Day 5: German Castles

Blog by Charlotte
As the day began, the we started out by waking up early and grabbing a few pasteries so we could hop on the road quick and get to Neuschwanstein (noosh•von•stien) and Hohenschwangau (ho•in•shwahn•gooh) by 10:55 to pick up the tickets. Apparently if you picked up your tickets after then you would have to pay double the price, which is nothing like the US.

         Scored some €1.90 chocolate milk

Neuschwanstien

After driving through the cute German towns, we reached the castles. Before the tours, we grabbed some sausages for a lunchish meal/snack. The first tour was at 11:55, of Hohenschwangau. It was really interesting, as the castle was designed in the romantic era, so it was idealized midevil. The rooms were very ornate.

Hoenschwangau (the tan one)- we're not professional photographers. If you want a good picture, Google it.

After the first one, we then had to go to up a mountain a far way to get to Neuschwanstein. Phillip, Mom, and Dad walked up, while Amelia, Grandpa and I "took the bus up." The bus turned out to stop about halfway up, and at the halfway up mark we saw a path with a bridge that we crossed, and then walked up a very steep and rocky path to where we thought the castle was. It took a good half hour or so, and when we got to the end we realized we had gone the completely wrong way, and we had 20 minutes until we had to be there. At that point it started raining, and we had to walk done the path and bridge as quickly as possible. At the bus stop we realized there was another path that everyone was going on (we had noticed literally no people on the other path), with some obvious signs pointing to the castle. By then it was pouring, and we had to get soaked to the bone on the way to the castle, and finally got there and met up with others in the nick of time for the tour.

After that adventure we were just glad to be in the castle, and enjoyed the tour and browsed through the gift shop.

We went back (correctly this time) and got some ice cream and hot pretzels, and headed to the car.

The group was not sure whether to take the quick or scenic route. We were going to take the fast one, but somehow ended up on the long, winding senic, and headed on that way. *Emphasis on winding* after 2 and a half hours instead of 1, we reached the airbnb in Austria late, and got some schitzel and meat for dinner.

We drove back and found two cats, about ten cows, and one mini horse at our Airbnb, which was a frame. Then we settled down for the night, and got ready for the adventure tomorrow.