Day 34

So we had been a little unsure if we wanted to make a trip down to see the two castles in southern Bavaria, since we were getting a little travel tired. But we're so glad we went. I have to say that I love the German transportation system...so efficient. Today we caught a bus then got on a train that would take us for half an hour to switch to another train. We were worried that we might miss the second train due to our experiences plus we only had 3 minutes for the transfer. However, things were quite smooth.

After taking a bus from Fussen to the Schwangau district, where the castles are, we walked to the ticket office only to discover a huge line.

Fortunately, we had reserved tickets and there was no one in that line. We had scheduled times for our tours of the two castles, so we had time to eat a quick lunch. The first castle was Hohenschwangau. The original owner loved fairytales, so he had the entire inside of the castle painted to look like a fairytale book. It was very cool. We loved that castle and were sad that we were rushed along in the tour and couldn't really enjoy all the rooms.

After this castle, we walked down from that castle to go catch a shuttle bus that would take us up to Neuschwanstein castle. This is the ultimate fairytale castle and even Walt Disney designed Sleeping Beauty's castle based on this one. This to was a quick tour and we wished we could have soaked up a little more time inside of it. However, we were mostly there for the outstanding images of the castle from the outside. Mary's Bridge, which offers spectacular shots of the castle, was closed for maintenance but many people were

sneaking around the fencing to capture a few quick shots. So we did too. Amazing.

Returning back down the mountain in a shuttle bus brought us back to the main village. From there it was another couple hours of smooth public transportation traveling. We caught a bus, then a train, transferred to another train, then hopped on another bus. Half way home on the bus we got off to find some dinner. We enjoyed a lovely dinner outside on an urban street that was filled with life. After a loungeful dinner, we walked onto to a tram that brought us home for the night.