We went to Hohenschwangau this weekend and stayed in a quaint little bed and breakfast…
This is the town where the castle Neuschwanstein can be found… The castle that Disney modeled their Sleeping Beauty Castle after, and the one that sits in the middle of Disneyland… I thought it was Cinderella’s Castle, but it turns out it is Sleeping Beauty’s, per a friend of mine…
We arrived on Saturday, too early to check in at our B&B, so we headed right up to take the tour of each castle… We walked up to the summer castle of King Ludwig II, and walked through with a charming guide… She had a great since of humor, and was willing to put up with and giggle at my antics throughout our tour… I love to make people laugh… I kept making comments that the beds were very small, and shouldn’t the Queen have a queen size bed, and the King a king sized??? Don’t you think so??? When we came to one of the sitting rooms there was a guest bed with many mattresses, I couldn’t help it, I had to ask… Is there a pea under there??? I thought for sure it would not be understood, between the language differences and all, but she laughed loud, and we giggled about it the rest of the tour… How does it get better than that???
We took the horse and carriage down to town, our driver was very charmed with his horses, and proceeded to tell me their names and to chat with us, he was lovely… Upon arriving at the bottom we had to catch another up to the Fairy Tale Castle… Though there was twelve of us in the carriage it was very charming and romantic… Do you wanna know how I know it was romantic??? I know because a very cute young couple spent the whole time making eyes at each other and kissing… How great is that??? It was really cute…I have to say I rather wished for out first tour guide back, this gentleman was nice enough though he seemed to be in a hurry… It was lovely none the less, and I highly recommend visiting…
After our tours, we headed back to the B&B to check in… She just asked our names, took us up to our room and handed us a key, no proof, no money, just here you go… How does it get any better??? In the US they take all your info and ask you to secure it with a credit card… Not here, just here is your key… We put our stuff in the room,and headed back for dinner in the sweet little alpine town… We picked a restaurant with a patio, so we could sit outside, the food and beer was Yummy!
The next day we went back up to the Castle so we could go out to Mary’s Bridge… Things you should know, I have had trouble with heights in the past… (I say that as if I didn’t go into complete and total meltdown every time I am not in control, and sometimes even when I am)… I have noticed that I haven’t had this issue as much recently… I can actually stand in places and not feel as if I will fall or be sick if I get to close to the edge… I can look over the edge, and still be calm… In order to get up to the castle on this day, we opted to take the bus, not knowing it’s route… You should also know we were the last two on a very packed bus, the driver had told everyone to push back to the back so as to get everyone on that would fit, sitting or standing… As we climbed this narrow road to the top, I just kept telling myself, this is what this man does for a living Heather, he does it every day, and all day, he knows what he is doing, you are totally safe… I said this through every curve that we took, that looked as though we might be too wide… Patting myself on the back as we approached the top, at how well I was handling all this, and that not once did i freak out, we pulled up to the end, and as I was absolutely sure he was going right over that cliff, I grabbed the bar in front of us and sank as low as I could bracing myself for the decline, and yep that is when he came to a complete stop and smiled at me in the most devious manner possible, and laughed… I laughed too, though I think it might have been more for having not been sick right there and then… How does it get better than that???
The great part was that we were right next to Mary’s bridge and the hike up the hill we had thought we would be taking was only a couple minutes… After all the walking we had done the day before I was grateful not to have to hike uphill the twenty minutes it would have been, and this way it was only down hill we would be doing… Mary’s bridge goes out from one cliff-side of the mountain to the cliff-side of the other mountain… It is a steel bridge with wood planks bolted into it… It is approximately one hundred to one hundred fifty feet down to the bottom… I went out onto this bridge three times and no freak outs, Yeah me… I even had my picture taken out there… What else is possible???
It was an amazing weekend and I could not have planned it more perfectly… How lucky am I???
Check this out… http://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/palace/index.htm