Schwangau, Bavaria, Germany

Day 37:

The rain from last night definitely carried over to the morning... It took a bit of effort to get ourselves to the train station, but after a few apricot filled donuts and coffee, everything was looking good. Our first train took us to Munich, on which we had a long conversation with a nice Indian man and got some great ideas for our next trip to Austria.

The Munich train station was weird... there were more food places than we've seen at any others, but the only seating was at the individual tracks. Of course we had pretzels and waited for our regional train (yes, we were nervous to board another German regional train). After a flashback moment of doubt, it actually got us to our destination, only about half an hour late.

We should have noticed what we were getting ourselves into when there were only 2 tracks at the station, but it took us walking around the corner and seeing mountains and a 2 lane road. This place is tiny. Jason turned to Danielle and said, "Uh oh, where did you bring us?" Now we have nothing against the countryside, actually prefer it, but the rain made it seem quite intimidating.

It was only a half hour walk, along which we walked across the Lech river. Tanget coming here: we had some completely unfounded idea that the rivers we were to come across in our travels would be clear, potable, and photogenic... not so. Most of the rivers we have seen are about as opaque as milk. Lightly chocolated milk with tree branches floating in them. Interesting. Anyway, after that we walked along a field with cows in it. This seems like a boring detail, but we found their cowbells so entertaining. We can't recall ever seeing a cowbell ever really attached to a cow... but it makes so much sense. They're always grazing so the bell is going the whole time. We thought it was hilarious for some reason.

We got to our hotel. Yes, second hotel. Which is an old house converted into a hotel in a very bed 'n breakfast way, sans breakfast. Upon grabbing our keys and finding our room, we discovered that we had apparently booked a sizeable apartment. A full kitchen, 2 bathrooms, living room, and a bedroom. Awesome. Feeling fancy, but realizing a kitchen with no food is pretty useless, we went next door to the hotel and restaurant (another converted old house). We arrived just as they were opening and as they sat us, we realized just how much of a family business this was. The family was having dinner at the first table as we were ushered into the dining area. But they always say the only way to get an authentic meal is to have it homemade, so we went for it. White asparagus, boiled potatoes, homemade spätzle, south tyrolean ham, local mushrooms, pork loins, gravy.... incredible. Also, this may come as a shock to many people, but Tyrolean speck is better than prosciutto. We genuinely didn't think that was possible, but wow.

So about halfway through the meal, as the rainclouds started receding up the mountains,we look to the east and are awestruck. On the mountainside, in clear sight from our restaurant seats, is the Neuschwanstein Castle. We can save you the trouble of looking it up, its the "Fairytale King's" castle. The one Walt Disney based the Sleeping Beauty Castle on, so it is obviously ridiculous. After our meal, we wanted to take a walk, hoping to settle all the food. We were taken directly into the deep forest on one trail to get a better view of the castle. Then heading another way, there were beautiful grassy fields with all sorts of wild flowers. If that wasn't enough, while wandering paths around the fields, we look up to see the Hohenschwangau Castle.

Clearly, we are so excited to see the castles tomorrow.Read more