Bavaria, Germany

We woke up this morning around 7:30 to get ready so we could head out to see Neuschwanstein Castle! We had breakfast at our bed and breakfast and headed out. We were running a little late, so mom dropped me off to get tickets while she parked the car. But, she dropped me off at the wrong building. I had to go up the hill to get tickets. Thank goodness she found me or I don’t know what we would have done! Thank goodness we bought tickets In advance because the line to get them was very long and it was already getting pretty hot!

The hike up was pretty long and steep. but we made it!

  Our tour was at 9:55 and we were done with the tour by about 10:20. Neuschwanstein Castle was built by mad Kind Ludwig, and he died before it was finished. So the castle is nowhere near finished, so they can only show the rooms that are done. They also do not allow pictures to be taken inside :( mom did sneak one of the chandeliers it is pretty dark though. 

The view from the castle

The kitchen

Hohenschwangau- Ludwigs childhood home

After our tour, we headed to the bridge to see the castle from the side. So beautiful!             

Cinderellas castle was inspired by Neuschwanstein

On our way down the hill, we stopped for some drinks, we were dying of thirst! Everything is in glass bottles here!

Cheers!

Still searching for a new hat..... :(

When our tour was done we headed to Ettal, Germany to check out the monastery. The drive to Ettal was along a beautiful blue lake the road twisted and turned all around the mountain!

On our way to Ettal, we ran into Linderhof- another of Ludwigs castles. This was where he lived while Neuschwanstein was being built. It is much smaller but more of what I imagined a palace to be like. Again, no photos were allowed inside, but it was so beautiful -everything gold plated and very extravagant. We also did a tour of Linderhof and it was very short again because it is such a small palace, there isn’t a ton to see inside.

Fountain of Zeus

 After the palace tour, we did a tour of the grotto- which is a manmade cave, weird I know. The hike was the hardest we have had yet- super steep! The grotto was very weird to me. It had a small pool inside and our guide said the grotto was used by Ludwig to listen to opera. There even a small pool with a boat that he would make his servants row him around the lake in! I can’t even imagine! The grotto was not my favorite thing and quite odd to be honest- I would not recommend it! Mom and I both walked out saying that it was very strange and that Ludwig must have indeed been mad!

We left Linderhof and were back on the road to Ettal. We arrived and were starving! We stopped to eat dinner at a little restaurant. I tried pancake soup- I just wanted to know what it was. I think it was crepes sliced thin in beef broth- sounds gross but was pretty good! I also got spatzel again but it was 10x better this time! And Mom got Schnitzel- which is pork pounded really thin. 

The pancake soup

After dinner we headed to check out the Ettal Monestary. It was beautiful! The ceiling was amazing!

Then we stopped to take a peek at the gift shop and I got a couple of pretty rosaries.

Then we went to Oberamagau to look around for a bit. The town had lots of little shops with wood carvings, steins, coo-coo clocks, and Bavarian clothes. We didn’t find anything- but I am still on the search for a new hat since I left mine on the train L

Tomorrow we head to Dachau and Munich for the day!