Four countries in one day!

We got up bright and early so we could go and see the other castle, Hohenschwangau. After packing the car and checking out of our hotel we hiked up to the castle. We roamed around the beautiful gardens and the gift shop while we waited for our tour to start. 

This castle was King Ludwig's father's castle and also the place where Ludwig spent most of his childhood. Neuschwanstein looks out over this castle because Ludwig loved this area growing up. This castle is of course finished so the inside is much more interesting than Neuschwanstein but not as impressive on the outside. King Ludwig lived in this castle, after his father's death, while his own was being built and he could watch the construction from his bedroom. He spent most of his life in this castle and the inside was gorgeous. Everything is so ornate and almost all of the walls have murals depicting different stories. Inside of Ludwig's bedroom is a starry night sky on the ceiling with small lights inside all of the stars that actually light up. 

Both castles have swans depicted everywhere because the area is known for them. Everything either has a swan painted on it or it is carved in the shape of a swan. After leaving the castle, we walked past the lake where there were swans along the shoreline with their babies. It was very picturesque. 

After getting back to our car we fired up the gps and set off to Lucerne, Switzerland. We made a pit stop in Lichtenstein for lunch, which is the smallest country! There really is not much to Lichtenstein but I can now say I have been there. We bought some sandwiches at a grocery store and ate on some park benches because we couldn't find a restaurant plus driving in the area was very confusing. We kept crossing back into Switzerland without even realizing it. 

We eventually made it to Lucerne where we got super lost because we did not realize how big the city actually was. Luckily we made it to our hotel where we could park the car for the night and not have to figure out the streets! We chilled at the hotel for a while because Dad had a conference call for work. Once he got done it was around 7 o'clock so we ventured out into the city to find a good restaurant. However, it was pouring rain! So we crossed one of the famous bridges in the city and found a restaurant on the other side. We had some local specialties which we delicious. I had a hash of some sort that include hash browns, cheese, apples, and bacon. Mom had a mac & cheese that had potatoes and apples in it while Dad had some trout. The meal was one of my favorites of the trip! Plus we had some good wine so what could be better! After dinner we headed back to our hotel since it was still raining and decided to explore Lucerne tomorrow morning. 

If you are wondering how we managed four countries in one day, we started our day in Germany, had to drive through Austria, went to Lichtenstein, and then arrived in Switzerland! Four countries in one day!