Top 10 Bavarian Castles

Posted on by March 24, 2012

Neuschwanstein Castle over 100 years ago

Hundreds of castles and ruins are located all over Bavaria and here we show you the selection of the castles we think you should not miss if you are close by. With some their appearance and setting is very impressive, others their historical value and others again the collections which now are housed in their museums. To keep the explanations short we include links to websites about these castles, if you would like to know more about them.

  1. Neuschwanstein: Probably the most famous and if you include it in a visit you will realize why it is also one of, if not, the most visited castle in the world. As castles go it was build quite recently by King Ludwig II. The historical significance is that, as one of his three extraordinary building projects which almost bankrupted Bavaria, they turned into Bavaria’s largest touristic moneymakers in recent times. Well worth mentioning here is the Castle over on the next hill:
  2. Hohenschwangau: The castle build by Ludwig’s father is right across from Neuschwanstein.
  3. Veste Coburg: Considered to be one of the largest and best preserved fortresses in Germany. It had significant influence in the European history during the reign of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the link is to his Wikipedia page which describes how he “positioned” his kids and grand-kids into important positions all over Europe and even as far away as Mexico. Just roaming around the battlements is very impressive and it is also home to 3 very noteworthy museums.
  4. Nuremberg Imperial Castle: Archeological finds at this site go way back to the first century, but the first mention of a castle there was not until 1105 AD. It was a very important residence for the emperors of the “Holy Roman Empire” and through this received the “imperial” in the name. Well worth the steep walk up to it.
  5. Plassenburg Kulmbach: High above the city of Kulmbach is the Plassenburg.  The castle itself is considered to be one of the most impressive castles in Bavaria and home to a very extensive collection of tin soldiers and figurines, set up in historic battle scenes and also numerous displays of diverse historical events from around the world. During our visits in Kulmbach re-exploring this museum is usually on our agenda.
  6. Fortress Marienberg: Wuerzburg, in the heart of the wine country along the river Main, is a very important part of the “Franken’s” influence in and history of this region. The fortress was almost destroyed in 1945 and the reconstruction was completed in 1990. It houses a museum documenting the history of the fortress and town.
  7. Veste Rosenberg: Kronach’s guardian is a very important castle as it is almost completely in original condition. Alone the fortifications itself are worth exploring. The castle is also home to an art museum and an outdoor theater featuring the annual Goethe’s Faust festival.
  8. Prunn Castle: Riedenburg (Altmühltal) Just look around the area and the location of the fortress and you probably can see why we included this fine castle.
  9. Burg Burghausen: We have to include this castle which is the longest in the world according to the “Guinness Book of World Records”.
  10. Burg Lauenstein: This castle is very memorable to me as it was the goal of quite a few of our family’s Sunday’s outings when I grew up. Sitting in the beer garden on Sunday, savoring our afternoon coffee and cake and enjoying the excellent view, made you feel like being part of the nobility which owned this castle in years gone by. Friends of ours fondly remember a stay in this castle’s hotel during their Bavarian Castle Tour a few years ago. In nearby Ludwigstadt the chocolate truffles manufacturer by the same name will give you a glimpse of how their delicious treats are made and a chance to buy direct from their factory outlet.

The entrance fee to many of these castles included above are part of the 14 Day Pass written about in one of our previous posts and, if you really are into visiting castles, can save you quite a bit of money.

One more time, the castles and ruins in Bavaria are numerous and our list represents my opinion. We will do a Top 10 list of palaces and mansions in the near future. We found an extensive list of Bavarian castles and palaces on the German Wikipedia listed by the “7 Regierungsbezirks” which are the 7 Bavarian regions with their own local government and sub divided into a “Landkreis” (county), but the page is in the German language.

Our Bavarian Top 10

Posted on by January 19, 2012

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Bavaria has an almost unlimited supply of things to see and do and every region has its own charm and attractions. To actually come up with a “Top 10” list for anything there will only show the opinion of the individual author’s tastes, interests and even their hometowns. So if you should disagree with our lists, drop us a comment with your own place or occasion to include, but remember, we are trying to stay within the boundaries of Bavaria, so the city of Heidelberg, for instance, though very beautiful and charming cannot be included here.

Again the “Top 10” here is reflecting our opinion and our knowledge of the destinations. We realize that during our time there we did not visit every nook and cranny in Bavaria and we know we missed many places, so please send us a comment if you can think of something we could include, but as mentioned in our privacy policy all comments will be considered and only included at our discretion. There will also be some categories where we can not come up with a full ten items, again for those of you familiar with the area and subject, we are open to suggestions. Other categories will be very hard to limit to only ten and we might extend them.

We will try to keep the categories as specific as possible, but we realize that some places can belong to more than one list and therefore might be also included in others.

Our first list, of what we think are the top ten, will be about castles.

In the future we will add other places, subjects and occasions.

 

Bavarian Castles, the 14 Day Pass

Posted on by January 11, 2012

 

What would a trip to anywhere in Europe be without exploring at least a couple of castles and/or churches?

But realize that there are way too many for you to see!

If you would try to count all of them scattered throughout Europe, we guarantee that the numbers would be in the thousands, as the local rulers might have had, besides the castle they lived in, a palace or two in the city, a summer residence at a lake and often also a scaled down palace just to conduct their hunts.

If you want to see old castles, palaces and beautiful gardens, then you do not have to go any further than Bavaria, where the count reaches the multiple of hundreds.

They range from fantastically kept up to just a few left over stones or the ruins of an old tower remaining and tell us stories of their glorious past which is deeply intertwined in the local history.

As many owners of these either moved to more convenient and/or modern dwellings or lost their fortunes over the years, hundreds fell into disrepair. Many more of these were donated to local historical groups, sold to investors to be turned into hotels and restaurants or other tourist attractions, others were turned over to the local authorities and also the state.

A good number of them in Bavaria come under the auspice of the Bavarian Palace Authority (Bayerische Schlösserverwaltung), which does a terrific job keeping them in pristine condition for future generations to experience.

Many of the castles, palaces, gardens and even lakes under their care are included in a little known 14 day pass which really can save you some money on your trip. As we published our work on this at our ggmtours.com website we think following the link will make your research into the “castle visit part” of your trip planning easier.

Click here to go there!

Below the map with links to many cities and places in the area you find the links to the Bayerische Schlösserverwaltung in the colored box.

We want to point out, that a few of these destinations are part of the top attractions of castles in Bavaria, they include the castles and palaces build by the fairy tale King Ludwig II, many of his family’s, who were the longtime rulers of the kingdom, palaces, hunting lodges and gardens. They also include castles like the Imperial Castle in Nuremberg, which dates back, in importance, to centuries before their time.

Like we stated many of these impressive structures are included in the pass, but there are hundreds more, such as the castle in Coburg or the quaint water chateau Mespelbrunn in the Spessart or even the interesting history behind the church ruin on top of the Katharinenberg in Wunsiedel, which is nowhere mentioned in any of the tourist guides. Many of these are still the residences of the owners and either only in parts or not open at all for sightseeing. Hey, the only way around this is to get to know the owner and be invited in and shown around.

As we only covered castles here, we still have to write about some of the areas churches, which you should not miss, in a future article!

We have quite a bit of information and many interesting links on our ggmtours.com pages under “Discover Bavaria”. After your browsing there, come back here and send us a comment if you found any mistakes and what you generally think of the research we did and are still doing.

Neuschwanstein Castle over 100 years ago

Why visit Bavaria:

Posted on by January 11, 2012

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Through movies, documentaries and even on the History channel, Bavaria is often mentioned and immediately brings to mind; beer, mountains, yodeling, Bratwurst and Sauerkraut. Besides the famous tourist magnets, there are so many diverse places, things and occasions, that it is hard for us to select just a few of them that shows you why this area should be part of everybody’s travel plans. We do believe that a trip there should be included in your bucket list.

We know that some of the reasons for your first visit are to see and experience something different and new, to broaden your horizons and for some of you to connect to your roots.

We also know that you will

Come for the sights
Have a few beers
Enjoy the food
Try to find out what Gemütlichkeit is all about

and there is a great chance that while you are there you will fall in love with this region.

Traveling all over our good old USA we came across many beautiful and very imposing sights that Mother Nature has given us. We stood in awe at the grandiose Grand Canyon, traveled across the beautiful Rocky Mountains, explored many parts of the Great Smokies and experienced many other spectacular sights unique to our great country while meeting wonderful people and having a good time. But somehow a visit to Bavaria is a different experience.
Take our wide open spaces and the immense distance from east to west and compress them. Take the snow covered peaks of the Rocky Mountains and move them 5 times closer to the Smokies, sprinkle in some Alpine lakes and include hundreds of cities and towns, small and large with histories going back centuries before Columbus and even the Vikings reached our shores. Scatter so many places in between, that from top of any hill in the area you will always see a homestead or some other settlements, now add the feeling which no English word describes “Gemütlichkeit” and you will understand why we, besides our wonderful trips throughout North America, like to revisit Bavaria.
We do not get tired of driving through the alpine passes with the switch backs, visiting towns like Nuremberg, Regensburg, Bamberg or Munich again and again. Stepping back in time in the medieval walled cities like Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Dinkelsbühl, searching for charming restaurants in the countryside featuring the local food. We love to roam around the weekly markets, be it for food, drink or unique merchandise offered there or just to have a good time. Attend local festivals and other celebrations and find out more about the history of the events. We also love to revisit the castles, palaces and churches we already know and find amazing details we did not notice the first and second time around and we also try to find new and exciting places we missed before. Even visit some of the local or national museums.
We always hope to get immersed in the Gemütlichkeit which is often part of the local festivals and togetherness with friends.

Now let me bring up the biggest reason for the “Why go?” (this is our opinion, but let’s see if you agree!)

Have you ever stood at the rim of the Grand Canyon?
Have you ever seen pictures or movies of the Grand Canyon?
or
Have you ever been to the most amazing sight in your area?
Have you ever seen pictures or movies of the most amazing sight in your area?

Man, the pictures and movies are beautiful and very impressive, but how do they compare with your actual visit?

Attending a championship game, a concert and also fireworks in person
or
Watching it on TV

See the amazing Neuschwanstein castle on TV or in pictures, can you imagine how impressive it is to actually stand at the entrance and look up to the immense towers, wondering how they accomplished the feat of building the place.
See pictures of Rothenburg ob der Tauber or walking around on the city walls yourself, imagining what life was like and how you would have fit in during the medieval times.
See Hitler’s Eagles Nest or actually taking the 4 wheel drive bus and the Brass Elevator up to it and wonder what events happened here that changed history.
A visit to the Dachau memorial will give you insights and feelings you never could experience through a documentary.
Not even Tom Cruise, with all of Hollywood behind him, can bring you even close to the immense feeling you will have when you visit the places yourself.

Start planning as

Bavaria’s doors are open and their welcome mat is out!

A Radler or Radlermaβ

Posted on by October 3, 2021

Over the Holidays it was time again for family and friends to come over and we really enjoyed their company.

Along with this came the agony of all the different drinks available and what to enjoy. For these occasions and also in the heat of the summer, my top selection is the Bavarian Radlermaβ, a concoction of beer and lemon flavored soft drink such as 7up. As you will be mixing the two together, any decent quality beer, even light beer will do. The original mix is 50/50 which will effectively cut down on the sweetness of the soda and cuts the alcohol level of the beer in half. In addition to really quenching your thirst you will not get as tired as you would by drinking the beer “neat”, which also makes this an ideal long drink for summer.

Again the question was raised by some of our guests: “What da heck are you drinking” and after convincing them to taste it I usually had one or two of them enjoying a Radler with me. It is also a good way to use up the common beer you served to your guests at your last party.

Radler Maβ: Goes back to the bicycle clubs in Bavaria in the second half of the 19th Century, hence the first part of the name meaning bicycle rider.

A Maβ (β=ss) in Bavaria is a stein with the volume of 1 liter.

According to the German Historian Bauer: A Radler was enjoyed by the “bikers” once they reached their mid destination, a beer garden.  The “bikers” did not want to consume a soft drink, but if they would have had real beer, they would never have found their way home.

In Bavaria and nowadays even in other parts of Germany, this is a great alternative for the designated driver among the group, be sure it stays with only one though!

 recipe can be found at ingeskitchen.com/ie/drinks/radler.html

Eierlikoer

Eierlikoer or egg liqueur can be bought in fine Liquor stores here in the USA and the shelf life of this product will exceed that of the home made, but there is something to be said about the home produced kind.

First follow this link to our recipe which was handed down to us by Uncle Henry and is still made in our house in his memory for the Christmas Holidays.

It is said, that it goes back to a refreshing drink named “Abacate” which was made with avocados in Brazil, in Europe this was mixed with sugar and Rum and sold under the name “Advocaat”. During a shortage of avocados in the year 1876 a Dutch distiller living in Germany replaced them with egg yolks and generated the drink which can now be purchased all over Germany.

Comparing the commercial one with our own, I would say ours is creamier, richer, I would even call it more decadent and it definitely can not be included in a low calorie diet.

As this recipe contains raw egg yolks and with the nowadays common fear of salmonella we tried to change and make it with pasteurized yolks which, again, in our humble opinion, changed the end product.

Taste testing with our friends and neighbors we came to the conclusion that all of us preferred the raw yolk product better and up to now we never had any health problems, maybe the alcohol takes care of it, who knows.

So with a heartily “Prosit” we wish you all the best things possible for 2012!

Brotzeit (bread time)

Posted on by March 5, 2015

A Brotzeit platter served at Krug Brewery in Breitenlesau

A Brotzeit is a daily Bavarian occasion and could be translated as “Bread Break”, it is usually considered the morning break between breakfast and lunch, a time for a sandwich and may be a beer. Besides, considered the time out from your working schedule, the “Brotzeit” is now also the name for a variety of dishes you find on Bavarian menus and it can be served at any time during the day.

The Bavarian Brotzeit, the dish as it is served in restaurants and beer gardens:
As the title says you have to start with bread, usually a small basket of the hearty double crusted sourdough rye bread with butter and a couple of crunchy hard rolls accompanies a sometimes wooden platter filled with different types of luncheon meats, sausages, boiled ham, hard cheeses and often also a soft cheese spread like an “Obatzda” or other locally famous fresh prepared cheese. Add a pickle and some mustard or even a Mustard-Pickle and do not forget the most important part, a cool “Blonde” known as Lager or Pilsner!

Saturday Brotzeit in our house

In Franconia, the northern part of Bavaria, a Brotzeit is always a dish which is not heated, so a soup and a sandwich would not be considered a Brotzeit there. Included in the Brotzeit menu could be a mixed Brotzeit platter as pictured above, a Cheese platter with breads, one with just different types of Ham, “Bavarian Wurstsalat” or even a Steak Tartar open sandwich. Also specialty cheeses like a nice ripe smelly Limburger served with onions and vinegar and oil.
I stand corrected: During my last visit I found also some warm menu items under the Brotzeit category like Currywurst and a pair of Wieners on a bun, if my memory serves me right these used to be considered “Imbiss” (German fast food).

This picture arrived with my package from Geier’s Sausage Kitchen Sarasota, Florida

Some of the cold cuts and sausages like those offered in Bavaria are shown in the picture on the left. A wide variety of authentic “Wurst” is produced in Sarasota, Florida by Geier’s Sausage Kitchen, which is run by a Franconian/Bavarian Master Sausage Maker who settled there. This makes a good Bavarian/Franconian Brotzeit an occasion to look forward to, together with one of the superb local “Bier’s” you might think you are in seventh heaven. I mentioned Geier’s, as my Christmas order just arrived by UPS and I could not help but fix myself a Brotzeit right away and I am enjoying every bite of it while writing this.

Another example of this traditional custom would be at one of the world’s most famous beer gardens in the shadow of the Chinese Tower  in the English Garden in Munich, where you can actually bring along your Brotzeit and just order your beer/drink from them.

We added different Brotzeit salads like a tomato salad with or without bologna, a herring salad, a couple different wurst salads and also “Fleischwurst mit Musik” at ingeskitchen.com.

Our homemade Suelze with extra diced onions and more vinegar poured over it add a double crusted Rye Bread and it is also a Brotzeit worth mentioning.

I have to end now as one of those tall, cool “Blondes” mentioned above is waiting for me.

Brotzeit pictures from the Reiterstueberl in Grosswendern:

 

The Christmas Stollen

Posted on by March 9, 2012
Stollen 2011 version of Oma Kaethe's Stollen recipe from1980

2011 version of Oma Kaethe's Stollen recipe from1980

What is a Christmas Stollen?

Germany’s age old answer to the American Fruit Cake is documented as far back as 1329 and is said to originate from the “Christbrot”, an Advent time fasting supplement for monks consisting of flour, yeast and water. The later addition of all the extra goodies as ingredients make them, to this day, very popular among the people with German roots all over the world.

As the Christmas tree was not decorated during my childhood years in our house till Christmas Eve and the only earlier reminder of Christmas approaching was the Advent wreath, you still knew that the Holiday was around the corner when the ingredients for cookies started to invade our kitchen. This event culminated with the annual preparation of the Christmas Stollen.

1980 stollen recipe page from the old cookbook

While translating Oma Kaethe’s cookbook we found 16 documentations of ingredients dating as far back as 1941 and up to 1980. As the ingredients were always the same, the interesting part was that in the earlier lists the amounts greatly differed from year to year. This was actually a history lesson, as you could follow exactly what was available during and after World War II.  One year you had a shortage of almonds, the next raisins and another year even the candied fruits were in short supply.

The size of the recipes were huge with a minimum of 12 pounds of flour and up to 24 pounds. 24 pounds with all the extra ingredients yields about 12 – 4 pound Stollen or 32 normal size 1 1/2 pounders.

In our house in Bavaria the ingredients were mixed and prepared and the end result was brought to one of the local bakers for baking, with us kids tagging along having the annual territorial snowball fight outside the bakery against the kids living around there.

Nowadays our relatives in Germany do not go through the work of baking their own Stollen anymore as over 30 years ago this baker asked for and was given our recipe. His yearly Stollen production is a popular Christmas addition in many of the local homes. Even during the years my mother spent Christmas in Germany she still baked the cookies and sent care packages to us during Advent which included a Stollen from that baker.

During the years running our meat market one of the bakeries supplying us with bread and hard rolls asked us for a Stollen recipe. This same Stollen was produced in his bakery from then on, until his retirement. With both of our “suppliers” now gone it is back to baking our own again, as most of the commercially baked varieties are okay for the occasion, but are not quite up there, in our opinion.

A link to the recipe of what we think is one of the top quality Stollen around will be added here once all the pictures are ready and the recipe is added to ingeskitchen.com. Below is already the ingredients list of it:

 

12 lbs Flour
4 lbs melted Butter
2½ lbs Sugar
4 lbs light & dark Raisins
4½ lbs Almonds
3 lbs Citron
½ lb Candied Orange Peel
10 Vanilla Sugar         6 Lemons, zest of
60 g Bitter Almonds or 9 Bitter Almond oil (Oetker)
1 bottle Rum & Arrack mixed to total ¾ liter
850 g Yeast
2 whole Eggs
15 Egg Yolks
50 g Salt
2½ l Milk

Inge’s Kitchen, what is it all about?

Posted on by March 9, 2012

It all started trying to preserve some of my mother’s recipes for her grandchildren and great grandchildren and maybe also later generations. So we decided to go through our cookbooks and publish some of the recipes “Oma Kaethe” was known for.
Then we came across her old cookbook at one of my sisters with recipes included from my great-grandmother which originated over a century ago. We decided to scan and publish it for everyone in the family and as the English speaking side is growing, we translated it for them.

Front page of Oma Kaethe's Kochbuch

Front page of Oma Kaethe's Kochbuch

Partially written in the old German alphabet it became a task just to read, then copy and translate it into English. All this with proof reading and correcting took us about a year.

Part of this page was written in 1942

Part of this page was written in 1942

To our surprise many of her recipes already in our possession were not included in this worn cookbook, which is held together with duct tape and usually accompanied her during her many visits here as shown by some entries in it.

A conversation with one of my sisters in Germany revealed, that she too had recipes from her. So we began working together on what is now ingeskitchen.com or ingeskueche.com, the German language version thereof.

Though Inge’s Kitchen was started in the memory of our mother it evolved into a collection of mainly Bavarian, but also German and many of our favorite recipes from around the world given to us by family, friends, customers and acquaintances.

Bavarian Beef Rouladen

Posted on by March 9, 2012

Rouladen with Spaetzle and Red Cabbage

Beef rouladen are a Sunday dinner and also available in many restaurants. Comparing recipes from around Germany we noticed, that different areas use different stuffing ingredients.

Rouladen actually would describe any thinly sliced meats which are stuffed and rolled. We are also familiar with the roll ups using veal or even had them with a smoked sausage wrapped up in them.

To eliminate debates about the right or wrong way of doing these we published the recipe commonly used in the Northern region of Bavaria. Our site ingeskitchen.com lists the recipe under “Bavarian Beef Rouladen” . We also included a link there to a 4 page step by step storyboard with pictures.

Usually served with Dumplings or Spaetzle.