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Visiting the Castles
As we continued our adventure, we were lucky to have yet another day with our friend and local guide Amy. She pointed her car in the direction of Neuschwanstein and we enjoyed the views.
We stopped for lunch at a little roadside restaurant and sat outside to eat. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but then the overcast skies broke up and the sun started baking us. I was starting to complain about how hot and bright it was, while Amy and Tabitha were giving me looks that told me I should really quit whining. The food was certainly still good though, and we were soon back on the road. As you can see in the last picture below, we had to stop once for cattle crossing.
Once we got there we were able to set up Little C's awesome all-terrain all-weather trekking carriage and we started walking to the ticket office. Like many other attractions, the tickets for the castle were timed entry, and the earliest option we could get was about 3 hours from our arrival time. This turned out to be OK since we were able to walk around and see some of the other fun places on the same site.
We didn't ride on the horse carriage, but it was an option for those who wanted to pay a little bit more. We passed them on our walk to Hohenschwangau, the other castle in the park. We weren't able to go inside, but we enjoyed the landscaping and the views.
Amy wasn't feeling too well, but even with a little bit of a headache she was still up for walking to the bridge behind Neuschwanstein. It started to rain briefly, so we made a diversion into the gift shop and restaurant. Amy helped us pick out a great little dessert that was a bread bun thing filled with plum goo and topped with a custardy sauce. Our glass of milk was a perfect compliment, and I thought it was one of the better snacks that we had. The picture looks red because we were under a red umbrella.
The last picture above and the first picture below are from the bridge behind Neuschwanstein. It was built around the same time as the castle, in the late 1800s. Down a few rows I have a picture of the bridge from the castle so that you can get a feel for how high it is over the valley below. As usual, Tabitha got a big laugh out of my dislike for being in such high places.
We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the castle, but we were able to take them looking out of the windows. The last one below shows the view of the valley, which is certainly enough reason to build a castle on that site. We learned later that there had been ruins of another castle on the site when they built this one, which let us know that the locals couldn't agree more.
The first picture below shows the bridge from the castle.
I don't know what would inspire someone to stick a sticker on the back of this road sign, but I wasn't very proud of my fellow aviators for participating.
After we got back to Amy and Peter's it was time for me to head home. I needed to be back at home for a prior engagement, and I was looking forward to checking on the cats and reading the mail. It had been about 2 weeks since we had left, and I'm sure Kari was gettting tired of stopping by to check on them. They dropped me off at the airport and I was able to get on the direct PHL flight, but barely. Meanwhile, Christina was boarding a plane in the US to arrive in Germany in just a day or so.
Click here to see the next part, Ireland
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