Day 55 (August 2nd): Neuschwanstein Castle & Munich

We woke up at 7:00 AM, packed up our stuff and went downstairs at the hotel for a great buffet breakfast. They had all types of rolls, eggs, meats, cheeses, cereals, fruit, chocolate pudding and chocolate covered strawberries. Everybody enjoyed their meal. After breakfast we packed up the car and went over to Neuschwanstein Castle. This is the castle that Disney used to model their Cinderella castle (see picture on left). It took about 15 minutes to drive there from Fussen (where we were staying) and arrived at the castle ticket house at 9:00 AM. Al ran inside and bought tickets with an assigned tour time of 10:45 AM. You are not allowed to drive up to the castle so we parked at one of the lots at the foot of the mountain. There are only three ways to go up the mountain; mini-bus, walk or horse drawn carriage. We opted for the last option since we thought the kids would really enjoy it. We waited on line for about 20 minutes before the carriage arrived. Before we got in the carriage, the horse raised it's tail and passed gas for 10 seconds. As you can imagine the kids were in tears laughing. Now that the horse was ready for us, Al and I sat in the back while the kids sat up front with the carriage driver. It was a very nice ride up the hill especially watching the people walking up who were definitely straining. The carriage would hesitate once in a while and the kids would start laughing which meant that one of the horses was relieving himself. We got to the top most section that the horses can go and we all exited the carriage. It was still a 5 minute walk up to the castle on a decent incline. As you approach the castle it is extremely impressive and looks exactly like what you would expect a real castle to look like, unlike some of the other ones we saw in Europe. Since we still had 45 minutes before our tour started we hung out on the grounds and took some pictures. As our tour began the tour guide walks you from room to room explaining the various highlights of the castle. They move you through pretty quickly but the interior is lavished decorated with lots of painted walls. Not all of the castle was completed before "mad" King Ludwig died so they only show you the two top floors. The tour lasted about 40 minutes then we made a pit stop at the souvenir ship (obviously the exit also) and bought the kids some postcards. We then hiked up past the castle and made our way to our suspension bridge that had a great view of the castle. We decided to keep going up the mountain and soon we faced some serious climbing (see picture on right). Before we knew it we were on all fours climbing the mountain. From this new vantage point, we had a magnificent view of the castle, a lake (see center picture) and the whole surrounding area. We decided that we better not go up any further especially since there was no protective barriers and none of us were wearing appropriate shoes (Zach had crocs on). As we began our descent it started to rain on us. Luckily we had made it past the difficult part of the climb before everything became to slippery. Originally we planned to walk down the mountain but with it raining we opted for the carriage ride again. By the time the carriage made it to the bottom of the mountain the skies cleared and it was a beautiful day. It was past lunchtime and we hadn't eaten for awhile so we found a nice cafe to relax at. Hannah and I split a potato soup and trout fillet, Zach had a cheese sandwich with fries (he only ate the fries) and Al had a potato soup and salad. It was 3:00 PM when we finished and hit the road to Munich. The drive through the Alps was nice with beautiful scenery all around. We made it to Munich a little after 5:00 PM with no hotel to stay at. We spent the next two hours driving around from hotel to hotel looking for a room. Finally we located a Marriott through the Navigation system and drove a couple of kilometers outside of the Alstadt. I waited in the car as Al went in to investigate availability. Luckily they had the perfect room for us at a great price. We ended up getting a room with two queen beds and the hotel had an indoor pool also (what else could we ask for). We had our bags brought to the room and then we went back downstairs and ate in one of the hotel restaurants. The restaurant was a sports bar called Champions that had mostly good ole' American food. We were psyched and Hannah had buffalo winds, Zach had a cheeseburger with fries (yes, he ate it), I had a taco salad with chili and a BIG beer (supposedly from the oldest active brewery in the world), Al had a chicken sandwich and a white wine. The kids were excited to swim so we went swimming after dinner and met another family there who had kids from Raleigh. We swam for awhile and then went back to the room to relax before falling asleep.