I was excited because it's the first time to visit a castle. In my impression (which comes from travel TV program), castle is huge, mysterious, with historic character, even haunted (horror stories?).
But this castle that I'm visiting, is completely different from my impression.
We started the tour in a foggy day. The castle is on the hill, so we need to transfer to a smaller shuttle bus to take us to the mid way. After that, we still need to hike (very steep slope) about 20 minutes before we get to the castle. Suddenly I had a feeling of 重陽節, since I would also "hike" uphill to the cemetery in a foggy weather to pay a visit to my ancestors.
Although the inspiration counterpart, the Sleeping Beauty Castle, situated in the Disneyland, a place filled with joy and laughter, the authenticated New Swan Castle is on the other hand standing lonely on the top of the hill, overlooking the city Fussen in South Western part of Germany. It's the palace of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, although he only lived there for about a year. Until his death, the castle is not yet finished constructing. The castle also is also served as a homage to Richard Wagner, a famous opera composer at that time.
We had a guided tour inside the castle, but too bad we aren't allowed to take pictures inside. The mosaic floor in the Throne room is magnificent and took 2 years to complete. The bedroom of the King even contain a running water faucet in the shape of swan. Water comes from a small stream 200 m away from the castle.
While I was lining up for the washroom, there is a Japanese middle-age lady in front of me. She asked, "Are you Japanese?" WOW! Do I look like Japanese? And we also chit-chat a little bit. They join tour to Germany and Switzerland for 8 days and I guess this is the same tour I have met in Fussen. She also travelled quite a lot. Last year she's been to Europe or some other places I can't recall now. Her English is actually quite good. It's the 2nd time that I met Japanese middle age lady, who speaks good English. When I travel to Japan 2 years ago, I have asked a few different young people but none of them could understand/speak English. And finally we met an middle age lady that points us the right direction. Since then I had a feeling that middle age Japanese lady can speak good English. And today in Germany, same applies!
Since we can't get a clear view of the whole castle in a foggy day, we ended up buying quite a few postcards and mouse pad with the castle view.
For more details of the castle, refer to the Wiki page.
After the castle visit, we had lunch in a motel on the way to Switzerland. There I had my first beer in Germany. It tastes great! Even though I don't really like beer.
Lucerne, Switzerland
We arrived Lucerne in the late afternoon. First we are going to a boat cruise around Lake Lucerne. I was a little bit regret that I paid extra for the boat cruise plus losing the time to go shopping. The cruise is relaxing but the view is not as spectacular as I expect. There are a lot of watch shops along the shore. There are at least one or more Chinese sales representatives. And of course there are more Chinese tour as well. I didn't get much chance to go shopping, but at least mission accomplished: I got a Patak Phillip catalogue for my Dad! In the end I bought some souvenir and chocolate (that's what the most famous in Switzerland).
The hotel we stayed is also heritage building but very well preserved, unlike Fussen. The hotel lobby is very stylish. And there is even a Hong Kong flag outside the building! It must be a popular hotel for Hong Kong tourists.
We decided to head out for a walk after dinner in the hotel. We were told that it's relatively safe in Switzerland (even at night time). And it's true. We never met a person that you want to stay away on the street. We just feel so safe even walking at night. We took some pictures of the shoreline, the chapel bridge and had a walk inside the railway station.
Our hotel room is nice and spacious, the only thing I would criticize is that the shower is rather weak.
 |
| Europe Trip Day 6 |
No comments:
Post a Comment