Day 6!

Day 6 might possibly be my favorite day of the trip. We spent the day driving the Romantic Road through southern Bavaria, from Garmisch to Hohenschwangau, where the castle Neuschwanstein is located. I loved this area! It was just gorgeous. The scenic views of the Alps and the rolling farm grounds dotted with small towns at their bases was breathtaking. I could have happily spent a week in this area, spending a day at each small little town.

We started the day with a tour of Neuschwanstein, though it was lunch time by the time we drove there. It is quite the hike up to the castle from the parking area, though we could have taken a bus or carriage ride if we had wanted. We had stopped at a grocery on the way, so we stopped along the path to eat our picnic. I'm not used to high altitude, so the walk knocked the wind out of me! However, it was worth it -- winding through the mountainside, you could catch glimpses of the surrounding area. The woods were dotted with wildflowers. The setting for this castle that was the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty's Castle was indeed magical.

The castle itself was neat, though the tour was pretty brief. The interior was not like anything else we had toured on the trip -- elaborate dark wood paneling and extravagant paintwork on the ceilings. Now, we have viewed many a painted ceiling in the last week, however this one was different. Intricate, though repetitive, patterns in bold colors that decorated the stonework of the elaborately arched ceilings. The best part, though, was the views from the top. The castle indeed had a fairytale like view of the area, including one of the neighboring castle (which we didn't get to due to time constraints).

There were several different trail options around the castle, including on that wound around to the back of it to a viewing bridge. The view from the bridge was probably wonderful, though I couldn't bring myself to walk out onto more than a few feet. What can I say? I don't walk on things I can see through -- the small gaps between the squeaky boards were too much for me (especially considering we were several hundred feet up from the rocky ground below).

After hiking back down, we headed back down the road. Along the way we stopped at the Ettal Monastery. The basilica at the monastery was one of the most ornate sanctuaries we've been through on this trip. With gold guilding on many of the surfaces, the round structure sparkled. We then headed off to the neighboring beirgarten to try some of the monks freshly brewer beer and have a fresh pretzel in the warm sunshine. This is EXACTLY what we wanted to do here!

We drove back towards Garmisch, stopping along the way to do some shopping (and believe it or not, I bought my first souvenirs of the trip at this point). When we got to Garmisch, we were intending to do some shopping, but discovered that the shops were already starting to close (I'm not used to stores closing at 6:00). We walked around the small downtown anyway, enjoying the area, and found a nice little restaurant to have dinner at. I got some kind of a cheese spaetzle (probably the German equivalent of macaroni and cheese), that was topped with onion straws and it was DIVINE! I could happily live off of the German noodles and dumplings for the rest of the trip!

We ended the day with a bit of business -- laundry. Jeremy & Hannah enjoyed the hotel's pool while I emptied our laundry bag of its contents and did a bit of reading. All in all, it was an absolutely great day!