Diana C. Kirby

Austin…hot, dry…104
Germany & Austria…wet, rainy…55

We’re making lemonade here. Yesterday we started our day in Fuessen, a charming town at the foothills of the Alps. Our plan was to climb up the side of a mountain for a tour of the spectacular Neuschwanstein castle, built by King Ludwig II.

When we woke up, it was pouring. When we got to the mountain it was pouring. When we stood in line for the bus part-way up the mountain it was pouring. And it poured on us as we walked the last undriveable 15 minutes up the mountain.

There were no photos allowed inside, but we got this one from a nice vantage point on the path. The castle was finished days after Ludwig died in 1896, and is amazing. Very ornate, it is full of frescoes of all the scenes from Richard Wagner’s operas, which is why it is called the “Fairy Tale” castle. It’s the castle on which the Disney castle was modeled.

Our 5-year old was great – and she enjoyed it immensely, in spite of pants soaked to the knee and a drenched rain jacket.

Our drive east to Salzburg was tedious – heavy rain, a small, two-lane road and German drivers. But it was beautiful.

The rain and cool air brought the clouds and the mists down over the alps and gave them an eerie quality that was really a sight to see. Not sure this captures it very well, but you get the idea.

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Salzburg…in the rain. We walked a little down our street, enjoyed a nice Austrian dinner and turned in early. It’s 2:45 a.m. here as I blog this (jetlag is still waking me up in the night) and I’m eager to see the city. It’s beautiful, the birthplace of Mozart, and full of castles and fortresses and baroque churches.

And, for right now, it isn’t raining … I’m keeping my fingers crossed (and my unbrella handy!)

Wow. What a difference a day makes!

Well, slightly more than a day. We left Austin, Texas on Friday. It was a scorching 100 degrees. Saturday morning, we landed in Frankfurt, Germany, where it was a beautiful and breezy 72 degrees and overcast.

Today we spent the afternoon in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the oldest fully-preserved midieval city in Germany (circa 1400). Its city wall and towers are all intact and we ate lunch in a lovely little place dating back to 1576.

All the little towns along what’s called “The Romantic Road” are filled with window boxes overflowing with bright flowers and the countryside is dotted with beautiful green gardens and lush farms full of wheat and barley and corn. It’s a patchwork of farms that drape across the hilly countryside.

Tonight (we’re 7 hours ahead of Central time) we’ve just eaten dinner and are getting ready for an early night to bed. (Last night we all went to bed at 5:30 pm and slept until 5:30 am – getting over that jetlag!)

We’re in Fuessen, at the foothills of the Austrian Alps, and tomorrow we will trek up the mountain to see the magnificent Neuschwanstein castle built by King Ludwig II in 1886. Unfortunately, it’s going to be 50 degrees with an 80 percent chance of rain. Not ideal for mountain climbing in my book, but we’ve got jackets and umbrellas. It is the real-life castle after which the Disney princess castle was modeled and our daughter – 5-1/2 – is enthralled with anything to do with castles and royalty. I planned this especially for her.

Then it will be on Salzburg, Austria for 3 days, where I hope to be able to blog again some. There are some gardens on my list for our sightseeing there that I want to share with you.

Tschuss! (That’s “bye” in German)

Oh – P.S. We’re also here visiting all my family on my mother’s side, who is first generation German and moved to the States with my father and I when I was just a baby. This is our daughter’s third trip — we brought her over for the first time when she was 6 months old, so she’s a seasoned world traveler.