Fairytales and Fun

Fussen is a little Bavarian town in Germany on the River Lech where the water is a beautiful, clear green color. Apparently, it is a popular summer tourist destination for Germans and Austrians. They were there with bicycles and dogs in tow. 

We did a little walking tour of the town and found this former castle with 3D paintings on the outside. Isn't that nuts? The wall is totally flat (besides the inset windows).

The main reason this place was on our itinerary at all was to visit King Ludwig's castles. There are two. The first one you visit is Hohenschwangau Castle. It is the boyhood home of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Here is a pic from afar... It's very fairytale-esque with the turrets and all.

And here are a couple close ups:

The funny thing is that this castle isn't that old. Ludwig's father built it in 1837. Growing up in a fairytale castle, made Ludwig want a fairytale castle of his very own. So he decided to build this one, Neuschwanstein.

This castle was the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland. Part of it was under renovation, so you can see some scaffolding up, but it is still very dreamy!

We hiked up around the side to try and get a better angle or view, but it started to get foggy. Then the rain came. :-(   Boo. This is as far as we got:

After our day at the castles, we visited the Tegelberg luge. And it was AWESOME! "What is a luge?" you may ask. It's sort of like a bobsled. You sit in this sled. And pull the stick back to break and push it forward to go faster.

Here we are, ready to go:

You are pulled up to the top of the mountain or hill. See on the right, is the line of people being pulled up, and you can just see the edge of the track to the left. It is shiny & silver.

And then.... you get to fly down! And it is such great fun! Here is a video Adam took. (I hope it works! It's acting funny...) Adam almost ran me over. I wasn't speedy enough for him!

DE-lightful. Bavaria is beautiful. Someday, I want to go back and take a boat trip down the Rhine. Someday...

Our trip next took us to Switzerland! Woot! Woot! Mountains and cows and beauty galore! Stay tuned!