Being a Disney Princess is nice

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Today was the day that we were going to finally see the Neuschwanstein Castle, the inspiration to Disney's Castle. I was absolutely thrilled.

Our day started out fantastic. Our hotel stay included breakfast and unlike most European hotels, this breakfast was beyond belief. It was by far the best hotel breakfast I have ever had. Not only did it include the typical meats, cheeses, breads, and fruits, it also included 3 types of sausage, 4 types of eggs, Belgian waffle stand, chocolate fountain with strawberries to dip in it, pretzels, and more. Yummy! With our belly's full it was time to head to Hohenschwangau.

We walked over to the train/bus station to get a bus to the castles but found out that only a couple actually run on Sunday's and we had missed the first one and the next one was still over 45 minutes away so we decided to take a taxi. It is only 10 Euro to get to the castle and we found another couple to split the taxi with so it only cost us 5 per couple, how cheap is that. We got to Hohenschwangau and decided to not only see Neuschwanstein but also Hohenschwangau castle so that was our first stop.

Hohenschwangau Castle:


Neuschwanstein Castle:




Hohenschwangau was King Ludwig's childhood castle, the one he grew up in (or at least one of them). He also lived there while Neuschwanstein was being built, he had a telescope inside so he could watch the progress on his new castle. Hohenschwangau is yellow on the exterior and the interior walls are all painted with different fairytale stories, it was amazing on the inside, just like a fairytale. After we went into Hohenschwangau it was time for the real castle, Neuschwanstein.

Shot of Hohenschwangau with the lake:


Side shot of Hohenschwangau:


A fountain at Hohenschwangau, he was infatuated with swans:


The town of Hohenschwangau now has it's own maypole:


We decided to take the horse carriage ride UP the mountain to the castle, glad we did. We waited our turn and finally go to go inside. It was almost as amazing as the first on the inside (the outside was by far the most beautiful even if it was only gray). However, you only get to see a few rooms, King Ludwig died before the castle was complete so it just never got done. With that being said, the Throne Room was so over the top beautiful, with the enormous chandelier and colorful walls and the tiled floor, it was unfathomable almost. We went through the rest of the castle rooms that you can visit before re-evaluating the time.

Our carriage ride:


Tami at the Neuschwanstein Castle


Greg at the Neuschwanstein Castle:


The side of the Neuschwanstein Castle (you cannot take pictures inside):



A train only leaves every hour or two from Fussen to go back to Munich so we thought we should try to catch the 1 pm train, so we would have a couple of hours in Munich before having to fly back to London. This meant we ran down the mountain to catch a bus back to Fussen. Now, it normally takes 30 minutes to walk down the mountain, Greg and I managed to run down in less than 10. This is not the first time we have done something like this, we ran up the mountain in Hawaii when we were short on time.

We managed to get to the bus stop with less than 4 minutes to spare, caught the bus, and made it to the train station with enough time to pick up snacks and drinks for the train, we didn't actually eat lunch somehow. We took the 2 hour journey back to Munich (I slept mainly) and then went to Lowenbrau Keller biergarten for a nice Franziskaner Rus and Lowenbrau Triomphante. We then took the S-bahn train to Frauenkirche. This is the famous German church with the two onion shaped domes, one we had never got to see in our other 2 visits.

Lowenbrau Keller:


Frauenkirche:


After admiring the church we walked to the Hofbrauhaus for dinner, this is my favorite beer garden. We enjoyed our pretzels, pork schnitzel, potato salad, cheese spatzle, and of course beer. Once we were done we took the train back to the airport, only to realize that I had the wrong time in my head and we were an extra hour early...oh well. We hung out til our flight and then flew back to London.

Hofbrauhaus Pretzel: