Tag: Bavaria

The Night Watchman of Rothenburg ob der Tauber – Germany

You find yourself in Germany and you are on a budget. You are staying in hostels, taking regional trains to save money. You are eating in small cafes or roadside stands. Anything to save a few euros. You are always looking for a bargain. Some way to save money so you stay on the road longer. But you are tired of the castles, churches, and endless tours to see this and that. Yet you want something entertaining. Something that does not require you to buy a meal or a drink or a ticket, yet is fun and entertaining.

Well, buddy, I have a deal for you.

In Rothenberg ob der Tauber not far from Munich is the best entertainment deal in Germany. Cheap, fun, entertaining, and educational. There are no tickets. No long lines. You pay at the end not the beginning. If you don’t like it just leave, no problem. It lasts an hour and walking is involved. Yet, I guarantee that you will laugh, be entertained and learn a whole bunch of things you did not know.

What is this fantastic deal – it is the Night Watchman’s Tour of Rothenburg ob der Tauber featuring the most famous, non-famous actor in Germany.

Ok, lets stop here a moment and fill in some gaps.

Every night (from March to Christmas) just before dark (7 PM in the fall and early spring, and 8 PM in the summer), a single bearded man dressed in a long grey cape, a tri-corner hat, carrying a lantern and a hellebarde (a type of ancient spear with an axe head on the top used in medieval times) strolls into the main square of Rothenburg. He stands on the steps of the ancient city hall and groups of people who have been waiting for his arrival – some for an hour – gather around him. Some nights the crowd could be 50 to 100 people, and some nights in the summer the crowd could be as large as 300. From all over the world – people gather in front of this stranger and wait for him to speak. In a soft, sing-song voice that somehow carries quite far, speaking in English he advises the people that if they want to take a photo with him – to do it now, and that it is free. And as many as 30 to 40 people will rush up and take selfies, or group shots with this mysterious man.

Who is this person? Is he a cult figure, or some religious or political figure? No, he is Hans Georg Baumgartner, an actor, and he has been doing this wonderful tour for 25 years.

Awarded the TripAdvisor Award for Excellence in 2014, Baumgartner tells his stories about Rothenburg’s medieval history using dry wit and sly puns with a comic’s timing. He tells you just enough without boring you with endless details and too much information. Yet, he does convey the harshness of medieval life even in what was one of Germany’s grandest cities of the 14th to 16th centuries.  He talks about the day-to-day life in a walled city where the livestock were stored inside the city gates at night in the people’s homes, the constant fear of famines, and the unpleasant odors (especially in the summer) from people throwing their waste into the streets each day and the open sewers that ran through the city. He talks about plagues, the wars, how the city became wealthy, and how it slipped away.

 

All while he manages to hold an audience’s attention without aid of microphones or projections or sound effects. Just a single performer using his voice and his story-telling ability to weave his story as he walks the streets of his small town as cars, motorbikes, other tourists and residents pass by. It is really a very impressive performance as he leads through the streets and down alleyways, through gates, in and out of tunnels and to vantage points that offer sweeping views of Rothenberg and the surrounding valley.

Yet, Baumgartner is not really acting a role, he is the role because after doing this tour for 25 years the entire tour reflects his wit, style and personality. His bright blue eyes flash with humor and his devilish smile and inflection get constant laughs from his engaged audience. Yet, the narrative is what drives this interesting tale full of legends and true stories.

A legend like a 1631 drinking contest, in which the mayor of the town supposedly saved Rothenburg from being destroyed by the Catholic army during the Thirty Years War. It’s said that he downed three liters of wine in one gulp, besting the conquering general.

Or the very true story of how the town suffered during the end of World War II, when Allied bombing destroyed about 40 percent of its buildings and 2,000 feet of its wall. The town was about to be destroyed by the Allies when an official in the US State Department halted the bombardment because his Mother had gone to the village as a young woman and fallen in love with it. Years later, she often talked about the experience around the family dinner table, so when he heard about the possible destruction of the village he had to act. The official told the US commander to offer the Germans a chance to evacuate or be destroyed. The Germans withdrew and Rothenburg was saved all because a son honored his mother’s memories.

Rick Steves, the travel guide-book author, savvy in what American tourists will pay to see in Europe, calls the watchman tour “flat-out the most entertaining hour of medieval wonder anywhere in Germany.”

At the end of the tour – which lasts almost exactly an hour – he passes the hat and almost not one person refuses to pay him. Many in fact give him more Euros because of the quality and fun of the tour. He has a DVD for sale as well, that he hawks a couple of time during the tour, but even that gets a laugh. Baumgartner is a rock star storyteller and you can tell he loves the audience reaction.

This is without a doubt the best entertainment deal in Germany. Check it out and enjoy the ride.

NOTE: There are several Rothenburg’s in Germany. Do not go to the wrong one. You must go to Rothenburg ob der Tauber (the city’s official name) or you will miss out on Germany’s kept medieval city.

NOTE 2: There is also a strictly German-speaking tour later in the evening. Baumgartner sometimes does this one as well, but there is another Night Watchman for the German tour. Check local travel guides for the times of this tour.

 

5 German Castles in 3 Days – Part 2 – Munich

Continuing on with the castles of Munich, we come to the town of Hohenschwangau which is a village in Germany’s southeastern state of Bavaria about one hour’s drive from Munich. This is the home of not one but two of Ludwig’s castles. His childhood home is here Schloss Hohenschwangau, and his dream castle, Schloss Neuschwanstein whose entrances are literally across the main village road from each other.

Village of Hohenschwangau

Ludwig’s father raised his sons primarily in the country at the family palace of Hohenschwag to be far away from the court intrigue of Munich and the two palaces there. So Ludwig would never developed the hard shell needed for the political hardball that Munich and governing required.

Foothills of the Alps around Hohenschwangau

HOHENSCHWANGAU

Lake Alpsee

Built high about Lake Alpsee in the foothills of the Alps, Schloss (German for castle) Hohenschwangau started out as a fortress in the 12th century. The castle started to take shape around 1535 when the owners brought in an Italian architect to create a new interior floor plan while keeping the existing walls. That owner then sold the residence to the Wittelsbach family, the Kings of Bavaria in 1550 and it stayed in their family (mostly) until Ludwig II’s time. The place was used mostly as a hunting lodge and retreat for the family. However, in 1832, Maximilian II, King of Bavaria and Ludwig’s father, began a new reconstruction of the old place and turned it into his official summer palace. This is where Ludwig grew up and fell in love with the beauty and seclusion of the area. From windows in Schloss Hohenschwangau, he could see the location of where his future palace, Newschwanstein would be. He continued to live in Hohenschwangau for large sections of time during his reign splitting his time between Hohenschwangau and Schloss Linderhof after it was finished.

Hohenschwangau Castle

After Ludwig II was deposed by his family, the castle continued to stay in family hands, and even after the King of Bavaria stepped down, the German state allowed the family to continue to use the residence up until the current day. While belonging to the German state and being used as a museum/tour destination since 1913, the family has continued to live there even during World War I and II.

While I did not actually tour the castle during my Grey Line tour, you can clearly see it from below in the village and if I had more time on the tour, I would have loved to see it. You can tour Hohenschwangau separately or as part of different tours that run out of Munich. If you happen to be in the village itself, you can purchase tickets right from the local ticket booth which handles tours for both castles.

Lake Alpsee

NEUSCHWANSTEIN

Young Ludwig was a dreamer and romantic at heart. He was born at a time when as King of Bavaria he would not have absolute power but was part of a “constitutional monarchy” where he shared power with a legislature in Munich. He hated this position plus as well his government was being played by Prussia on one side and Austria on the other. With no real power and not being able to do much about it, he turned inward and began to dream of magnificent castles like Versailles and his personal hero, Louis 14th of France. Imagining himself to be like Louis, he envisioned great castles that would reflect his hoped for and never to be achieved power and control, and Neuschwanstein is the zenith of that dream and desire.

View from Neuschwanstein

As king of a constitution government like Great Britain, the cost of the building came from his personal and his family’s fortune, and he borrowed that money from the Bavarian State Treasury. As he was building three or more castles at the same time, the cost was immense and as the members of his family saw their fortune being eaten away and were now in huge debt to the State, they conceived of a plan to remove Ludwig from power by proclaiming him mad. Thus Neuschwanstein and another castle were not finished during his life. He actually only lived in Neuschwanstein for about 170 days before he was removed in a coup. He was mysteriously killed or committed suicide the next day.

Neuschwanstein

Schloss Neuschwanstein which in German means “new swan stone” was built as a nineteenth-century Romanesque Revival palace. The swan was Ludwig’s favorite bird so the name reflects that and images of swans are on displayed throughout the castle. The palace was also as a homage to Richard Wagner, and the romantic German legends that his operas are about – myths, legend and heroic characters.

Inner Courtyard

The castle was never completely finished although it was far enough along that he could move in. After his death, the family immediately opened it to the public as a museum and tour destination. Since then more than it is estimated at over 61 million people have visited Neuschwanstein Castle. The palace has appeared prominently in several movies such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Great Escape, and served as the inspiration for Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle at the Disney Theme Parks.

Tours of Neuschwanstein can be brought almost anywhere. Online, local tour companies in Munich, or locally in Hohenschwangau if you take the train down from Munich at the local ticket office. Please read the entrance requirements before you come because the tour is very strict about time of entrance. There is a new tour starting every 5 minutes and if you miss your time you are out your money. No refunds or excuses. Also be prepared to walk a lot. You have to walk up hill to the castle and in good weather it can take 45 minutes. There are buses, horse carriages, and other forms of rides part way to the castle but they do not go all the way up, so you will have to walk at least some of it uphill. Please check for any handicapped access or help with the local German tour office or view online.

Kitchen
Pantry to Kitchen

NYMPHENBURG

Nymphenburg Palace

The final stop to the Palaces of Munich happened on the 3rd day. Again a wet, windy, cold day in Munich, I ventured out once more to see the exalted lifestyle of the former Kings of Bavaria, the Wittelsbach family.

Schloss Nymphenburg or “Castle of the Nymph (or Nymphs)”, is a Italian Baroque style palace located on the outside of old Munich. The palace served as the main summer residence for the House of Wittelsbach. The palace was commissioned by the King Ferdinand Maria and his wife, Henriette Adelaide of Savoy after the birth of their son, Maximilian II. The castle was gradually expanded and transformed over the years. (The Wittelsbachs still live and use the Palace as a residence living in one wing of the Palace.)

Great Hall

Starting in 1701, Max Emanuel, the heir to Bavaria, undertook a huge redo of the entire palace.  Two pavilions were added one on the south and one on the north connected with the center pavilion by two gallery wings. Other parts were added to the Palace to make it equal on both wings and huge formal gardens with lakes were added in the back of the Palace as well.

Great Hall

Interesting factual note – to those who trace the line of legitimate British monarchy down through the legal heirs of James II of England (Jacobites), the head of the house of Wittelsbach is the legitimate heir of the Stuart claims to the thrones of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland; this claim is not being actively pursued.

Ceiling Great hall

Where the Residenz tour goes on for miles, this tour only shows about 16 rooms in total. The tour starts in the Great Hall, which barely begins to describe how huge it is and the effect that it was supposed to have on visitors. It is truly a beautiful and grand statement of power and royal taste.

Then you view North wing which were more state rooms for the king’s business and then return to the great hall to view the more interesting South wing which were official apartments for the Wittelsbach kings.

Most impressive is King Ludwig I’s Gallery of Beauties. Using the greatest single pickup line in history, “I would like to have a portrait painted of you”, King Ludwig would invite beautiful women from all over Munich and all classes – elite and commoner – to come to the summer palace and have their portrait painted by the court painter. During this time, the affair would start – some short, some lasted very long. Who could refuse that offer? King, Portrait, Affair! He used it 36 times, and the beauties all hang in a room of the tour. You will notice one physical trait that they share – I will leave you to find it.

Part of the wall of Beauties

The tour is relatively short but you get a real sense of this place and the type of people who lived here. Again most the furniture and paintings are not original to the house. Many were lost to bombing in the war or stolen. The replacements are from other palaces in Germany or donated by the public after the war.

This palace is also the birth place of Ludwig II, the mad king. He was Ludwig I’s grandson.

The gardens in the back extend far back beyond the palace and are open to everyone. Joggers and walkers alike.

After my 5th palace in 3 days in a cold, wet Munich – I stopped for (when in Munich) a cold beer and rested my feet. That was a lot of walking, but totally worth understanding the history and position of Munich and Bavaria during Europe’s long history of war and struggle among all the royal families.

Enjoy Munich!

5 German Castles in 3 Days – Munich

So when people come to Europe, some like museums, some churches and some castles. I fit into the castle branch. After two or three churches – yawn. Museums are amazing, but only so many paintings or sculptures can I retain in my head unless it is astonishing like the David in Florence or a Cavagio in Rome. So on this trip to Germany, I planned to see a few castles, but the weather in Munich suddenly turned cold and rainy, and castles became the main focus for the next few days. Three days to be exact and in those three days I managed to cram in 5 castles either in or around Munich. And thus we begin –

Main Reception Room – Residenz

The first castle that I was went to one cold rainy day was the Residenz. For 500 years, this mammoth complex of buildings was the official residence and seat of power for the rulers of Bavaria, the Wittelsbach family. It began in 1345 and continued to be used and added to until 18th century. It was almost destroyed in World War II and what you see today has been reconstructed using old photos, paintings and original plans.

Main Reception Room

The place is so large that it now consists of three different museums that you can see separately or together in a couple of different combinations. There is the Residenz Museum which is the palace itself, the Residenz Treasury where some of the Bavaria crown jewels are located, and the Cuvillies Theatre which is a perfectly restored Rococo opera house. If you decide to see all three, then the price tag is 13 Euros.

The Green Hall – Residenz

The Residenz Museum is really about 90 rooms of Rococo banquet and reception halls (you will see about 70 rooms if you take the long tour), and the royal family apartments. Because of the war, most of the furniture that you see is of the time, but not the original items. There are a couple of amazing rooms like the Shell Grotto and Antiquarium, but in all honesty (maybe because of the weather) the palace was very blah. Just endless room after endless room. The place (or palace) is huge covering hundreds of meters of floor space. You can wander around until you say “enough already.”

Relic Bone
A Relic Head

The most gruesome room was the Reliquary Room which contains a very odd collection of Christian relics which were very big items to have in the Middle Ages. You will see mummified hands, skulls and bones all contained in golden cases. It is a little disquieting to be honest.

The New Court Chapel

The most impressive room to me and where you can see the painstaking work that the city of Munich has done to restore this monstrously huge palace complex is the Court Chapel which was completely destroyed in the bombing. They have rebuilt it as a very simple space showing you all the steel beams and walls made of simple red brick. Not like it was before the war. They use it as a concert hall for about 300 people and it was just moving to me. Plus the rebuilt windows are beautiful.

Window – Court Chapel

The Residenz Complex is right in the middle of Munich and worth the view, but be prepared to WALK!

Bavaria Rainy Day

The next morning I got up early and took the S Bahn (subway) to the main train/bus station. There I bought a tour on Gray Lines, a very large tour bus company in Germany. The tour was going to cover 2 of the 3 main “Mad Ludwig” castles.

Gold Fountain – Linderhof

Ludwig II was a young gay man of 18 when he assumed the throne of Bavaria in 1845. He ruled for 22 years at a time when Bavaria had become very weak in terms of power. He spent his entire reign being played by either Prussia on one side or Austria on the other. Instead of being depressed in Munich as a powerless king, he stayed at the family country palace of Hohenschwangau, a former hunting lodge that had been enlarged to palace scale. From here, he dreamed up his three amazing castles – Linderhof, Neuschwanstein, and his castle in the middle of lake, Herrenchiemsee.

Linderhof

The only one to be finished in his life time was Linderhof. It is very small, compact, frilly, and personal to the only man who ever lived in it – Ludwig. Rather than face being a weakened king, he dreamed and spent his family’s fortune on building and building these images in his head. Linderhof’s tour offers the grounds which look much like Versailles but on a smaller scale, and in the “castle” 10 rooms have been set aside to view. It is frilly in it’s overly ornamented Rococo and Baroque styles and is filled with priceless furniture, chandeliers and porcelain figurines. It is not really a castle either in size or scale – but because a king lived here for 8 years and surrounded himself with land and priceless objects, it gets the name. Yet in size, it is not any larger than Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello either in scale or design. You could call it a mini-castle, but whatever it size it is amazing to view and consider this sad lonely man living here along by choice.

Atlas Shoulders the World – Top of Linderhof

Possibly the saddest thing to consider is that he did not want to see anyone or be seen even by his servants. His personal dining room was designed in such a way that the table was prepared with all the food, drink and dishes already on it in the kitchen, and then was lifted by elevator through a hole in the floor in front of Ludwig who was sitting in the dining room waiting for dinner. When done, he would ring a bell and the table would disappear back through the floor. The entire time he was totally alone and saw no one. Yet he did have long imaginary conversations with kings of past that he admired like Louis the 14th and others.

Classic Statues Abound at Linderhof

I am told that the highlight of Linderhof is the Grotto which he had built so he could sail around in this underground lake/cavern listening to a opera company perform works by his favorite composer, Richard Wagner. Of course, the opera singers and musicians never saw him at all. Unfortunately the Grotto is under repair until 2019, and I did not get a chance to see it.

Main Fountain – Linderhof

Next column – the final three castles of Munich.

Beer Gardens and German Hospitality – Munich

There is a term in German that I cannot even pronounce – Deutsche Gastfreundlichkeit – which means in its simplest form – German hospitality. Or to be more precise – I will provide you with wonderful hospitality now which hopefully will be paid back at a later date to the same level. Or at least that is how I understood it.

My good friends and hosts for 5 days in Munich, Germany, Tina and Uli showed me that kind of German hospitality. Room to stay in, guided walking tours around Munich (Uli should go into that type of business because he knew everything about the city – dates, kings, famous events, on and on), dinners, suggestions on where to go and what to see and time on the computer helping me local the best and most economical tours. And they also showed me and explained to me that most Munich of all traditions – the Beer Hall.

I arrived in Munich after 9 days of semi-cold and rain in Reykjavik to bright sunshine and warm temperatures. After they met my train from the airport and took me to their home in bright leafy section of Munich, it was off to my first experience in their city – a beer garden. And not the giant, tourist one in the middle of Munich, the Hofbrauhaus, but a local small neighborhood one run by Augustine, one of the oldest breweries in Munich. And according to Uli, the best one. Here with a large mug of locally brewed beer (a liter or for the faint of heart, a half liter) , a large German pretzel, sweet kraut, and large sausage with brown German mustard, Uli told me the history of Biergartens and why they play such an important part of Munich history and social life.

Munich has been a trading city since the early 1200 as a stop on the salt-trade crossroads. It started as a trading post near a monastery of monks – Munchen in German (Munich in English). By the 1400’s Munich was a booming trading city because of the salt and had also developed a reputation for its beer. By the 1500’s, more than 30 breweries run by holy (drunk) monks were pumping out their magic beverage. The monks had a special license from the local Duke of Munich (who would in 300 years would become a king of Bavaria). The monks stored their beer in underground storage cellars and then grew Chestnut trees over the storage rooms to keep the beer cool in the summer. This is a tradition to this day that beer gardens are all in the shade of Chestnut trees. In the shade of the trees, the monks put up tables to sell their beers in the summer and the beer garden was born. A place where all the people of Munich no matter how rich or poor, common or important would all gather together and drink and socialize. A true democratic touch in a time of royalty and serfs, and a beginning middle class.

Beer gardens were also responsible for the oldest food law in the world. In 1487, Bavaria passed the German Beer Purity Law. It establishes that all beer must consist of only 3 elements, Barley, Hops and water. That law still exists today although brewers are trying to add new things to find new favors for possible new customers, but why was this such a big in the 1400’s? Because beer in those days was considered food. If you were a poor worker in the fields harvesting at lunch you wouldn’t have a burger and fries – you really had nothing so no big lunch for you at Micky D’s. But you might have a glass of thick dark beer which would have all the nutrients that you need to keep working. If you needed to think and use your head, lighter beers were developed or you cut your beer with water or possibly a fruit juice like lemonade.

All the things that you see in a Budweiser commercial – large horses pulling a heavy wagon of wooden barrels of beer – all of those are traditions that were developed in Munich over five hundred years ago. Large horses were specially bred to pull the heavy wagons, the barrels were made by the monks and later by other crafts persons to store the beer and so on.

The next day, Tina and Uli took me into the city center for a personal walking tour of Munich’s extremely long and interesting history and of course, we stopped at the world famous Hofbrauhaus. It was starting to cloud up and it was the afternoon, so the place was not as rowdy as advertised. We had the surliest waiter ever but we did get the large liters of beer calls a “mahs”. Uli got the light beer (not really light in calories just in color) called a “helles” and I got an amazing dark beer which is called a “dunkles”. We had a light lunch, but nothing there is really light, all German sausages and traditional German dishes like roasted Pig Knuckle. This time I got real sour kraut, and I must say the sweet kraut was my favorite.

And now dear reader, your very logical question is why is this the most famous beer garden in the world? Because this was the personal brewery of the ruling family of Munich, the Wittelsbachs. You will notice the crown over the front door as you enter the Hofbrauhaus. Built by the royal family in 1583 to brew the court beer (hof brau). When the brewery moved to a new location in 1880, a 5000 seat beer garden was built here and it has been packed every since.

Check out the really quirky gift shop for some amazing weird gifts, and the slogan on the ceiling over the oompah bandstand which reads, “Durst ist schlimmer als Heimweh” or “Thirst is worst than homesickness”. That says it all!

Thanks to Tina and Uli for the Deutsche Gastfreundlichkeit, and Enjoy!!