Neuschwanstein...the fairytale castle

Negli ultimi anni la meta preferita per i nostri “on the road” sono stati gli States, ma la nostra piccola esploratrice aveva in lista alcune attrazioni europee che non potevamo ulteriormente ignorare; così un giorno d’estate abbiamo caricato l’auto con tenda e fornellino e abbiamo percorso più di 3.500 km di strade europee.

Il primo  della lista è stato il castello di Neuschwanstein, luogo di avventure dei Little Einstein di Disney.

Non avevo mai visitato la Germania, ma mi aspettavo luoghi naturali d’incanto con alte vette, fitti boschi e laghi variopinti, feste paesane in costume con fiumi di birra e pretzels e imponenti castelli straripanti di storia. 

Come colonna sonora “Sul bel Danubio blu” di Johann Strauss.

Tutto ciò l’abbiamo potuto ritrovare in Baviera, il più grande e antico stato federale tedesco, con i suoi edifici storici e i paesaggi mozzafiato, la cordialità della gente di campagna e l’ottima accoglienza delle grandi città, è una meta ideale per le famiglie.

Per raggiungere il castello di Neuschwanstein abbiamo percorso, parte della Romantische Straße, che ci ha accompagnato alla scoperta di alcuni dei paesaggi più affascinanti e ricchi di storia della Baviera.

I tre magnifici castelli di Ludwig II di Baviera ne marcano la fine ai piedi delle Alpi, in una cornice naturale di grande bellezza.

Neuschwanstein è il castello più famoso, ogni anno attira un milione di visitatori da tutto il mondo, ma credo sia anche il più impegnativo da visitare con dei bambini molto piccoli.

E’ possibile che ci sia la fila per acquistare i biglietti, bisogna valutare come raggiungere il castello dal parcheggio e il tour è abbastanza lungo (circa 30 minuti).

Inoltre durante la visita ci sono molte scale strette e tortuose e non è possibile portare carrozzine, passeggini, zainetti portabimbi e zaini voluminosi.

In alternativa si potrebbe preferire la visita a Linderhof o a Herrenchiemsee che, essendo più piccoli, offrono tempi di percorrenza minori e ampi giardini con grandi fontane che potrebbero essere di maggior interesse per i più piccini.

Nel nostro caso Neuschwanstein è stato una tappa obbligata!!

Con Maia, durante il percorso, abbiamo letto alcune informazioni sulla storia di Ludovico II di Baviera, l’eccentrico re che commissionò la costruzione di queste imponenti strutture architettoniche, dando forma alle sue passioni storiche, artistiche e musicali.

La storia di questo re sognatore è avvolta da molti misteri, intrighi di potere e un tragico epilogo, ma abbiamo cercato di non perdere il gusto romantico che questi luoghi sanno esaltare…anche se la fantasia ci ha portato a creare molte storie dal gusto fantasy e  disneyano.  

Percorriamo chilometri di strade tortuose tra splendide montagne e laghi dai colori intensi, immersi nella tranquillità dei paesaggi bavaresi.

Neuschwanstein è arroccato su una collina circondata da fitti boschi, dopo aver parcheggiato l’auto, ci siamo incamminati a piedi lungo la strada che conduce al castello, superati dai bus navetta e da carrozze piene di turisti trainate da grossi e stanchi cavalli.

Durante la passeggiata è possibile scorgere alcune belle vedute della Hohenschwangau, del lago Alpsee e delle Alpi bavaresi, non c'è da meravigliarsi che i reali abbiano scelto questa zona per costruire i loro castelli.

Dal parcheggio alle nostre spalle si erge imponente il castello di Hohenschwangau che è accessibile dal villaggio sottostante; esso era la residenza estiva della famiglia reale bavarese, dove re Ludwig II trascorse molte estati. 

Una volta arrivati ai piedi del castello ci siamo resi conto della sua imponenza e del magnifico panorama sulla valle e i boschi circostanti.

Da vicino si ha modo di osservare i tanti particolari dell’architettura: balconate, pinnacoli, sculture e torri che sono in completa sintonia con il paesaggio circostante.

Siamo giunti sino al Marienbrücke, un ponte in ferro costruito sopra la gola del fiume Pöllat dal padre di Ludwing per sua madre; uno dei punti migliori per poter fotografare il castello in tutta la sua bellezza.

Il gran numero di turisti è stato l’unico limite della nostra visita al castello, quindi mi piacerebbe ritornare in un periodo meno affollato, ma soprattutto mi piacerebbe vederlo con la neve.

Siamo contenti di aver finalmente esaudito il desiderio della nostra piccola esploratrice.

Info utili sul sito:

http://www.neuschwanstein.de/ital/tourist/index.htm

E voi avete visitato il castello di Neuschwanstein o è sulla vostra “travel list”?

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Interview with "Goodie Goodie Gumdrop"

This week I'm pleased to introduce you my new friend, Jessica. 
I met her thanks to Lainie http://www.raisingmiro.com/

Intro

"Hello my name is Jessica and I am the blogger behind Goodie Goodie Gumdrop  a lifestyle blog that focuses on travel as it relates to our family.

I post about our creative family adventures in travel, art, education and work.

We sold most of our belongings, transferred to location independent careers and moved to Costa Rica in order to learn more about the world through travel.

I am also a graphic designer, photographer and a mom.

Join us while we pursue our goal of traveling the world with our two children."

Interview

1.What was your travel style like before you had children? Before children we were vacationers. We would anxiously wait for our two weeks of vacation each year so we could go out and live the life we dreamed of. Unfortunately when you only have two weeks in a location you end up spending so much more on hotels (now we use airbnb.com) and flight than if you went for longer. When we vacationed it was always a mass rush to see how much we could check off our list because we did not know if we would ever be back again. I always came home exhausted and feeling like I needed a vacation. We had guests recently that commented on how little we knew about Costa Rica in our four months here. I was happy to announce that we are now what one calls “slow travelers,” we live, work and travel, but we do it all in a longer period of time. I much prefer out new travel style where we get to spend more time getting to know the locals and the culture.

2. What ages were your children when you started traveling with them? We started vacationing with them as early as three months, but we did not start traveling with them until they were six and nine. I should probably give you my definition of vacationing versus travel since I have already referenced it twice. Vacationing for us is to spend a couple of weeks in a place where we see the sights and head home exhausted. Traveling is when we spend an extended period of time (more than three weeks) in an area and we make it a point to interact with the locals and learn about the culture all while taking it slow.

3. How long have you been traveling for and what countries have you explored? Almost two years ago we spent a summer in Paris and I consider that the beginning of our travel life even though we came back home for 12 months after that trip. Upon our return we spent the next 12 months trying to figure out how we could do this for a longer period of time. Last summer we spent a month in India, returned home for a month and then moved to Costa Rica. We have currently been living in CR for four months and our plan is to stay at least one year. I honestly don’t know how many countries I (we) have visited in our lifetime. It’s a lot, but I don’t have a desire to keep track.

4. Do you follow an unschooling or homeschooling approach for education? We are worldschoolers. We follow a customized curriculum from various sources, use local tutors for language/culture and teach several subjects ourselves. We also learn out in the Costa Rican communities about currency, language, geography, science, music and much more. We are not technically unschoolers, but we do entertain interest driven work when it arises.

5. Why did you decide that exposing your children to travel was important? Why not? Will and I have always been vacationers, but once we really started to travel and dig deep into the culture and lives of the countries we visited our education began. We wanted the same experience for our children.

·      We value education and feel that learning through travel is priceless.

·      We want them to have an epic, out of the box childhood.

·      We want to expose them to real world experiences and people
 who live different from us.

·      We want to invest in making memories and building relationships 
instead of buying stuff.

6. Can you tell us how your traveling lifestyle has enhanced their education? I don’t even know where to begin with this. Avalon and Largo learn something new every single day. A lot of their learning in the US was isolated within a classroom setting because everything outside the school was very familiar to them. Nothing in Costa Rica is familiar; therefore each day presents a new set of challenges, obstacles, enlightenment and learning. The traveling lifestyle has made them more aware of the differences among countries, people and cultures, plus it has allowed them to think more globally.

7. How have your children helped to build your itinerary? Unfortunately they were not involved in the itinerary for our move to Costa Rica because most of this was done after work and late at night. But, we plan to let them each pick a country on their dream list as we continue to travel and plan the logistics of the move. Also, they do have a lot of input about the places we visit within Costa Rica and the logistics associated with the visits.

8. How has it been for your children in regards to making friends on the road? Our situation is a little different than other travelers in that we slow travel. This means that we stay in a location for at least a year in order to get more of a cultural experience and meet locals. Our son is in a brick and mortar school and he has made friends with local Costa Rican children. Our daughter is world schooled and her friends come from different classes she takes within the community, siblings of her bothers friends and other traveling families that pass though Costa Rica. Largo has also made friends at classes he has taken outside of his school in the community.

9. Your backpack: what items would I find? What is a must for your children? My backpack would have my computer, Go Pro and camera, an additional lens, basic clothing, a medical bag, a Kindle, art supplies, spices (yes, I travel with my favorites), books (yes, I still carry these), homeschool supplies and a warm sweater (I hate to be cold).

The children have clothing, books, legos, games (chess for sure), art supplies, a comfy blanket and a stuffed animal (or two or three).

10. How do you find your interactions with locals? The point of our travel is to interact with locals and learn about the local culture. It is not always easy to break into a community when you have language barriers, but I am proud of what we have accomplished thus far. We have several local families and kids as friends.

11. Have your family and friends been supportive of your choice? Yes, very much so. Of course, they miss us and would like us closer, but they realize that this was a seven-year dream in the making that has finally come to fruition and they are happy for us.

12. Has your relationship with your children changed since you started traveling together? Absolutely, we are much more engaged as a family and as parents. We have become closer and our conversations are more authentic and honest. I feel this time in Costa Rica has created a bond within our family that will last for the rest of our life.

13. If you could choose the best and the worst things about traveling as a family, what would they be? The worst would be missing family and friends, hands down. The best would be having this special time as a family, the educational experience and watching our children become global citizens.

14. What is your favorite travel memory of traveling as a family? It’s simple, watching our children interact with local children in a new language. It brings tears to my eyes every time I watch them enter this new terrain fearlessly. Luckily this is a travel memory that I get to see over and over again.

15. According to your child, what is their favorite part about travel? They both agree that making new friends is by far the best part. But, they also mentioned eating new candy, long car rides, memories of travels, airplane rides and all of us snuggling in a big bed. We often have accommodations that need some creativity if you can’t tell. Ha.

16. How do you fund your travels? My husband and I are digital nomads. We work location independent as an accountant and a graphic designer. In addition, we live frugal and save whenever possible.

17. How much longer do you plan to be traveling and what are your intended destinations? Funny, everyone wants to know this. Our plan was to travel to Costa Rica for one year with a possible one-year extension. We have decided after four months that we want to extend to a second year of travel, but we will change locations. The location is not determined at this time. It has always been a dream of ours to change countries every one to two years until our youngest (age seven) goes to college. How cool would that be? Right now we are just trying to make year one and two work, adjust to our location independent careers and world school. Time will tell what the future holds. I guess you will have to follow us atwww.goodiegoodiegumdrop.com to find out how it all works out.

18. What tips would you offer parents when it comes to travel with children? Just do it! Don’t worry about school, friends, extended family, etc. They will be with their parents and that is the most important part. Travel will only enrich their lives, even if they are young. Create memories instead of buying stuff. Take them out of their bubble and let them become global citizens. You will be surprised at the education they will get from travel. Oh, and don’t bring all their stuff. Kids need less than we actually think.

"May your life be filled with sweet adventure (whatever that means to you)!!!"

I hope to meet Jessica and her family soon  in one of our trip!!

You can find out more about Jessica and her family’s adventures at her blog:

http://goodiegoodiegumdrop.com/

http://cucumberdesign.com/

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Interview with my friend "Exploramum"

Welcome to "Family Travel" first of many interviews with traveling families experiencing an extraordinary life.

I hope to do an interview with a different traveling family every month.

Today I'm very excited to introduce you my friend Ruth from "Exploramum & Explorason".

Intro:

"I’m a single older Mum from Australia, and I have been traveling with my son around the world.

We have been traveling 22 months to 23 countries so far. We do not have a mapped out route of where we travel. We talk and work that out as we go.

We love to focus on Random Acts of Kindness when we travel. So we have sold our home, car, most of our possessions, and we have left our old life in Australia behind for now. We support ourselves with our savings. We have no income, but we aim to use our blog to fund our travels. 

It is a great way to also educate my son.

Travel for us is not just about seeing. It is about making a difference too.

The more we give, the more we want to give.

It has become our addiction – to put a smile on a face.

To say “we care”."

Interview:

1. What was your travel style like before you had children?

I am a single parent now, and prior to having my son I was not single - we were a couple. we had rather expensive taste, and tended to splurge on luxury hotels and resorts.

2. What ages were your children when you started travelling with them?

My son was 6 weeks old when he had his first flight and regularly travelled thereafter as his grandparents lived in another state in Australia. His first overseas trip was to a resort in Fiji when he was a toddler.

3. How long have you been traveling for and what countries have you explored?

I have been traveling with my son to 44 countries on THIS particular trip and we are in our 3rd year. It includes the Pacific, North, Central and South America, UK, Europe and Eastern Europe to Turkey.

4. You follow an unschooling or homeschooling approach for education?

We used to follow a regimented homeschooling program but it became to unrealistic to expect my son to explore the world, and then to put his head in a book. We discovered world-schooling and have never looked back.

5. Why did you decide that exposing your children to travel was important?

Travel is important. Firstly the bond and experiences are shared between parent and child. But the world becomes our living classroom.

6. Can you tell us how your traveling lifestyle has enhanced his education?

My son knows the value of money for starters. He understands the rising and falling US dollar. His geography is fantastic. He can lead the way and draw a map on any underground or subway system. Not to mention he is culturally rich, and aware of different ethnic regions. And this is just the start.

7. How have helped your children to build your itinerary?

My son is a big part of our planning. He can draw a map of all the countries we have been to and plan where we are going. We discuss what we both want to do and then we plan how to do this geographically, financially, and physically.

8. How has it been for your children in regards to making friends on the road?

We are part of a group called Families on the Move. Here we meet up with many families. We also have met other blogger families. And as you know we met and stayed with you. Our children are now friends as well as us!

9. Your backpack: what items would I find? What is a must for your children?

Food, Water, rain jacket and an iPad and charger. A warm, full and happy contented child !! He can also use the iPad as his camera.

10. How you find your interactions with locals?

We try to use 'the road less travelled'. We have a car now so we often get to stay in out of the way places and experience real culture. We share meals in homes of ,local Romanians, we learn to weave or create with Greeks, we learn Spanish with the kids in the playground of Ecuador. And we buy our clothes from local markets. We immerse ourselves in the culture.

11. Your family and friends were been supporting for your choice?

I did not tell to many of our decision at the start. Now I think many admire me. But at least once a day I am asked on Facebook "when are you coming home, and what is the end to this journey", to which I reply we don't know. My son wants to travel to 100 countries so we have a long way to reach his goal.

12. Has your relationship with your children changed since you started traveling together?

Definitely. We talk and decide together. He also knows that I make the major decisions but if there is a reason why, we talk about it. We also have an agreement to tell the other person if we are staying somewhere and the other person isn't happy there. We respect each other.

13. If you could choose the best and the worst things about traveling as a family, what would they be?

Love - the best thing is that my son constantly tells me he loves me - many, many times a day, and of course I return and spontaneously do also. When I was working I never had him around, now if anything the only bad thing is as a single Mum on the road, I sometimes need adult or me time. sharing a hotel room makes that difficult.

14. According to your child, what is their favourite part about travel?

 "I get to see new places all the time" was his reply

15. How do you fund your travels?

That is a toughy. Im desperately trying to make my website into a business and support us through affiliate links and advertising. I also accept Guest posts so if any of you would like a really inexpensive way to promote your product, please contact me!

16. How much longer do you plan to be traveling and what are your intended destinations?

I joke but refer to #11. We really don't have a limit. We are also very free spirited and planning is so difficult. For us the Schengen zone limit of time makes this hard. I do think we ant to go back to Italy, Greece and Romania in Summer.

17. What tips would you offer parents when it comes to travel with children?

My biggest tip is "Do it". Anyone can travel. If you really want to do it, you will find a way. It is the greatest time you will ever share with your child and they will grow up so quickly. Try to get the time to travel. Even if it isn't full-time, try to spend some weeks where the mobile telephone and computer and TV are no longer the loudest noise or the busiest item in your family.

You can find out more about Ruth and her son at her blog: http://exploramum.com/

When we met:

http://momwithbackpack.blogspot.it/2014/09/friendships-on-road-from-australia.html

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Geocaching...all around you!

Successe una domenica, “skyppando” oltreoceano con i nostri cari amici del Wisconsin.

Loro avrebbero trascorso il pomeriggio partecipando al geocaching e ci presentarono questa attività che attirò subito la nostra attenzione.

Per leggere la loro esperienza: 

http://ita2usa.blogspot.it/2014/09/alla-scoperta-del-geocaching.html

Il www.geocaching-italia.com afferma:

"Un GPS, un pizzico di avventura e tanta voglia di divertirsi. Ecco gli ingredienti di quella che è stata definita come "la caccia al tesoro high-tech del nuovo millennio".  Il geocaching è uno sport ed una divertentissima attività che consiste nel cercare dei contenitori (cache), nascosti in tutto il mondo da altri geocacher, scoprendo così bellezze e curiosità del nostro pianeta."

Non riusciamo a rimanere indifferenti di fronte a questa avventura e ci siamo organizzati!!

Ad oggi abbiamo recuperato una "cache" e ne abbiamo individuate un paio, senza però riuscire a recuperarle a causa dell'abbigliamento poco adatto all'operazione. 

Ora viaggiamo con il GPS sempre acceso e gli appunti che gli altri geocacher hanno lasciato per agevolare la ricerca delle tante "cache". 

Per ogni "cache" infatti vi è una precisa descrizione dell'avventura che andrete ad intraprendere, considerando le caratteristiche del terreno, la difficoltà nel reperirla e le sue dimensioni. 

Ciò che mi affascina di questa grande caccia al tesoro è la responsabilizzazione del singolo, che trovando la "cache" dovrà avere il buon senso di seguire alcune semplici regole:

- se prendi qualcosa dalla "cache", lascia qualcosa in cambio;

- non modificare la posizione della "cache"; 

- non lasciare oggetti pericolosi o di cattivo gusto; 

- prendere appunti relativi ad eventuali difficoltà o cambiamenti; 

- attenersi alle regole e alle linee guida riportate sul sito ufficiale www.geocaching.com.

Ricordatevi di lasciare un commento a testimonianza del vostro ritrovamento e buon divertimento!!

Altre info:

http://www.geocaching.com/adventures/geotours

http://www.geocaching.com/about/glossary.aspx

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