The Romantic Road

It's actually kind of scary to drive in these inner towns, because all the streets look like walkways, especially with tourists crowded around them and cafes with their tables and chairs set out in them. It's only the fact that I see other cars driving down them as well that I know that I'm okay, or at least that others are just as misguided as myself when it comes to driving around these towns.

We stopped specifically in the little towns of Rothenburg and Dinkelsbuhl, each which had its own charms but were similar as well.  Both were centuries old, surrounded by walls and entered only through gates that used to be guarded by the villagers. These are still the only ways in and out to this day, and these towns are frequently atop a hill with a view (all the better to see the enemy coming).

Snowball!

In the German style, there were a lot of Christmas themed decorations (as Germany officially began the tradition of Father Christmas) as well as clocks and snowballs, these fantastic webby dough balls covered in all types of flavors like chocolate, cinnamon sugar, caramel, you name it. You can probably guess what I got. Mi also got this fantastic apple juice that was fresh and delicious and the best I've ever tried.

The Night Watchman

In Dinkelsbuhl, the last small town before our castles, we had a traditionally heavy German dinner, then waited in front of the church for the bells to mark nine. When they did, a man dressed in a traditional cloak with a long spear in his hand emerged from the darkness holding a lantern with a single candle burning within. He began to sing a dirge in a lovely baritone, then told us he was the night watchman of the town, and we were welcome to join him for his nightly rounds.

We followed him around for about an hour, where he made at least seven stops at local restaurants and sang a little ditty after blowing his trumpet. Before he had finished singing, a waiter would be waiting with a glass of beer or wine in hand to offer him as thanks for guarding the town. He was nice enough to share with us as well, but it was endlessly amusing to see people pop their heads out with a free glass for him every time. I think Mi was trying to figure out a way to get the same deal in other towns. In the olden days, I'm sure it was the sign of a grateful bar owner to the night watchman who kept his establishment safe. Or it was like bribing the mob not to burn your shop to the ground. I suspect the former.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Our last day on the romantic road was filled with the castles of Fussen. Two of them to be exact, but one of them, Neuschwanstein, was the famous castle Disney modeled his Sleeping Beauty castle after which became his logo.

I do have to say that the tours at both of these castles were very confusing and not very thorough for someone unacquainted with the local stories and legends of the castles. We ended up reading the stories in the books offered in the giftshops after the tours to figure out what was going on.  The history of it all was actually quite fascinating, and I'm disappointed they didn't do a better job of relating it to the group as a whole.

The two castles are fairly close together, the first being the summer palace for the royal family and the second being one of the many castles the oldest son and later king had built because he could. The Neuschwanstein Castle was actually never finished in Ludwig's lifetime, and he only lived there a short time. But still, both castles, even the unfinished one, are remarkably detailed and similar. Every spare wall is either carved or has a painting on it, themed to the room, often. In the Disney castle, the bed itself took four years of work by master carvers to put in the details. And swans were everywhere, as the crest the family. There was also a random cave room that no one was sure what to make of, which was mentioned but not explained in the tour.

What we later learned about Neuschwanstein Castle was this. Ludwig became king at the age of 17, and was engaged to his cousin, but broke it off a year later. It was believed that he struggled with  homoerotic fantasies and never married because of it. He was known as a pretty eccentric king, and made servants who had ugly faces wear masks around him. He also didn't like having company, and would have players perform operas only for him. He kind of lived in a fantasy world, imagining himself in a number of Wagner's musical operas. Many of the rooms in his castle were painted with scenes from the stories Wagner drew inspiration from, like Tristan and Isolate. As king, Ludwig ruled from afar in his castles, but didn't pay much attention to matters of state, which made it easier for his Parliament to depose him on the grounds that he was insane. He drowned under suspicious circumstances a few days afterward. Mi thinks the story has great potential as a film, and I agree.  I can just see the film ending on a question - was the King murdered, or did he kill himself in the pond?

Then, there was some more driving, some twisting and shouting on the side of the road, a crazy horse that we though was going to jump the low fence and crash into the car, and we arrived in Munich!