We're Getting Old

On New Year's Eve we didn't even make it to midnight! No we aren't getting old, we have a 6 am flight out of Gatwick which meant we had to up by 3 am and leave our flat by 4 to make our flight. We ended up in bed at 11 after packing but was promptly woken up at midnight to the thousands of fireworks let off in central London. So we were awake at midnight, wished each other a Happy New Year and quickly went back to bed!

The next morning we had the best Easy Jet flight ever with maybe 10 people on our flight and arrived in Munich just after 9. We picked up our rental car and didn't get the free upgrade which Pat was hoping for and was quite bummed about. You really can't compare a Peugeot and a BMW but we would make do. Soon we were on our way to the Rothenburg.

Rothenburg is the epitome of medieval German cuteness. The old town is surrounded by old stone walls, paved with cobblestone and lined with half timber homes and shops. We walked around and admired the buildings but the majority of the city was closed since it was New Years Day. We found a restaurant that was open and Pat enjoyed his first meal of German Sausage and sauerkraut. After Rothenburg we planned on driving the Romantic Road to Füssen where we were staying for the night. Our trusty Rick Steves' book said just follow the clearly marked road signs and it'll get you there. Easier said than done! We eventually found the first sign on the way out of Rothenburg and made it the first cities but quickly got lost when we couldn't track down any more signs and had no idea what road we were supposed to be on. But it was getting dark so we gave up and set the Garmin to just get us to our hotel.

Our hotel was just outside of Füssen and happened to be in the most perfect location for our next sights. Our hotel sat in the valley between Neuschwanstein Castle and Hohenschwangau Castle. They both sparkled in the night time with the stars and moon rising about the mountain peaks. We were both hungry after our long day and our hotel had a fantastic restaurant. As we were eating it started to snow which I was quite happy about because I wanted to see Neuschwanstein and the mountain it sits on covered in snow. Well I got the snow I wanted and a bit more!

We woke up and had a fantastic breakfast overlooking the snow covered valley between the castles. Hohenschwangau was the first castle we visited and since we had a little bit of time before our tour, we walked around the castle grounds a bit. The castles have a pretty slick system where you get assigned two time slots, two hours apart, for a guided tour of each castle. So we had our first time slot for Hohenschwangau and got our 35 minute tour. I had figured the tour would be a little bit longer with having two hours in between but I suppose they need to get as many people through as possible! Hohenschwangau was the home of King Maximilian II of Bavaria and the childhood residence of the future king Ludwig II of Bavaria. The tour brought us through the Hall of Heroes and Knights, Queen Mary's bedroom, King Maximilian's bedroom and dressing room (which had a secret passage from Queen Mary's bedroom) and Ludwig's bedroom which over looked where Neuschwanstein would be built.

After Hohenschwangau we headed down the hill to make our way to Neuschwanstein. I really wanted to take the horse drawn buggy but it had started snowing again so we didn't know how much longer they would be running to and from. Plus we had quite a bit of time before our next tour so we decided to walk up the path. It seems like a good idea at the time but as we started walking, it continued to snow and snow and pretty soon we were both covered in a layer of snow. We had reached the top but we still had an hour before our next tour! Luckily there was a small covered area that we could at least be sheltered from the snow otherwise we would have been snowmen!

Finally it was our tour time Neuschwanstein and we herded into the castle (quite like cattle). We had an odd little tour guide that seemed almost robotic. Ask Pat, he'll do an impression. Neuschwanstein was commission by King Ludwig II and started in 1869. Construction however stopped in 1886 when King Ludwig II died. The majority of the exterior of the castle had been finished, however only 14 rooms were finished. Shortly after the King's death, the castle was opened to the public and there have been tons of tourists ever since! Once inside, we got another short 35 minute tour of the finished rooms. After our tour, it was stilling snowing profusely so we decided just to make our way to Munich as we would have no idea how our itty bitty car would do in a bunch of snow. We had slow goings and only one close call but we eventually made it to Munich and our hotel for the night.