Down South towards Pizza (and Italy obv)

The next morning, we decided that I'd go to eat breakfast first, whilst Marv would be looking after Aluna. Or better: Aluna would be looking Marv taking a shower. Unfortunately, dogs aren't allowed to go to the restaurant in Ulm which I obviously find rather stupid - especially when she could just stay in her little backpack and nobody would even really notice her. Anyway, therefore I had a quick yet filling breakfast, before I took over from Marv. I wanted to have a stroll around the Old Town of Ulm again, as I remembered it to be quite lovely. However, Aluna did not want to go without Marv and I couldn't be bothered to drag her along with me, so we just made our way back to the hotel room and chilled until Marv came back from breakfast. We packed our bags, checked out and left Ulm behind us. The car got warm pretty quickly as the sun was giving her all. The mountains grew higher, the forest greener, and we arrived at our first stop: Schloss Linderhof.
It is one of King Ludwig II. of Bavaria's castles and currently nominee to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site (the decision will be taken in the Summer of 2025). It is way smaller than it looks on the pictures and seems to have been more of a summer residency, more like a big villa really. As we were strolling through the nice gardens, we philosophized about the possibilities of such a castle. Maybe King Ludwig II. sent his Mistress here, to hide an unwanted pregnancy. Or he invited fellow aristocrats to breathe some healthy mountain air, like Clara from the kids' story "Heidi". The sun was burning now, so we bathed Aluna in the spring at the foot of the castle, and she actually enjoyed it (a bit). Marv had the brilliant idea to buy some ice cream to cool off, so I got my now new favourite - Magnum Utopia Double Cherry. It is just the perfect combination of fruity cherry, chocolate and crunches. Love it!
Ice cream done and digested, we jumped back into the car and drove towards our first toll station - for Austria. For ten days it costs 12 € to drive around in Austria, which is fair enough. However, obviously there are some "special streets" where you have to pay extra. And we had to pay extra for the Brenner-Pass, which cost another 12 € one-way. At first, it seems kinda ridiculous from a German POV, as we don't know something like Maut. But thinking about the sheer costs and work that had to go and is still going into roads like the Brenner, it is not too much to ask for. All the tunnels and bridges to actually build a road through and alongside the mountain must cost billions. And how dangerous it must have been to start building it! I'm sure in former days, thousands of people would have died during working on it.
We took another break in Innsbruck to have a look at Schloss Ambras. Yet another castle. This time it looked less like a castle, but the size was more castle-like. Apparently, it's the first museum in the world to be preserved in its original location. It has lots of little chimneys that remind me a lot of the Quidditch towers in Harry Potter. Anyone else? Otherwise, the garden is quite small and not as impressive as the one at Linderhof, but it was still a nice little break from all the driving. Speaking of which, we had still 3 hours to go, and it was already 5pm. So we jumped back in the car and drove until we arrived at the Lago di Garda. It was very nice to see the famous lake, especially as we drove up to a good viewpoint. We didn't stay long, as we wanted to get some dinner into our tummies, and decided to drive into the next village to hopefully find a cheaper restaurant than the touristy ones directly at the lake. We did find a quiet place that only had one other table occupied - obviously by Germans (how could it be any different). A quick stroll around the calm streets of Nago-Torbole, and we were back in the car for the last hour of driving. We finally arrived in Verona at 11pm and were happy about our spacious flat and especially the bed in it. Tired!Okumaya devam et