La Vida de los Hubers: Summer Vacation Part 3

6th Country: Germany

Neuschwanstein Castle in Fussen Germany

A fairly new castle, which inspired the Disneyland castle, is one of the most popular of all the palaces and castles in Europe. Each summer around 6,000 visitors a day take a 40 min + hike up to the castle and stream through rooms that were intended for a single inhabitant.

In 1864 at age 18 Ludwig II was king of Bavaria. After Bavaria lost a war and allied with Austria in 1866 he lost the rights to the army and, therefore, Ludwig II was no longer a sovereign ruler. This limitation was the biggest misfortune of his life. In 1867 he began planning his own kingdom, in the form of his castles and palaces, where he could be a real king. (This picture is taken of a poster they were selling on our hike up, but the only way to get a picture from this angle is from a helicopter or as a lead rock climber on the cliffs directly facing the castle.)

He wrote the following to a friend regarding his plan, "It is my intention to rebuild the old castle ruin of Hohenschwangau near the Pöllat Gorge in the authentic style of the old German knights' castles... the location is one of the most beautiful to be found, holy and unapproachable, a worthy temple for the divine friend who has brought salvation and true blessing to the world....this castle will be in every way more beautiful and habitable than Hohenschwangau further down, which is desecrated every year by the prose of my mother; they will take revenge, the desecrated gods, and come to live with Us on the lofty heights, breathing the air of heaven".

The "Marienbrücke", is an iron bridge built high above the Pöllat Gorge. It is said to have the best view of the castle for pictures. The bridge crosses the gorge with steep cliffs on both sides. Underneath runs a water fall from the surrounding mountains down into the valley. I wish I had gotten a picture of the people on the bridge, it was nearly impassible as it was packed with tourists and I kept imagining it falling with all the weight.

This is the side view of the castle from the bridge. Ludwig II finally was able to move into the castle in 1884 but it was short lived when he died in 1886 under strange/suspicious circumstances. The castle still remains incomplete. Seven weeks after the death of King Ludwig II, the castle was opened to the public.

Hohenschwangau Castle

We took this picture of Ludwig II's childhood home across the valley during our hike up to the Neuschwanstein castle. This castle was built in 1832 by his father Crown Prince Maximilian II of Bavaria.

*After the hike to and from the castle we made our drive toward our next stay in Arbon, Switzerland on Lake Konstance.

7th Country: Liechtenstein

We drove from Austria barely into Switzerland and then a few minutes down to the Liechtenstein border. The mountains to the right are Austrian and the ones on the left are Swiss. No, that is not snow in the river!

8th Country: Switzerland

Elsau, Switzerland

Brent's great (x 4) grandfather, John Jacob Huber, grew up in this town and attended this church before moving to Germany. After meeting and marrying his wife, who was LDS, they moved to Arizona in the 1800's.

Arbon, Switzerland

This town was quite small, and our Bed and Breakfast was just about in the middle of it so it was easy to walk to everything. It was the most expensive lodging, food ($6 hotdogs) and gas of our entire trip.

This small water park on the lake was a short walk from our Bed and Breakfast. We went here about an hour and 1/2 after this picture was taken at which time there were a lot less people. They had a diving board and high platforms that Mason even jumped from. The kids loved it because there was rarely a line for anything and they went down the slide, dove, jumped and flipped repeatedly. After about an hour and 1/2 an ominous cloud quickly headed toward the lake and immediately everyone was running for cover as the wind picked up and things began flying and the rains began to pour.

*We now head back to France to Gresy-Sur Aix for the next stay.

Bern, Switzerland

We pulled off the freeway to shop a little in Switzerland since Morgan had planned very early on while planning the trip to buy a Swiss Army knife. We followed the signs to the shopping district and came down a hill and saw this!

This is the old towne of Bern on the left of this picture, accessed by bridges. There was a fire that burned much of the older city in the 1400's and was re-built shortly after.