MUNICH to FUSSEN and back again

Saturday was by far the best day of this amazing road trip. Tom, Meg, Rachel, her roommate, and myself piled into the car and drove south, towards Austria. Our hopes were set on seeing the most famous castle of Bavaria that the Walt Disney castle is said to be modeled after. The drive there was a little tough with some very strong rain and the temperatures dropping. We made it to the castle and realized that the other castle was very close (about a half hour walk apart up the mountain). We bought tickets to have tours of each castle and went to the smaller castle first (Hohenschwangau Castle). The views were amazing from the castle, looking down on a small town and a lake with large snow-covered mountains as a backdrop. We were unfortunately unable to take pictures of the insides of either castle. The rooms were gorgeous and filled with beautiful murals, furniture, and anything you expect to find in a castle. After the tour, we walked down the small mountain and headed to a restaurant to warm up a bit. The rain started to let up a little bit so Tom and I decided to walk up the other mountain to the main castle. It was a great decision. The road was steep and made me realize how out of shape I am (I am planning on going for a run tomorrow morning...I am keeping my fingers crossed that I remember/ force myself to do this). It took us about half an hour to walk up the path to the Marien Brucke, which is a bridge that is hundreds of feet above a waterfall and rushing rapids. The view of the Neuschwanstein Castle was...wow...I cannot describe it. The wind was almost blowing us off the bridge. We couldn't breathe when we faced the wind and hard rain was pelting us as we stood there. It made standing at the bottom of Niagara Falls seem like nothing. It was hard to keep our lenses clean but we were still able to get some amazing pictures (the pictures look like paintings or movie sets. I am having a hard time believeing that these pictures are real). We walked across the bridge but the path faded off into the mountain. We decided to go up higher on the mountain and see if we could look down on the castle. Well, after walking through the mud, stepping over roots and logs, and climbing up the rocks, we came upon a clearing on the edge of the mountain. I heard Tom yell about a rainbow and I went running over to see it. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The sun was shining on the castle and lit it up just for us. A powerful rainbow then burst from within the castle and reached toward the blue sky. We were so captivated by the perfection of what was in front of us that we lost track of what was beneath us. We were a few feet from the edge of a cliff that dropped hundreds of feet into the gorge. We quickly stepped back and caught our breath. We didnt know what to say to each other. We were standing on a muddy cliff, looking at a huge castle with a colorful rainbow, and green and white mountains in the background. I think it was the most powerful experience of my life.

We then had to hurry back down the mountain so we wouldn't be late for the tour. We met the girls at the entrance of the castle and took the tour. The group was a lot bigger than the first castle and the tour guide didn't have a sense of humor (the guide from the first castle made a lot of jokes...mostly bad and corney...but I thought he was funny. I can't pronounce his name but he had a cool coat).

After the tour, all five of us walked up to the bridge. On the walk down, we asked a gentleman to take a picture of us with the castle and mountains in the background. He told us not to ask people in Italy to take pictures because they will run off with your camera. He was a funny guy (he told his 8 year old daughter that he would race her down the mountain but she said she wasn't in the mood). I am glad that my old track coach never found this mountain, because it makes the hills we used to run seem like flat plains.

We then drove off to take the scenic way home, through Austria. We drove along a lake that provided some of the most beautiful works of nature I have ever seen. It was sunset when we reached the lake and there was a full moon over the mountains by the time we reached the end of the lake. It seemed too perfect. We stopped in the very small town of Plansee, Austria to have dinner. We ate at Hotel Forelle, which was right on the lake. We couldn't get a window seat but it was a perfect meal (I had wiener schnitzel...I'm gonna miss it).