Lake Alpsee

At the bottom of Schloss Hohenschwangau in Bavaria is lake Alpsee. The water is aqua blue and crystal clear. It's the most beautiful body of water I have ever seen. The entire area is beautiful!

The view looking from Schloss Neuschwanstein over to  Schloss Hohenschwangau with lake Alpsee to the left

Bavarian Castles - Schloss Hohenschwangau

If you'd like to tour Schloss Hohenschwangau you must buy tickets in the town, (you can get tickets to Neuschwanstein at the same time) but you can walk inside the courtyard for free and take pictures of the outside. They don't allow photos inside either of the castles so we decided to save our money. The walk up to the castle was pretty easy but you can't leave that way. When you exit you must walk the long way down the hill (the horse and carriage route.) If you get lucky there might be a carriage dropping off people that you could pay to ride back down but I would highly suggest taking the walk. There is a nice area on the way down where you get a good view of Lake Alpsee or you can take a break on one of the benches and just soak up the scenery. Parking is available in the village for 5 Euro a day, you cannot drive your car up to the castles. Plan to do a lot of walking on your visit so where good walking shoes!

For more information check out the official website

Don't miss out on Austria

A week ago we got back from a retreat in Edelweiss and on the way there and back we drove through Austria. It was gorgeous! I'd never seen real mountains before. These are the Alps. (You know, the ones they crossed from Austria to Switzerland in the Sound of Music?) The roads twisted around the mountains and a crystal clear aqua blue stream of melted snow followed next to the road. If you go that route (you can get there without going through Austria) make sure you stop near the border and buy a vignette for 8 Euro (for 10 days) so you can drive on the autobahn. You don't want to get caught without one!