We flew home to Germany after a great visit to the U.S. and arrived in Frankfurt on December 31st. We wanted to be in Germany for New Year's Eve with its crazy, even dangerous fireworks being set off on every street corner. So, we watched a bit of TV, including some of Elvis' concert from Hawaii, till midnight. Then, the fireworks. We weren't disappointed. They were everywhere and lasted at least 1/2 hour.
Today, we made the American pilgrimage down to Füssen to see the famous castle Neuschwanstein. My German teacher had made the crack "Every American who comes to Germany has to see this castle, which is known to them through the Disney movies. It's not so important to Germans." (as if you see no one else there but Americans. That was hardly the case.) I added that
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang shares that claim, but no one seemed to know what I was talking about.
We were sure to pack hats, scarves, mittens and long underwear as temperatures in Frankfurt were well below freezing and we were going to be at the foot of the Alps. It was sure to be even colder there.
We chose to drive as there wasn't a fast train down to the city of Füssen,in Bavaria, but soon enough, ran into slow traffic, the result of busy ski vacationers, according to radio reports. We did enjoy listening to the last book of
The Series of Unfortunate Events. Lemony Snicket's books, read by Tim Curry, are fantastic. It's been so nice having the kids be old enough to listen to audiobooks on long car rides instead of needing to watch DVD after DVD to keep them from bugging us with "We're so bored!" and "How much longer to we have to drive?"
The highlight of the trip down was stopping at a large restaurant/gift shop building to use the bathroom. The line went almost out the door and as we discovered as we shuffled our way forward, went down some stairs and wound around a hallway. There were probably 100 people in front of us. We would have a bit of a wait. I saw an older women (who should have known better) come out of the gift shop, look up and down the bathroom line and then cut in line -- in between David, the kids and me.
Whenever this happens to me -- usually at the meat counter at the grocery store -- I just let it go because it's not worth my trouble to try to argue with someone about my place in line. Plus, they're usually older woman who would no doubt feel that I had no respect. This time, however, my husband who was in the back of our group piped up in German and then English with, "Don't you want to go stand in the back of the line like every one else had to?" She just ignored him with a smug expression and he said a few more thing that probably made her nervous, because she then tried to get in front of me. No can do, lady! I stuck out my elbow so that she couldn't and ignored her pressing against me. When we hit the stairs, I continued to block her and then started ushering my family in front of me, so that at least she would have to be behind all of us. At that point, she had the gall to be outraged and as James tried to pass her, she blocked him. I reached my arm out to grab him and she batted my arm away. Wrong move, lady. She unleashed the beast.
In very bad, broken German, I yelled, "That's
my son! I have
four kids, little kids who need to use the bathroom! All of these people have been waiting and you just come into the line like this!" And then the coup de grâce, I finished with "Shame on you!" With a dramatic flourish, I grabbed a hold of a wide-eyed James and yanked him to me. Then I gave her my best imitation of the German Glare.
Our children didn't quite understand what was happening and were mortified that their parents were yelling at some lady. We explained what had happened, but they were still mortified.
And, I must admit that my "Shame on you!" did not come out quite that way. I said instead "Too bad, too bad!" (too many words in German begin with "sch", I got mixed up between
schade and
schande), but I'm sure she understood my meaning. The kids won't let me forget it and have been teasing me about that ever since, and the expression "Schade, schade!" has become a Nylundism.
The whole standing in line thing is fascinating. I'm sure many studies have been done about how different cultures handle queuing. For Americans and the British, it's so basic. You stand in line like everyone else and wait your turn. It's fair and it works. How could anything else be acceptable? Germans are usually OK with waiting their turn, but you hear stories about people getting elbowed out of the way by old ladies in the line at the bakery.
We expected the worst at Disneyland Paris as we had read about the French habit of cutting in line. What we noticed instead was how a group of about 20 people from a certain European country that shall remain nameless (except that it was
not France) handled queuing. The group would send the 8 or so adults out to different lines to wait, then when the rest of the group (mostly kids) finished with one attraction, they would join the adult who was nearest the front of the line at another attraction. This was all being coordinated with the aid of cell phones. I cannot tell you how disheartening it was to be standing in line for 20 minutes (truthfully, the lines were not nearly as bad as at Disneyworld Orlando, but that's beside the point) and then have 12 kids giggle and push their way to the front of the line where an adult was waiting for them. They weren't breaking any rules, but by the 5th or 6th time of seeing that, we felt like yelling, "Hey! That's not fair!"
Another time at Disneyland Paris, I patiently waited my turn to buy a drink at a beverage stand. When I got to the front of the line I opened my mouth to speak and the guy behind me reached over my shoulder, waved around some bills and shouted out his order. I held my hand above his, looked the lady working there in the eye and said, and it helped, I think, that I spoke French, "
I'm next. I'd like 2 bottles of water, please." And she took my order first.
We finally arrived in Füssen and were looking forward to stretching our legs, doing some souvenir shopping and having dinner. When we got to the touristy pedestrian zone, it was dark, we couldn't get a good view of the town, all the stores were closed and the area was pretty much deserted. It was 5:30 on a Saturday night, and, according to the radio, the place should have been crawling with skiers on holiday!
This is what we would have seen if we had arrived earlier as planned. The restaurants were open, thank God, and we got a bite to eat before we all kind of looked at each other, shrugged and said, "Well, we might as well go to the hotel."
Our hotel was in Schwangau, where the castle is and from Füssen took a whopping 5 minutes to get there. Bummer. It was still early, so what were we going to do for the rest of the evening?
We checked into our hotel (see above; now, imagine it completely white with snow) and were pleased that for the first time (and no doubt the last) we were able to fit everyone in one room. We spent the evening watching a few documentaries on ABBA (the Swedish singing group who sung and gave interviews in English, but their interviews were then dubbed into German-- Schade, schade!) and planning our sightseeing day tomorrow.
This was the view of Neuschwanstein Castle (actually, the back of Neuschwanstein Castle) as taken from our hotel balcony by James first thing this morning.
Our first visit was to Hohenschwangau Castle (Castle of the High Swan County) built in the 19th century. It was constructed on the remains of the fortress Schwanstein, which was built by a family of knights sometime before the 12th century. After the demise of the knights in the 16th century, the fortress changed hands several times and then fell into decay and eventual ruin at the beginning of the 19th century. In 1833, reconstruction of the Castle began by its new owner, the future King Maximilian II of Bavaria.
It was a 15 minute climb up to the castle, with beautiful views of the Alps in the distance. 
Some photos taken in the courtyard, waiting for our tour.
The wall above the gift shop
A view from the courtyard
Once inside the castle, we were informed that we were not allowed to take any photos. Here are just a few photos from the castle's website. This is the "Hall of Heroes and Knights."
The Queen's writing room
The bedroom of King Maximilian II and then of his son King Ludwig II. Much of the castle was decorated in the gothic style with countless frescoes on the walls depicting heroic German sagas. These paintings, along with Richard Wagner's dramatic operas, fed the young Ludwig's fantasy-filled imagination.
We were allowed, however, to take pictures through the castle windows. Here is a view from a Hohenschwangau window of Neuschwanstein Castle located just across the valley (click on the photo to get a better view). King Ludwig II wanted to build a retreat in the authentic style of the old German knights' castles and as an homage to Richard Wagner, his inspiring muse.
Knights bidding us good day as we left the castle.
