Castles and Countries (a.k.a The Day We Decided to Add Austria to the Itinerary)

On Sunday, Marina drove us along the Auto Bahn to the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles in Schwangau. It was a lovely drive past cows, country, and sheep, but the Jack Johnson that Marina played on the radio put us all to sleep.

Once we had arrived and purchased our tickets we enjoyed the pretty views as we hiked to the smaller of the two castles for our first tour. The tour of Hohenschwangau castle was fascinating and fun because we had such a knowledgeable and engaged tour guide that was more than willing to pause and answer questions or expand on his explanation. We learned some brief history of the royal family members (most of which were named Ludwig, declared crazy, or both) who resided there and some background information on the region and the real-life Swan Lake.

We had a four hour break before our next castle tour, so we enjoyed some Belgian chocolate that Marina had brought while resting on a bench with an incredible view of the vividly blue lake water. We also stopped for some traditional German food (and beer, of course) at a beer house before hiking up the mountain to the other castle. A few in our party were missing home a bit and ordered the sausage that came with French fries. :)

The Neuschwanstein castle is the true "Cinderella castle" that inspired Disney (an adorable little girl was actually dressed up as Cinderella for the tour) and it was the more popular destination for tourists. As a result, this tour was much faster paced with only general descriptions and did not allow us to stop in each room. The tour group was large and the guide was definitely not interested in answering questions. It was still a great castle with interesting decor and some neat quirks like the indoor cave that the king wanted to be included.

After leaving the castles, Marina took us on an impromptu trip to Austria just to add another country to our list. It was only a short drive away and a 2 minute visit where we stepped a toe into the country, but we can all officially say "I've been to Austria." When we got back to Renatta's house, we enjoyed a cold dinner that consisted of bread, pretzels, and various dips/spreads (and obviously beer) that was very good. It was a quick time to bed, as the next day was to be spent visiting the memorial site at Dachau.