Kel's Excellent Adventures: Day 5 Shwangau & Castle Neuschwanstein to Munich

I woke up today and looked straight up to the castle and Alps behind it. Wow, what a way to start the day!

We took the horse drawn carriage up to the Castle. We had a scary dragon lady driver who squished us all in like sardines. Not quite what we had envisioned the carriage ride to be. Oh well, it still saved us walking up! Haha

Dragon lady dropped us off slightly below the castle, so up we went and had a look about, took a million pictures etc. It really is a phenomenal site! Our tour started at 10.25, and if you miss it, tough luck as there is no going in late, and are always sold out. So with that in mind, we made sure we were in the courtyard with plenty of time to spare! Still plenty to look at while waiting, so all good!

Walking up to the castle

Getting Closer!!!!

The tour was amazing (another theme word of my trip, I think). We weren't allowed to take any photos, which was disappointing..but to be honest I think trying to get pictures would have been overwhelming!! The finished rooms of the castle (most of the castle was never finished, as he ~~was murdered~~ died in mysterious circumstances part way through design and construction. Basically he was spending too much, so they topped him! Poor ol' Ludwig. But I gotta say, money well spent Wigster!! The rooms we saw were A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. the frescoes and tapestries on the wall-stunning. Carvings and furniture and EVERYTHING were just ridiculous!!! And the views!!!!!! Through every tiny window was a view to die for. As for the massive windows...WOW!! There was nothing I didn't love in that place. (actually that's totally a lie. A million stairs. Not a fan of those. But even they had windows. So are excused. Haha). Aaaaaand I'll admit to being a big fat sooky lala and fighting back a few tears at times. Neuschwanstein blew me away. And I've read so much about this place, and never imagined I'd be there, so to be standing there and seeing how amazing it really is....I got soft and had a quiet tear. Hahahaha. Pathetic.

Halfway up the mountain from The castle...heading to the bridge. I have half a dozen other selfies that really show how stuffed I was from hiking up! Finally got a half ok-ish one! Haha

So to prove I'm a big and tough, I climbed the damn mountain without having a heart attack (just) and went out on the damn suspension bridge that's 300 million meters above the ground and took some damn photos. Cos I'm hard as nails, me!! Bahahahahahaha, completely pooping my pants the entire time!!

However, am totally proud of myself, and every inch of bone crushing fear was worth it for....wait for it....you'll never guess it...THE VIEW THAT WAS AMAZING!! Hahahaha

Oh yes....amazing.

...but still scary :(

I still managed to put my brave face on. ;)

By the time we'd done all that, we had pretty much run out of time. So we hightailed it back to the car, and hit the road. This time, with little old ME behind the wheel!! So, it is a bit weird to be driving in the wrong side of a car, on the wrong side of the road, but one does get used to it pretty quickly. Until you need to turn corners. Corners are scary. Intersections suck nuts. But Autobahns...... Autobahns are FUNNNNNN!! Ooooh, I do like myself an autobahn. MUM, STOP READING HERE!!! Within ten seconds of hitting that road, and having the open speed sign on my dash (thank you for your guidance Knag) my foot was flat on the floor and I was having a supremely good time!! I had to stop when Bek started making funny gaspy noises. But I did alright in that short time! Hahaha. So we cruised into Munich doing an average of 140. Makes for a shorter trip!!! I was desperately hoping for a service centre or somewhere I could pull over and let Bek drive into the city, but that wasn't too be. Darn it. So into Munich I did drive! And got lost. As much as trusty Knag tried to tell us where to go, it wasn't working, and I may or may not have run a red...but I DIDN'T hit the pedestrians, so it's all ok!

So we dumped the car and made our way to the train station to await tonight's train to Roma!! My nerves are still frazzled from the drive in (I went to Munich and all I got was a nervous breakdown!) and we don't have time to explore so here we sit.

Germany has been awesome, we have been so very very lucky with the weather, we were expecting cold and it's been hot, the days have been cloudless and wonderful, and we saw Schwangau both in fog and clear skies, both of which were beautiful. I absolutely cannot wait to come back here and explore some more. Definetly need more then 3 days, and I can't wait to bring Aaron and the kids back to see all that I've seen, and so much more!!