The second area was where you could learn about how each of the figures were made as well as see the full size, completely intact (at least from what we could tell) soldiers. There are hundreds of thousands of these incredibly detailed figures in Xi’an at the mausoleum and it’s amazing how much detail was put into each one.

I visited the mausoleum in Xi’an back around 1995 and I remember going to one of the pits and being blown away with the sheer size of the army. Seeing them up close lets you see how much detail was put into each one of the soldiers, seeing them all lined up in their channels really blows your mind – each one was made by hand by expert craftsmen. It’s a stunning sight.

If you want to learn more about the history, the Terracotta Army wikipedia page is a good place to start. It gives you a good idea of both the soldiers themselves and the location they were found. From there you can dig around to your hearts content.

Hopefully in the next few years I’ll be able to take Martha to see it in person!

One of the benefits of staying at Waikiki was its proximity to the massive volcanic crater that is Diamond Head. Named Le’ahi by Hawaiians (meaning “brow of the tuna”), Diamond Head is located on the south east coast just at the end of Waikiki. You won’t have to worry about volcanic activity though, it’s been extinct for several hundreds of thousands of years. (300,000 to be exact)

The crater itself has been measured to be 3,520 feet across with a 760 foot summit. There’s an old fort there now, Fort Ruger, built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, use for naval defense. There was also an observation deck built around 1910 but with invention of radar it was made obsolete.

Hiking Diamond Head

The hike up to the summit, and the observation deck, is considered “moderate” in terms of exertion and it is a bit of a hike. We reached it late in the day and were already tired from doing something else, but it was a tiring walk. It’s listed as less than a mile and an ascension of about 560 feet, so do the math and figure out how difficult it would be for you (we saw plenty of people who looked like they were doing the hike as part of their daily exercise routine). They say it takes an hour and a half to two hours to make the hike and you should plan for that much time.

Fort Ruger

When you get near the top, there are two sets of really long stairs (99 steps and 76 steps) that take you into the fort itself. There’s also a 225-foot long tunnel, unlit, before you can get out to see the wonderful view. The shot above is of one of the long string of steps and the picture below is of the end of that 225′ unlit tunnel.

View from the Top

The view from the top is spectacular, as you can see in the shot above (it’s towards Waikiki Beach), and well worth the trip if you can manage it. When you visit Honolulu, and this applies to much of Oahu as well, it’s got a lot more of the mainland feel with a lot more urban living.

If you’re planning on making the trip, you can find more information on the Diamond Head Park, created by the Department of Land and Natural Resources of Hawaii.

During our last few days in London we wanted to see the British Museum, world renowned for its collections of Greek, Egyptian, and pre-historic artifacts, the Tate Modern, Big Ben and Parliament. Since both the British Museum and the Tate Modern are free for non-specialty exhibits they were a great way to spend a few hours out of the rain!

(The events of this day actually occurred on August 12th, 2009)

British Museum

British Museum

Stats on the British Museum:

Open: 10.00–17.30 and late on Thursday and Fridays.
Address:Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG
How to get there?
The nearest underground stations to the Museum are:
Holborn (~7 minutes on foot)
Tottenham Court Road (~6 minutes on foot)
Russell Square (~10 minutes on foot)
Goodge Street (~13 minutes on foot)

We decided to take the tube to the Tottenham Court Tube Station. The only tricky part was orienting ourselves once we exited the tube station! We didn’t see any signs so we had to ask a local. They were very helpful and after short walk we were at the main gates!

Front of the British Museum

The British Museum is so large and has so many artifacts that it would take at least 5 days to tour all of the exhibits! It houses such wonders as the Rosetta Stone, a stone chopper (1.8 million years old!), and Egyptian mummies. Instead of wandering around aimlessly we decided to take an exhibit tour. We joined a tour that was discussing Islamic art, it was interesting; however, a little too detailed for our one day’s tour of the museum. After the tour we decided that to be able to see all the other interesting features of the museum we would try to see the museums “highlights” listed at the bottom of the map.

The museum map lists the top attractions and their locations on the bottom of the map. There were about 25 items to see on the tour. The map said that it would take about 3 hours to just see those highlights! It was an amazing tour, some of my favorites were artifacts were the Rosetta Stone, a samurai’s armor from medieval Japan, and sculptures from the Parthenon!

Sculptures from the Parthenon!

The tour of the British Museum was amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone who is spending a few days in London. It also would be perfect for families since there are many interesting sights and since its free you could break it up into a few days of fun!

King Ludwig loved to build castles and he used his personal fortune to build them. His most famous castle is Neuschwanstein which means New Swan Stone Palace in German. Neuschwanstein is a masterpiece and is the inspiration for many things including Cinderella’s Castle in Disneyland!

Füssen and Neuschwanstein

(August 1, 2009)

Mad King Ludwig's Castle

Füssen is about 2.5 hours from Stuttgart without traffic. However since it was the first weekend in August, which is vacation month for most Germans, the traffic was a bit backed up for our drive. Once we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to see how few tourists where at the castles. All the guide books I read about the tours is that if you don’t reserve tickets in advance or get to Füssen in early morning you will probably miss a guided tour.

Luckily, or due to the recession, many tours were available! Even though we arrived at 12:30 we got tickets for the guided tour (in English) at 2:10! We relaxed a bit before the tour and got a traditional German lunch of curry wurst, for Jim, pork schnitzel, for me, and yummy weiss beer for us both.

We opted to take the bus which drops you off about a few feet away from Mary’s Bridge, or Merienbrücke. The bridge is a wonderful vantage point for taking pictures of Neuschwanstein. Unfortunately while we were visiting the castle was undergoing renovations so our pictures are lovely but the castle is covered in scaffolding!

Neuschwanstein with Scaffolding

Note: It is important that you take into account the time to hike up the hill to Neuschwanstein to make your tour time. It is a short distance up the mountain but takes about 30 minutes to scale the road from the ticket office. If you miss your scheduled tour you will not be able to join the next tour!

The Tour of Neuschwanstein

The tour of Neuschwanstein takes about an hour. It is an amazing castle, especially when you understand that it was built in the late 1800′s, a couple hundred years after most European castles. The basic history of Neuchwanstein is that built from 1869-1886 to celebrate Richard Wagner’s operas. Mad King Ludwig was a major supporter of Wagner and was in love with his operas (or maybe with Wagner). The castle even has a stage for which Wagner’s operas may be performed.

After 17 years of building the castle was almost complete when on June 12, 1886 the King was declared insane by the State. On June 13th he was found dead after drowning in a local lake with his doctor. His death is still regarded as mysterious after all these years.

If you have only seen the castles from the Disney movies this will not disapoint. It was an amazing experience, unfortunately you are not able to take pictures inside the castle so you’ll just have to take my word about how breathtaking the inside is! Here are some pictures from the inside looking out onto the lake below, Alpsee.

View from Neuschwanstein

View from Neuschwanstein

Köln hosts one of the most remarkable cathedrals in all of Europe, one I read about frequently in high school in AP Art History. One of most amazing things about the cathedral is that it always seems to be a work in progress. I started in 1248 and was “finished” in 1322, with it only partially built after funds dried up (inland ports like Koln saw a reduced amount of trade with the discovery of the Americas). The finished portion was walled up and Koln Cathedral functioned as a church for three hundred years.

It wasn’t until the 1800s that the rest of the church was completed, a task that took only 38 years. I won’t much more into the history of the church, as its well documented elsewhere, so here is what’s inside.

Köln Cathedral is free to the public.

Gero-Crucifix

Gero-crucifix in Koln Cathedral

Shrine of the Magi

Shring of the Magi at Koln Cathedral

What’s inside? The three skulls of the Magi, adorned with golden crowns. The three magi were the first to recognize Jesus as the savior and visit as pilgrims to worship him.

Madonna of Milan

The final big pilgrim stop in Koln Cathedral is the Madonna of Milan. Unfortunately for us, we saw The Patron Saints of Koln, by Stefan Lochner in 1442, in the Chapel of the Virgin and mistakenly believed we were looking at the “Madonna of Milan,” not realizing it was a sculpture.

Chapel of the Virgin at Koln Cathedral

Regardless, the painting is magnificent. It’s said that it is so detailed that you can identify the herbs in the foreground… something we didn’t try to do, but believe would be possible.

Church Spire Climb

The only part of Koln Cathedral that you need to pay for is the climb up the Church Spire. For a euro a piece (student prices), we had the opportunity to climb up 509 steps to the very tip top of on eof the church spires.

Four fifths of the way up is the Glockenstube (400 steps), you can see the church’s nine huge bells, one of which is pictured above.

Just as you entire what you think is the church spire, you’ll see some scaffolding you can climb to get even higher. We thought we reached the top when we learned we had about 60-70 steps to go! Isn’t that cruel? (check out these pigeons taking a break to the left)

Looking Down from Spire of Koln Cathedral

At the very top, the view is pretty amazing. I wouldn’t say its breathtaking but you certainly learn to appreciate the hard work it must have taken to build this cathedral so many years ago. Even now, seeing some parts having been powerwashed, it’s harrowing to think what it’s like to work up htere.

Check out this ladder that takes you all the way to the tippy-top!

Ladder to the Top of Koln Cathedral

Scary huh?

If you’re in the area, Koln Catherdral, in its Gothic “grandeur,” is worth stopping at.

View of Windsor Castle

The events in this post occurred on July 22nd, 2009.

We were fortunate to be staying with friends in the Chiswick area of London so our trip to Windsor Castle took approximately 50 minutes.

Windsor Castle is the largest inhabited castle and the official residence of the Queen of England!

Getting to Windsor Castle

We had to take the Underground from Turnham Green, on the District Line, to Paddington, a 20 minute ride. At Paddington we jumped on a First Great Western train (8 pounds per person, as of 2009) to Windsor after transfering through Slough.

Windsor Castle was well worth the fifty minutes it took to get there. Admission was £14 for students, £15.50 for adults. There are family packages as well. Here is a list of all the features and exhibits currently on display there.

Summer vs. Winter Visits

One fun aspect of the castle is that if you visit in the winter, you get access to five “Semi-State Rooms” that you don’t get to see in the summer (since the Queen will be living there). Since we hadn’t consulted with the Queen as to the best timing of our visit, we didn’t get to see those Semi-State Rooms but the rest of the interior was amazing.

We recommend consulting the official website before your visit to make sure you get the maximum value. From time to time the castle or parts of it are closed for official business.

The Guided Tour

The guided tour took approximately fifteen minutes and very entertaining. It was one of the rare times the photo of the tour guide on the placard was actually the person giving the tour! The tour is free and only covers the grounds of the castle, for the interior you will want to get the free audio tours available near the entrance.

Audio Tour

The audio tour is free so there’s really no reason why you wouldn’t want to take it. It’s almost required if you want to get any of the history for the interior of the castle because there are no interior tours and very few, if any, plaques explaining the rooms.

Inside the Castle

There were two parts of the interior that stood out for us. The first was Queen Mary’s Dolls House and second was St. George’s Hall.

Queen Mary’s Dolls House is absolutely amazing. It was never designed to be a child’s plaything, but a way for the craftsmen of the time to showcase their skills in miniature.

I wish we were allowed to take pictures inside the state rooms so I could show you what we saw, but instead here are a collection of photos that Google has found on the internet.

Our second favorite area was St. Georges Hall because it was this huge hallway with the crests of all the knights all along the walls and ceiling. Disgraced knights had their shields replaced with completely white shields and there’s even a roll listing which knight was which crest (available upon request).

Overall, we thought going to Windsor Castle was well worth the trip!

If you want to learn a little more, the Wikipedia entry on Windsor Castle is very informative.