Yesterday we arrived back from a ten day Easter trip around what is known at the 'Romantic Road.' This includes a number of historic towns such as Dinkelbuhl, Rothenburg and Augsburg. We also went to Fussen so we could visit Castle Neuschwanstein as Mads has been bitterly disappointed by the broken-down, crumbly castles we've dragged her to so far. No kid could argue with the castley-ness of Neuschwanstein. You can see it behind our heads in the photo above. I'm not quite sure why Mads and I are pulling those faces. I think perhaps Mads is yawning. And maybe mine was meant to mean 'You really think I'm going to get this kid to walk up there?' Or maybe it's a hangover from when I travelled around Europe with Shell. She often used to convince me to copy the expressions of statues or monuments we saw, then she'd take a photo. So maybe I just don't feel right unless I'm doing something dumb in a picture.
As we headed home yesterday Thieu said 'I don't ever want to see another historical town again.' And I had to agree with him. Once you've walked around one for a while and gone 'isn't it quaint?' and 'aren't the doors low?' a few hundred times you start getting bored. So then you have a bad coffee served to you by a grumpy-looking woman in a dirndl. And you stare at wrought-iron pot-plant holders shaped like cats or dogs with springs for necks in the shops and wonder, both silently and aloud about who would ever buy such a thing. Especially in a historical town. Then you wander past a torture museums and insist that your family pose for a photograph, even though there's no way you're going in. Because why should you be the only one photographically humiliated for posterity? I told them to pull 'baddie' faces for the shot below. Mads, as you can see, took this direction very seriously. It looks like her face is imploding from the badness, don't you think?
I had a shocking schnupfen for most of the time too, so although it was nice to have a holiday, it was very very nice to return home. It was especially nice to see these appearing everywhere:
Thank God.
It took me ages to work out the helpful German translator link because all the instructions are in German! But I'm thrilled I've learnt my first German word since Year Nine high school where we used to think it was hysterical to call each other shiezenhausen (sp?) which I'm not even sure if it is a real word or if we just made it up. So, sorry to hear you have a schnupfen Meredith, hope you feel better soon!
ReplyDeleteSally
Mads looks like the bad fairy in her rainbow tulle
ReplyDeleteI went to Neuschwanstein as a 4 year old too! I have two memories:
ReplyDelete1. Trudging up the hill asking my (stingy) parents why we couldn't have taken the horse drawn carriage whisking tourists past us. My mother lied and told me they were disabled. I later watched the same people walk around the castle taking photos.
2. Staring at the cross in the lake where mad King Ludwig was supposed to have died. I was not satisfied with my mothers explanation as to exactly how he died.
How did Maddie find it? Love all the pictures of the historic towns - Maddie will no doubt have lots of happy memories of her own in years to come......
Heidi x
How strange Heidi - those horse-drawn carriages are still for disabled people.
ReplyDeleteMads was interested for about 2 minutes and then intensely bored. She particularly hated the guided tour. Oh well.
it is good to see that your German linvage is developing at such a splendid rate!
ReplyDeleteGut gemacht,Käse kopf!