Glückliches Neues Jahr!

"Glückliches neues Jahr!" means Happy New Year in German!

First of all I would like to say Happy Birthday to Laura! I miss you!

So on New Year's Day we went to a Medieval Town called Rothenburg Ob der Tauber.  We met my mom's old college roommate and her family there.  They were on vacation in Germany.

The town looked old and like a fairy tale town.

The first place we went was the Crime Museum.  At the Crime Museum they had lots of tools, cages, chairs, and other things used for torturing and punishing criminals.

 

My favorite things were the "shame masks" that they had.  According to the crime, the accused person would wear a certain mask for an appointed time while standing in the town square or in a parade.  Most of the masks were for gossiping, acting like a pig, or sticking your nose in other people's business.  (I'll let you guess which mask was for which crime.)

 

 

 

After the crime museum we went to a bakery to get "schneeballen" which are "snowballs" - they are pastry crusts rolled up into a ball, covered in something like powdered sugar, chocolate, cinnamon, etc.  There were a ton of flavors.

 

 

Then we climbed to the top of the clock tower at the Rathaus, which is the town hall.  This is me and Jenna (my mom's roommate's daughter.)

 

And my mom and her friend!

 

This is the view from the top of the tower.

 

We walked around the top of the city walls.  Most of the city walls I've been on (okay, which is only two other) were different, because this one had a roof on it all the way around.

 

We do not know what this is.  We think it is a vampire hamptser chicken jackelope...in a window.  Slightly disturbing...

 

It was a fun day!

 

 

Schloss

"Schloss" means "Castle" in German!

 

We went to the Neuschwanstein Castle this weekend.  If you think you have seen this castle before, then you probably haven't, you've just seen the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland, which was inspired by this castle.

 

 

We walked up to the top of a mountain to see the castle.  It took about 40 minutes from the village.

 

We waited for our tour to begin!

 

The little yellow castle you can see in the middle of the picture is called Hohenschwangau Castle and was built by the same person who built Neuschwanstein Castle, which was King Ludwig II of Bavaria.  (Also known as crazy King Ludwig).

 

The inside of the castle was very nice, but only half of the interior was finished because the King died before it was finished.  My favorite part was his bedroom because that was where the coolest furniture was and he had a door that looked like part of the wall.  And he had an artificial cave built into his house because he liked an Opera by Wagner that part of it takes place in a cave.  All the paintings in the castle were scenes of operas by Wagner.  (He was a little obsessed with Wagner's operas...in case you have not noticed.) 

 

Here is a cool waterfall by the castle.

 

Here is a closer shot of the Hohenschwangau Castle (the little yellow one).

 

Here is the castle from a distance at sunset.

 

 

Neuschwanstein Castle - smaller than I expected when I got up closer, but definitely bigger than the Sleeping Beauty Castle!