Brussels Sprouts and Breaking the Law

Jared mentioned just one thing that he wanted to do on our trip - visit Neuschwanstein Castle.  We've actually been there once before, when we took one last trip before we left Germany in 2003.  On our first visit we took the tour inside the castle so our plan for this time was to skip the tour (and the long lines) and spend our time wandering around the outside of the castle. 

We got a later start to our day than we should have because sleeping in is more fun than getting up early.  By the time we arrived the town was crawling with tourists.  We ended up sitting in traffic for twenty minutes just to drive the last mile.  We found a parking lot with free spaces, but the attendant said our van was too big for the spaces and we'd have to park at the next lot.  We drove to the next lot only to find this sign waiting for us - apparently the lot was full.  At this point Jared was pretty much done.  Our van would have fit in the spaces in the first lot, but the guy wouldn't let us in.  The second lot had a sign that said it was full, but we had seen at least three cars leave the lot so we knew there were at least three spaces.  I was ready to turn around and go home, I mean, we'd been there before and Jared was getting more frustrated by the second.  Instead of turning around, Jared convinced me to hop out of the car and take down the chain so he could drive in. Jared had found a space and parked before I put the chain back.  Just a little rule/law breaking and we were finally parked!

Once we had parked we realized that the lot wasn't really full there were just two entrances and they had only closed the one we were trying to enter through.  If we had simply driven around and waited in an eternal line we could have parked there without sneaking in the back way.  We got our bearings and then set off on the long uphill walk to the castle.  Jared was a rock star once again and kept Natalie motivated and moving for the entire half hour journey.

We spent some time just outside the castle and in the courtyard area.  There were tons of people milling around waiting for their tour start time.  At this point it was around one in the afternoon and the next available tour wasn't until after four.  We saw what we could see, took a quick picture, and then headed out to the Marienbrucke, which overlooks the castle.

It was another longish walk, but at least it was mostly downhill.  The bridge was also packed with tourists and it was honestly a little scary.  The bridge railings are metal, but the part you walk on is just wood planks attached to the metal frame.  It wouldn't have been so bad except for the fact that you could hear the wood creaking and feel it moving with every step you took.  Once we got out to the center of the bridge it was better - there were less people around us and less ominous noises from the boards under our feet.

We decided to try a different path back to town thinking a change of scenery would be nicer than turning around and going back the way we came.  Partway down we stopped at a little waterfall and the girls had a great time climbing up as high as they could go.  The water was perfectly clear and felt quite cold so I decided to take a taste.  The verdict?  Most delicious water ever.  It probably helped that I was very thirsty!

When we first visited ten years ago our focus was on Neuschwanstein, the castle King Ludwig II had built in the late 1800s.  What we didn't even notice or know was that there is another castle, Hohenschwangau, in the same town.  You can actually see it from Neuschwanstein and it's a lot closer to the town and parking areas than Neuschwanstein is.  I really not sure how we missed the lovely yellow building on the hill last time but this time I wanted to visit both.

Hohenschwangau was the childhood home of King Ludwig II.  It's not as well known as Neuschwanstein but I think I might actually like it better.  We didn't go inside for the castle tour here either, instead choosing to explore the gardens.  The girls loved the fountains and flowers and I loved that the crowds were much smaller at this less visited castle.

And now to the brussels sprouts . . . for dinner that night we went to Edelweiss Lodge (the military hotel in Garmisch) for their buffet.  The girls haven't really experienced all-you-can-eat buffets before and they loved being able to choose just what they wanted and to eat as much of it as they felt like.  My only rule was that they eat some vegetables.  For some reason though, the only vegetable besides salad was brussels sprouts.  I'd never eaten them before, Jared had never eaten them before, and I certainly had not ever made them for the kids before.  Not being willing to make the kids try something we wouldn't try ourselves, Jared got one sprout for each of us.  We each took one, counted to three, and went for it.  They were disgusting and none of the kids were able to finish theirs - I only got mine down after quite a bit of gagging and lots of will power.