Let's cut the small talk, and I'll just get right to the trip...which is what y'all want to read about anyway, right?
On December 29th, the Mister & I headed out for a 4 night trip to Schwangau & Munich. Just so ya know, Schwangau is the town where King Ludwig's castle Neuschwanstein is located, as well as his father's castle, Hohenschwangau.
We dropped off the furry kids as soon as the kennel opened, and we were off on the road. I was bound and determined that we wouldn't spend crazy amounts on food during the trip, so the car was loaded with all the picnic essentials - cooler full of meats & cheese, as well as bags full of breads, chips, snacks, etc. etc. etc. And maybe a couple bottles of wine...or a box...
Our first night, we were headed to Schwangau, with a quick pit stop in Stuttgart to get gas. Stuttgart is home to a bunch of military installations, and we are able to fill up our car on any base (or any Esso station in Germany - but if you're off-base, you have to use a prepaid card, and it's just a slightly bigger hassle). The entire drive was 4 hours and 20 minutes, with Stuttgart smack dab in the middle. Now, I tried as hard as I could to find an address for the Stuttgart base....but I didn't realize how MANY military installations were in the town. Also, I didn't realize that it wasn't a town, but rather a large city. Luckily, we found a street sign that said "US Military Installations" with a big arrow.
Jackpot!
Except, no. That was the only sign we saw for about 45 minutes of driving around town. Meanwhile, I have to pee, so I'm quickly becoming Courtney the Cranky. Josh hates traffic, and as we were in the middle of a big city, he was quickly becoming Josh the Irate. FINALLY, after about an hour of searching for a base, we found one of the Army barracks. Of course, they had no gas station. But luckily, they did have a public restroom. Courtney soon became cheerful again.
We were able to get an address from one of the workers at this base, for ANOTHER base that had a gas station. Yay, right? Not so much. We circled the town for another 45 minutes, trying to find the stupid place. Yes, we have GPS, but it doesn't work very well when you aren't given a street number.
So, we just gave up and used a German Esso station. We still get the same price as we would on-base, but like I said, the card is prepaid, so you have to be careful in remembering how much you have on your card.
As we drive away from the Esso station, we see the sign for the base with the gas station....of course.
So, leaving Stuttgart in our dust, we continue on to Schwangau. About 40 minutes or so away from our hotel, we encounter:
SNOW!!!
It really was a pretty area, but I wasn't prepared for that amount of snow. Luckily I brought extra jackets...
We stayed at the Schlossrestaurant Neuschwanstein. To get up to the castles (which are not together, by the way, so really you have to do this twice to see both of them) you have 3 choices. You can walk, take a horse-drawn carriage, or take a bus. NO CARS ALLOWED! The walk up to Neuschwanstein supposedly takes about 40 minutes, and it's up a really steep hill, and in this case, it was cold & slushy. Buuuuuuut, at the top of the hill (still another 7-10 minutes to get up to the castle) there is a lovely restaurant. And, on the top floor of this restaurant is a hotel - either rooms w/bath or rooms with a shared bath. For 65 euros, we got a room with a shared bath, free breakfast, AND, the best part - a parking spot at the restaurant/hotel. The only people allowed to drive up this hill are the workers of the restaurant or the castle, and the guests of the hotel - and there are only maybe 10 rooms. Now, when we first arrived, we were nervous to actually drive up the road (what with the tons of people, and the "no cars" signs everywhere). But, a friendly neighborhood shop owner ensured us that it was perfectly ok for us to go up that road if we had reservations. Although he did warn us that the horse-drawn carriage drivers were nasty meanies who may yell at us (he told us just to ignore them). Nice.
It took us at least 20 minutes to go up the hill (400 meters??) because of all the people walking, not to mention the slow-as-molasses horse carriage we were behind.
Finally, we made it. The room was fine, no frills, but fine. We did have a bathroom sink in the room, just not a toilet or shower. It was maybe 4:30 at this point, and the castle closed at 5:30 (no matter - we had tickets for the next day). Even so, we walked up the rest of the hill to go to check the place out.
Here's our hotel/restaurant. Our room is the one with the light on on the top floor in the middle (facing the camera).
Didn't mean to leave that light on when we left...oops...
That night, we had sandwiches in the room, and then went down the now-empty road to check out the local towns. Schwangau was absolutely a ghost town. It was barely 6:30pm, but everything was closed except for the few hotels & their restaurants. So, we drove a few kilometers away to check out the town of Füssen.
And...everything was closed there, too. There were restaurants open, of course, but no bars or shops or anything. EXCEPT for....wait for it....a Woolworth. Yes, there was a Woolworth in the middle of the Bavarian town of Füssen. Weird, eh? But it was awesome that we found it, because I was freezing and needed a hat. I could have walked around that store for an hour, but it smelled faintly of vomit, so we left to walk around town some more.
Before long, my legs were numb, so we headed back to the hotel. There's nothing like laying in bed in a hotel room, watching tv (BBC or CNN are basically the only English channels you can get in smaller hotels), and enjoying a glass of wine.
The next morning, we were up bright and early to enjoy the hotel's free breakfast. European breakfasts are THE BEST!!! Fresh breads with all kinds of meats & cheeses, some fruit, and some yogurt. Just give me the bread basket & wheel of cheese, and I'm set for the day.
And, it started snowing at some point during the night, and was still snowing. Yay for my new 2euro Woolworth hat!
We had tickets for both of the castles. Hohenschwangau was first on our list. We had a couple of hours before our tour started, so we walked around the now crazy-busy town. MAN do Japanese people love to travel in groups!!
And, Josh bought himself a new hat. :)
In the background is Hohenschwangau. Like I said before, the busses weren't running because of the weather. So, we either had to walk up, or take the horse carriage. Hohenschwangau is totally doable, no question. It took us about 10-15 minutes, but only because we kept stopping to take pictures.
It was REALLY starting to snow hard at this point, so I'm glad we walked up the hill, just so we could warm up a little bit.
Unfortunately, neither castle allows pictures inside. But Hohenschwangau was really neat. It was King Maximillian's vacation home, so the rooms were small. But, there were murals painted on almost every wall in the castle, depicting scenes from folklore. Our guide, Wolfgang, was really good. The tour lasted about 50 minutes, and then we had about an hour and a half to make it to Neuschwanstein for our next tour.
It was about a 20 minute walk down the back side of Hohenschwangau to the parking lot. Luckily, Josh and I still had the parking permit that the hotel gave us - and it wasn't dated! So, we just used it and drove right back to the hotel. There is no way my ankle would have been able to make the walk up to Neuschwanstein. Hell, even if my ankle was never broken, I doubt i would have been able to do it anyway. :/ I'm not one for physical exertion. We thought for half a second about taking the horse carriage up, but the line was ridiculously long. And, I really don't feel comfortable with the idea of a horse carriage anyway (don't forget, I'm a hippy-vegetarian-peacelover)
It was still snowing, and even though the plows had run all morning, it was still pretty slippery driving up the hill. After we parked, it was still another 7-10 minute walk up to the castle gate. By the time we got up there, my ankle was pretty tired, but we only had to wait 10 minutes for our tour.
Oy, it felt like we had to take a million steps up to the starting point of the tour. Maybe 150 steps in total, which isn't that bad, except my ankle was extremely pissed off with the weather, and Hohenschwangau, and all the other walking we did. I can't imagine trying to do it after walking up the Neuschwanstein hill....
Again, no pics inside this castle. This castle was much different than Hohenschwangau - MUCH more ornate. Unfortunately, it was never finished. King Ludwig died under mysterious circumstances before it was done.
And then, the million steps back down to get out of the castle, and walk down a now VERY slippery, slush covered road to get back to the hotel and our car.
But ya know what was really awesome? Outside of the hotel/restaurant, there are vendors selling food & drinks. We got more glühwein, and balls of fried dough covered in powedered sugar. It was the best thing after being out in the cold and snow, and the perfect reward for all the walking/staircases my ankle did.
It was pretty nice sitting down in the warm car after all that. So, it was now time for us to go on to Munich.
It only took an hour to get to Munich, but we were staying on the OPPOSITE side, so it took us about an hour and a half. We stayed at the Mövenpick hotel near the airport. Yes, it was out of the way (about 25 minutes to get to central Munich), but it was worth it. It was a really nice hotel. We didn't get free breakfast, but for three nights, it was only 140 euros.
The beds at this hotel were SO COMFORTABLE!!! Plus, they gave us rubber duckies in the bathroom. You know it's a good hotel when they give you a rubber ducky. :)
We ate at the hotel restaurant that night. Hotel restaurants in Europe aren't like what they are in the States. People here eat at hotel restaurants all the time, even if they're not staying at the hotel. Hotels just get really excellent chefs, and it's no big deal to do that.
And, I gotta say, it was a great meal. Three courses, with a bottle of wine, for a total of 45 euro. Not bad, eh?
After the day we had, it was so nice to fall into the awesome bed, with full tummies and sore feet, and call it a night.
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