Road Trip, Day 1: Neuschwanstein Castle

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On our first day, we left Luxembourg and headed across Germany to the little town of Schwangau, home to the famous Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles.  Because we were short on time, we chose only to visit one castle, Neuschwanstein, which was built by King Ludwig of Bavaria.  Kate was extra excited to see this one since we'd told her that it was the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland.  That's all it took.

 The castle is perched on the top of a hill, about a mile up, and we had the choice of taking a bus, a horse and carriage, or walking to reach the castle.  Though the horse and carriage sounded like fun, we decided to walk up and then take the carriage down. (Unfortunately for us, our plan didn't work because we were too late to catch the carriage down and so we ended up walking both up and down the hill.  My knees were not happy!).

But it was a beautiful walk.

There was even a little waterfall halfway up the hill.

 We passed this beautiful restaurant right before reaching the castle.

 As we reached the top, we were rewarded with incredible views of the castle from different angles.

The view from the top of the hill was gorgeous, especially with the fall foliage in its full glory.  You can walk to this bridge directly across from the castle, which, I'm sure, would give a beautiful view of the castle.  Unfortunately, we didn't have time.  It gets dark so early these days!

But we did stop for a few pictures.

I even got a rare smiling one of Will!

The inside of the castle can only be seen on a guided tour, which we did, and it was worth the time.  This was by far the most ornate castle we've visited so far.  It's too bad they don't allow photos to be taken.

We spent the night in Schwangau and then got up early the next morning to head to Italy.  More soon!