Day 10 - the last

For our last day we drove 3 hours west to the town of Füssen which is one of the towns near to Neuschwantstein.  Originally we weren't going to bother but it seemed a shame to never see this castle that may be the most iconic in the world.  The drive itself was worth the day.  Our GPS took us off the Autobahn and took us through the country side where we drove through beautiful fields and picturesque towns.  We really wanted to pull over at ever one we passed.  I will say that I got up to 125 mph on the autobahn which was a thrill.

After our gorgeous drive and a bit of a wrestle with a gas pump we looked to our left and there it was.

I was a bit disappointed because I had always assumed the castle was deep in the middle of the mountains when in fact it is just up from the fields and the foot of the mountains.  Still, it's an amazing sight.

It was the clearest hottest day we'd had so after we parked we had a bit of a repast.  Weisswurst and Käsespätzle.  Rebecca had a Radler which is beer with lemonade and I had some sort of natural beer which was cloudy and a bit odd.

We found the ticket place and bought a bus ticket to take us up the hill to Marian's Bridge which is a foot bridge connecting two peaks.  Here is the view that we've all come to know and love.

It turns out, Ludwig knew what he as doing.  The setting is stunning.

The view from the other side of the bridge isn't bad either.

Here is a view of the same bridge from inside the castle.

I was happy we did the tour though it was a bit rushed and no pictures were allowed.  It does seem like what you want a castle to be.  We decided to walk down rather than take the bus.

I hadn't really thought about the town of Füssen when planning the trip.  It was just a place to stay while we visited the castle.  And the truth is, after 9 days of hard core vacationing we were spent.  It wasn't until deep into the evening before we ventured out to find our last dinner.  Walking around I was sorry we wouldn't have any day time to explore.  

My last meal was pork and spätzle in a beer sauce and a class of Riesling.

Rebecca decided to start her diet early and had a curried pasta with chicken and vegetables.

Our last German "salad."

Here is a picture of Füssen at dusk.

And with that our trip came to an end.  It was really perfect and I loved every minute of it.  Our drive back to Munich the next morning  went smoothly and took us back through a lot of the beautiful towns we saw the day before.  I had a final schnitzel for lunch and managed to get a hole in one going number one in the airport bathroom.

I can't think of a better trip and now I'm back for 6 days before I go to Greece for 3 weeks.  Wish my waistline luck!

Salzburg Day 9

Today was Salzburg day.  We had our daily cow visit and were in Salzburg in about 40 minutes.  Driving there was easier than I thought it would be.  We parked by the Mirabell gardens and went for stroll.  Our first stop was at Barbara Bonney's shop called Bonney und Kleid (get it?).  The young woman there told his she was teaching so we walked down to the Mozarteum and found her studio and waited for 10 minutes for her lesson to end.  Soon enough she came out with her little dog and we visited for a few minutes.  School only has two weeks left so she seemed fairly burned out disgruntled.  When we left her we went around the corner to the gardens.  It was really the first time we felt like tourists rather than just being on vacation.  We really haven't been around Americans in our time here and have barely heard English spoken since we got to Berchtesgaden.  But all that changed in Salzburg.  The flowers were blooming and we must have seen 4 sets of couples getting wedding pictures made.  It was all lovely.

After the gardens we strolled across the river into crazy land.  It was supposed to be a cloudy slightly rainy day but it was actually hot with brilliant sun.  We decided to stop at Tomaselli's for a sacher torte and etwas mit Schlag.  I had a cup of hot chocolate and Rebecca had a Grüner Vetliner.  Afterwards we headed to the sweet shop Fürst at the recommendation of my friend Alexa for some Mozartkugeln. 

We rode up the funicular to the fortress with these fellas.

 
The view from the fortress above Salzburg was what I was hoping Salzburg would look like.

Inside was an exhibit of puppets.  Rebecca is anti-Puppen!

Here is St. Peter's Church.  I was keen to see it since it is where Mozart's c minor mass was premiered.

Baby heads.

Pass a church - see a church.

I loved all of the alley ways and tight streets but the old city is basically a mall.

We stopped at a wine store to try many things.

It was a good long hot day.  On the way out of town we drove through the old town with the top down while I blasted "High on a hill..." to the embarrassment of my trip mate.  Eventually we found the building used as the house in the Sound of Music.  It's a hotel now. 

And after a long day we deserved a daily schnitzel in Bad Reichenhall.

Sliding into adventures. Day 8

I groggily got out of bed this morning and could feel my legs begging for mercy.  Fortunately, there was no hiking on the itinerary today.  There was the same breakfast facing us.  Cold breakfast has begun to wear on us.  Even their frying us an egg this morning didn't register.  Rain was threatening so we chose an indoor activity day.  But first we ran into (almost literally) these guys on our way.

We had decided to go to the Salzbergwerk which is the salt mine which made this part of the world famous.  The mine is still being worked and has been since the early 12th Century.  We left with plenty of time to spare.  There was road work however which made us back track and drive over the mountain so we got to see these views again but with clouds.

After the usual confusion of finding the parking and then finding the thing in regards to the parking we ran and caught our tour just in time.  The tour included these boss jump suits.  Rebecca looked particularly fetching.

No pictures were allowed but I got this picture of the reflectors on Rebecca's suit putting on a show.  The tour began with a train ride 600 yards into the mountain.  It was a fun ride as the tunnel only allowed about half a foot to spare all around.

At one point we were ferried across this lake.  What you see on the bottom is the reflection of the roof.  It was a very eerie but beautiful place.  The idea is that they drill into the rock and fill these huge dug out rooms with water which dissolves the salt.  For 30 years water continues to fill the space and the saline which sinks to the bottom is siphoned out and then processed for the salt.

I worried the tour might be silly but it was actually fascinating and very different from anything I've ever done.  We ended up buying the picture of one of the slides (there were two) which took you down to different levels.  It was a blast.



As it looked like we might not get any rain after all, we chose to drive out to a big lake called Chiemsee where crazy king Ludwig II built a palace modeled after Versailles.  On the way we stopped for a light lunch of pizza and beer.

The palace is built on an island and is only accessible by ferry.

The first building we went to was an old monastery where Ludwig stayed on occasion while the palace was built.  The paintings here are original.

After that short tour we took the twenty minute walk to the palace.  It is unfinished and he only stayed there for 10 days but it is pretty magnificent.  The first few pictures are obviously of the outside and gardens.

No pictures were allowed on the inside but I snuck a couple of pictures of the first staircase.

This was a decorative cabinet.  The dark parts are tortoise shell.

You should do a Google Image search for Herrenchiemsee to see pictures of the interior.  It is very over the top.  Here is a picture of the hall of mirrors off the internet.  There are 36,000 candles.



This must be one exhausted lawn roomba!

We were wiped after all of the touring and so stopped in Bad Reichenhall for a light dinner.  Schnitzel, pork and bacon with vegetables and butter spätzle with a side salad.  It was the best spätzle so far.

And all was right with the world.  Even the house rooba was in its garage for the night.

Salzburg tomorrow!