1-30-23, Day 29 In PTL Perrin’s Life

Welcome to day twenty-nine of A Day In My Life! Happy Monday! (Only one more day after this to complete the challenge!)

A few years ago, Bill and I checked off one item on our bucket list. We visited Germany, and I showed him some of my favorite childhood stomping grounds.

When my parents moved us to Germany back in the 1900s, the first place we landed was Heidelberg. Mom was born and raised in Germany, and her brother was superintendent of the city schools. Dad found us a large apartment in a house two blocks down the hill from Heidelberg castle, and so the castle grounds became our playground. Our cousins had found a way into the battlements, and since they spoke a little English, we enjoyed many games of knights and battles. We didn’t speak German yet, and I felt completely out of place in the school, but loved playing in the castle grounds.

These are typical houses below the castle. I didn’t remember which one we lived in, but it looked like the one on the hill.

I felt right at home in the courtyard. From there we took a tour of the inside, where many furnishings are original. Like most castles, Heidelberg has its legends. The wine barrel in the cellar is so large, they built a platform on top big enough to be a dance floor. According to legend, a greedy wine keeper drank every drop in the barrel on a dare.

Bill and I spent most of the trip in Bavaria, the southernmost state in Germany. We visited my brother and his family (all six of their children were born and raised there), and my sister, who had raised her two children near Nuremberg, but now lived near and worked with our brother. Munich is in Bavaria, and they lived south of Munich.

Here are a few scenes in no particular order.

I HAD to show you the cute vehicles we saw! The one on the right is a delivery TRUCK! Is this our future?

I love how they decorate their buildings. I thought you might get a kick out of the bookstore name. Buch means book.

The bakery deserves its own picture. I can smell it from here! Heavenly!

My brother’s family lives very close to the Chiemsee, which is also called the Bavarian Sea. King Ludwig II had this castle, Herrenchiemsee, built in the 1870s. I heard he nearly bankrupted the government with this vacation home. As large and ornate as it is, he only spent a few days there. We needed sunglasses inside the building because of the excessive use of gold leaf all over everything. A bit over-the-top.

One of the many highlights of the trip was our visit to Salzburg, Austria, the home of Mozart. We visited a number of years ago, so here are some random scenes with no descriptions.

Hohensalzburg Fortress sits atop the city like a medieval helmet. Click on the link for an aerial view. We took the funicular from the city to avoid climbing a gazillion steps, and I truly felt the weight of history. The fortress is nearly 950 years old, which means the homes inside the walls, where people still appear to live, are also ancient. The doorways in the houses looked like they were made for children.

Before we visited the final castle, we took a trip to the Black Forest to see my youngest sister and her family. She and her husband had settled in Germany after many years in the Middle East. We toured a small lake where we bought our cuckoo clock in a store that looked like one. I took a photo of the blue Citroen because I once caught a ride in one, and the seats were like sling lawn chairs, you opened the windows by popping them with your elbow (they swung out and up and latched on the outside of the car), and the ride was like riding on a cloud!

The final castle we visited was the one Disney used as a model for their Cinderella castle in Disney World. Neuschwanstein was another one commissioned by King Ludwig II. He started construction in 1869 and lived in this castle. Some of the more modern touches inside surprised me, and it wasn’t nearly as ornate as Herrenchiemsee. No sunglasses required. I thought this was the most beautiful of all.

Bill had to get back home after two weeks, and I stayed in Europe for another two weeks. My sister and I flew to Spain to see Mom. Did I mention I’d broken my leg walking down from Neuschwanstein? I made the rest of the trip with a cast! It didn’t slow me down one bit. Tomorrow, I’ll share some Spain photos.

Here’s my to-do list for today:

1. Write my daily blog. (Check!)
2. Read the blogs of everyone participating in this challenge and comment. (daily)
3. Take a nap.
4. Spend an hour or so editing.
5. Relax with dinner and a movie and my knight in shining armor.

Thank you for reading my blog today, and please visit my friends and fellow RRBC Bloggers at  https://ravereviewsbookclub.wordpress.com/rrbc-member-chat/

Blessings!

Patty Perrin (writing as P.T.L. Perrin)

https://www.ptlperrin.org