German Castles

 

This has got to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. That is if you like mountains, lakes, and castles. We are talking about at least one true fairy tale castle.

No not that one, this one (below).

Cheryl and I visited this area of Germany in November 2007. This is Bavaria in all of it's glory. The castles are situated near a beautiful little town called Füssen which is only a 2 hour journey by train from Munich. Then a short bus ride to the village of Schwangau. Below is Schloss Hohenschwangau, Castle of the High Swan County.

(Of course you should click on all the links to read more, you can never have too much information. Also you can still click on all the pics to get a full size image.)

This was the childhood home of Mad King Lugwig II and his brother King Otto I. The castle was built by his father King Maximilian II starting in 1833 and finished in 1837.

These are pictures of Castle Neuschwanstein from the small village of Schwangau. Schloss Hohenschwangau which is in Schwangau is just a very short distance away. Neuschwanstein was begun in 1869, it was almost completed when King Ludwig II was declared insane in 1886. The King was found drowned later that same year and was succeeded by younger brother Otto (who was said to be mentally ill and was never the true king). The circumstances surrounding the Mad Kings death were highly suspicious.

The inside of the castle was never finished. The parts that were completed were somewhat fantastical being an homage to Richard Wagner and designed by a theatrical set designer. Time for more pictures.

 

Below is a picture of the Marie Bridge that Ludwig had built. Cheryl and I actually found our way over to that bridge. It was a little bit of a hike and the snow and ice made it a bit slippery, but wow, what a place.

After looking at the sign Cheryl wasn't all that keen about going out to the middle of the bridge. Notice the distinct lack of other people near by, hmmm made me wonder if this was such a good idea. The gates that we had to crawl around to get here had probably stopped the majority of the people. The area was just closed for winter but is open during the summer.

By the way, Castle Neuschwanstein is said to be the most photographed building in Germany. With 1.3 million visitors a year it is considered one of the biggest tourist attractions in Germany. 6000 people a day during the summer. All I can say is if you go, you might think about going in the winter. It's way less crowded and the snow just makes it that much more special. And don't miss the view from that Bridge, my pictures don't do it justice.

I'll leave you with just a few more pictures. On my way back to the states tomorrow. Can't wait to be back home for a while.

The Bavarian Alps define the border with Austria. If you look closely you can see Austria way in the distance. Don't ask me exactly where in the picture Austria starts and Germany ends.

 

 

It was a nice walk along the road (about 20 minutes) from Schloss Hohenschwangau to Neuschwanstein Castle or you could hire a carriage for a small fee.

I can't believe Cheryl would actually throw that snowball at me.

Butterflies and Moths

Hi all, so I gather nobody believed my story about stumbling through that overgrown area of the city and finding all those animals roaming about. So I decided to just tell this story without any embellishments. It might get a little boring but I figure you all can handle the truth. The following is my account of that fateful day in May 2008. The day the insects destroyed London.

I'm writing to you from what is left of my garden here at Kew Palace. Luckily the palace itself is still standing. Notice the tree on the right, after all these years, it has finally died.

Huge grasshoppers had attacked it in the early morning hours. I know what you are thinking grasshoppers eat grass. I know that already but trust me they were eating the trees. I could hear the grinding of their mandibles and could see them chewing through branches when the moonlight broke through the clouds. I can't really describe the horror I felt when I saw what was attacking my tree. Sorry, I couldn't take any pictures of the creatures actually eating the tree, it was just too dark and I was afraid. I admit it, I was afraid of insects. You'll see why after you see the pictures that I was able to get.

As soon as the flash went off, the grasshoppers and their evil skeleton riders attacked.

I had to run for my life as the evil minions of the Grasshopper Queen chased me. As I was running I saw in the distance a beautiful maiden hugging a tree that had already suffered the same fate as my tree at the palace.

As I approached the beautiful maiden, she ran away towards another tree and to my horror she started eating that one as well. Apparently I had found the Grasshopper Queen.

I couldn't believe my eyes. That's when I knew this must be a dream. Also I realized that the grasshoppers were just eating the trees and not the people. And those skeletons riding the grasshoppers just kept going in circles. So I figured, I should go find that grasshopper queen, she was kind a cute. Off I went, somehow I had lost sight of the queen. After walking for miles I decided to ask this couple if they had seen her when all of a sudden a giant caterpillar plopped down in front of them and promptly ate them.

As you can see they didn't have a chance, they barely even had time to react. That's when I realized I was in big trouble here and London would really be consumed by this evil insect horde. So at this point you are probably all expecting me to turn into a hero, an entomologist in shining armor, to come save the day.

Well as you can see I had the armor. I even had a set of armor for a mini me. And of course I am an entomologist. But sadly, some entomologists are not meant to be heroes especially when fighting off insect hordes. They can only do so much before becoming too distracted by trying to identify the species that are chewing on them. I was however able to take a few pictures before I was completely devoured.

Papilio sp., Papilionidae

Papilio sp., Papilionidae

Papilio sp., Papilionidae

Attacus atlas, Atlas Moth, Saturniidae, Malaysia

Papilio sp., Papilionidae

Heliconius sp., Nymphalidae, South America

Greta oto, Glasswing, Nymphalidae, Costa Rica

Papilio sp., Papilionidae

Parthenos sylvia, Clipper, Nymphalidae, Southeast Asia

Papilio sp., Papilionidae

Saturnia pyri, Greater Peacock Silk Moth, Saturniidae, Europe

Heliconius sp., Nymphalidae, South America

As you can tell from this post I didn't perish along with the rest of London. You can't blog from the afterlife can you?

So how was that for an introduction to a bunch of butterfly and moth pics. You probably thought that it would simply be a scientific lesson about Lepidoptera.

I would like to thank my lovely wife Cheryl for playing the part of the Grasshopper Queen. Those pictures were taken at Kew Gardens back in April and that really was Kew Palace. I would also like to mention that no insects or plants were harmed during filming although I can't really explain why Cheryl was eating that tree.

The grasshopper with the skeleton rider was taken at the British Museum. The suits of armor picture was taken at the Tower of London and the info about the armor below was found at Big Big Planet.

The armour on the left is 6 ft 9 in tall and first listed in the inventory in 1660 as armour for John of Gaunt, son of Edward III, but is now believed to have been a gift from the Duke of Brunswick (North German) to Henry, Prince of Wales, son of James I. The armour on the right is 37.5 in tall and is probably a trial piece for a lost armour of Charles I, but at earlier times were thought to have been either the armour of one of the murdered princes (Richard, Duke of York) or Jeffrey Hudson, the dwarf of Henrietta Maria, queen of Charles I.

All of the butterfly and moth pictures from above (including the hungry caterpillar entrance) were taken at the London Zoo. The pictures below were taken at the Natural History Museum.

Hypolimnas bolina, The Great Egg Fly, Nymphalidae, Malaysia

Morpho peleides, Common Blue Morpho, Nymphalidae, Central and South America

Attacus atlas, Atlas Moth, Saturniidae, Malaysia

Attacus atlas, Atlas Moth, Saturniidae, Malaysia

Anthocharis sp., Orangetip, Pieridae

Parthenos sylvia, Clipper, Nymphalidae, Southeast Asia

Graphium agamemnon, Green Jay, Papilionidae, Philippines

Nymphalidae

I'll update this post with the full names of the ones I missed when I get them figured out.

Jungle London

Western Lowland Gorilla

I was walking near Camden Town in a somewhat overgrown section of the city when I heard a strange noise. I crept through the bushes and came across what appeared to be two people in gorilla suits sitting in a yard. That seemed a little odd but it's London so you kind of just expect it and move on. As I was creeping back out of the bushes I started to hear other odd noises. (If you click on the links beneath the pictures they will take you to a website that has info about each, as well as having some more pictures. Some are even better than mine).

Malayan Tapir

At this point I'm thinking what a cool neighborhood. This had to be one of the largest dogs I've ever seen (for some reason couldn't find my glasses). There was something a little different about it but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. He did seem to be enjoying his swim so I figured I had time to explore the area further while he was occupied.

Asian Lion

Admittedly I hadn't had my coffee yet this morning but after seeing these two house cats I began to wake up a little. Where was I, certainly not in central London. I couldn't help but think of Slam (my cat) who I miss terribly. He would often lay about during the day, roaring ever so often when he was hungry.

He's (Slam) staying with my brother Joe and his wife Debi and of course the 3 monster children. Slam's not so happy with the monster children (they are really noisy) and he think's Joe is an ogre (a nice ogre, although he kind of looks like a frog in the picture above). Slam however, absolutely loves Debi so he figures he can hang in there until I get back. I think he might actually love hanging out in this jungle. Slam is a world champion bird catcher or he would be if he ever was let out of the house. Let me tell you, this area has a lot of birds.

Superb Starling

Von der Decken's Hornbill

Black-footed Penguin, Rock hopper Penguin, Grey Heron, and the Moorhen. The grey heron had just flown in when I approached. It then proceeded to eat several fish that were laying on the bank.

Scarlet-crested Sunbird

As I was looking at all the birds I began to notice that some seemed to be inside cages. I also began to wonder if some of these birds might not be native to England. I really needed to find some coffee and think about this.

Toco Toucan

Spectacled Owl

While wondering around I found many other animals that seemed like they belonged in a zoo. This certainly seemed like a great place for one. Here are a couple of shots for those of you in DC that miss the giraffes at the National Zoo.

Reticulated Giraffe

Below are some shots of one my favourite animals that I saw running around the neighborhood. First you have to try to spot him in the pictures below. In the second picture there is a three-toed sloth at the bottom (no really, I didn't make that part up). You will have to click on the pics in order to play along.

Hopefully you've seen the Pygmy Marmoset in both of the pictures. This little guy decided to check out the crowd of people that had gathered to watch him. Kind of made you wonder who was doing the watching here, was this place just a clever plan devised to attract humans in order for the marmosets to have something to study.

Pygmy Marmoset

This was a great building to visit. All the animals were out and showing off. Here are a few more pictures to click on. If you are tired of animals already you are in the wrong place. Scroll down anyway just so you can say you looked at them all.

Golden-headed Lion Tamarin

Red Titi Monkey

Meerkat

Oriental Small-clawed Otter

Red River Hog

Bearded Pig

Okay, that's enough for now. I figured out (after the coffee) that I had somehow stumbled upon the London Zoo. There was a whole lot more to see than what is shown here as it's one of the must see places in London (according to me and also if you like animals). Be prepared to spend the whole day and expect huge crowds of people. Oh and get there early because the lines to get in can be huge. Also tickets prices are steep 17.50 GBP ($35), but can be halved if you can find offers from the train stations. Luckily the group of three in front of me needed a fourth to make the half price tickets worthwhile.

I just had to include these pictures. I think these are the beetles that had to clean up after the vegetarian dinosaurs that used to roam the earth a long time ago.

The next post will be about butterflies and moths since the London Zoo and the Natural History Museum both have Butterfly houses in operation this year.