Travel Blog...

Bacharach is a small town in the valley on the Rhine River. It’s only 2 blocks wide! Records indicate it was first settled early in the 11th century. From here we made a few trips down the river to the adjoining towns.

We found a great pub/hotel in Bacharach for dinner. The food was excellent and the tableside activities were entertaining.

The first night we ate there a train went past about every 6 minutes! Apparently the windows in the buildings along the train line are 3 inches thick and some of the hotels supply guests with earplugs. Fortunately we were back from the train lines so it was fairly quiet.

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The Bacharach Peep Show… only if you’re over 18!

The next town down river from Bacharach is St Goar situated between mountains which rise on either side of the river. It is known for the legend of the Loreley, associated with the dangerous Loreley rocks which are a hazard to shipping. It is also famous for the ruined castle Burg Rheinfels.

While at the top of the castle we saw the car ferry which goes side to side perform a 180 degree turn with such speed it looked like it was out of control and would hit the bank. Unfortunately we weren’t quick enough with the video camera at the time.. but we got it later from a closer perspective.

Getting close to the end now… only Amsterdam to go.

This old town in Germany is the country’s best preserved medieval walled town. There is a wall surrounding it that was constructed in 1200’s. In the middle ages towns needed to protect themselves from raids and sieges, this wall worked very well for the people.

This guy dresses up as a night watchman and gives a walking tour in the evening. At least 100 people turned up for it! He must make a lot of money for one hour of work… Night watchmen were employed by the town until 1920 to watch over it for fires and raids while everyone slept.

After a lovely rail replacement bus ride through the solar panel filled country side we arrive in Munich. Catching trains and buses to get to our destinations was a great way to see the countries, I am glad we did it this way and didn’t catch planes unless we needed to.

Apparently the only incentives to do this is a 1% interest loan from the government and that the energy companies will buy your excess power for half the price you could buy it from them. And they weren’t just on hay sheds – businesses, shopping centres, schools and churches had them as well.

Anyway, we arrived in Munich to a massive crowd who gathered to welcome their football team Bayern Munich home after they had won the UEFA Champions League Final and the German Cup. Bayern only lost the UEFA Champions League Final. Apparently that’s a pretty good performance. It was a long weekend while we were there, and the city was having a huge party!

Not far from Munich is Dachau concentration camp. This camp served as a model for all later concentration camps and as a "school of violence" for the SS men under whose command it stood. It was a confronting place to visit. It is very important that no one ever forgets the atrocities that occurred in world war two.

Also in Munich is BMW headquarters and museum which covers all thing BMW.

It was interesting to see how BMW started out making aeroplane engines, then moved onto motorbikes and finally cars. There was rooms of engines with descriptions of the engineering improvements made between the models over the years. You could also listen to recordings of the engines being put through their paces. There were quite a few German men very engrossed and have some deep discussions (about the engines I assume) in these rooms.

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I thought this type of castle only belonged in fairy tails…

The picture above is of Neuschwanstein Castle in Fussen, Germany. King Ludwig II had the castle built in the 1800’s but he lived in it for less than a year before he died after being de-throned. Since then it has been open to the public. Had it been completed, the palace would have had more than 200 interior rooms, including premises for guests and servants as well as for service and logistics. No more than about 15 rooms (and an artificial cave) and halls were finished by the time work stopped. It was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle. The restoration scaffolding is slowly receding…

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Here are some pictures of the interior, we didn’t take these photos (no photos allowed inside). As you can see it was fairly elaborately decorated.

These seven stones were placed here for Fussen’s 700th birthday, it is meant to symbolize community. The small spinning floating rocks on top are apparently not connected and only spin with water pressure. If they weren’t connected I’m sure someone would’ve thought it was a good idea to knock the tops off by now. No water restrictions here either.

Salzburg, the home of Mozart, salt, Sound of Music and Red Bull.

After a small drama in locating where we were staying with the instructions provided:

Continue by public bus No. 1 or 2 to the Old Town then take bus No. 21 and head for HAMMERAUER STRASSE -Bloberger Hof.

Old Town is an area of the town which is not marked on any bus maps as well as seeming to indicate getting off at a bus stop called Bloberger Hof (which doesn’t exist and is actually the name of the place) in the direction of Hammeraurer Strasse. To confuse things a little more it was transcribed onto our instruction notebook as Bloberger Hbf. In German Hbf is an abbreviation for Hauptbahnhof which means train station (that also didn’t exist). The difference a single letter can make when asking locals for directions.. anyway after working it out we arrived at the lovely Bloberger Hof. Then went to check out the salt mines…

As Salzburg was once the capital of salt in Europe, these salt mines were the engine. They provided salt for hundreds of years to the entire continent and only until the modernization of salt production, mining, and shipping did these mines become obsolete.

The train ride into the mine was very narrow and took 5-10 minutes along tracks that haven't been replaced in a couple of hundred years. While I am sure it was all perfectly safe, the carnage of a derailment would be ugly. They urge the more vertically enabled members of the train to not sit up too tall as the ceiling is much closer that way.

The highlight of the tour was their method of getting the miners down into the mine without having to build elevators - long slides of polished wood. You form a kind of train, two or more people, with each person holding the legs of the person behind them. Once your train gets started there is not much else you can do, but hold on until you reach the bottom. Weeeeee!!

There was also a boat ride, in a cave. One of the later methods of salt mining was to create large water filled caverns which would slowly dissolve the rock, then the briny solution would be pumped out of the mine and the water evaporated. The ride only lasted a few minutes but it was definitely a unique experience, a boat ride 150 meters below the surface over pitch black water. Then after some rather pro-salt propaganda and a funicular ride it was back to the train for the ride out.

The next day we took a jet boat ride (as you do) up the river to Hellbrunn Palace.

Built in 1613-19 and named for the "clear spring" that supplied it. The palace is famous for its jeux d'eau ("watergames") in the grounds.

These games were conceived by Markus Sittikus as a series of practical jokes to be performed on guests. 

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Some of the smaller water features. The scenes with people in them sharpening knives, slaying dragons, flour mill and potter at work were mechanical and moved.

The Archbishop would entertain his guests on warm summer evenings. The guests would cool themselves with chilled wine from a trough in the center of the table. Later in the evening when the Archbishop wanted them to go home he would signal a servant who would release a shower of water from the middle of each seat — except the host’s. Because no one could rise until the Archbishop did they had to sit there and be soaked. Fortunately, the gathering and never-empty wine trough had everyone in a merry mood.

This short video was playing in the Birdsong Grotto and shows how it worked behind the scenes. You can hear the ‘birdsongs’ in the background. Remember this was made nearly 500 years ago…

This video I found shows it well. The crown weighs about 5 kilograms and is perfectly weighted to balance in the stream of water.

In 1748 the Archbishop at the time commissioned the construction of a Mechanical Theatre. The Mechanical Theatre with 141 moving figures depict scenes of life during that period accompanied by the sounds of a pipe organ playing the music of Mozart and other Austrian composers. All powered by water…

And if all of that wasn’t enough there was a zoo next door… I’m sure you know what a tiger looks like.

Back in Salzburg on Festungsberg Hill, Hohensalzburg Castle is is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe.

Construction of the fortress began in 1077. The castle was gradually expanded during the following centuries. The ring walls and towers were built in 1462. The only time that the fortress came under siege was in 1525, when a group of miners, farmers and townspeople tried to oust the Archbishop, but failed to take the castle.

Finally, Mirabell Gardens which is apparently (I haven't seen the movie) a location in Sound of Music.

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