Hohenschwangau Bavaria

Neuschwanstein Germany!! Or should I say the Sleeping Beauty Castle aka place that was built by Crazy Ludwig (Second of the name but First of the crazy, or maybe not)! No offend intended we all have some of those members in our family, and if you think you don’t they are probably buried in a long lost closet somewhere in a deep forest!!
Anyway, since it is one of the most visited castle in Germany we thought that

it was something we needed to do. So since we were in Bavaria, we decided to go there. Well what I didn’t know is that his parents had a little “vacation castle” next door!! LOL

So when we arrived and saw how long the line was to get to the Neuschwanstein Castle we decided to go ahead and go visit the “Parents” residence “Hohenschwangau” and then after eating lunch go to the White castle up the hill!! Well this decision was made BEFORE the cloud came and ruined everything for us!!

As you can see in the pictures it was a pretty sunny day to begin with… unfortunately

it change to rain storm pouring down on us as we were exiting the guided tour of the castle.
However we had some fun (as fun as a 30mn tour in a rush with a Guide who

spoke with a very thick German accent, and doesn’t let you take ANY pictures inside!!)
So we decided that we will come back another day when the tourist season isn’t at its peak

and hopefully we will be able to go to the Sleeping Beauty Castle to find out if

Ludwig was that crazy or only a Genius to want to live in such a paradise of a place!!

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Garmish vs Fussen

Garmish is a place where many of our neighbors speak about. Anytime there is a vacation destination in the Alps, Garmish comes up!! So when in Bavaria we thought we will see what the BIG DEAL it was about Garmish!! Well call me a total weirdo (which I KNOW I am) but other than the beautiful GORGEOUS view of the mountain I didn’t find the hotel amazing.

OK I didn’t go and see the room, we only saw the lobby, gift shop, bar, and restaurant

(which wasn’t THAT good either, the restaurant that is) So I do understand that the place the hotel is located, is incredibly beautiful! And that I bet that you can do a lot of activities in the Garmish area!! But I still believed that we didn’t have to be staying in the hotel that most of our neighbors stayed in!!

So I went online a few weeks earlier and found a “what looked like” a perfect family place!
When we pulled in the hotel we thought... Oh oh!! As of Oh man maybe we found the perfect WRONG place to stay!! Matt was very much not really happy at the sight of the hotel!

Got the key, entered our room, and as I took in the room and the view I HAD to run in the windowless hallway to prepare Matt. I got him to believe that it was going to be AWFULL and then he enter the room and saw that:

The room that we got was a small apartment, 2 bedrooms, and small kitchen/ living/dining area with a sofa bed. We fell in love with the hotel. Pretty cheap for a 5 persons hotel room in Europe! About the same price as the cheapest room at the “other” hotel! AND look at the view!! We stayed up watching those mountain until it was completely dark! AND I had to set my alarm to the first light so that I could come up and take pictures of our gorgeous view with the sun rise!!
So here it is: I am wrong or what? Don’t you think it is beautiful!!
We are going back for sure... Maybe when snow is on the ground so that we can see how beautiful it would be!!!

Neckar Cruise mandatory Fun

So every so often we have to have "Mandatory" fun! This month it was to go
on the Neckar river on a boat cruise (which was so lame, I am telling you.) Being stuck in a boat for 1 hour, just to go around to be able to drink beer for those gentlemen... Sorry, not what I call my kind of fun! LOL

Well at least I had my handy dandy camera and was able to pass the time by doing what I love to do... Taking pictures! LOL So here are a few of those!! Hope you enjoy them!

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Florence

Matt last visit in Florence was a very bad one. The pollution in town was just awful, and
since he almost suffer from an allergy attack in Rome, we decided that it would be better
for him to stay at the villa for the day, while I took my mother to walk around Firenze.We cruise around the Via Del Purgatorio (fitted for me don't you think?) LOL
Discover a cool sign next to it! LOL
And finally made it to the famous Bridge!

Cruised some more! Had to get some fresh fruit!!

And discovered a pretty handsome view! (You decide what it is!) ;-)

And made it to the Duomo which was just incredible!!

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Abbazio di San Galgano

Driving for a short while along the SS73 southwest of Siena you will get to San Galgano Abbey which dates back to the 13th century. At present it is in very bad conditions yet what remains shows how magnificent it was in its Gothic splendour. The admission to the abbey, one of Italy’s most remarkable ones is free.
In Val d’Elsa the monks of Abbey San Galgano used to administer justice and keep
the books of the municipalities of Volterra and Siena. Therefore they were very
influential in building Siena’s Duomo and exercised authority over
between Siena and Volterra. Sir John Hawkwood pillaged valuables from the Abbazia San Galgano twice or
maybe more in the 1300s. Disrepair increased and in the 1500s the Cistercian
monks of the abbey were not as powerful and rich as centuries before. In the 18th century the bell tower and the ceiling vaults caved in.
Today the abbey has no roof but its stone and brick walls have survived
the centuries and keep watch of the landscape around. By the church are the vestiges of the monastery and cloisters where today a tourist office is housed (tel. 0577 75 67 38; open 10.30am-7pm Easter-Oct).
The abbey plays host to summer concerts which the Accadema Musicale Chigiana supports.
At first the monks used to be housed in the Cappella di Monte Siepi which watches over the abbey later constructed by the Cistercian monks on a lower level. This minute and round Romanesque chapel was frescoed by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. His theme was San Galgano‘s life events. Unfortunately they are in quite bad conditions. San Galgano, to whom Saint Michael appeared, spent the last years of his life in here as if it was a hermitage. According to legends, the sword stuck on the floor meant that he would never surrender to earthly pleasures.

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Sienna

We arrived in Sienna on a beautiful sunny day. We headed toward the center of the town.

Our first stop was at the Mother Teresa of Calcutta Church.

We went inside and I was sneakie and took pictures. I wasn't suppose to be doing that, (and got reminded about it by the nicest church caregiver ever... NOT!!) however it didn't stopped me!

The front door was pretty interesting too!!

We went to the center of town and Rafael and Mutti climbed the tower.

Then we went around town and discovered some more!!

the next picture is one of my favorite from the day, I called it:
What do Italian men talk about while in front of a pretty car?

Bellisima Sienna

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