Munich

Munich is a very large city in Germany with a lot of history. In this picture you can see the Nymphenburg Palace, which sits right in the city of Munich!

This palace was a summer home for the royal family that ruled Bavaria back when it was its own country. It has many beautiful rooms with paintings and art, and in addition, there is a lot of land filled with lakes and gardens and places to walk and visit.

Remember I told you about King Ludwig II? Well, this palace was built by his ancestors, who considered the swan to be a symbol for their family. That's why they have swans living here at Nymphenburg Palace. And that's why the castles in southern Bavaria all have the word "swan" in their names.

Southern Bavaria

Hello! One of my favorite trips was when I went with the Elms down to southern Bavaria. Just like California is a state in the United States, Bavaria is a state in Germany. Bavaria has been around for so long, in fact, that it used to be its own country before it became part of Germany!

My favorite place so far in Germany was a castle named Neuschwanstein. In English, its name means New Swan Stone palace. This castle is so pretty that Walt Disney used it to design the castle for his movie Sleeping Beauty.

Neuschwanstein sits high on a hill and you have to hike up the mountain to visit. It was built by a Bavarian king named Ludwig II who loved music and swans. That is why it is called the New Swan Stone palace. It is very beautiful.

Across the way from Neuschwanstein castle is another castle named Hohenschwangau, which means it is the castle of the High Swan County. This is the castle that King Ludwig II lived in when he was growing up. It is very large, but it isn't as beautiful as Neuschwanstein.

King Ludwig II was known for building castles and palaces while he was alive. Near the two castles is another special area, high in the mountains, called the Linderhof palace. This palace was actually only used as a vacation home for King Ludwig II. In the picture you can see my friends, Andrew and Ellie Elms, and you can also see that it is snowing very hard. During the summer, when there isn't any snow, the Linderhof has many beautiful gardens for you to see. But on this day, it was too cold.

Down in this area of southern Bavaria, there are a lot of small towns to visit. I spent some time in a place called Oberammergau. It is famous for a Christmas play that they put on only every ten years. A lot of buildings and houses in Oberammergau have large paintings on them that show religious scenes or pictures from fairy tales. I like this picture because the large mountain in the background reminds me of the Matterhorn at Disneyland!

Dinkelsbühl

Dinkelsbühl is another medieval walled city just like Rothenburg, so it has a lot of old buildings, art, and churches. But what is neat about this city is what I learned about its history.

During a war called the Thirty Years' War in the 1600s, the Swedish Army came to Dinkelsbühl to conquer it and possibly destroy the whole city! But the children of the town went out to plead for mercy from the Swedish troops so that their families would be protected. Well, it turns out that one of the children of the Swedish general had died at a young age, and when the general saw the children, he had compassion and decided not to destroy the city. They have a painting of this on the wall on this building.

To this day, Dinkelsbühl still celebrates that part of its history, and they throw a yearly party where they put on special events for children and they give them presents and free candy!

Rothenburg

Rothenburg is one of my favorite places. It is actually named Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which is a really long name, that means it is on the Tauber River.

Rothenburg is special because it has a wall around the oldest part of the city, just like is has for hundreds of years!

It is also special because it is the home of a Christmas museum. Inside the museum looks like how I imagine Santa's Workshop at the North Pole to look!

I learned a lot about Christmas at Rothenburg. Did you know that Germans were the first people to decorate Christmas trees? Or that they invented nutcrackers, Christmas ornaments, and other fun traditions? I love Christmas!

Do you remember how I told you about the rathaus in Schweinfurt? Well, they have one in Rothenburg, too, right on the city square. Here I am out in front!

Heidelberg

Wow! Look at that castle! Heidelberg is a very old city that sits nearby a river. There are a lot of interesting buildings and churches here. There is so much to see!

Up on the hill above the city sits the Heidelberg Castle. Nobody lives there anymore, but they keep it open as a museum. If you look closely, you can see that part of the castle is missing! That's because some French soldiers blew up parts of it with dynamite hundreds of years ago! Sad!

Bamberg

One of the first places I was able to visit in Germany was a city named Bamberg. Bamberg is about thirty minutes away from Schweinfurt.

Bamberg is called the "Venice of Germany" because of its rivers and canals. A lot of buildings are built right on the canals and even on islands in the middle of the water!

Bamberg is a special city because all of its old buildings have survived since the Middle Ages. In fact, it is one of the few German cities that were not damaged during World War II. So Bamberg is a very beautiful and historic city.

Greetings from Schweinfurt

I have been living with the Elms in a city named Schweinfurt. This sounds like a funny name, and it actually means "Swine Ford" in German. So this really means that the city is named after a place where farmers would cross the river with their pigs. Pretty interesting.

That's me in the picture up there in front of the Schweinfurt rathaus. A rathaus is a German city hall, where the city leaders meet. The rathaus in Schweinfurt is really old and really neat looking.

Even though Schweinfurt was named after pigs, it is a very pretty city. There are forests around the city and a river running through the middle. It is a nice place to live.

Hello!

Hello! My name is Flat Sydney. I am a good friend of Sydney Damo, who is from Bakersfield, California.

My friend Sydney has some members of her family, the Elms, who recently moved to Germany to work. So I got the wonderful opportunity to go live with them for a couple of months, and travel around Germany and get to learn about German culture.

I started this blog to share my adventures. I hope you all enjoy my travels and stories!