Just your typical visit to the real Sleeping Beauty Castle!

After another great night of sleep (our hotel rocked!) we packed our bags and headed back to Munich to get my bags and head to Hohenschwangau. At the train station we grabbed a quick breakfast which included fresh squeezed orange juice! There are these awesome machines in the groceries stores and cafes where you press a button and put your cup under it and the oranges are cut and squeezed fresh for you! It is quite tasty! We also had some very good croissants. 

We made it safely back to Munich and we had about 45 minutes to get my luggage and catch our train to Fussen. This doesn't sound that difficult but because my big pink suitcase doesn't fit in the overhead area, we wanted a spot by the luggage rack. Which is easier said than done; however, we managed to hurry and get all of the luggage and grab the seats we wanted just in time. As soon as we sat down a bunch of "reggaers" got on the train. This past weekend in one of the small towns south of Munich was a giant reggae fest. Since it had rained all weekend, they and all of their belongings were all covered in mud from head to toe. There were so many "reggaers" that they filled the entire train and many had to stand. Thankfully, they all got off at a stop to catch other trains shortly after leaving Munich. It was definitely an interesting group of people. 

Once we made it to Fussen, we had to figure out where the rental car company was with all of our luggage. We luckily got a taxi that was an SUV and the driver knew exactly where we wanted to go. The car rental place was part of a gas station on the boarder of Austria so we were very glad that our driver knew what we were talking about. Surprisingly, there were no issues getting the car and everything worked out perfectly. 

We then broke out the gps for the first time and started to navigate our way to Hohenschwangau. We made it there in no time and found our hotel really easily because there is only one road in the whole town. This is really surprising considering there are two gorgeous castles that you can see but it is not built up at all. After checking in our hotel, we headed to the ticket office so we could try and get ticket's for the castles. We weren't able to go to both because it was late in the day but we were able to get tickets for 6:00 pm for Neuschwanstein, which is the more famous of the two and the most popular. We went back to our hotel for a quick lunch and then started the 45-minute hike up the mountain to the castle.

 It was very grueling but totally well worth it! Once we got to the top we took pictures and went on another hike, this one only about 15 minutes, to Mary's Bridge. This is the bridge the King Ludwig had built so he could go and look at his castle. It has the best view of the castle and is worth going on it ( it is very narrow and made of wood that may have not been replaced in a very long time). Mom was scared but ventured out a little bit so she could get her picture taken. It was truly amazing! 

We hiked back down to the castle and looked around while we waited for our tour time. Since our tour was one of the last one's of the day it wasn't super busy up there so that was really good. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the castle. Since King Ludwig had an unexpected death in his 40s, the castle remains unfinished. We had a tour of the finished areas of the castle and the details are amazing. It is really unfortunate that the castle was never finished because it would have really been something to see. The outside of the castle is the most amazing part. Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle is designed after Neuschwanstein, making this the real Sleeping Beauty Castle. It looks like it is from a fairy tale book because it is just so unreal looking. It is hard to believe that places like this even exist in the world. Everything about it is so ornate. 

We went into the main hall area first and then his throne room which is made completely out of mosaic art work. His bedroom is a carpentry masterpiece and our tour guide said that they spent four years carving everything just in his bedroom. The canopy of his bed had all of the Bavarian church steeples carved out. Everything is so ornate and unreal looking. Our tour was quite short since most of the castle is not finished but the parts we did see were absolutely amazing. 

It was wonderful being able to be some of the few people up at the castle because everything was so quiet and we were able to take pictures without other people in them. We then hiked back down the mountain and headed back to our hotel to have dinner. They had amazing food and we ate all of our meals there! Dad had a red deer meat goulash that was amazing and very tender. Plus they had great wine! After dinner, we headed up to our room which had an amazing view of the castle out on our porch.