So, when we returned to the hotel after the Dachau excursion, Scott totally crashed as soon as he hit the bed. I figured after I finished with my blog update, I'd take a quick 20 minute nap myself. Note to self: don't use the iPod as an alarm clock next time. My 20 minute nap lasted 2 hours. So much for going out to eat that night . Stupid jet lag!
We woke up early on the 19th (go figure) and had breakfast at the hotel. This time it wasn't too bad. I learned to just avoid the juice/yogurt and I drank a lot of coffee and ate more bread instead. We packed up all our stuff in the car and checked out of the hotel. Scott was very excited to leave München. I was too only for the fact that it was -14F outside. Prior to getting on the road, we had to allow Dumb-Dumb obtain his satellites and I had to call my friend Kons to let him know we were leaving to meet him in Füssen to tour Schloß Neuschwanstein (the castle used as a model for the Disneyland castle).
It took us less than two hours to reach Füssen from München with no problems. It was quite surprising to come from rolling hills to mountains springing from the grounds with shear vertical faces. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by two castles: Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. We found Kons with no problems and parking wasn't an issue. I bought tickets for all three of us for Neuschwanstein only as I did not think we had enough time to see both.
We hiked up the road leading to Neu. Castle which was also littered with horse carriages, horse poop, and Japanese tourists. The castle was absolutely breathtaking from a distance. After seeing so many Disney movies, I recognized it immediately. Walking up the road with the trees crystal white and frozen made me think of the White Witch in the Chronicles of Narnia. Once we reached the top, we waited for about 25 minutes for the next English-speaking tour. Our guide informed us no one could take pictures inside the castle unless they were taking pictures through the windows of the outside. Well, all those who broke that rule lingered behind as the tour moved to a different room and began snapping pictures - including Kons and me. Scott called us poachers and refused to be party to our lawless activities. I told him he could of erased the photos if he thought it was so wrong. He didn't have much to say to that.
The castle was very extravagant and very very cold. Apparently the castle was built for King Ludwig as a summer residence. It took 17 years to complete the castle and Ludwig only lived there for 172 days before he died. Unfortunate. At least he had a handful of other castles in which to spend his time.
After the tour, Scott, Kons and I drove back to Füssen to eat lunch and have a bier. Lunch ended up taking 2-3 hours as we chatted about all sorts of things. For those of you who don't know, Kons was an exchange student at my high school 10 years ago. It's been 10 years since I've seen him... I wish we could have stayed longer.
After we finished with lunch, we took out Dumb-Dumb who made us take a couple of wrong turns in Füssen...and then directed us onto a country road covered with snow and ice. I guess this was its idea of a short cut to the Autobahn. I had more faith than Scott that Dumb-Dumb would get us across farm country, but after the road became more narrow, what little faith I had began to fade quickly.
Just when Scott was about to give up by having me turn around, we came across a major highway which was gonna take where we needed to go. Woot! The drive between Füssen and Bad Herrenalb was very long and I had to maneuver through a LOT of traffic around Stuttgart. Yeck. By the time we reached Bad Herrenalb, my neck was kinked and I had no inclination to venture out into this small town to do much of anything.
The hotel we stayed at was a gigantic house converted into hotel rooms, and it actually had a lift! The decorations were a little freakish (jackelope skulls on the wall) and the ambience of the entire place reminded me of the movie Psycho. Scott said he immediately liked this place because of it's uniqueness. I thought a ghost was going to pop out at any time. The squeaks, the creaks and a strange old smell kinda made me rethink my choice about this hotel.... But meeting the people who ran this place completely changed my mind. They were excellent hosts!!! Scott and I would both stay here again...! On top of that, the view from the hotel looked out over the town from the hill and the breakfast was awesome! Their orange juice wasn't carbonated =)
Next post, Baden-Baden...
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