We left Friday night for a three day weekend driving the Romantic Road in Germany. We began our trip driving from Budapest through Austria, where we arrived in the dark in Mondsee, 30
Kilometers East of Salzburg. We found a hotel right off the highway (Landzeit, an Austrian chain) and were surprised how beautiful our view was in the morning. We were right on the lake in front of the mountains.
We left early Saturday morning to drive the beginning of the Romantic Road. We drove 2 hours to Fuessen to see Neuschwanstein Castle at the start of the road. We saw the bus stop we got off at six years ago when we made the visit. That time it was Winter and foggy and we couldn't see the top of the castle, even though we were right up at the base of it. We took a bus to the top of the castle and this time had beautiful weather and actually saw the top. Ashley screamed the entire time.
We started the tour of the interior of the castle but since Ashley was still screaming and nobody could hear the tour guide, Heather
took her out and missed the tour. I clandestinely videod a little bit of it, but it wasn't the same as seeing it first hand. I stayed with Katie and we took the tour of "Sleeping Beauty's Castle". We saw Sleeping Beauty's bedroom, kitchen, dining room, the ballroom where she got married to Prince Philip, etc. etc. (At least, according to Katie and my narration). In reality it was Mad King Ludwig's castle and only 15 rooms of the castle were completed before he died. It was never completed and opened to the public six weeks after his death. We also took pictures on Marionbruecke that crossed the gorge with a beautiful view of the castle.We then continued up the Romantic Road toward Noerdlingen, a medievel walled city.
We walked around the wall that surrounds the town, with a medievel church in the town center. The openings in the walls, where the archers would stand to protect the city, were shaped as crosses. We then drove 15 minutes more to Dinkelsbuehl, another city, not unlike Noerdlingen. We walked around the town for a while until it got dark when we continued down the road until we found a Bed and Breakfast for the night. The room was perfect because it actually had 4 beds, so we all got a pretty good nights sleep. Ashley wasn't ready for bed at the same time as the rest of us, so she watched Dora on the ipod for a while before falling asleep. The rest of us were asleep by 8:00 after a long day of traveling.Sunday morning we continued 20 minutes along the Romantic Road to Rothenburg, by far
the most intriguing, although more touristy.
But since we were there very early in the morning, before anyone was up, it was nice to stroll the empty cobblestone streets, window shop, while eating pastries from a local bakery. Once the shops opened, I bought Heather a snowman to add to her Christmas decorations, I tried a Sneeball (snowball: fried dough dipped in chocolate) that was terrible, and Ashley nibbled on a piece of bread for an hour (who knew!). We decided to collect ornaments for the girls from each country we visited (we are 12 behind on Katie already), but unfortunately didn't find anything we liked on this trip. We'll be back for the Christkindlmarkts during Christmas, so I figure we can do better then anyway. We went to Hotel Eisenhut, where there are remnants of a 12th century chapel in the front lobby.
We made a quick stop in Wurzburg at the Northern end of the Romantic Road and drove by the Residenz, a baroque palace, and then continued to Bamberg, which used to be the capital of the Holy Roman Empire under Heinrich I
I in the 11th century. We walked the streets of this town to the Rathaus (town hall) that is in the middle of the river, and ate bratwursts and ice-cream.To end our trip, we drove south to Garmish (Southern Germany), to ride the cable car to the top of the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in germany and the site of the 1936 Olympic games - Munich Olympics.
Unfortunately we arrived an hour after the last ride up, so we settled on just viewing it from the base of the mountain. We started heading back to Budapest, drove through Innsbruck, and studied our Hungarian along the way. These trips have been a great chance (only chance, actually) to study. I feel like I did growing up taking piano lessons. Every week no practice in between lessons, hoping I could fake my way through. We drove toward Alchau, a German city halfway between Innsbruck and Salzburg. We passed by Jenbach, where GE Jenbache
r (GE Energy) is located. I could absolutely work here. The office is situated in this valley surrounded by the Austrian Alps. Exquisite picture. We decided to stop and found another Landzeit off the highway. Again, after a long day of traveling, we all slept well and in the morning we drove to Residenz Heinz Winkler in Alchau, Germany. He is a famous Munich chef who moved to Alchau near Lake Chiemsee and opened his own restaurant. We didn't stay there long, but we would have spent the previous night here had we known what a beautiful alpine town it was.Finally, we drove home, stopping at ToysRUs outside of Linz to get some birthday and Christmas presents and we arrived back Monday afternoon to Budapest. We ended up driving about 1500 Kilometers over the 3 days, but all very relaxing and peaceful!
Kilometers East of Salzburg. We found a hotel right off the highway (Landzeit, an Austrian chain) and were surprised how beautiful our view was in the morning. We were right on the lake in front of the mountains.We left early Saturday morning to drive the beginning of the Romantic Road. We drove 2 hours to Fuessen to see Neuschwanstein Castle at the start of the road. We saw the bus stop we got off at six years ago when we made the visit. That time it was Winter and foggy and we couldn't see the top of the castle, even though we were right up at the base of it. We took a bus to the top of the castle and this time had beautiful weather and actually saw the top. Ashley screamed the entire time. 
We started the tour of the interior of the castle but since Ashley was still screaming and nobody could hear the tour guide, Heather took her out and missed the tour. I clandestinely videod a little bit of it, but it wasn't the same as seeing it first hand. I stayed with Katie and we took the tour of "Sleeping Beauty's Castle". We saw Sleeping Beauty's bedroom, kitchen, dining room, the ballroom where she got married to Prince Philip, etc. etc. (At least, according to Katie and my narration). In reality it was Mad King Ludwig's castle and only 15 rooms of the castle were completed before he died. It was never completed and opened to the public six weeks after his death. We also took pictures on Marionbruecke that crossed the gorge with a beautiful view of the castle.We then continued up the Romantic Road toward Noerdlingen, a medievel walled city. 
We walked around the wall that surrounds the town, with a medievel church in the town center. The openings in the walls, where the archers would stand to protect the city, were shaped as crosses. We then drove 15 minutes more to Dinkelsbuehl, another city, not unlike Noerdlingen. We walked around the town for a while until it got dark when we continued down the road until we found a Bed and Breakfast for the night. The room was perfect because it actually had 4 beds, so we all got a pretty good nights sleep. Ashley wasn't ready for bed at the same time as the rest of us, so she watched Dora on the ipod for a while before falling asleep. The rest of us were asleep by 8:00 after a long day of traveling.Sunday morning we continued 20 minutes along the Romantic Road to Rothenburg, by far 
the most intriguing, although more touristy. But since we were there very early in the morning, before anyone was up, it was nice to stroll the empty cobblestone streets, window shop, while eating pastries from a local bakery. Once the shops opened, I bought Heather a snowman to add to her Christmas decorations, I tried a Sneeball (snowball: fried dough dipped in chocolate) that was terrible, and Ashley nibbled on a piece of bread for an hour (who knew!). We decided to collect ornaments for the girls from each country we visited (we are 12 behind on Katie already), but unfortunately didn't find anything we liked on this trip. We'll be back for the Christkindlmarkts during Christmas, so I figure we can do better then anyway. We went to Hotel Eisenhut, where there are remnants of a 12th century chapel in the front lobby.We made a quick stop in Wurzburg at the Northern end of the Romantic Road and drove by the Residenz, a baroque palace, and then continued to Bamberg, which used to be the capital of the Holy Roman Empire under Heinrich I
I in the 11th century. We walked the streets of this town to the Rathaus (town hall) that is in the middle of the river, and ate bratwursts and ice-cream.To end our trip, we drove south to Garmish (Southern Germany), to ride the cable car to the top of the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in germany and the site of the 1936 Olympic games - Munich Olympics. Unfortunately we arrived an hour after the last ride up, so we settled on just viewing it from the base of the mountain. We started heading back to Budapest, drove through Innsbruck, and studied our Hungarian along the way. These trips have been a great chance (only chance, actually) to study. I feel like I did growing up taking piano lessons. Every week no practice in between lessons, hoping I could fake my way through. We drove toward Alchau, a German city halfway between Innsbruck and Salzburg. We passed by Jenbach, where GE Jenbache
r (GE Energy) is located. I could absolutely work here. The office is situated in this valley surrounded by the Austrian Alps. Exquisite picture. We decided to stop and found another Landzeit off the highway. Again, after a long day of traveling, we all slept well and in the morning we drove to Residenz Heinz Winkler in Alchau, Germany. He is a famous Munich chef who moved to Alchau near Lake Chiemsee and opened his own restaurant. We didn't stay there long, but we would have spent the previous night here had we known what a beautiful alpine town it was.Finally, we drove home, stopping at ToysRUs outside of Linz to get some birthday and Christmas presents and we arrived back Monday afternoon to Budapest. We ended up driving about 1500 Kilometers over the 3 days, but all very relaxing and peaceful!
No comments:
Post a Comment