Moving on...to Amsterdam!

After visiting Germany, we traveled up to the Netherlands, also known as Holland. We spent a day in the capital city of Amsterdam and got to see where Anne Frank lived when her family was in hiding. That was very neat to see.

Amsterdam is an interesting city. Now if it isn't confusing enough that the country has two names, people who are from Holland (or the Netherlands) are called Dutch. The Dutch, in olden days, were great sailors and masters of the sea. 

Amsterdam is a city of canals. Because it used to be a very important shipping port, there are canals all throughout the city. They are all connected by tunnels and bridges.  We were lucky enough to get to take a boat tour of Amsterdam.

Every single house has one of these funny hooks at the very top. You see, the doorways and staircases are very, very narrow.  Whenever anyone moves into a different house, they use these hooks, called "furniture hooks" to move the furniture out through the windows! I'm sure you've seen cartoons or movies where they lift a piano this way and it falls to the ground...I don't want to know how many smashed pianos there have been in Amsterdam.

Because this is a city of canals, a lot of people have houseboats. There are apparently two kinds:  legal and illegal. You know a houseboat is legal if it has running water and electricity, which can only be obtained by registering your houseboat with the city. If you don't do that, you don't get plumbing or electricity, and therefore, it is illegal for you to be living on the canal.

The other type of transportation you see a lot in Amsterdam is bicycles. There were literally bicycles everywhere. At the train station, there was a separate parking garage...for bicycles.

Fun fact:  the Dutch were the first to settle in what is now the state of New York. Before the English took over, New York City was called New Amsterdam, and New York the colony was called New Holland. Neat, huh?

Another Castle Visit

I have already shown you one castle--Bodiam Castle, which is now mostly ruins and was built hundreds and hundreds of years ago.  I thought I would show you a more modern version of a European castle.

This is Neuschwanstein Castle in Fussen, Germany, which was built by King Ludwig II starting in 1869.  Ludwig was called the "Fairy Tale King", and when we look at Neuschwanstein, it is easy to see why.  You might recognize it--the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland was modeled after Neuschwanstein.

Ludwig II loved Richard Wagner, who was a composer. Wagner wrote many operas, and Ludwig had decided to make Neuschwanstein a monument to that.  All the paintings and tapestries show scenes from these operas. You cannot take pictures of the inside, so you will just get to see lots of pictures of the outside as I tell you more about Ludwig and his beloved Neuschwanstein.

Ludwig was king of Bavaria, which is an area of Germany in the south.  He loved this land--it is easy to see why! Neuschwanstein is nestled in the Bavarian Alps.  This was one of four castles Ludwig had planned. The first two had already been built, and the fourth was never built.  Why, you ask?

Simple:  a band of people in the government didn't like Ludwig.  They did some tests on him and had him declared insane (there is dispute today as to whether or not those tests were faked, the doctors given false information, etc.).  When you are insane, you cannot be king, and so they forced Ludwig to step down. This is where the name "Mad King Ludwig" came about, by which he is sometimes called.  

So the government made Ludwig move out of his beloved Neuschwanstein, where he had only lived for 172 days. The very next day, Ludwig was found dead. He had drowned mysteriously in a lake with his psychiatrist. There are a lot of theories as to how he died (was it suicide or murder?), but to this day, no one knows for sure. Immediately following his death, all construction on his castles stopped. Neuschwanstein is unfinished to this day--the third floor has never been complete. And the fourth castle he commissioned was scrapped, never to be built.

Only 6 weeks after his death, Neuschwanstein was opened for visitors.  Despite the claims that he was "mad," the Bavarians loved their king.  There are monuments up for him everywhere. The people of Bavaria will never let the memory of their "Fairy Tale King" die.

The Hills are Alive...in Salzburg!

Today we have another day off of school! It is a bank holiday...don't really know what that means, but schools and banks are closed. I thought I would continue with our trip.

After we left Italy, we went up to Austria. This entire day was like a dream come true for me.  You see, my favorite movie ever is The Sound of Music. When I was in high school, we did the play and I got to be Maria. I've always wanted to go to Salzburg (where the movie was filmed, home to the real von Trapp family).

This is the hedge tunnel. If you haven't seen the movie, just bear with me.  If you have seen the movie, you will know that this is where the children are riding bicycles and singing "Do-Re-Mi."

We also saw Residenzplatz which is a big plaza area with a horse fountain.  In the movie, Maria crosses this plaza singing a song.  A little known movie-fact:  in the background of that scene, you can see the real Maria von Trapp as an extra!

Another place we went was Nonnberg Abbey, which is the place where Maria is training to be a nun before going to the von Trapp home.  We couldn't go in, but we could see the gate...and this amazing view of Salzburg!

The Festival Hall was also off-limits, as it is used today for concerts and such things. But I was able to get some nice pictures from the outside. I had to just imagine the stage where the family sings "Edelweiss," though.

Our final stop was the Hellbrun estate, which houses the pavilion from the "Sixteen going on Seventeen" scene.  As we walked to the estate, we saw such beautiful scenery!

I could have stayed in Austria the entire time...but I don't think my family would have liked it if I didn't come home!