Bavaria in castle-style

Like the past few mornings it was up early for the breakfast buffet and hit the road. Today we hit the German autobahn, so Laura drove and Lance was the navigator. About 45% of the route was via the A8, so Laura did a fine job of staying up with the lead dogs...only two problems for this stretch: (1)truck traffic after a Euro holiday is unbelievable; (2)no matter where you go there is always road construction. Anyway, we still make 120 kms in well under an hour. The rest of the route (more direct, but not the fastest) was made via a 2 lane highway, and mostly all rural. We thoroughly enjoyed the scenery! We arrived in Fussen without any major navigational issues, except missed our last roundabout by 90 degrees,only one street off. With an early arrival we could not check in, so we embarked on the castle adventure, Neuschwanstein. Not a bad drive to the tourist parking lot, only 5 Euros and a 300 meter walk up the slope to the ticket center. We had reservations, so no waiting for our 1325 pickup of the tickets for a 1425 tour. We grabbed a brat and beer and began our hike up the mountain. While fairly steep, we made it to the castle entrance in 10 minutes (just like the sign said). For those that may want to see this castle, you can opt for a bus ride at 2,80€ rt. We took some photos out the exterior and patiently awaited for our candid shot with the castle in the background. Can't imagine the chaos during the peak tourist season. Around 1400 (we're already getting used to the Euro style of time and money) the rain came. Funny, that is the same time it hit Salzburg yesterday. Fortunately both times we had a covering to stand under, and today we had our trusty $5 travel umbrella and Dollartree ponchos! Boy are we prepared or what. At 1420 tour #477 was announced, so we made our way to the turnstile with tickets in hand. Promptly at 1425 we were able to punch our ticket, and so the Enlgish speaking tour began. We learned that only 1/3 of the castle was finished and King Lugwig only lived in the castle for 172 days upon the completion (same third). The architecture and paintings on the wall were magnificent and the work work was beyond comparison. The detailed wood work in the master bedroom took over 4 years to complete. Another grandeur room was the throne room, perhaps a tad ornate with a tile mosaic floor that had over two millions pieces and aa chandelier that weighed over 2000 pounds! Even the kitchen was the size of our house! The tour inside was well worth the scare on the autobahn, the wait in the rain and impatience of all the tourists. Since no photos were allowed inside the castle we bought a few photos of the interior for a memory and to share. Being near the top, we decided to walk further up the mountain (rainwear and all) to walk on St. Mary's Bridge. This bridge is made over a gorge that is ~300-400 feet deep (something to google). Even though it was raining it was worth the 15 minute hike up the mountain to get another georgous vantage point. Hopefully, the photos will be ever so telling (even cloudy and rainy). With photo op capitalized we made the trek back down the mountain and arrived at our Peugeot at 1600. Off the see the quaint town of Fussen. We chose a slightly different route and upon enterly the town from another way we soon realized we were in the heart of the old town, that has very (and I mean very) limited auto access. Not knowing exactly what part of town we had entered we decided to park as soon as could and explore. Didn't even make it out the auto when a merchant yelped in broken English "you can't park here!". I am sure in German he was saying something like what a stupid American! Driving slowly we weaver among the pedestrians for 2-3 blocks and. Aide our way back to a normal city street; and much to our delight we were only 4 blocks from our hotel. Whew. Now that our car was safely parked and we had a room in the inn, we headed back to the old town. After an hour of strolling we were all getting tired, so we thought we'd do take away (Euro for 'to go'). Finding a menu to please all of us was not so easy, but none of us were in the mood for the local cuisine. On the walk back we bought a slice of fresh cheesecake and carrot cake, then we found a small restaurant that made Gyros (good enough for the adults), but not for the teenager. He saw the iconic American fast food symbol near our hotel, so dad and Chase made a McCafe run. Even found a petro station that we could buy a cold beverage. Learned that grocery stores do not serve any cold beverages. We had a lovely picnic in the courtyard of our hotel and our bodies we so glad to be resting. Took hot showers and finished this post. Tomorrow brings an easier day, at least that's the plan...drive up to Andechs to visit the world famous monastery and have one of those monk brewed beverages with a ham hock! Then on up to Munich for a couple of days. Hope all had a wonderful Memorial Day holiday!