Skip to main content

Day 6: Neuschwanstein Castle & Munich, Germany!

Guten Tag!

Well, here we are at Day 6 of the journey. Our first destination of the day was the famous Neuschwanstein Castle. We woke up at 6am and got an early start. The drive was absolutely incredible! I've never seen that much snow in all my life...it was quite amazing. The Swiss Alps are truly breath-taking. We drove through several adorable little mountain towns on the way. The cutest one was probably Garmisch. The German houses there were all painted with fairytale scenes right on the front of the building...like Hansel & Gretel. It was adorable. We saw a lot of people skiing up in the Swiss Alps too...it looked like a lot of fun, although I've never even attempted skiing...haha.


I loved these windmills...they were beautiful in the snow.


Now THAT's a snowball! :)
We took a horse-drawn carriage ride up the mountain...so fun!
Once we made it to the castle, we were blown away. It truly is something from a fairytale. We rode in a horse-drawn carriage all the way up the mountain, so that just added to the fantasy of the day. This castle was actually the inspiration for the design of Cinderella's castle at Disney World. You really can see the similarities. The inside was just as pretty. My favorite things were King Ludwig's elaborate bed and all the murals on the walls. The bed was made of dark wood and had amazingly ornate carvings in the wood....hand-carved, of course. The fabric was a wonderful turquoise color and the top of the bed had gold stars...it would almost be like falling asleep under the stars. The wall murals were also beautiful. King Ludwig was a huge fan of the famous composer Wagner, and all the paintings depicted scenes from Wagner's plays. For example, scenes from Tristan & Isolde were painted in the bedroom...which is a tragic love story similar to Romeo & Juliet.
They wouldn't allow photos inside the castle...so, we could only get shots of the exterior.


Now, you didn't think I could go through the castle kitchen without a photo, did you? One day, I'll have a kitchen this fabulous...haha.


Oh, and before I forget...we stopped and had our first German bratwurst before going into the castle...there on the mountain. It was SO good!!! Here's a pic:




When we were finished at the castle, we drove all the way to Munich! On the way, we actually drove through Austria for a bit, so we can add that to our "Countries Visited" list! Munich is such a fantastic city!!! It reminded me a little bit of Paris. We ate dinner at the legendary Hofbrauhaus...it was delicious!

Austria!

Brad and I both ordered the "Original Hofbrauhaus Braumiestersteak: vom Schwein mit gedunsteten Zwiebeln und uberbackenen Millirahmerdapfeln." - Wow...I had no idea what this menu said! The food was amazing, though! It was basically a tender pork steak with onions and sauce drizzled over the top and au gratin potatoes...Mmm!


Their beer was DELISH. Brad ordered a ginormous mug of beer...it was huge...haha. There was a polka band playing in the center of the restaurant. The atmosphere was so cool, and it's SUCH a fun place! At almost every table, big groups of people were toasting each other with their HUGE mugs of beer.

With the polka band...

After dinner, we headed out and walked the streets of Munich...there are some fabulous stores. I could spend an entire day just shopping and looking at the elaborate store windows. There was everything from Christian Dior to Jimmy Choo....wow! Kit walked us around and was our official tour guide of the evening...hah. He taught us a lot about the history of the city.

After all that walking around, we made it back to the car so that we could start our 5 hour drive home. We didn't get home until about 1:30am, but we had a blast!
Another day of exploring castles was coming our way!
Labels:

Comments

Unknown said…
Neuschwanstein is the most beautiful castle in the world
new-swan-stone.blogspot.de

Fantastic !!!!!
February 8, 2014 at 11:42 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cream Cheese Banana Nut Bread - Southern Living

***There seriously aren't very many things that smell better than Banana Nut Bread baking in the oven.   Don't you agree?  This recipe for Cream Cheese Banana Nut Bread from Southern Living magazine was one of the very first recipes that I added to this blog...back in November 2007!  In fact, I came across it when I worked for the magazine as a Marketing Intern.  Back then, I didn't have a photo for every recipe, and the blog post was simply the recipe and nothing else.  Because this is my go-to recipe for Banana Nut Bread (and because it is so amazing!), I thought that it deserved a little more attention.  This is quite honestly some of the best Banana Nut Bread that I've ever had.  An entire 8oz. package of cream cheese is added right to the batter, along with 4 mashed bananas.  The cream cheese adds so much to this recipe, with an incredibly moist texture being the main component.  Plus, the roasted pecans are the perfect ad...
133 comments
Read more

My Favorite Quiche!

***It's not often that a recipe is worthy of re-posting.  I think I've only done that once or twice in the entire time I've written this blog.  However, this is one of those rare occasions.  Back in 2009 when Brad and I went to Europe, we had the most amazing Quiche Lorraine at the incredible Les Deux Magots cafe in Paris.  It was delicious and was served alongside a yummy salad of fresh greens (Quiche Lorraine sur Salade Verte).  Oh, it was heaven on a plate!  It also didn't hurt that we were sitting on the patio of one of the most famous cafes in Paris, after all...haha.  The atmosphere and people-watching in that particular area are hard to beat. I'll never forget the elderly lady that was sitting at the table right next to us (the tables were situated pretty close together).  She was dressed to-the-nines, was all by herself, and was just the quintessential, classy Parisian lady.  I wish more than anything that I had tried to strike up...
25 comments
Read more

Absolutely Sinful Cinnamon Rolls

***Alrighty, here are the cinnamon rolls that I mentioned in my previous post. I put these together on Christmas Eve, and then baked them on Christmas morning. Let me just tell you...there's nothing quite like the smell of yummy cinnamon rolls wafting through the house on Christmas morning...ahhhhh...so wonderful! This is going to be a new tradition for us...fresh, homemade rolls on Christmas. I thought that I might try this recipe, and then maybe try a new one next year...until I found one that I really loved. However, I hit the jackpot on the first try! This is THE recipe that I'll always use. UPDATE:   Since originally writing this post in 2008, I've  made these cinnamon rolls every year for Christmas!  They are a holiday tradition that my family looks forward to all year!  You can see my other posts here, with lots more photos of these sinful cinnamon rolls: CHRISTMAS 2009 CHIRSTMAS 2010 CHRISTMAS 2011 The great thing was that I could prepare them on Chr...
179 comments
Read more