I need to clear up the confusion my last blog post may have caused. I kept mentioning that I was in Austria. And you're wondering "Okay, there is a castle fortress, but where are the kangaroos and crocodile hunters and didgeridoos?" To clarify. Austria is in Europe, and they speak German. You must be thinking of New Zealand.... New sources confirm Australia is the country with the kangaroos, not New Zealand (or Austria). My mistake. So there shouldn't be and difficulty buying apples at the market any more. (I know this post is going to tank, because I just poorly slipped in an obscure Flight of the Conchords reference...)
To make up for your probable confusion from the previous caption are these mountain photos.
The drive to our next destination took us west into Germany, south back to Austria, west past Innsbruck, and north back into Germany. The drive took a few hours and was absolutely stunning.
These are the mountains near the Austrian town of Innsbruck. The town would be our final destination on the trip, but for now we would pass it.
I'm pretty sure we had our heads looking out the windows the entire time.
I had a window looking north, which meant I had the view of mountains in full sunshine.
More of the mountains above Innsbruck.
I am really glad it was a beautiful day, because the mountains would not be visible the next day.
I'll just leave this photo here. Just because I've never seen mountains like this before.
This is the leg of the drive that took us north to Germany. it was a narrow pass, with steep drops along the guard rail. But being so high in a coach bus, it made for a dramatic ride.
And we would continue to pass mountains.
Finally we arrived to the town of Hohenschwangau, Germany, which had our destination, the Neuschwanstein Castle! And this lake.
They had these really old cars that would take people to the top. It is a really old vehicle. The engine only has two horsepower... We opted to walk instead.
On the way up was this nifty looking place. There were some good smells coming out of it.
If you have been following this blog, you now know that Forrest likes to climb things.
Near the top of the path was this incredible view.
Which had a platform that let us look into the ravine.
And here was the Neuschwanstein Castle!
This is the main entrance into the Neuschwanstein Castle.
On the opposite side of the hill with the view platform was this, looking out into the German countryside. Note that there are no gynormous mountains. The Neuschwanstein Castle is situated on the northern edge of the Alps.
This is also taken from that platform. The Neuschwanstein Castle is very new as far as European buildings go. it was only constructed in 1869-1892. It was commissioned by the Ludwig II, king of Bavaria at the time. Our group of five all threw in guesses as to what the architectural style was. I said 'neo-romanesque'. We looked it up and it was labeled as 'romanesque revival'. Not too bad of a guess.
The people who had our tickets arrived late, so we were delayed some time for our tour of the castle. By that time, the clouds rolled in and the sun was gone. When we finally got in, it was made clear to us photography on the interior was prohibited. Sorry yinz guys, no pictures. But for the most part the interior was elaborately decorated dark wood, with an abundance of paintings. Considerable wealth had to have gone into the place.
At the end of the tour, I snapped a photo of the view out the window. See that little bridge there?
The path to the bridge was fenced off, but there was an easy way around. And it was clear many people disregarded the warning to stay. The view would be well worth the personal safety risk! Although the path was relatively steep, and most of it glazed in some kind of ice.
That lake view earlier in this post, this is the same lake from much higher up. We were standing where the red roofs were.
Zooming out for context!
In order to avoid an especially slippy patch of ice, I went above the path, and was blocked off by this barbed wire fence. Easy to hop over though!
This is that tiny bridge that was in an earlier photograph. So awesome!
Proof I was actually there and not lifting photos off the internet!
When you are on a tiny little steel bridge, don't forget to look down!
Such a stunning view from this bridge!! I could have stayed here for two hours, but we had to catch our bus back in town.
Side note: This castle was actually inspiration for the WALT Disney castles.
Look down on the other side!
That's the way back down! Actually one of the least ice covered areas. If I had to guess, when going downhill, I would slide 85% of the time, and only step about 15%. It was good fun.
Here is the group navigating the ice.
Neuschwanstein Castle
Right before we got back on the bus, I noticed this platform with a picture on a sign. And a little camera icon. So I stood on it and replicated the photo on the sign.
We caught our bus and headed back to Innsbruck. In that town we found a place called "Magic Pizza" which had (as pictured) really big slices of pizza for cheap. Florence needs magic pizza.
And there was this passageway with green and yellow lights.
I was wearing Kent State stuff at the time, so when I stepped in, the colors instantly changed to Blue and Gold.
This little triumphal arch is about as old as the United States.
I'll be sure to give you some more pictures from Innsbruck soon!
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