Road Trippin' to Bavaria and Tirol

DAY 1: GOING TO REUTTE

Wow! We had a fabulous weekend! Since the Belgians had a holiday on Thursday, we were able to enjoy a 4-day weekend trip to Bavaria in Germany and Tirol in Austria where we visited three of 'Crazy' King Ludwig's four castles. Oh, it was fantastic!

We expected our drive down to our hotel in Reutte (Roy-teh), Austria, to take about 6 hours. Wrong-o! Yes, road-work here in Europe sucks as much, or worse, than it does in the U.S. We also had to stop several times for Rachael and Beth to use the restroom, for Adam to 'gas up' the car (we brought along some cheaper rationed gas in gas cans in the back of the Odyssey because it costs about double buying it on the economy), and the worst hold-up was a part of the Auto-bahn that stopped being the Auto-bahn and went from three lanes to two as part of that actual design of the road. This was at least an hour and a half delay. In defense of the German transportation department, it did look as though they were trying to address this issue by creating a new road about a couple hundred yards away. Still, we left at 10am expecting to arrive around 4pm. Instead, we rolled in, tired, exhausted, cranky, and starving to Hotel Das Beck in Reutte, Austra, after 8pm. Wow! At least we could say that we were in four countries in a single day, though: Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria! =)

Still, we tried to keep a positive attitude. The drive was beautiful. The whole area just made us feel all warm and fuzzy, with its beautiful, tall mountains, the green countryside, the mists and fog here and there. We were driving through this gorgeous Alpen landscape when several songs from the 'Sound of Music' came on from Adam's iPod. It just seemed to fitting to be singing 'Edelweiss' and 'Doe, a Deer' (which Rachael happily joined in singing =). We learned later that the locals have no idea why Americans seem to think these songs belong in the Alps, or that 'Edelweiss' is not only a popular song there, but sometimes thought to be the national anthem! The 'Sound of Music' songs are actually show tunes written by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Check out this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edelweiss_%28song%29 to see how even one of our own presidents was confused when hosting the emissary of Austria.

I think it's absolutely HILARIOUS that these people pull their campers with their cars! We have seen maybe 7 or 8 TOTAL pick-up type vehicles since we arrived, and we're pretty sure most of those were driven by Americans!

Ooooooh......

....Ahhhhhhh!

Entering Austria, or rather, Osterreich.

The Gateway to Tirol Holiday Region

Anyways, we did finally make our way to the hotel. We were greeted by Hans, a very friendly fellow, who easily checked us in and got us settled. We told him we were starving and asked for a recommendation for somewhere to eat. He sent us a short way down the road to the Hotel Mohren. When we showed up, the greeter asked us if we had just come from Das Beck (Yes) and that they already had a table waiting for us. Hans had called ahead for us to make sure we would have a place to eat!!

Everywhere in Reutte were these sets of pots, very tall, very big, filled with beautiful flowers. I LOVED seeing this throughout the town!

Oh, the food was so lovely. Sorry, Mom and Dani. I was tired and didn't have my camera with me, so I don't have pictures of our meal! =) The waitress was a small, sweet lady who spoke broken English. We worked together and were able to order our entrees and drinks. Before the meals came out, we were pleasantly surprised by the chef giving us a small appetizer. Adam, Rachael, and I each got a small cup with three cheese-filled Tortelloni in an absolutely delicious green sauce with cheese shredded on top. The pasta was cooked perfectly, the cheesy inside was so yummy, and the sauce was so good that we all ended up trying to lick our bowls out inconspicuously so the other guests wouldn't see! =)

The entrees came out shortly after. Rachael had a delicious Wienerschnitzel that she scarfed down! Adam's dish had spaetzle (do you all know how much I love spaetzle?!?!) covered in a fantastic mushroom sauce with a big ol' hunk of falling-apart pork on top. Yummo!!! I had the Hungarian goulash with an herbed dumpling. I merely had to put my fork in the meat and twist it to pull it apart. There was so much sauce that I could just keep tearing off pieces of the dumpling and thoroughly drench each one in the dark, sweet gravy.

And, that wasn't even the best part!! Adam and I had visited the Vienna Bistro several times in Salt Lake City. It's a cute little restaurant that specializes in authentic Austrian cuisine. We had truly come to love their Apfel Strudel. So, we thought we'd try true, authentic, Austrian Apfel Strudel while in Austria. The dessert that came out to us.... Oh, I can't go on! My mouth just waters thinking about it. Ok, I'll try. This Apfel Strudel came in a moist, delicious pastry, filled with apples, and I think some golden raisins. This filling was delightful: sweet, but not too sweet, with a touch of cinnamon.  The strudel on its own was fantastic. But, we had ordered ours with the vanillesaus.... Excuse me, I need a moment to compose myself... This sauce, it was a light yellow, kinda thick, like a thin pudding or custard, and of a similar texture and taste, with a light sweetness coming through, a strong vanilla flavor, and something just magical! It came with a big spoon so we could take this sauce and drizzle it all over our Apfel Strudel in whatever way we pleased. And we did! With every bite I yearned for more, More, MORE, MORE! I could go back to Reutte, Austria, just for the Apfel Strudel at Hotel Mohren!!!

Needless to say, we made it back to the hotel, hungry no more, but totally exhausted and ready to sleep. We got the kids and ourselves ready for bed quickly so we could all crash and be rested for the next day's exciting adventures (and early morning!)

DAY 2: HOHENSCHWANGAU & NEUSCHWANSTEIN 

We have to be up early this morning. Our first castle tour is supposed to start at 9:50am. We have to pick up out tickets by 8:50am. It will take us about a half hour to get to the castles, and we have to get ourselves and the kiddos up, dressed, and fed. I hear Adam in the shower at 6am. Ugh. I rally anyways, and we are all ready by 7:30am. Perfect! That's when the free breakfast at the hotel starts! You all know how much I love the hotel breakfasts in Europe (for a quick reminder, see my blog post Breakfast, Glorious Breakfast!). It has all the essentials: delicious breads, spreads, marmalades, cheeses, meats, eggs, and tea. They had a table reserved for us in the dining area. Lovely. =) We enjoy our meal, gather up a few last things, get in the car, and head for the village of Hohenschwangau.

Again, we revel at the scenery around us as we were driving. I am definitely missing the mountains of Idaho and the Wasatch Front! Then, as we're looking around, we see something! Is that Neuschwanstein? Or is it Hohenschwangau? I don't know, but it sure is a castle! Moments later, curving around a bend in the road, we see another one! Yes, that one is Neuschwanstein; this first must have been Hohenschwangau. We have our handy Rick Steves' travel guides with us, telling us all the good tips and tricks for parking and and getting around the area. The car is parked, and we pick up our tickets. We expected to have to kill an hour before our first tour, but our reservation was wrong, so we actually got into the next English-speaking tour a half hour early. Nice!

Which castle is this?! Oh, it's Hohenschwangau!

Look! There's Neuschwanstein!

Beautiful!!

The first castle we visit is Hohenschwangau, King Ludwig II's childhood home. I'll let the pictures show you how beautiful it is on the outside. I was so totally bummed that we could not take pictures during our tour in the castle! Just know that everything, everywhere, was beautiful, intricate, ornate, gilded, painted, and awesome! Almost every room had a table with a 'gift to the (then) prince' on it, each one bigger than the next, statues and decorations, make of silver or gilded bronze or gold inlaid with gems and opals and porcelains, just awesome! My favorite room in this castle is the king's music room. He was a huge fan of Richard Wagner's musical works. This room has a piano in it that Richard Wagner often played to entertain the king. And next to the piano is a telescope from which King Ludwig could watch the work being done on his new castle, Neuschwanstein.

Hohenschwangau, built on the site of the old Schwanstein castle ruins.

I LOVE this picture!

Hi, Bunny! =)

The views!

I worked really hard to make this picture turn out. So cool!

Walking down from Hohenschwangau Castle to the village.

I loved the lampposts along the path.

This was was kinda neat, didn't turn out very well, though.

We had about an hour and a half to make our way to Neuschwanstein for our second tour. After walking down the path back to the village, we were able to get tickets to the bus the would take us up the hill. We didn't have enough time to check out Mary's bridge (a short walk from the bus drop-off) before we had to walk down about 10 minutes to Neuschwanstein, like Rick Steves had suggested. We decided to do that after our tour because the castle tour was what we really wanted to do!

Walking down to the castle was a wonderful experience. The scenic views were beyond incredible! A friendly American woman offered to take a picture us with the castle behind us. We learned that she was Army and had been in Europe for about a year. We talked a bit as we continued on our way to the castle.

Walking from the bus stop to Neuschwanstein we were met by these grand views!

I like this picture =)

Looking out toward Hohenschwangau with two lakes behind it!

The sweet American Army girl saw me take that picture of my three favorite people, so she offered to take this picture for us =) BTW: That's NEUSCHWANSTEIN in the BACKGROUND!

As we walked toward the castle, it just got bigger and more overwhelming and Awesome!

I guess they were having some sort of celebration of the King. We didn't see anything other than these posters, though.

Again, I won't attempt to describe the castle to you; that's why I have a camera! The whole place was spell-binding, magical. Again, we could not take pictures inside. But, Adam and I both agree that where Hohenschwangau castle seemed more functional, Neuschwanstein was completely over the top! King Ludwig dedicated the entire castle to Richard Wagner and his works. In fact, the only image of King Ludwig himself in the castle was put in there after he died. Instead, the walls are covered with murals and paintings depicting scenes from Wagner's operas. The king's bedroom was very cool. It took 14 woodcarvers 4 1/2 years in his bedroom alone to make the vanity, the absolutely impressive canopy over the bed, and all the other exquisite work in the room. The vanity had a swan on it that actually poured out running water from its beak into a basin and plumbed out of the castle. That was high-tech back then! The small prayer chamber was beautiful with a perfect ambiance aided by the sound of the falling water in the Pollat Gorge only a small ways away. Here is a link to a page that has some pictures of the interior. You just have to click on each one to make them bigger: http://www.marerico.com/neuschwanstein_castle.htm

Intimidating.

Looking out at Mary's Bridge over Pollat Gorge.

We were there!

They were there, too =) Zach slept through the Neuschwanstein tour =)

The views from the castle were amazing.

Doesn't Hohenschwangau look rather insignificant in this picture?

Model of the castle

When our tour was over, we were starving (why are we always hungry! =) The king 'died' before the castle was completed (what a scandal! He's blowing all the money building three castles; he's unhappy being a constitutional monarch, not the guy with all the power like the French monarchy; he's declared to have 'paranoia' by his cabinet and four psychiatrists, removed from Neuschwanstein, and mysteriously found dead in the lake at Castle Berg. To read more about this titillating event, please check out this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_II_of_Bavaria). My point is, where the castle wasn't finished, a souvenir shop and a cafe have been made. We actually ate lunch in Neuschwanstein Castle! It was really cool, too. The room where we sat down to eat had partial murals on the walls. We could see the outlines of people and places, some with color on them, some as just the outlines. The ceiling and the floors were not of the quality seen through the finished parts of the castle. It was just so neat!

After our tour and lunch in Neuschwanstein, we made our way back up the hill to see Mary's Bridge. It was great. The view of the castle from there was just spectacular!

On Mary's Bridge. The wooden planks didn't seem too sturdy when there were a ton of people moving around on them!!!!

Looking down into Pollat Gorge at the waterfall.

Yeah, I made this picture. I love it. Doesn't hurt that the subject matter is rather perfect!

After seeing Mary's Bridge, we decided to walk the 40 minutes down the hill to the village. It was great. Some people were walking up the grade (silly!). Most were on their way back down. There were all sorts of souvenir stalls and food stalls along the road. We grabbed a couple pretzels for ourselves =) We saw many two-horse drawn carriages going up and coming down the hill. The woods were comfortable. It was a nice little stroll =)

We fiddled around in the village for a little bit. We bought some wonderful souvenirs for ourselves and our parents. We were all getting tired from walking up many flights of stairs in the castles and our stroll back to the village. The day was winding down, so we loaded up in the car and headed out, keeping an eye on the castles as long as we could before they were lost from our sight for good.

We loved walking around the village and just being in the presence of the castles. "Oh, look, there's Neuschwanstein, at a different angle. Get a picture. Get another picture!!"

We took a different way home than we did coming in. Another place that would have been good for us to stay is Fussen (they had no vacancies by the time we were looking for reservations). So, we drove by to see it anyways. Of course, it was cute. Everywhere in the area, Bavaria and Tirol, whether the building be a business or a home, we saw these cute little houses and hotels with second-story, wooden balconies dripping with beautiful flowers. I couldn't get enough of these adorable places!

When we finally ended up back in Reutte, dinner-time was approaching. On a suggestion from Rick Steves, we walked just across the street from our hotel to the Hotel Goldener Hirsch. If the food from the night before was delicious, then this night's dinner was out of this world! Rachael had a delicious little sausage off the kids' menu. I wouldn't mind putting it on a hotdog bun at an American picnic =) When reading the menu, I knew exactly what Adam was going to order. Again, his entree has spaetzle in it, with veal and a tantalizing Gorgonzola cheese sauce. Amazing! I had a wonderful dish with three of the tenderest pork medallions wrapped in bacon, covered in a peppercorn sauce (yes, like the peppercorns in a pepper grinder. They were softened through the cooking process and totally yummy). My fresh vegetables had a smooth cheese sauce covering them. And my favorite part was the two potato pillows filled with cheese!! We finished our meal with two ice cream desserts. After another delicious meal and three bodies worn out from a very exciting day, we headed back to the hotel to crash and rest up for the next day's adventures (the fourth body, little Zachary, was not worn out in the least. He was busy and getting into everything after spending the day in the baby carrier on his Dad's back. What a hard life =)

DAY 3: THE ZUGSPITZE AND CASTLE LINDERHOF

At the beginning of our trip, we didn't really have a plan for this day and just decided to wing it. We'd heard about the Zugspitze and thought that would be a really cool thing to check out. We also knew about Castle Linderhof, another one of King Ludwig's castles, and decided we could check that out, too, even though Rick Steves' gave it only a two-triangle rating instead of a three, like the other two castles =)

As we were driving toward the Zugspitze, we started getting a little bummed out. There were clouds above us, and we couldn't see much of the cable, let alone the top of the hill. Regardless, we paid for our (expensive) tickets and made our way to the platform. The sign at the bottom of the hill said it was 0 degrees Celsius at the top (c'mon, we all should know what that is in Fahrenheit!! =). Adam had us all taken care of with sweatshirts and coats and blankets for when we made it to the top. Riding the car was actually really cool. There are only three pylons spanning the entire distance from the top to the bottom of the hill. At each one the car shook a little and knocked everyone off balance. Rachael was really enjoying the Zugs-pizza =)

The Tyroler Zugspitzbahn is an engineering masterpiece. The base is located at 1225m above sea level. Over the 3600m length of the journey, the car moves as fast as 10m/second (35km/hr) up 1725m to an altitude of 2950m above sea level. So cool! (For more information, take the link to Google Translate and learn more about this amazing vehicle http://www.zugspitzbahn.at/zugspitzbahn/de/technische_daten.html =)

Can you tell she's excited?! =)

Going up!

 Anyways, we we made our way up to the top of the Zugspitze, we really couldn't see much. There were just so many clouds! At the top it was so cold, freezing, in fact! We had all our extra sweatshirts and coats on and blankets on Zachary. Outside on the observation decks, we observed.... clouds, and active snowfall... in July! The pictures they had laid out showing which peaks were what looked really cool. If only we could actually see the panoramas for ourselves!

The Zugspitze is the highest place in Germany, the Top of Germany, as they call it (not for Austria, as this country has many more higher peaks). The Top of Germany is marked by a beautiful gold cross about 20 yards off of the observation deck. Many, many persons have made the trek to this zenith and had their pictures taken with this cross as the background. In fact, so visitors wouldn't have to rely on other visitors to take pictures for them, they have a system where you can get your group together in front of the cross and push a button, and a camera on the wall will take your picture and print it out for you. Well, today, we were lucky to even glimpse this famous cross. I took several pictures as best I could with different settings trying to capture the cross. I then took those pictures to Photoshop to see if I could adjust the image to make it stand out better. No such luck. We saw the cross; it was there; we've been to the Top of Germany; but our actual proof isn't all that compelling =)

Yes, it was SNOWING on July 23rd!! Adam looks like he's got a papoose on his back with Zach in it! =)

Looking at what we should have been able to see. It could have been pretty awesome!

The platform for the cable cars.

Do you see the cross?! It's there, I promise!

This is what they had on the Austrian side of the Zugspitze.

Getting back in the car.

Going down, looking at the platform at the bottom.

At the bottom. Kinda cool.

Anyways, we headed back inside, went through the little museum about the beginnings and early years of the Zugspitzbahn, watched a couple of the films. Then, we got back on the car and headed down the hill. In 10 minutes we lost 1725m altitude and gained about 20 degrees Celsius!

By this time, we were getting hungry; lunch time was near. We took the scenic route to Linderhof, making our way by heading through Garmisch, a fun little mountain resort town with great shopping and an US Army Garrison. The only place Rick Steves recommended to eat was a five-star restaurant. For lunch? Really? We found a Pizza Hut instead, and ate there, having just enough leftovers to save us some Euro on dinner later that day. With our bellies full (again =), we continued on our way toward Castle Linderhof.

Adam and I were totally impressed with Schlosspark Linderhof. Rick Steves said in his book that this castle was the only one that actually made him jealous, and we agree. The grounds are so warm and inviting, with gardens all over, water features around every corner, manicured lawns, forests, footpaths. Oh, it was heavenly! The castle itself was built by King Ludwig, and was the only castle he commissioned that was actually completed!! It was dedicated to the French monarchy, of which he laid some claim to through some family connection. He admired them so much because they led their country with complete authority, whereas King Ludwig was a constitutional monarch, who's really just a figurehead and has most of the country's decisions made by his cabinet. He became very reclusive. In fact, his dinner table at Linderhof is called the "Self Setting Table." Through a series of pulleys, the table could be lowered below, set by the servants, and raised back up to the dining room, where King Ludwig could eat by himself without having to see or talk to the servants. Every room in Schloss Linderhof is gilded, gilded, Gilded!! But, it wasn't off-putting. It was just Beautiful!

As we were walking from the parking lot and touristville toward the castle, we passed a pond that had two beautiful swans in it and some ducks. They seemed very comfortable around humans, so we got a good look at them. Rachael got a kick out of them for sure!!

Outside the castle was a beautiful park, with the gardens and the waterfalls and fountains. Little paths led all over, taking us to the Venus Grotto (totally weird!!!) and several little funky buildings. King Ludwig had some strange ideas. In part of Neuschwantstein between two rooms, he had a small grotto built, with stalactites and stalagmites and colored lights in it. The Venus grotto was similar, only on a much larger scale. Both were designed by August Dirigl, and the larger grotto had a scene from one of Wagner's opera "Tannhauser" in it. The whole place was just odd. We also visited the Moorish Kiosk, a beautiful little building with an Indian flair. We missed a couple other little neat buildings just because we were so tired from walking all over the last couple days.

View looking out from the front of the castle.

View looking out from the rear of the castle. The waterfall starts very high up and cascades down. It's very impressive!

Can you see the little gold gilded crowns?! =)

Cupid's arrow was the fountain of water

Looking down at the back of the castle.

Creepy weird Venus Grotto!

The lights were so weird, sometimes all red, or all blue, or natural, all of it just plain weird!

Some image of another Wagner's Tannhauser opera. Poor lighting=poor quality photos.

Who knows what the boat was for. Something to do with the opera. Weird.

The Moorish Kiosk

So cool!

I LOVED the stained glass!

View looking out from the Kiosk.

Rachael has our ticket in her hand. It had a map of the Schlosspark on it, and she was making sure we knew where we were going =)

View from the gazebo above the waterfall looking past the castle toward the Venus statue on the other side.

A cute little garden feature

Looking up from the pool/fountain toward the Venus statue

Wow! The gardens were so intricate!

Looking out from the Venus statue past the castle to the gazebo above the waterfall.

The Venus statue

The day started out less than stellar, and our trip to Linderhof, which was more of an "Ok, we can check it out" kind of thing, ended up making up for the whole day, captivating us with its beauty and charm and welcome feeling. After buying a couple pretzels and some small trinkets at the gift shop, we got in the car and headed back to the hotel.


Wasn't I pleasantly surprised (Adam knew we'd be doing this, he totally planned it this way!) when our drive back took us along the most beautiful Lake Plansee! With the majestic Alps behind it, the gorgeous color and stillness of the water, it was such a beautiful drive! I still can't get over how clear the water was. The transparency and the hue reminded me of the time (in the distant past) when my family went to Lake Tahoe and we took a boat ride to Emerald Bay. Wow!

One of the views on our way back from Linderhof to the hotel

Lake Plansee and the Alps

Beautiful!

See how clear that water is?!

Did you know the Alps are 'rotten'? The limestone they're made of is such a crappy material that the whole mountain range is just flaking away. We could see it all over, rivers full of silt, rocks slides all over where the mountains were crumbling apart.

We finally made it to the hotel. Supper was already taken care of. There's nothing quite like cold pizza =) We crashed again, resting our tired legs and bodies, ready to head back home the next day after a wonderful little vacation.

DAY 4: HEADING HOME

We were able to sleep in a touch this morning; that was nice =) We ate the delicious Das Beck breakfast one last time. Checking out was a breeze. We piled in the car one more time and told Jill (aka our GPS =) to take us home.

We didn't want to have to deal with the horrible construction and roads that plagued us on our way down. So, we told Jill to avoid those and take us home a different route. Lo and behold, we ended up driving right through Kaiserslautern just as lunch time was rolling around. Yay! We stopped in at Ramstein AFB and checked out the mall again. Foreign food is fantastic and all, but sometimes it's nice to just have a steak quesadilla from Taco Bell! =) The kids ran around a little bit in the play area. We bought a few things in the Exchange. And we grabbed some shakes from Johnny Rockets for the rest of the ride home. Nice!

We made it home in about seven hours, including our stop at Ramstein. The animals were still alive. Our beds were still there. We brought some things in from the car. The rest we left for the next day. After the kids got a good scrub down, we were finally ready to hit the sack and put this vacation in the books. Have I ever mentioned how much I love living in Europe! Anyways, this adventure is done. And another one will soon be upon us. Until then, Ta ta!