An evening in Buxtehude - Germany's country side

It was an invitation from my client AEROTEC, to go for a short tour of Germany's country side and we decided to visit Buxtehude, 50kms from Hamburg in the state of Lower Saxony. Horst, GM in Airbus (husband of Susanne, AEROTEC) joined us in the trip. We set off from our office to Altes Land, the biggest contiguous fruit orchard in Central Europe – extends over 143 sq km (55 sq mi). 76.8% of the trees are apples, 12.7% are cherries. We visited the Luhe - Schulau Fahre, the ferry point and had a nice view of Luhe river merging with the River Elbe. We stopped at a Cherry plantation and had fresh cherries from the trees, raw, it has its own taste!!
Altes Land is so fertile, thanks to Elbe. The fertile land led to the development of a culture dominated by farming. The villages are known as Marschhufendörfer, a special kind of village where the farmyards are set along a street with the land directly behind them. A characteristic feature is the richly-decorated half-timbered farmhouses with their elaborate gateways. Horst said, the gateway is called "Wedding Gate", the gate opens only for a married couple!!

Horst shared so many information about Airbus, Hamburg, Buxtehude and the best partner for a trip. I had great time discussing with him. He suggested us to go for a walk in the village and picked us from another point, which is around a km away, the walk was gorgeous, so beautiful that I didnt want to go in car.

We crossed the small town called York and it was too cute. York is the town where Horst stays for the past 25 years, he said the charm of the town, never allowed him to think to move to a new city, he showed the beautiful old houses built on the dyke, it was indeed a treat to eyes. We reached buxtehude and the weather was not that great, it rained sometime and hence we cancelled the plans for a walk in Buxtehude.

Horst and Susanne are the best german couples -I have met in this four months of short stay; they are made for each other, my impression of german couples changed considerably after meeting them! they are together (like our parents) for the past 30 years and they have a son "who lives with them" eventhough he is 24. Strange facts for a German family, but it is TRUE :)

Susanne booked an indian restaurant for dinner. Both the Germans enjoyed the indian food and its taste. Horst was much interested to know about our culture and rich heritage. I proposed him to tour our India, both of them nodded - a German nod, means sure!!! I will be happy to host them in India and will show them, what our country is...

Neuschwanstein Castle Conquered!!!

Was King Ludwig II a madman or a genius? Think about it for a second. On one hand, the King spent all his fortune and then some to build fairy-tale castles for his personal pleasure. On the other hand, Bavaria is now the top tourist destination in Germany, thanks, in large part to...well, you know, the same guy.
Now, more than 140 years after the foundation of Neuschwanstein had been laid, it has become one of the most photographed, most famous, and most talked about castles in the world. Many people are familiar with Neuschwanstein without even knowing it. What do you think the sleeping beauty castle in Disneyland was modeled after?

I visited Neuschwanstein on 30May09 with Naresh, Sushanth, Pritesh and Shekar from Stuttgart. It was a 3Hrs Ford car drive by Naresh (including our breaks in a beautiful lake shore and a cute unused railway track for more than an hour) and we reached Shwangau, a tiny village at the bottom of the hill from where I could see the castle in the distance. All I could say was, "Wow. How the hell did they build this in the 19th century?" The view was magnificent. And it was about to get only better. We got the tickets for 8Euros p.p, it was a 15:10 English tour of the castle (you cannot tour the castle on your own), so we decided to take the bus instead of 25 or 40-minute walk up the hill to the castle or the other option of horse carriage. The bus drive was 5mins and they dropped us in a common point from where we can go to the Castle as well as to the Marienbrücke (or Queen Mary's Bridge - named after the kings Mother). We decided to visit the bridge and then the Castle.

The Marienbrücke (brücke is bridge in German) was an engineering wonder in it's day, built in 1866, it was an wooden bridge later steel reinforced. It spans the Pöllat Gorge at a height of over 100 metres (300 feet), and below is the spectacular Pöllat Falls, an alpine stream that plunges 50 metres (149 feet) into the valley. The view from this bridge is the most spectacular photo the average tourist can get. If you have Acrophobia, pls be cautious!!! The best place to enjoy the height, with the info in mind that its a 140yrs old one with wooden blanks! The views were awesome, the sad part was we admired the view, took lots of snaps and returned to Castle. After my trip, my collegue told me this fact (may be it is helpful for my friends who read this and visit there):

One can take even better photo shot if he walks to the other side of the bridge and climbs up the mountain. It seems, the trail gets pretty rocky and steep, about 10 minutes into the climb, notice a cross. From the cross, one can notice a loose trail going up. A thin wire blocks this trail, just step over it, and continued to climb. The higher one climb, the better the views of the castle, it seems. I missed it, may be I can state this as another chance to travel Neuschwanstein :)

The castle tour lasted only 35 minutes, and it wasn't anything special. Some interesting facts of the Castle:

• Ludwig II was a big fan of Richard Wagner and he surrounded himself with paintings of characters and events from Wagner's operas.
• One room I found really impressive; between the living room and the study room, the King built an artificial cave! What a wild imagination!
• Be warned that during the tour of Neuschwanstein, you ascend a total of 165 steps and descend a total of 181 steps.
• On the floor of the Throne hall ther is a mosaic of concentrically ordered animals and plants, it was awesome.
• While going up the spiral staircase, pause for a moment and look up when you reach the top - you will see a huge carved Palm Tree supporting the roof of the staircase. This is a little 'hidden' item that the guide doesn't point out!
• The guide also doesn't point out that Ludwig was arrested halfway up the main spiral staircase. (I got this info from the Official guide book I bought from the castle store!)
• Historical info: King Ludwig II was certified insane and his uncle took over the regency in 10Jun1886, on 12Jun1886 he was arrested in this Castle steps, and on 13Jun1886 his body floated in Lake Starnberg together with the psychiatrist who certified him insane, by the way, still his death is a mystery!

On return, we wished to go to the falls and started climbing down, by 20mins we reached the bottom and the view of the bridge from there was magnificient. We relaxed sometime and trekked down hill parallel to the transparent water stream. It was too good, reached our car and got back to Stuttgart thinking that the trip got over...

Nopes, just a 15mins drive, we spotted a lake (Weissensee) and decided to visit it. It was so beautiful, the best place to be in sunset, with calm big lake infront of the gigantic Alps... no words to explain the view, better enjoy the below snap! The trip's best conclusion :)
King Ludwig II intended Neuschwanstein to be "one of the most beautiful [places] ever to be found." With all the modern publicity and fame, I had high expectations. And you know what, Neuschwanstein lived up to the hype but the important point is :

It is incomparable to our great Indian palaces and forts, may be, poor King Ludwig II never heard about our country and expertise!!!

As many asked what 'Neuschwanstein' means, I thought I will add few facts about that:

The name Neuschwanstein means "new swan rock" and swans are another reoccurring theme throughout the castle. The swan was the King's favorite animal. They are found in everything from woodwork to fixtures in all shapes and sizes.

A trip to Nanjangud & Melkote

It was a beautiful saturday morning when we (me and Srini) left Bangalore in his Santro to Nanjangud and Melkote. It was around 700AM we left marathahalli and it was a calm drive in the (old)airport road, less traffic and no pollution. We topped up at the Shell (quality petrol for the Santro) near Rajarajeshwari nagar and zoomed in the mysore road. We took a break at kamat on the mysore road and the breakfast we delicious. It was hygienic, neatly served and we loved the ambience of the drive in. We reached Mandya and from there the mysore road was not that great. There were so many speed breakers, that too without any signboards and were too steep (not like the regular highway speed breaker, believe it was introduced by the villagers for their own purpose to slow down the vehicles). Finally we reached Mysore by 1030AM and we approached the ooty road to reach Nanjangud. The narrow road was a state highway and not well maintained.
The distance from Mysore to Nanjangud was around 23 kms and we reached by 30 minutes. On the way we both admired the trial railway track where there was a dummy train (no seats) parked. Nanjangud is a temple town on the banks of the river Kapila and is also called as "Dakshina Kashi" (southern Kashi). Our motto was to visit the Sri Raghavendra swamy Mutt. We enquired a few for the route and reached the matt.
Sri Raghavendra Swamy Mutt which is called as Preteeka Sanidhi is situated on the road to the right of the Nanjundeswara temple. The uniqueness of this Mutt is one can find an idol of Sri Raghavendra Swamy instead of the usual Brindavana. We met the manager and the hospitality he provided was mind-blowing. He told about the story of the matt and how the idol of Sri Raghavendra Swamy was brought to the temple. He took us to the Moola Brindavanas (mortal remains) of 5 saints belonging to Raghavendra swamy mutt lineage known as Pancha Brindavana. He explained us about each one of the five saints and their uniqueness, we were amazed when he uttered that he himself belongs to that lineage!! We discussed in length about the aradhana preparations and future plans for developing the matt, he was keen to the statement that "never ever the development of the matt should destroy the rich old culture and its divinity".
We left Nanjangud without visiting the Nanjundeshwara temple, decided to come back to Nanjangud once again and visit. We drove back to Mysore and had lunch at a good restaurant. The food was of good quality and we enjoyed it. We were comparing the qulaity and price of the food we got in Mysore with that in Bangalore, its incomparable. We left Mysore by around 200PM to Melkote.
One should be careful in taking the correct left turn before Mandya in the Mysore-Mandya road to reach Melkote, otherwise unnecessary time wastage will happen inside the Mandya town. Melkote is 41 kms from the Mysore-Mandya road and the drive was awesome, sugarcane fields covered both sides of the road and it was lush green.

The Karnataka road direction board indicated that the same road can take us to Saravanabelagola. On the way I clicked this snap below, we felt very bad on seeing the mode of transport these kids take every day to their school. We reached a junction from where there were 3 roads splitting out, we enquired and got the way to Melkote, one another road led to Saravanabelagola. From there we were able to see a hill and a temple over it and assured ourself that this is the place where we are talking about. Actually, a trip to Melkote was in our minds for a long time, more than 2 years. It is said that it will not be easy to visit Melkote as per our wish, it needs the call from the Cheluvanarayanaswamy and we thought this saturday (Dec 20, 2008) was that day!!!

Melkote is one of the sacred places in Karnataka, also known as Thirunarayanapuram, one of the four sacred places of Vaishnavism in Southern India. It is built on rocky hills known as Yadavagiri or Yadugiri overlooking the Cauvery valley. This is the place where Mani Ratnam shot his famous dance sequence for the song Rakkamma in the movie Thalapathi and the Barso Re(some parts) song in Guru, as well as the marriage approval sequences in rajini's Padayappa is also shot here. The main temples here are the Cheluvanarayanaswamy temple and Yoga Narasimha swami temple (above the hill).

We reached Cheluvanarayanaswamy temple and came to know that the temple will be opened by 400PM, went to Mukya Dwara - Unfinished entrance pillars built by king Krishnadevaraya, we were interested to visit the place, as we have seen the place in many films. It was beautiful and neat.

There were so many tourists like us came to see this unfinished work, we discussed ourselves "if this place was not shown in the films, whether we all will be here to see this??". We also saw the Akka & Thangi Kola nearby and it was beautiful. Legend has it that the ponds were built by 2 sisters for the people of Melkote. But the elder seemed to have calculated her expenses. Henceforth the people do not make use of the Akka kulum and hence its water is salty whereas the water of thangi kola is sweet!!!

We then started to climb the hill of Yoga Narasimha swami temple and it was around 400 steps to reach the top. We reached the top at 430PM and came to know that the temple will be opened by 530PM, we both were tired and got a nice place to relax sometime enjoying the cold breeze, without any noise and air pollution, it was a divine feeling altogether... it was a beautiful location, large landscape beow you and the horizon can be seen with a haze around it!!!

Srini had a quick nap and I was just admiring the temple and the surroundings. By 530PM the doors were opened and we had a nice darshan of Yoga Narasimha swami. The entire temple in top of the hill is constructed like a fort, may be thats why they call this place as Mel Kote (a kottai on top). We walked down the stairs and reached the land, it was getting dark and we started our travel back to Bangalore, back to pavillion, where the city life starts again...

Hi all,
I was reading a blog and felt interested writing one for myself. I love travelling and was working from Bangalore, India. Now I am working for Airbus at Hamburg, North Germany. While I was in India, I have explored the state of Karnataka in the weekends and holidays. Now, exploring the Germany and Europe! I will try to pen few of my experiences here, enjoy reading...