A little tired but joyful day today.
1. I rent a bike to the Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castles. Biking to Hohenschwangau was easy. Listening to Westlife while cycling in the countryside with beautiful natural landscape: this was so relaxing. But the bike ride to Neuschwanstein was not easy at all. The ride was about 2km probably, but the road is going up. I thought it should not be that hard, but actually I was almost out of breath and wet from head to toe when I reached the castle. Ancient Chinese people say that the most beautiful sceneries often lie in places that are hard to reach. At least for the castle, it seems true. Today I biked almost 30km. Most significantly, I rode back from the castle area to Füssen late in the evening at about 10pm. There was no light on the road. I was kinda frightened, and I rode incredibly fast. The cars on the road passed me very slowly. But I arrived at my hostel safely anyways. It was an adventure, and adventures are bound to be dangerous to some degree.
2. The Neuschwanstein. Beautiful both inside and outside. Here I learnt a lot about the kingdom of Bavaria and the king Ludwig II. I think it is cynical, that this king, who did not rule his territory well but spent a large sum of money building things on his own fantasy instead do spending it for his land, was the remembered the best by people today.
3. I wrote yesterday that places with history or stories are much more fascinating than places without them. Here the Neuschwanstein itself presents a lot of stories. Because of Ludwig II’s close relationship with the musician Wagner (真的是超级好基友啊。。对不起这个真的没法用英文表达), there are numerous paintings in the castles that came from Wagner’s opera. The castle is said to be the model for the Disney castle, and they do look very alike. These things make the castle a very attractive place.
4. Another small note: the king’s reading chair is super large,and has almost all the functions one needs while reading. The chair has a book shelf to hold a book and a place to hold water container. It seems that the king like to stay at his room and palace Hahn going out, because he has such great equipments in his castle!
5. Another highlight of the day: watching Shakespeare’s the Taming of the Shrew in the evening. Fantastic show. I read the play last semester during my FWIS class, so it was worth seeing it live. And the money was well worth it! It was super fun, and the actors really played well. I took pictures, but photos along cannot record or show how joyful the play has been. Sometimes some experience can only live in one’s memory, but i believe it will influence the person subconsciously.