Harvey Travel Arts

Above: inside the Dom in Koln, Germany. Below, the outside of the Koln museum. I liked the shutters and stair-step facade. I won't have computer access for a couple weeks. In the meantime, please enjoy these images from Koln and give your imagination a vacation to another place in the world. When I return, I promise to have many things to share with you. Be patient, and I will return soon! Below: exterior of the Dom...

One of my readers has asked for pictures of the castles/palaces where the swan came from. Linderhof, pictured above, is where last week's swan photo was taken. Linderhof was never completed; the Mad King mysteriously perished in a lake (how's that for a Gothic novel?) before his tribute to the Sun King (King Louis XIV of France) could be finished. He did, however, have time to have a mini Hall of Mirrors installed. What was with the royalty of this time period? Obsessed with having the gaudiest furnishings? And obsessed with each other, too! Below you will see another of Ludwig's family estates, Hohenschwangau. I'm going to have to look a little more to find Neuschwanstein's photo....I think all we have are some of it tucked up in the trees. Either way, these beautiful, if yet obscene, homes are only the tip of the iceberg as to what all there is to do and see in Bavaria. Last week I also included a peacock, and I will post its palace photos next week. En

I have to tell you that I think both of these birds might have hissed at us. The swan is a permanent fixture of a gaggle of swans that reside on King Ludwig's property, as it was a symbol of the family. Hence the names Hohens chwan gau and Neu schwan stein. At one point during Isaac's visit, he approached the swan and it followed him about; hissing and whatever else swans do. The peafowl was at the Schwetzinger Schloss, and was being followed by Brian, who was trying to get it to do what I'm not sure. I distinctly remember it hissing at us, too. The colorful bird was calling to his mate and she was on the other side of the grounds. Apparently, she didn't like his hissing, either.