I Heart Zurich

I love Zurich. It is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen at night. When I think of Zurich, it will always conjure up warm memories for me.







As I was taking pictures, there was live music playing from downriver. It was that song, "There she goes just a walking down the street, singing 'Do wa dee dee dee dee dum dee dee do'". I burst out laughing. What are the chances you'd be hearing a song like that in Zurich? It was such an odd musical backdrop to have as you're trying to capture and soak in the grandeur of the city.

It was very peaceful and serene.














We were in Zurich to hear Bryan's cousin sing with an accapella ensemble. The concert was held in this church.













It was beautiful inside the church. I loved the high ceiling and the stone walls. It had a very midevil feel to it. When the ensemble sang, it was so ethereal.





I took a short video of one of the songs. It's a rough recording, but it will give you somewhat of an idea of what it was like.



Afterwards, we were invited for dinner at an Italian restaurant. I ordered my food in German! Wahoo. Everyone was so warm and friendly. Even though I knew very little German and their English wasn't that good, we still had great conversations. I was talking with this older woman who was telling me that she moved out of her house of 34 years and now lives in the mountains. She talked about how change can be difficult and how hard it was on her, but that she was glad for it and that change was good. She talked about how I was young and that there would be big decisions in life to make that bring changes, but it's good because change can bring growth and life.
"Life happens where you're at. " She said. "Live."

It was profound for me. I was moved and felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude...just thankful to be alive, to be living, to be experiencing things and have these unanticipated moments happen like bursts of sunshine through the clouds, bringing simple joys.

Dinner wound down quickly and time passed on. We said our goodbyes just outside the restaurant door...a normal thing to do, but I just kept thinking "I'm in Zurich!"
Since it was late and there was still an hour's drive to go....and since there was a Starbucks just one block away....Bryan and I went and got some Caramel Machiatto's. Best Caramel Machiatto I've ever had! (and I've had a lot of 'em).

Bob Marley's 'Redemption Songs' was playing quietly in the back ground:

"Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have
Redemption songs."


I guess it struck me because the evening felt redemptive somehow. I just can't articulate why.

Before we left the city I took another short video to capture everything:




"Life happens where you're at. Live."

Dream

When I was 16, I came across a large poster of Neuschwanstein Castle at a store and ended up buying it. I hung it up in my room. I used to stare at it, wishing and dreaming that one day I'd go there. Even when I moved to Portland, I took it with me and presently, it remains folded up under my bed. To be here now and to finally see the castle with my own eyes, after all the years of having the poster...I can't tell you how much it means to me.

Standing on the bridge, staring at it...it was like a dream.

Only, it was real.

:)

And that is the best part.

Bridge of Illegals

Continuing with my adventure at Neuschwanstein castle...

While we were taking a tour of the castle, we came to a window with the following view:

The question was, "How do we get over there?"

And we wondered, "Can we get there before we lose our light?" The sun had just set.

When the tour ended so abruptly, we decided we were going to find a way to get to that bridge. After reaching the outside, we noticed that access to the bridge had been fenced off with a huge DO NOT ENTER sign on the front of it. People were standing around and we debated what we should do. Eventually, we all came to the same conclusion: You only live once. So we decided we were going to scaled the fence. At first, nobody moved.

Finally I was like, "Well somebody's got to do it."

And so I scaled the fence....kind of. I had trouble getting up and nearly fell down, which resulted in some immediate assistance. I may be a rebel, but I'm a clumsy one!

After all of us were over the fence, we immediately started running like a bunch of juveniles, laughing and looking back at our amazing triumph. What an adrenaline rush. I scoff at danger! (and by danger, I mean DO NOT ENTER signs.) And just like juveniles, we did not stop to think about capturing our amazing feat by way of the camera.

After we rounded the bend and were concealed from everyone's view, we came to the back part of the castle. I took this pic:

Feeling pretty good about ourselves, we continued our hike to the bridge and then soon noticed that there were other illegals just like us that joined the rebel force. Apparently, there's another way to get to the bridge that we were unaware of. heh. :)

The light began to fade and the fog began its slow creep. We were unsure if we'd make it there in time to get some good pictures. As we neared the bridge, we came across piles of snow....which then resulted in an impromptu snowball fight...meaning, I just ran with another rebel as my evil comrades gathered snow. Her and I escaped being pelted by snowballs and as we reached the bridge, we thought we were home free since there were a bunch of other fellow rebels around us. Mistakenly, I looked back as I was running and then proceeded to lose my balance, slip and went down hard.

Of course this would happen to me. It was painfully funny. Laughter ensued and then the pain took over. I had skinned and cut my hands and bruised my ars. But no pain, no gain, right?

We had made it to the bridge, though! Mission accomplished! And the view was awesome! It was so worth it. Here are a couple pics:

The view.

Me with a fellow rebel and my partner in crime.

King of the world.

The Rebels and their Evil Comrades

You should of seen what the photographer was doing to make us laugh.

"Schön." as the Germans and Swiss say....

which means beautiful.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Before the cold and the fog crept in, it was a gorgeous clear fall day. I took this pic as we hiked our way up to the top. Disneyland's model of this is such a rip off! The real thing is quite something to behold.

As you reach the castle, the view from there is beautiful.

This is the very front of the castle.

As you enter, this is what you see.

I wish I would've had a little bit more time to spend taking some pictures of the outside, but our tour was just starting and we had to hurry. You can't view the inside of the castle unless you're with your assigned tour group.

After you enter and you turn around, this is what you see.

Here's the castle wall. Once again, I really wish I could've spent more time taking pics!

Yet again, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but were told we could take pictures from the windows. Here's a shot from the window. Inside, the details and the intricacies were astounding. In the king's bedroom, he had a four post wooden bed and a wooden chair that was so detailed, it took 4 carvers 2 years just to complete it!

Another shot from the window.

A statue just outside one of the windows.

The view just to the left of the statue. Can you imagine waking up to this every morning? Craziness!

The tour ended and it was so short! We didn't even get to see 1/3 of it. In silent protest, I snapped a quick pick of this ballroom area inside. It's blurry because I didn't use the flash or have much time. Yes, I'm a rebel. But when I looked around, I noticed a couple other fellow rebels as well. I concealed my camera and moved quickly. A couple minutes later, I heard a tour guide shouting at people to put away their cameras and how disrespectful it was for them to have them out. heh. I escaped that. I'm quick like a ninja.

A sunset view.

This is all, for now.

I will post more later.

Hohenschwangau Castle

A brief history:

Hohenschwangau was the official summer and hunting residence of King Maxmillian II of Bavaria, his wife Marie of Prussia and their two sons Otto and Ludwig (the later King Ludwig II of Bavaria) The famous Martin Luther visited this castle before he nailed a list of the 95 Theses to a church door in protest to some of the Catholic church's practices.

Later on, when Ludwig was made king, he stayed in this castle as he was having the famous Neuschwanstein castle built.

I took a tour of this and it was pretty awesome. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, which was unfortunate. The details of the paintings, ceilings and furniture were amazing. They had a billiard table in there the was made in 1886. It was very cool.

One of the many fountains.

From Hohenschwangau, you can see a view of Neuschwanstein Castle.

There was so much to see here and so many pictures to take. I've tried to narrow it down to just a few because I don't want to inundate you.

Another great view.

After the tour and taking a ton of pictures, we began our hike up to the Neuschwanstein castle.

One thing I loved about coming here was that there was such a great diversity of people here. We passed a group of nuns who were eating bavarian pretzels. It was an amusing sight.

And now on to Neuschwanstein....

Cross Country

Roadtrip time again! A couple of us decided to go see the castle in which Disneyland's castle was modeled after. It's approximately a 4 hour drive. And so the story begins:

Welcome to Austria.

What well known figure is from Austria? Why Mr. Schwartzeneger, of course.
(sorry for the lopsided video again)

We got pulled over by the Austrian police for speeding. heh.

Every moment is kodak moment.

We actually got off pretty easily with only a $35 fine. Unfortunately, we were told that we couldn't drive on the main Austrian highway and would have to take the side roads until we reached Germany. Since we didn't know exactly where we were going, you could say that we took the scenic route.

The Austrian countryside through a window.

Welcome to Germany...through a window.

We really didn't have a whole lot of time to stop at all if we wanted to have enough time to view the castles.

Destination in sight. Almost there.

On our way.

This was a hunting house back in the day.

Since I have so many different pics of the castles, I'll do separate posts for each of them.

Little Does She Know

I decided to do a little self documentary with my camera before my little excursion. I cannot believe how unsuspecting I am!

Walking into town is one thing...but driving is a completely different other thing! Try to imagine driving a stick shift by yourself in a winding road city, with extremely narrow streets, without really knowing where you're going....and welcome to my day.
I needed to go get some groceries, go to the post office and stop at a technology store. All I have to say is that I am REALLY happy I went exploring a couple days ago, otherwise I would've been dead in the water.

Even though I had a map, I still took a wrong turn and got lost. I ended up on the other side of town near an elementary school. When I couldn't go any further, I had to turn around...which blocked oncoming traffic. In my hurried state, I nearly ran over some school children which resulted in angry parents shooting daggers with their eyes, boring holes in my head. I got out of there as quick as I can. Finally, I made it to the city center. Unfortunately, when I reached where I was supposed to park, there were no available spaces....which sent me hunting for ones through the narrow streets. I parked and then realized I had to pay and naturally, I didn't have any change on me. Noticing a small corner store, I went in to buy a chocolate bar and got some change. I then paid for parking, but unknowingly paid for the wrong spot.

Grocery shopping took me a while since I was shopping for a big brunch meeting. Everything here comes in smaller portions and it's much more expensive! Bacon was nearly $8! I had no idea how to differentiate between the different types of cheese, so I eenie, meenie, monnie, mo'd it and just took a couple. When you check out at the cashier, you're responsible for bagging your own items in these really small plastic bags. I had a ton of stuff. If you want bigger bags, you have to pay for them! And I had no idea about that. As I was bagging, the cilantro I purchased fell out of it's packaging and went all over the floor. So I'm gathering that and all the while, have six other people behind me who are trying to purchase items. They were getting a bit annoyed but were also amused with how much I was trying to stuff in these little tiny plastic bags. When I finally left there, I was carrying 10 bags of stuff and my circulation was completely cut off by the time I got to the car. Since I had to go a couple more errands to run, I put more change in the parking meter...for the wrong spot AGAIN! (sigh)

After making a quick stop to the technology store, I had to go to the post office to mail off my postcards. That took a while and the lady there wasn't very friendly or helpful. Hopefully my postcards will make it to the U.S. ok. I do have to say that I have a new respect and compassion for people who live in the U.S. and their first language is not English. It isn't easy at all being in a country that doesn't speak your own native tongue as their first language. It's been a pretty humbling experience and I've had to learn to rely on the kindness of people. Most people have been pretty helpful, but there have been others who've been rude and given me attitude about it. So next time, when the tables are turned, I'll be sure to remember kindness first.

When I made it back to the car, I checked the time on the meter and then realized I had been paying for the wrong spot. Luckily, I never got a ticket.

Getting into the car, I then figured my way out of the city center and was on my way home. There are some pretty crazy drivers around here and naturally, my road rage kicked in and I raised my voice with a few choice words for some individuals. They were asking for it! Honestly!

Finally, I made it home....all in one piece and my wavering sanity was completely restored.

I did it. Wahoo.

Baden

Last night, I got to see my first castle! We went to Baden, Switzerland...which is about 45 minutes away from Liestal. After hiking up for about 20 minutes, this is what I saw:

From what I could tell, the name of this castle is 'Stein' which means stone.

I'm sure this would be great to view during the day, but it was pretty spectacular to view in the evening.

There was hardly anyone around. It felt a bit haunting.

A picture of me in the doorway. The blur adds to it....at least that's what I tell myself.

A view of the castle wall and stairs without me in the way.

Once you start descending the castle stairs, it leads into a little village area with narrow alleys and cobblestone walkways. It was so cool! These pictures hardly do it justice. Wish you could see it for yourself.

Afterwards, I ate at a very modern bar/restaurant called 'Paparazzi'. I found the name to be quite amusing. Inside, they have a wall full of pictures of different celebrities that were obviously taken by the paparazzi. I saw Clooney!

The food was great. I haven't had chicken since I've been here, so I had some. I also tried this special chocolatey drink that had a hint of orange and cinammon to it. It had the same consistency as pudding, but it wasn't quite as thick. IT WAS SO GOOD!