Well....today has been a day full of a lot of sleep for all with over seven hours total clocked sitting on a bus to get to and from Neuschwanstein Castle. Thankfully, the bus seats are very comfortable and we had chances to get out and stretch our legs a little bit at an Autobahn rest stop. We arrived at Neuschwanstein castle around midday here in Germany and we had a very long walk up the Bavarian Alps to be able to tour the castle. Let's just say that twenty minutes of hiking up a very large mountain is not the easiest hiking trip I have ever attempted.
When we finally made it to the top of the mountain, we were allowed to tour six or seven rooms inside of the castle. To say the least, these rooms were breath-taking. The paintings on the walls depicting Norwegian legends and the amount of jewels that were placed into the purple marble pillars, a symbolism of royalty back when the castle was built in the 1800s, and the gigantic chandeliers were beautiful even though they had been replaced by Bohemian blown glass as our tour guide informed us. The sad thing about the castle was that King Ludwig II only lived in the castle for 172 days until he unexpectedly died, so most all of the rooms on the second floor of the castle, the guest bedrooms, were all unfinished, and also other areas of the castle were unfinished because when the king died, construction of the castle was halted. King Ludwig II was told the day before he died that he was mentally insane, the next day he was found dead in a lake in the Alps near the castle, and he was only forty years old when he died.
The singing room was the last room that we visited in the castle and is one room that is definitely worth mentioning in blog post tonight. The room was absolutely gorgeous, take my word for it because we were not allowed to take pictures anywhere inside of the castle walls, because there were so many amazing paintings on the walls and jewels placed into everything that it was just amazing for lack of a better word. The room had only been completed for three days and then King Ludwig II died so he was not able to sit in the hall that was specifically built for private opera and singing performances for himself. Mrs. Roselieb went up onto the stage and began to sing a little bit of opera so we were able to hear the magnificence of the hall. As musicians ourselves we were able to appreciate the hall a little bit more because of the greatness of the acoustics and everything!
The last thing that we had the chance to see at the castle was the view of the ravine, the waterfall, and the castle from the bridge higher up in the mountains. A group of students including Brian K., Scott B., Stephanie M., Stephanie M.'s host, and myself hiked up to the bridge and we were greeted by an amazing view of the castle and all of its surroundings. If only my phone would cooperate with me I would post one of the pictures that I took, but alas, technology refuses to agree with me on this trip. I'm glad we had the chance to see this castle, as it was the inspiration for Walt Disney's Cinderella's castle, and the sights that I saw will never leave my mind. A picture is worth a thousand words but seeing it for real instead of on Google Images was absolutely amazing.
After a long bus ride from Neuschwanstein, we made it back to Bietingheim to spend the night with our host families. Kaitlyn W. and I had a very fun time with our host family playing a German game, translated to English it is called The Game of Pig and has a basis in German history! Kaitlyn and I also taught our host family how to play ERS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Ratscrew) which was a lot of fun to teach.
Thank you to my host family, Stephan, Ava, Christina, and Elisabeth Hartwig, for making this trip an absolutely incredible experience for me this far and I cannot believe it is coming to close in just a few days. Thank you to our amazing directors Mr. Teague, Mr. Williams, Mr. Miller, and Mr. Roselieb for making this trip possible for all of us and for a phenomenal concert last night. Finally, thank you to the mayor of Bietingheim-Bissengen, Mr. Heir Kessing, for greeting us yesterday and welcoming us to your beautiful town, the Musikschule band director, Mrs. Sandra Kaltenbrunn, for helping set up this wonderful trip for all of us on this side of the planet and being a wonderful guest conductor on the national anthems last night, and thank you to Reimund Schiffer for the many wonderful years working with our band program in Downers Grove and for guest conducting "Procession of the Nobles" at last night's concert.
