Travel Blog: European Trip (Day 3)
Neuschwanstein Castle
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
Day 3 began in the same fashion as the previous day with continental breakfast. That was something we wanted to make sure we had every single morning when booking the hotels because not only does it save money, but it also saves time. Also like the previous day, the hotel had quite the spread with pretty much everything the previous day’s hotel had, except the eggs were a lot better and there weren’t any chunks of grass on a platter ready to be served. But unlike the previous morning, I made sure to dress in what I was wearing for the day before I went down for breakfast. This time I fit in.
Since we drove over two hours the night before after Oktoberfest to get to our hotel, we had the luxury of starting our day off with a short drive to nearby Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castles. As we were pulling up to the parking lot on the long entranceway, we were tempted to pull over and snap a few photos because the famous Neuschwanstein Castle looked that astounding up on the hill. But we kept cruising, found a parking spot, and began walking. Both castles are within a few miles of each other, I’d say, so we decided to check out Hohenschwangau Castle first.
View from Hohenschwangau Castle
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
We immediately started walking uphill from the parking lot and came to a small town-like area that had multiple restaurants and shops for tourists like us. There were also a multitude of souvenir shops along our way also. Each building looked very old and gave the area a lot of character. After walking around 20-25 minutes we came to the base of the hill where Hohenschwangau Castle stood, which had a very beautiful lake that was a deep, clear blue color. We took some pictures and began our ascent up the final hill that climbed a couple hundred feet, in my estimation. Then we entered the gates of our very first castle ever.
Hohenschwangau Castle
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
Right away you could get the sense for how historic and grand the castle was. We walked around and took many pictures, all while trying to imagine someone actually living there. In fact, it was Maximilian II of Munich who lived there, King of Bavaria from 1848 to 1864. When our registered time came, we went inside and were led on a 30-minute tour of parts of the castle. The rooms were beautiful and most of them had a story that went along with it. There were even a few secret passageways located inside of it. I was very impressed with the castle and the magnificent views of the landscape from outside its windows. Next, it was time to see the most famous castle in Germany.
We hopped on a bus that took us up the mountain, around many curves, and dropped us off about 15 minutes (walking) from the castle. First, I’ll give you a little background on Neuschwanstein Castle. It was built in the late 1800s as a retreat for King Ludwig II of Bavaria. It’s one of Europe’s most popular tourist destinations because of its sheer size and beauty, and was also the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s castle at Walt Disney World (in case you thought it looked familiar).
View from Hohenschwangau Castle window
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
Unfortunate for us, the rain began and we weren’t able to photograph the castle as much as we would’ve liked, although we got some nice shots at the very end after the rain stopped. We were also able to go inside and take a tour, but this time the tour group was about 50-60 people and the tour guide talked through an electronic device that we had to listen to from our individually handed-out devices, as we put them up to our ear. As impressive as the first castle was, this one blew it away because it was so much bigger. The only thing that wasn’t impressive about this castle was the fact that some of the rooms were basically empty and not painted because the castle was never actually finished. King Ludwig II mysteriously drowned before the castle was complete and only got to live in it for 17 days. It is still a great mystery today whether Ludwig was murdered or committed suicide. After all, many people considered him as having gone “mad” at the time.
I really wish we were able to take photographs inside the castles, but they were strictly prohibited. After we took our photos of the exterior of Neuschwanstein from the nearby hanging bridge, we walked down for a quick lunch from one of the cafes. We were able to grab a brat and fries and eat as we walked the rest of the way down to the parking lot because we quickly needed to get to our next destination before they closed. Now, Germany is known for their brats, and let me tell you that these brats were delicious. Lunch that day absolutely hit the spot.
Our next destination was something that we had been excited about since we first seen it on one of Rick Steves’ travel videos. It was Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain peak, at 9,718 feet. Just two weeks earlier we all visited the tallest mountain peak that we had ever been to, at Mount Mitchell in North Carolina. But this would trump that elevation by 3,000 feet. And as excited as we were for Zugspitze, we left every bit as satisfied.
View from Zugspitze summit
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
One of the major thrills of Zugspitze was riding one of the cable cars to the top of the mountain. Launching from the base and reaching the summit, it was about a 10-minute ride. As it quickly climbed for the first several minutes, the mountains and surrounding landscape were all green. Then we entered the clouds where you couldn’t see anything. Finally for the last few minutes, once we were lifted above the clouds, all you could see was white from the snow-covered mountains. It was like entering into another world.
The cable car dropped us off at the summit, where there was a restaurant with amazing views, and outdoor platforms where you could take some of the coolest photos of your life. The observation deck was completely covered in snow. Even though it wasn’t snowing at the top, it was 20-something degrees and the wind was whipping. I had long johns on under many layers, thick socks, and a toboggan, but I was still freezing. It was a major difference from the 90+ degree days that we had left back in North Carolina.
View from Zugspitze summit
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
The views from the top were absolutely incredible. I really cannot even put them into words because they were that grand. And although I took many pictures, the camera couldn’t even do the views justice. Looking out in every direction was a vast emptiness that I’ve never witnessed in my life. We were higher than everything else in every direction, even the clouds. You almost lost sense of how high we were because after you get to a certain point in elevation, you’re just so far removed from the ground and reality that it all just feels the same.
We snapped picture after picture at the top of Zugspitze, all while also trying to take in all its glory without a camera or phone screen in front of us. Everything was cold and frozen. Everything was white. Everything was so far away from us. And everything was beautiful. It truly felt like we were on top of the world, or even looking down from heaven. But we were limited to only an hour at the top because the summit was closing for the day. So we climbed into the cable car and enjoyed our scenic ride down back to the green reality.
View from Zugspitze summit
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
At this time we had to get moving to our next hotel, which was in Innsbruck, Austria and took about two hours to drive to. That was something else we noticed…everything was about a two-hour drive. It didn’t matter what the GPS said beforehand, it took two hours to get anywhere. Those drives really start to wear on you after several days. But we finally arrived in Innsbruck and went straight to the hotel. We checked in and decided to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant. For the most part, we had a pretty good sense of what we were ordering in Germany, but ordering off Austrian menus was like playing some sort of game where don’t know what you’re getting until it arrives. You have a sense of what you ordered, but you really don’t know the rest until it’s sitting in front of you. This was the case at the Austrian hotel restaurant.
90% of the menu made no sense at all. And you can’t just go down the menu asking the waiter item by item, “what’s this? How about this? And this?” So, basically you just point to something on the menu (because the waiter doesn’t speak good English) and say “I want this,” and hope for the best. I thought I was playing it pretty safe by ordering the Tyrolean bacon…
View from hotel balcony in Innsbruck, Austria
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
It turns out Tyrolean bacon is pretty much a platter of deli-ham, ready to go on a sandwich, except there was no bread to be found. The cold, sliced ham circled around my plate in a fancy-looking way, but there was nothing else except a little horse radish in the middle. To be honest, it tasted fine. It was just a “dumb” meal. It felt like I was eating lunch meat (except thicker) for supper. Thanny and Lebo both ordered smoked trout, but it came completely cold. Dinner in Austria is just different. It was that evening we all sat at the dinner table dreaming about Bojangles.
We retreated to our room for the night, which of course had no air conditioning. But I will say I got a fantastic night of sleep with the window open. And the view from our balcony of the Austrian countryside was magnificent too. I’ll be sure to post a picture of that along in this blog. The next morning, I woke up the most refreshed I had been up to that point, ready for a day in a brand new country.
Garett