Castles and Campfires

Chris had 4 days off this past weekend, so we decided to travel to Schwangau and tour Neuschwanstein Castle as well as travel to Garmisch for a few nights of camping with friends.

So we drove for the first time on the Autobahn. And by drive, I mean I was clutching the handlebar in the car so hard my knuckles were turning white! Driving at 150 kph on winding roads made me a little anxious. I felt like we were playing Mario Kart....I was just waiting for the bananas to appear in the road!

Eventually we made it to our hotel, the Villa Ludwig Suite Hotel. The hotel was phenomenal. Our balcony looked out to Neuschwanstein Castle. Now that's a view to wake up to!

We had a very romantic room, that not only had a view of the castle but of the stars too!

Thursday night we had dinner in the nearby town of Fussen. We ate at Gastof Krone, which was a medieval restaurant. They even gave us fancy "napkins" to wear around our necks.

Friday, we visited Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. It rained all day and the fog was covering all of the spectacular views, but that didn't stop the thousands of tourists from around the world. Both castles were owned by Ludwig II's family. The castles were just used as summer homes for the family. Despite the rain, we really enjoyed exploring such an iconic castle.

The next day we woke up to gorgeous weather. So we quickly retraced all of our steps before we had to leave. We went back to both castles to see the sights.

We hiked down a path to see the Pollatschlucht (the Pollat Gorge).

Then we hiked up to see the view of Neuschwanstein Castle from Marienbrucke (Mary's Bridge). This was the most amazing view of the castle!

We then drove to Garmisch (which is about an hour away) to camp with some friends of ours. Garmisch is at the base of the Bavarian Alps and only a few miles from the Austrian border. We camped on the grounds of the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort. Edelweiss is a resort available exclusively for military families.

We traveled to the site of the 1936 Winter Olympics. We then hiked to the nearby Partnach Gorge. We had some amazing views!

On Sunday, we started the day with a champagne brunch at the resort. We may have been "camping", but you wouldn't know it from our meal. We had bananas foster french toast, prime rib, strawberry shortcake parfait, unlimited mimosas and much more! After brunch, we visited the Eibsee, which is a beautiful lake located at the base of the Zugspitze (the highest mountain in Germany). We rented a paddleboat with a slide on top and paddled around the lake. The water was really cold, but we had to go swimming!