2000 Schwangau

Sat 2000-09-02 {16945}
Off to Schwangau. Taxi arr 09h, Peugeot 806. To LHR T2 in 1h. Pint at Wetherspoons before Lufthansa LH4955 to Munich (Airbus A320-200, full). \theta's back OK with pills and care. Hire car (National Alamo) is a Ford Ka (1339km), a cute little black thing. Have to fold the rear seats to get the luggage in, & seats right back for leg room, but otherwise OK, & it has A/C but radio is VHF only. About 2h to get to Schwangau, a mixture of autobahn and other roads [A92-A99-A8-471-A96-17]. GPS fine on external antenna, and my est of Schwangau was about 2.4km out for actual hotel position (which is N47d34.41m E10d43.34m, about 800m alt, on WGS84). Hotel Rübezahl is as expected, alpine, flowery. Can see Schloss Hohenschwangau from the balcony, and might, if lean out, see Neuschwanstein as well. Arr at hotel 18h(+2), quick wash and change & to dinner (which is 18h->20h for included 1/2 board). Huge and rich meal. Reserved table with our name on. On same table another couple from Edinburgh, who have driven over (there's a GB N-reg Omega V6 in the car park). Short walk after dinner in the gathering dark, looking at the castles lit up against the mountains. Sort of one-sided, mountains on one side, but Schwangau seems to be flat, & flat away to the other side. \theta drove today. Orange delivering reports of the test match OK. Room nice, shower only, but all other facilities & hotel seems friendly. Briefly to bar after the walk; only us there. Bright sunny day for the drive, rain later. Others also found the hotel on the web, though they booked by phone and fax rather than e-mail. A bus on the M1 with numberplate W31.COM.
Sun 2000-09-03 {16946}
Rain most of the day. Start with a drive around Forggensee (which is artificial), clockwise, with stops for pix at various points, then for a walk by the See, by the road just N of Schwangau (Brunnen). On from there back anti-clockwise, with more stops for pix of scenery and at a hydro-electric plant at the N end of the lake. Lunch in a small family cafe in Roßhaupten, mine an "Asia" chicken stir-fry with rice. A little sunshine during lunch. Then more exploring in the rain by car, & failed to stop in Füssen, as still wet. Back to hotel. Later it stopped, & \phi for walk to far end of Schwangau & back. Found after this that I'd mislaid the car keys, so out for most of the way again looking for them till \theta found them in the car door. Eve another excellent too-large dinner. Salad - leek soup with dumpling - guinea-hen - vanilla parfait with advocaat sauce & cake.
Mon 2000-09-04 {16947}
Eng won the final test, & the series 3-1, winning a series against WI for the first time since 1969 (E 281 & 217, WI 125 & 215 - so margin 158 runs). Orange inform me of this. Rain most of the day. First, to the Spar supermarket in Schwangau, for beer, water, fruit, cheese &c, + 2 umbrellas. Petrol here as well (wrong stuff, put in 91 octane ("unleaded") instead of 95 ("super" = our lowest grade)). 21.55l = 43.94DEM = 22.47eur (2.03DEM/l, approx 68p/l). Credit cards seem reasonably widely accepted for fuel. Then drive around in the car, around the hydro 2 lakes up (nr Urspring) and several times through Bernbeuren to get to Auerberg (1055m), a steep road up to a small mountain with a church, a cafe & a good view (of clouds with the odd bright patch flitting over the landscape). Very alpine in style of houses and country, but smaller mountains here. Then to Füssen & a walk round, partly in rain. Parked in underground multi-layer park for 1DEM. \theta bought a warm jacket in Woolworths (Visa) & \phi bought a map (1:50000, but not Gov't). Then back to hotel. Rain lessened a bit, then \phi walk back to Füssen on paths, over the dam that feeds water into Forggensee, which was a busy route despite the rain, with locals shopping as well as tourists. Bought an analogue DCF-77 clock in Woolworth's (only 30DEM, ~10L) & walk back. Later \theta & \phi walk to lake from hotel & back via paths. With a light lunch and lots of walking, dinner was easier tonight. Even plastic bottles of mineral water have a deposit on them over here. More UK regs tonight: a Fiesta with Cymru stickers and a T-reg Merc. An American voice heard in the restaurant as well. The bar seems always to be deserted, though you can get served there, so a supermarket beer in the room after dinner & reading. It's raining again this eve. Cows clanging out to pasture from the farm next door at 8h, clanging back at 17h30.
Tue 2000-09-05 {16948}
Hotel is at ~800m. Only intermittent rain today, with very occasional sunshine. To the Schlosses. To see Neuschwanstein you have to at least pay for both. Q for ticket (26DEM ea) then short wait for horse carriage up to Hohenschwangau (6DEM ea). Wait here for our tour number to appear on the LEDs, then go and Q in the lane for our tour (140, 11h20). This is an English tour, also with some French people & Japanese as well as the usual run of Americans. Eventually shown around some of the rooms by a smartly-dressed \mars guide (German with good English and idiomatic jokes). About 40min tour. Very small rooms, & a bit basic, but this one used mainly as a summer hunting residence. Then walk down from here & Q for a bus up to Neu- (5DEM return). Very tight and windy road that the small buses just negotiate, rather faster than I would have gone. At the top, still a walk to the entrance, & to Q for our tour to be called (465, 13h25), & Q again in the appropriate lane. This is a much more impressive place, though only 1/3 finished before Ludwig died or was murdered. Big rooms, very elaborately decorated with paintings, mosaics, carvings. The guide here a young \venus in jeans (no complaint about that) but she thought she was to do a German language tour and one got the impression that her English was not as polished as the guide at Hohen-. The walk back to the bus stop was steeply up (~130 steps, up and down, in the schloss as well), which \theta's legs just managed. All in all about 5 hours from car-park to car-park (7DEM here as well) for about 1+1/2h looking at the insides of the buildings. But a trip well worth it. Then drive to a scenic spot for lunch, then \phi driving the Ka for the first time around villages to W of Forggensee. It's a 1.3, decently lively, but it's bigger than it seems when you get near a kerb. What do [DIAGRAM] [yellow circular disk, split up the middle, left side with up and down arrows and a lower number, eg 50, right side with up arrow only and a higher number, eg 100] these signs mean? (They're usually at bridges, even tiny ones, and sometimes have extra symbols such as lorries or tanks at the top.) Meal in hotel a little less grand than ave, I thought, though probably that was just my choice.
Wed 2000-09-06 {16949}
Sunshine at breakfast, & still sunny as we go into Austria & along by Plansee and the scenic route thro' the mountains to Linderhof. Stopped here to look at another of Ludwig's castles, this one more modest than Neuschwanstein, easier to get to, and finished. Again very ornate, though this one lived in for long periods. He was so eccentric that he had a device to send his food up on an elevating table so that the servants didn't have to see him. Guide here another young \venus, quite good. Same programmed times, but much less waiting. Also saw the Venus grotto, an artificial cave constructed within a pit and covering building, build for Ludwig to imagine himself in one of Wagner's operas. Then on the rest of the circular tour, past Oberammergau. Stop for a while by the N end of Forggensee watching the weather, which by then was dull and sometimes wet. The sun lasted long enough for the spectacular scenery in Austria & the gilded fountains in the grounds of Linderhof, but no longer. Aft a walk (both) most of the way to Füssen, then back to watch the cows come in, & eve to the "candlelit dinner", much the same as other nights except the oil lamp became a candle, no choice on the menu, & 35DEM extra. This because the normal restaurant is closed on Wed. By late eve - it's still raining.
Thu 2000-09-07 {16950}
Lots of rain & high wind during the night. Dull this morning as well, & so all day except for one or two short bright intervals. Little rain though. First to see Lechfalls, on road out towards Austria, & then a drive in a loop partly through Austria via Pfronten. Walk on the shore of Weißensee, then \theta dropped me to explore the full path from Füssen centre to hotel. Unfortunately, I had the hotel key, so \theta waited in the car until I got there. Later a walk thro' Schwangau to post cards. As so dull, rest of aft in reading.
Fri 2000-09-08 {16951}
[Hotel UTM 32T 0629532e 5270328n, pretty spot by stream 0646092e 5269761n, both on WGS84] Clear, sunny and hot all day. First to the cable-car (Tegelbergbahn) in Schwangau, but cars so crowded that we decided not to go up. On to Schongau, where spend a couple of hours looking around the old, walled town. Can't walk all round on the walls, but can round outside, & followed a trail recommended by the tourist info, around the town and walls. Then on to Rottenbuch & the amazingly ornate church, probably more breathtaking than the castles. Then a drive. Then back via the scenic route past Linderhof & through Austria & Plansee, stopping at several places to enjoy the scenery (e-mail sent from above co-ordinates). Then on to Füssen, looked inside the ornate church there, & enjoyed some peace in the Baumgarten beyond. Then back to the hotel, a last ample dinner, and pack. Still clear & warm, which has brought out lots of flies (what to expect, living next to a cowshed?). Bought another 1:50000 map, this one with UTM grid on WGS84 datum for use with GPS - agrees well with the Garmin (co-ords above). (Ass WGS84 = ETRS 89, as I believe it does - check.) A good day, dispelling the gloom of the last few. [Petrol 20.87l of the right stuff ("super", 95 octane), 44.43DEM (22.72eur) = 2.13DEM/l ~ 71p/l]
Sat 2000-09-09 {16952}
Up at 07h(+2), and it's another clear day, with a hint of early mist around the mountains. Into breakfast as it starts (08h(+2)), and just cross with the others, who are staying another week. Bill paid (~1400DEM on top of the 300DEM dep, my Visa) and tip stuffed into the green piggy bank. \theta drove the Ka back to Munich airport, in the reverse to the way out, in about 2h20m, in, by then, hot sunshine. Apart from being stuck behind a tanker at 75km/h for about half of the 17, a good trip. Hire car just dropped off in the car park (at 2285km, total 946km). Estimate we used about 65l, so 6.9l/100km or 41mi/UKgall. Then the problems started. Flights seemed to be getting later taking off, and sure enough ours was moved from gate to gate, and delayed in stages, until we finally got off about 90min late, at 14h30(+2). This got us to LHR at about 15h(+1), and through quickly, and the taxi driver was there, but then jams on the M25, and worse on the M1 from J11 to J12 where we came off to go via A5 (the reports said the jams went up to J13). Home at about 17h30, when \theta shot off to get the cats, just before the cattery closed at 18h, and \phi to Safeway for enough food for breakfast tomorrow. Dropped a bottle of Hobgoblin onto the floor at the checkout, it didn't break, but fizzed up and leaked out through the cap. They gave me another bottle. Chinese for tea. Last night of the Proms. Flight was LH4564, a Boeing 737, full. Flight delays were attributed to failure of German air traffic control radar. The DCF analogue clock works OK in UK. Taxi cost 50L each way. Taxi had no traffic info system. 1740 (RAC trafficmaster) on Orange gave good info.