July 18 - Sunday
First we got up at a reasonable hour but earlier than usual and set off to the Alps which were about an hour and a half away. Once we arrived at parking, because we needed to be walking all the way to the top and the only type of transportation is by carriage (really cool horses too) or via moving feet, we ate our lunch, some homemade sandwiches and little salami sticks.. MmmMMMmm! We wanted to go inside the castle too, Schloss Neuschwanstein, but there were some complications. The line was very long and it would have taken us an hour just to get the tickets on top of the next tour being at about 5:00 which we needed to be leaving at about 5 so we decided to walk up and just look at the outside and have a nice climb. Here is a lovely picture of Schloss Neuschwanstein:
As you can see, it is the image that was used for the Disneyland popular logo, and they copied the castle as well. So I completely went there! I had pictures of me being there and it was a lovely sight. But back to the journey. We first stopped at a cute souvenir shop and I bought myself a little booklet that had pictures of the interior of the castle with descriptions about their significance. Unfortunately I did not realize until much later that I purchased this beautiful little book in the Spanish language. On the bright side, I know a little Spanish.
So we began our little walk, well, it was more than a little, on a lovely paved road. It was large and covered in tourists as well as Germans. It was so beautiful, the entire way there. On the sides there are just the biggest mountains all around, and trees and small water falls and nature and organic beauty. I took so many pictures. There were the horses I talked about, they were very large and had a little carriage hooked to the back of them. Then there was a little nest of birds right next to the road! It was amazing because I could reach out and touch the nest with my hand! (I did not of course because that would disturb the nature and could cause problems.) Another funny thing was the tourist "window shopping addiction" (or something like that) because whenever you pointed at something or looked up or said "look at that!" 10 people would turn their heads that way and many would point their cameras in that direction. Also if you walked over to an area and stopped after minutes of no one walking over there or paying attention (Svenja walked over to the side and was watching a small waterfall as she waited for me and Florian to catch up) another 10 people will look over the edge and finally notice something simply beautiful. Well then there was some ice cream!! I got the "king cone" and I know why, it was huge! It was just too much but I still ate it and I didn´t eat much after that, haha. By this place there was a small souvenir shop with these cute hats and we got a picture of me and Svenja wearing them. They were giant animal heads.
When we arrived there were so many tourists! People everywhere, but that did not take away the beauty that was there. It was so magnificent. Just beautiful. So big and ancient and lovely. It was not finished, and I was told the reason why. King Ludwig II was exhausting his people with taxes and at some point he stopped recieving funds and the building had to stop because there was nothing left. I also visited his other castle previously!! So amazing that he could build so many great things during his time. Here is a picture of the man:
On our way down the trail, we went a different route. Instead of the crowded street with so many tourists, we took a detour down a smaller path through the forest and past a more calming scene. It was a wonderful stroll and the weather was fantastic. Then when we got to the bottom we needed to use the restroom! We found one, but I encountered something I never have before! You had to pay to use the restroom. 0,50 Euros actually (they use commas instead of periods). It was the first time I had ever needed to pay to use a toilet. What a wonderful experience!
We took another detour on the way home. We set off for Republik Österreich.. Austria! It was just a quick stop to say that I went there. On our way we visited a waterfall! It was very large, and it was at Füssen. This is a lovely picture I found of this place we went. I was standing at about the same angle as this.
After this we went to a little town place where some sort of festival was going on and it was full of little shops with crafts and things. There were some really interesting things there, from wooden carvings to garden decorations. A little farther on there were more little shops and buildings. Some were very old, and still intact. I noticed that the buildings did not have completely straight walls all the wayto the top, they were slightly slanted. Yet some have lasted a thousand years or two. I got me a postcard of Neuschwanstein that was a painting of the place, so it was a little different. Then we saw this traditional ice cream stand! It was so small and it had an electric motor so it could drive around. The gelato inside was delicious as well. Itt was very old and survived a very long time. The man working it explained some things about it, and it was really interesting to see it.
We saw some traditional Bavarian clothing for sale, the ones that people often remember Germans by. It was funny because people were talking about how cheap it was when the cheapest thing was $99 and it went up very high.
There were just so many colors everywhere! There were purple and green and blue buildings, it is just like something I have never seen before and it is so much more fun to look at than boring gray buildings. We went to this beautiful church that was in the area, I think it was called the Holy Ghost Hospital Church and it was really something special.
It was smaller than many of the things but I went inside and was amazed at what I saw. It was astoundingly beautiful. The colors all popped out and the statues were so lovely and the ceiling was painted and it was something I had to take in. I ended up staying there alone for a while because of the great feeling I had inside there, a good energy place for sure. Here is a picture of part of the ceiling:
On the way home again the mountains were just so beautiful. With the grass and trees and mountains and wheat fields and small little towns and houses on along the way, it was a beautiful ride home.
Unfortunately my camera made a mistake and deleted all the pictures I had taken so far on the trip , so that was not a nice ending to the day. Luckily at least I had a few more days to take more pictures of everything. The above photo expresses my disappointment after this happened...
