Themes from Wagner's operas decorate the interior of the palace. |
 16 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 The palace was intended as a personal refuge for the reclusive king, but it was opened to the paying public immediately after Ludwig's death in 1886 in order to pay off its enormous debts. |
 17 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Since then over 60 million people have visited Neuschwanstein Castle. |
 18 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 More than 1.3 million people visit annually, with up to 6,000 per day in the summer. |
 19 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 The palace has appeared in several movies and was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle and later, similar structures. |
 20 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 The construction costs of Neuschwanstein in the king's lifetime amounted to 6.2 million marks, almost twice the initial cost estimate of 3.2 million marks. |
 21 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 As his private means were insufficient for his increasingly escalating construction projects, (this was not the only castle he was constructing) the king continuously opened new lines of credit. |
 22 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 By 1883 he owed 7 million marks and debt conversions became necessary. |
 23 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Even after his debts had reached 14 million marks, Ludwig insisted on continuation of his architectural projects. He threatened suicide if his creditors seized his palaces. |
 24 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 In early 1886, Ludwig asked his cabinet for a credit of 6 million marks which was denied. In June the Bavarian government decided to depose the king who was living at Neuschwanstein at the time. |
 25 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 On 10 June 1886, a deposition commission arrived at the palace gatehouse but Ludwig had them arrested. A second commission headed by Bernhard von Gudden arrived the next day and the king was forced to leave the palace that night. |
 26 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Ludwig was put under the supervision of von Gudden. Two days later, on June 13 1886, both Ludwig and von Gudden died under mysterious circumstances in the shallow shore water of Lake Starnberg near Castle Berg. |
 27 Wdnesday 23 June, 2010 Below us is the Forggensee. A para-glider rides the air currents. |
 28 Wdnesday 23 June, 2010 The Forggensee is a man-made lake created in 1954 when the Lech river was dammed at the northern end. |
 29 Wdnesday 23 June, 2010 Higher, ever higher we go. |
 30 Wdnesday 23 June, 2010 A dog was also a passenger of the Teghelberbahn and he was very well behaved. |
 31 Wdnesday 23 June, 2010 We reach the top and enjoy the views. |
 32 Wdnesday 23 June, 2010 The town of Schwangau is immediately below us and Füssen is on the other side of the river. The Forggensee is fed by melting snow from the Alps via this river. The other lake is the Hopfensee. |
 33 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 This part of Tegelberg (berg means mountain) is filled with hikers. The ascent to the peak takes about half an hour. The trail begins near the hang-gliding launch site and is very easy at first. Then it becomes more demanding from the sign Experienced Hikers Only to the summit. There are guide ropes from this sign onwards. |
 34 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 I cannot conceive of how magnificent, how exhilarating it must be to step off a cliff at 1730 metres and trust that the laws of aerodynamics still apply. |
 35 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 The Tegel mountain itself is a series of mountain ridges that is composed of many peaks and battlements each with its own name: the thumb, the tower, the bulging head, the pipe head and so on. |
 36 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 The origin of the name "Tegelberg" probably came from the Germanic, which roughly means "the great mountain". This is especially obvious if you are at the foot of the mountain and look up. |
 37 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 This trail leads to the ski run near the restaurant. |
 38 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Tegelberg is breathtaking in winter or summer and I am glad we got to see both of its personas. |
 39 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Tegelberg is a way station on the E4 hiking trail through the Ammergau Alps. The coloured dots indicate the degree of difficulty and there are shelter huts along the route. |
 40 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 The mountains in the distance are all in Austria. |
 41 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Not far from the Tegelbergbahn Station is Tegelberg house at 1720 metres. This building was once the royal Bavarian hunting lodge of King Maximilian II and it is now a restaurant. |
 42 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 This is looking down on the town of Füssen with the former St. Mang's Abbey (now the City hall and a Museum) on the river's edge. St. Mang's Abbey was once a Benedictine monastery. |
 43 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 How quickly the sky's mood changes; now we see bleak clouds gathering. |
 44 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 The little town in the valley is Vils in the Austrian district of Reutte, Tyrol. |
 45 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 I decide to walk towards the Schloss Neuschwanstein and I follow the trail for a while. |
 46 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Along the way, this sign greets me which I presume tells me to keep off the grass. Anyway, even though my ankle is improving it is still not 100% so I return to the restaurant where Jenni has ordered lunch for us. |
 47 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 I never get to see the castle but these views make up for it. |
 48 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Jenni has ordered the drinks but is still trying to decipher the menu. |
 49 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Cheeky bloody thing pays us a visit and swears at us in German. |
 50 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Jenni ordered Bavarian pancakes just like the ones that Barbara made for us when we first arrived at the guest house. |
 51 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 I had really tasty sausages and chips. |
 52 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 I tried to order these sausages several times later but I kept getting white sausage served in a bowl of boiling water. |
 53 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 As far as we could tell, this is where I took Jenni's photograph last year when the mountains were covered in snow. That picture is the one that I used in our travel blog. |
 54 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 |
 55 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 |
 56 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 This is the Tegelbergbahn cafe. From here we can see the top of Tegelberg Branderschrofen at a height of 1881 metres. There is a Christian Cross at the very top of the peak. |
 57 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Looking south, there is still snow on the northern slopes. |
 58 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 In the Bavarian Alps the Latsche or dwarf pine is the most common tree above 17-1900 metres. Below 1700m the forests consist mainly of conifers such as spruce and fur with large stands of beech. |
 59 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 The forests of the European Alps stretch across the countries of France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. |
 60 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 I found this fascinating. Here we are at Tegelberg at 17-1800 metres but 230 Mya ogo it was at the bottom of a huge ocean that surrounded the super-continent of Pangea. The European Alps were created when the African Plate collided with the European plate and the ocean, in which these creatures once lived, disappeared. |
 61 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 We leave Tegelberg and return to Wackersberg. Just before turning off for our guest house, there is a ski lift at Blomerberg. |
 62 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Up which we ride. The lift does not stop, you wait in front of the moving chair, it picks you up and carries you aloft. |
 63 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Of course, this is also a wonderful spot for para-sailing and the chair lift is used to carry equipment up and down the mountain. |
 64 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 This ride is much more fun than a cable car. It is more like being on a motorcycle than being inside a car. |
 65 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 The ride is longer too; it takes about 15 minutes. |
 66 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 It is called the Blombergbahn and costs €8 for a round trip. |
 67 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 What a beautiful way to spend a day (provided you do not fly too close to the sun and melt the feathers). |
 68 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 As we climb, the countryside around Wackersberg becomes visible. |
 69 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 When we reach the summit, a huge sign tells us about all of the things we can do on Blomberg. I'm interested in seeing Heiglkopf so we head in that direction. |
 70 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Heiglkopf is the point with the wooden cross. |
 71 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 We walk down the hill but we are not sure if we are trespassing on private property or not. |
 72 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Our understanding is that the barn is available to rent to farmers who want to use the grasses here for summer grazing. Presumably, they need somewhere to milk the cows. |
 73 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 From this point, these are all of the mountains that we can see. |
 74 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 It looks like a scene from the Sound of Music movie (which is almost unknown in Austria and Germany). |
 75 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 We tip-toe gingerly past these ferocious beasts. |
 76 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Bad Tölz and the villages beyond. |
 77 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 The sign points the direction to the Blomberg Cross at Heigltopf |
 78 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 The bull has a bell around its neck to give you a few seconds warning when it charges. This journey was filled with peril. |
 79 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Mt Heiglkopf. There is a very interesting story associated with this very spot but nowadays all that remains is a large wooden cross. |
 80 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 From Heiglkopf we can see Wackersberg below us. It is an extremely small village of 3600 people situated at 735 metres above sea level. Just the other side of Wackersberg is the Isar River with Bad Tölz spread out along its banks |
 81 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 The cows are fitted with cow bells that make a very pleasant jingle-jangle as they amble around the pasture. |
 82 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 When we returned to the guest house this evening, we learned that Barbara was enjoying a tipple with friends here as we walked by. |
 83 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 This para-glider is fitted with an insulated cover so perhaps it is colder up there than we realise. |
 84 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 This is a Norwegian Spruce that grows prolifically on the northern slopes of the Alps. While we were here we could hear the tree-felling machines harvesting their summer crop. Forests are very carefully managed in Germany. |
 85 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 The forest is composed mostly of Norway Spruce (Picea abies) most of which have been reintroduced in Alpine Germany since 1800. Because of the exploitation of the forests through to the end of the 18th century most old growth forests disappeared. |
 86 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Ironically, the seed stock for the reintroduced Picea abies came from the relatively unscathed Scandinavian forest that had itself re-established itself after the last Ice Age. Today Picea abies comprises 35% of the tree cover in Germany, and most of that is in managed forests. |
 87 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 This is Barbara's guest house. From here we can see the recently installed solar panels. Barbara runs the guest house and her husband agists horses in the rest of the property. |
 88 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 This is Barbara's guest house showing its proximity to Bad Tölz. |
 89 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Even after staying with Barbara in 2006, 2009 and 2010, I could still stay there again and again and never tire of it. I have never stayed anywhere in the world that I have enjoyed as much. I am already planning a 2012 trip there. |
 90 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 On our return, Jenni spots the earthen-works statue of a head. She is waving to Remmi who is always in her thoughts. |
 91 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 A para-glider rides the updrafts near Barbara's guest house. I hope the pilot has a car parked below. |
 92 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 On our return to the Blombergbahn, we see a para-glider pilot wrestling with his kit. |
 93 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 The narrow winding road leads to Wackersberg to the south. |
 94 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 We ride back down the Blombergbahn. |
 95 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 From the cable car we can see our would-be pilot still struggling with the wind. |
 96 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 We never did get to see him become airborne. |
 97 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Kids line up to take a toboggan run back to base. I envy kids sometimes, this looks like such fun. |
 98 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 It looks to be a school outing and it handily beats reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic. |
 99 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 Here's a funny story. When we left the Blombergbahn station at the top, the operator stopped the lift so that we could get on. He then placed a metal flag on our chair and we figured out that this probably meant "Old farts on board". Sure enough, at the bottom, the operator stopped the lift so that we could get off. Such are the perils of travel with an older woman. |
 100 Wednesday 23 June, 2010 At the lower Blombergbahn station a tent and TV were set up for tonight's Germany V Ghana World Cup Soccer. Germany won 1:0. Next stop: We return to Munich for some good news |
