Saturday, August 23
Again, we ate breakfast, then drove on the Romantic Road through the rolling hills and country side
. We stopped off in Dinkelsbuhl and drove through that quaint little town, then finally got on the AutoBahn and kept heading south towards the Alps. We stopped at one very nice rest stop with a nice restaurant, coffee shop and bathrooms. We didn't have a map of the area, but I had "googled" how to get to the Pension in Hopferau, but the directions were not all that well written. We got off the Autobahn and started driving on these back country roads. Lots of small road signs telling you the direction of how long it would take to either WALK or DRIVE to the next town. After driving around the countryside, we finally got to our Pension in Hopferau. We checked in and got settled. It was about 1:30pm now. We rested. Then we decided to go and find the Neuschwanstein castle. I had checked on line to the directions and had hoped that we could purchased the tickets on line, but I couldn't. So, Glenn and I thought we would just go and get our directions and go back to the castle the next day.
We drove through Fussen, then to the National Park of Neuschwanstein. Because we didn't want to pay for parking, Glenn stayed in the car, and I went up to purchase tickets for the next day. I found out that I couldn't buy tickets, but for the VERY day. Glenn had given me money to purchase the tickets, so I went ahead and purchased for 6:30pm tour. It was 4:30pm. Glenn wasn't too pleased, cause he was hungry, but it was a good time
. We grabbed a bite to eat, parked the car, then took the horse drawn carriage ride up to the entrance of the Castle. We still had plenty of time to relax, look out over the valley and take the beauty in. This was a spectacular place. Check that off my bucket list. The tour was worth it. Glenn purchased a souvenir spoon for me here. And I had a pretzel to eat while we waited.
It was just getting dark when we walked down the 2 mile road to get into our car. There was a little ice-cream store that served Magnum ice-cream, and true to Stewart style, we got one. (We get a Magnum in all the foreign countries we are in, such as Israel, Argentina, Spain, etc).
This particular castle was spectacular because of the surrounding mountains and how it is perched up on the top of the hill overlooking the valley below. Walt Disney used this castle as a model for Cinderella's Castle in Disneyland.
Sunday, August 24
Since we were not planning on doing the Castle on Saturday, we kind of had an extra day to kill, but I didn't want to get in the car and drive a long distance, so instead, we just drove back to Fussen, and then around the lake, stopping off anywhere and everywhere we wanted
. The weather was very pleasant. We saw lots of people walking and riding bikes on the bike paths. We stopped at several cathedrals and looked in. At one point, we stopped at a coffee shop and Glenn bought some coffee, strudel and a pretzel for me. Then driving along the lake we stopped and watched the world go by.
Can you pick up a theme of our Germany trip? Maybe, "We sat down on a park bench to watch the world walk by!"
We drove back through the town of Fussen, then on into Austria (no border crossings at all), then back into the town and we parked our car in a garage parking lot. We thought it said "FREE" on Sundays, but when we returned 2 hours later, we realized Glenn had to pay the automatic attendant, kind of like here in Guatemala, where you get your card stamped and pay the machine. However, Fussen was a lovely town. We walked on gobbled stone streets, saw people eating in outdoor tables, there were folks playing music that wanted us to tip them
. Again, we watched the world walk by. We walked into the old cathedral and marveled at the gold. The houses were just like the ones in Rothenburg, steep roofs and flower pots on the windows. This is one of my favorite picture of the different colored buildings.
As we drove back to our pension in Hopferau, we decided to drive through the countryside and we ended up on another park bench and sat and at a sandwich, apple and pretzel. This Sunday was a very relaxing day, as we just drove within a 20 mile radius of where we were staying. We talked with folks, especially in this small village of Zell, it was near some old castle ruins that we decided not to explore. It was a Sunday afternoon, and the older couple were walking down the hill. We mentioned we were from the US/Guatemala, and they said they were traveling to Arizona in 2 weeks, this was all in broken English. This couple had lived in this town ALL their lives.
Monday, August 24
Today, we decided that we would drive into Austria and take a winding road to see the Lindenhof Castle and eventually end up at Oberammergau (the famous town that has a Passion Play every 10 years
. We drove about 10 minutes on the Autobahn into Austria, then immediately took a 2 lane road along the Lech River Valley. The water in the river and lake is this unique turquoise color. Breath-taking. The scenery was spectacular. Again, we drove and took our time enjoying the beauty. We arrived at the Lindenhof's Castle just after it opened. It was a 40 minute tour into a much 'smaller' castle compared to the Cinderella's Castle. However, I liked the inside of this palace better than other castle. Gold everywhere. There was one room, that was full of the original mirrors and it was pretty awesome. There was a King's throne room too. The garden's outside of the Castle was neatly groomed and very elegant. We did a little walking around the grounds to enjoy the beauty. Then it was on to Oberammergau. This is a quaint little town with the basic traditional German housing. Lots of cobbled stone streets and beautiful flowers hanging from the windows. Since we hadn't really eaten a REAL meal, we decided to sit down in a restaurant. We were hungry for pizza. So, here we eat Italian food in Germany. It works.
We walked through the old church and the cemetery which was quite interesting
. We also stopped and talked to this one English speaking couple from Chicago that are retired with UA. We gave them some helpful hints on how to get to the Lindenhof castle. The flowers were beautiful along the gobbled stone streets. I really liked this old town of Oberammergau. We continued on the Romantic road and stopped in Wieskirche. Again, another beautiful and ornate church. Glenn got me a souvenir spoon here too.
Then we continued back to our home base. We pulled off the side of the road and just sat on a park bench and watch the world roll by us. The scenery was gorgeous. We did talk to another couple that were walking by and they were from Belgium and they didn't speak a lick of English, but they were happy in whatever they were telling us. After a little bit, it started to rain, so we headed on back to our pension. We did stop at a McDonalds to get on wifi, but it wasn't working.
Visiting Castles with my Knight in Shining Armour
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Füssen, Bavaria, Germany
Other Entries
Comments

2025-02-10
Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank
Margaret
2014-11-19
Wow, the castles are so cool! The surrounding scenery also looks fit for a fairy tale. What types of food did you like there? I saw the delicious looking pastry in one of the photos. The purple flower is very cool, different looking. The window boxes of flowers definitely up the charm factor as well. I hear you on McDonalds WiFi not working. The last 4 times I've tried it it hasn't worked.