#BeaumontTravels: Germany, Summer 2018: Day 3

Beaumont's History Department is traveling this summer to Germany. Follow along with their journal as they share their adventures from the road. Twelve students from Beaumont are being led by Mr. Crawford and his wife as chaperones.

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Greetings from Munich,

Today was a early day, breakfast at 6:30, bags out by 7:00, depart by 7:30. Our breakfast was a continental breakfast; bread, rolls, cereal, fruit, yogurt, soft boiled eggs, cold cuts, etc. All very good.

Our first stop was Neuschwanstein Castle which is located in Bavaria, near the town of Fussen - about a 3 hour drive from our hotel. This castle is probably best known to Americans as Walt Disney’s inspiration for Cinderella’ castle. To the Germans it is known as Mad Ludwig’s fairytale castle. King Ludwig II was a great admirer of Richard Wagner’s operas and many of the castle’s rooms were inspired by Wagner’s characters. Only about 20% of the castle’s over 200 rooms were finished because King Ludwig mysteriously died before its competition. So it never was a functioning castle.

We arrived about an hour and a half before our tour time. This gave us a little time to explore the village and at 10:15 we started our mile and half climb up the mountain, and I mean UP the mountain. 45 minuets later we reached the castle gate a little winded and feeling muscles we have not felt in a while. It was a chilly morning, probably about 65 degrees but it somehow felt warmer during that climb. At 11:35 it was our time to enter the castle and again we went up - 4 flights of stairs to get to the 2nd floor where the formal rooms of the castle are located and our guided tour began. After walking by the servant’s rooms, which by the way were very nice, we visited the throne room. This amazingly large room was patterned after a Byzantine church with beautiful paintings on the walls and ceiling and an incredible mosaic floor made up of over 1 million pieces. We then passed through the formal waiting room, the King’s advisor’s office, and the formal dining room. Then up another 2 flights of stairs to the living quarters. There we saw the kings dressing room, bed chamber, and study before entering the singers gallery. This beautiful hall, the largest in the castle was designed as a place to showcase Wagner’s music. After exiting the hall we went out on one of the castle’s many balconies and took in the amazing views of the Bavarian countryside. Then down several flights of stairs to the kitchen area, out through the Knights bath, and down more stairs to a long underground corridor to the castle’s exit where we met Silvana, our Tour Director. Since everyone was enjoying the castle area so much she decided to give us a little more time to get lunch and possibly hike a little further on to a bridge which provides the best view of the castle. It turns out most of our girls were either not thrilled about standing on a bridge, at the top of a mountain, spanning a large steep crevice; or they didn’t want to hike another 15 minuets up hill. However, 3 did go with us and they experience a breathtaking view that the will never forget. This also gave us a chance to take their picture with the new Beaumont School flag Wendy had made for our educational field trips. See attached photo. This picture was taken on the way to the bridge.

The other girls stopped halfway down to have lunch where we joined them. To their credit they tried some Bavarian dishes like bratwurst, currywurst, and weiner schnitzel with lots of French fries. Everything tastes good with French fries.

Then down the mountain and back on the coach for our 2 hour drive to Munich. Surprisingly the bus was very quiet for about the first hour, then the students woke up. Luckily our girls are having a good time with the Texans.

Upon arriving in Munich we took a short walking tour to the “New Town”
Center where we watched the world famous glockenspiel clock ring at 5:00 - amazing for something built in the mid 1800s. We then walked through several more of the city’s plazas before going to dinner at 6:00. Tonight’s dinner was a very traditional ribs with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut with chocolate pudding for dessert.

After dinner we got back on the coach and drove to our hotel. After some much needed rest, a few of the girls met us in the lobby - they told me a friend of their’s lives close by and could they invite him over. He was a foreign exchange student at Hawken who they met and had hung out with last year. I told them yes and he was there within 10 minuets. He is a very nice young man and they enjoyed a real treat with his unexpected visit. He stayed about an hour since he is still in school and had a presentation due tomorrow. By 11:00 they all went up to bed ending another great day.

Talk to you soon,
Bob