+ Ate a glorious free breakfast in our hotel. Lots of good food, a nice friendly yellow room, and a view of the alps! + “Borrowed” some nutella for a hike this afternoon. + Set out on a hike on a trail from our hotel in Austria to the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles in Germany. Supposed to be a one hour hike. + Got distracted and video taped a dance with the alps in the background. Video coming soon! + Got distracted some taking pictures + Met two elderly Austrian men hiking on the trail (see related story in other post) + Crossed the Austrian-German border. + Took a detour to get closer to a lake. Avoided somewhat successfully the mud, made lots of frogs jump into the sanctuary of the lake, and took even more photos. + Saw a lumberjack on the trail. + The Neuschwanstein castle emerged out of the trees! It took us about 2-2.5 hours to do the 1 hour hike. + Bumped into a couple from our munich bike tour at the castle ticket booth. + Brian dragged Amy up the hill to Neuschwanstein. It was another 40 minute hike up a mountain. Brian acted as Amy’s walking stick. + Amy was very tempted to buy a walking stick at a gift shop at the top. It had a compass. She resisted. + We ate cookies and nutella while waiting for our tour. + Toured the castle. No photos were allowed so Brian operated in stealth mode. The castle was not finished before Mad King Ludwig died, but what was finished was elaborately decorated. Ludwig built the castle for his “friend” Wagner, and there were frescos illustrating the stories from Wagner’s operas. Either everything was painted or carved in the finished rooms. Mad King Ludwig sure knew how to build a castle! + Amy wanted to watch an informational video but it was in German and we didn’t have time to wait for the English one. + Brian dragged Amy even higher up the mountain to Mary’s Bridge, which overlooked the Neuschwanstein Castle on its mountain top perch. There were two beautiful waterfalls below it as well. + Headed down the mountain and ate some meat sandwiches on the way. + We were near exhaustion when we reached Hohenschwangau Castle for our afternoon tour. This castle was where the Ludwigs lived. Its down the mountain from Newschwanstein and 10 minutes up another hill. This caslte had hidden hallways in between the walls that a servant could walk in so that the family never had to see them, a hanky-panky door leading from the kings bedroom to the queen’s, and lots of other really fancy stuff like some ancient bread sent over from Russia… + Around 5 we began our hike back to the hotel. Amy wanted to take a bus. She says “I didn’t say that. I just suggested that we could possibly do that.” haha “suggested” + We were both about to collapse, and we could still see the castles. Brian was still acting as Amy’s walking stick. Amy was lamenting not buying that walking stick. Brian picked a stick off the ground. Amy found new energy with her new trusty walking stick. Brian soon followed suit and found a more slender and curvy stick to use. Note: walking sticks are awesome! They actually do help! We made it back in record time. Under an hour!!! by five minutes. Before we stopped we released our new friend sticks into the wilderness, next to a friendly tree. + Collapsed on the floor of our room. So tired. + Ate dinner and kept getting up to do laundry. There was a huge German Shepherd by the laundry room, but he was friendly. + After 2 hours in the dryer our clothes still were a little moist. + Figured out how to use our Eurail passes and how to get up to the Rhine Valley, our destination for the next day. +
