The Romantic Road, Fussen to Munich, Day 8

Waking up to Castle Neuschwanstein on the mountain side was even more fun than falling asleep to it because we were going to get to see it. The plan for the day was to visit both castles, Neuschwanstein and Schwangau; and that's what we did. Castle Schwangau is the smaller (yellow), more cozy of the two castles, and Neuschwanstein (think legos) is the famous and phenomenally interesting castle built by "mad King Ludvig." (It's actually the castle that Disney's Cinderella castle is based on.) Neuschwanstein is complete with a room made into a cave, with full valley views out of the cave's mouth, and an area where the king could communicate with his servants through a series of panels without actually having to speak to anyone. I thoroughly enjoyed both, but I think I liked the crazy castle more. It was actually not finished during Ludvig's lifetime because he went bankrupt and was deposed, being labelled "mad" as a nice bonus.

Of course you can't take any pictures inside, but you can take great pictures of the views from the windows:





After we toured both castles, which included hiking up and back, it was time to hit the road again, this time headed to Munich. We were only 5 miles from the Austrian border, though, so we drove into Austria just to do it (and to get slightly cheaper gas). The kids enjoyed getting to add one more country to their "countries visited" list, even if they were only in it for a short time.


Back into Germany, we headed for Munich, this time on open highway. You know how you always hear that there is no speed limit on the freeways in Germany? Well, it's true, and it's frightening. We drove white-knuckle speed for a good deal of the trip into Munich, but there were cars passing us like we were standing still. It's an experience, that's for sure!

Once in Munich, we went to the Marienplatz to see the Glockenspiel. The verdict? It's a big, boring clock with barely-discernible figures on the side of a tallish tower on a very dirty building in the middle of a busy square. Ooh, aah. We went, though, didn't we? And we weren't the only tourists standing there staring at it. Go figure.

Driving in Munich was slightly less insane than driving in Paris and Rome had been, but only slightly. Our hotel that night was nice, though. We pretty much had an entire floor to ourselves, the in-house restaurant had fantastic food, and the owner even packed us each a bag of breakfast food to take with us to the airport because we were leaving too early to eat the breakfast buffet. If you're ever staying close to the Munich airport, go to the Airporthotel Theresienhof!!! We flew out the next morning VERY early, had a great flight, and made it home by lunch time.

(Actually, we had a great flight except for the few minutes spent dealing with the passport official at the Munich airport who was very put out that we didn't get our passports stamped on the way into the country. {And you thought I'd forgotten...} He did let us all go through and get on the plane--after lecture #34, of course, which is reserved specifically for stupid Americans who cross the border without getting stamped--but he wasn't happy with us. As I walked away, I could still hear him loudly telling his coworker how stupid some people are and that there are some things you should just know. Dude, let it go; I'm sorry already...!)

So what is the overall verdict on a Paris/Romantic Road holiday? The kids dubbed it AWESOME, and I have to completely agree. I couldn't have asked for a more interesting few days, and I'm thrilled that we went. What a phenomenal experience!!!