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| Schloss Hohenschwangau, where Ludwig II grew up, as seen from Neuschwanstein |
Not even a full week after returning to Lubbock in early January from what I had called my "Christmas trip" I was back on a plane, bound for Geneva in Switzerland. Every two years, those of us who do work for the CADF (Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation) need to be recertified, and thus it was once again time to join about another 55 DCOs (Doping Control Officers) from all over the world for a two-day seminar in Lausanne, just a short 45-minute train ride from Geneva.
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| Our CADF seminar took place just steps away from Lake Geneva |
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| One of the stone-cold denizens of the UNIL campus (Universite de Lausanne) |
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| UNIL's e-bike bike share system |
After a not-so-comfortable overnight flight in Coach (AA's frequent flier program is turning the screws more and more--after flying more than 100,000 miles and spending north of $12,000 on flights last year I was #9 on the upgrade list from DFW to London, in a plane with something like 52 Business Class seats!!!), I made it to Heathrow and then hopped down to Switzerland. The seminar was informative, I had a chance to reconnect with old friends and made a few new connections, and one evening the CADF treated us to a first-ever communal dinner in a swanky place that served Swiss specialties such as my choice, the cheese fondue. I haven't received word regarding my reaccreditation status (i.e., whether I passed the final exam), but I am cautiously optimistic.
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| Who says seminars can't be fun? |
Sunday night I took a freebie flight on Iberia (using British Airways miles) to Madrid, where I spent about 18 hours with my old British friend Howard and his family. Howard's living a mere five minutes from Barajas airport is a huge lure when it comes to trying to route myself through Madrid. After a nice meal in a local bodega and then talking the evening away we went for a long walk on Monday morning, continuing to exchange all the news that had happened in our lives since our last visit. Early in the afternoon, after a Mahou or two, Howard took me back to Barajas from where I flew onward to Munich.
The next week I spent with Sabine, celebrating various birthdays (my own 63rd included), riding the bike in freezing temperatures when it wasn't too wet to do so, and finally going on a short overnight trip to Neuschwanstein less than 48 hours ago. Since Sabine had to work for most of the time of my week in Germany a longer trip was out of the question.
Before we went to Neuschwanstein, King Ludwig II's kitschy castle, we had watched a 2012 biopic about the last Bavarian king. Had it not been for the movie, I think I would not have enjoyed this visit as much as I did. Undoubtedly, back in high school we must have studied some of the history of Germany and Bavaria in the 1860s and 1870s, but I remembered exactly zilch. The movie managed to give me the historical perspective that brings to life a funky castle on a rock outcropping at the edge of the Alps.
On the way to Neuschwanstein we had made a quick stop at the rococo church of Wieskirche, an amazingly ornate place of worship in a fairly isolated location. It was Sunday afternoon, and mercifully the hordes of tourists that would swamp the place in the summer were absent. Sabine has been to both Wieskirche and Neuschwanstein on numerous occasions (usually to show friends from abroad some of the icons of Bavarian art history), and she was more than pleasantly surprised by the lack of tour busses and endless streams of selfie-taking tourists (we tried to make up for that!).
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| Views of Wieskirche |
When we toured the interior of Neuschwanstein on Monday morning so few visitors were on-site that we had a zero wait time to obtain our tickets--in the summer, we were told, about 8,000 visitors daily are channeled through the partly unfinished castle's ornate rooms that ol' Ludwig got to enjoy for exactly 172 days before he died under somewhat disputed and mysterious circumstances--after having been committed to an insane asylum. Once again, the movie we had watched put things into much better perspective than the rather disappointing 35-minute tour through the fantasy castle that gave Walt Disney inspiration for his own uber-kitschy creation.
It'd be nice to see the castle in the summer, when its greyish walls don't blend in with the surrounding trees' greyish bark. Maybe with sunny skies and some snow on the turrets I would have been properly wowed, like Disney. As was, we had to be satisfied with taking pictures of "exclusive" photo-shopped posters that depicted the grandeur of the setting, which in all truth is amazing. My suggestion: If you find yourself close to Neuschwanstein, by all means go and visit as it is may be the best-known German sight to see. Buy your tickets online if it is the busy time of the year (especially to not be disappointed when told that no more tours are available, and a tour is mandatory--I was reminded of Machu Picchu and the rigamarole of getting access. That's tourism for us, and I'm a guilty part to it as is anybody else.), and brace for hordes of Asian visitors who outnumbered WASPs 4:1 when we visited. But, maybe more importantly, read up on Ludwig or try to watch one of the various movies. Your visit will be much more meaningful.
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| The view from Neuschwanstein |
So, last night we got back from Fuessen (where we had stayed for the night) and Neuschwanstein, having a lunch of Leberkaessemmel at a Metzgerei and visiting a befriended couple on the way back to Freising. A quick pack-job, a final few beers, and a short night later I am sitting in MUC's T1 new Business Lounge and am about an hour away from boarding my (thankfully upgraded) flight to Philly. Tomorrow it'll be back to life in Lubbock, with warmer temperatures and less fog and rheumatism-inducing wetness. But don't think the 2018/19 European adventures are done and over with: Two weeks from today I'll get back on a plane to see how our friends, the Yellow Vests, are fairing in Paris. So long,
Jürgen
