One of the things I’d love to do is visit Germany around Christmas. Then again, I am really not a fan of snow and cold – while the ideas of visiting the markets, seeing the towns in their holiday finery, and attending a Christmas Day service in German are very appealing, the weather I remember from March of one year makes me question my sanity. 😀
One of my favorite memories from that trip is visiting Neuschwanstein Castle. The entire trip had been a bit chilly, but there was no snow on the ground, until we visited Mad King Ludwig’s castle. Yes, this is the one on which the Disney version of Cinderella’s palace is based. The hill to get up to the castle is insanely steep – you can take a horse-drawn carriage most of the way up, and then walk the remainder. Off to the sides of the road were snow drifts that didn’t seem so deep, until I decided to go play on one and sank into snow up to my knees. Sadly we couldn’t take pictures inside the castle, so I have no pictures of the Sangerhalle, but one of the coolest things I have ever done is to perform in that space. We didn’t have much of an audience – only a few tourists from another group, really – but we sang a few of the pieces from our repertoire, and really enjoyed the acoustics and the experience of singing in a space built for the purpose over a hundred years ago. It is by far not the oldest location in which we’ve performed, but something about it made the experience extremely special. I do hope to go back someday.
