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 Neuschwanstein

This is the castle Walt Disney used as inspiration for Cinderella's castle in Disneyworld!  I found the tourist information a little confusing when we first arrived. I'll try to make this simple so you know what to expect...Parking is available in the village for 5 Euro a day, you cannot drive your car up to the castles. There is a ticket office in the village where you can purchase tours of one or both castles. You can also go in and get a free map of the town (suggested!!) . It's a steep walk up the mountain to the castle and they don't sell them at the castle so make sure if you want a tour you buy the tickets before you go up.  These are only needed if you want to tour the inside rooms of the castle. It's completely free to go inside the courtyard and walk around the outside. The best pictures of the castle can be taken from a viewing point on a bridge around the back of the castle, or from a viewing area toward the front side of the castle. To get to the top of the hill where the castle is you can walk (not suggested personally), you can take a horse and carriage ride for about 6 Euro up and 3 Euro down (each) or you can take the bus, 1.80 Euro up and 1.00 Euro down for adults (children were slightly less). The bus will take you very close to the bridge and then it's a short walk to the castle. The horse and carriage ride leaves you on the other side of the castle near the front viewing area. We felt the best choice was to pay for the bus up, checked out the bridge (p.s. you can also see the gorge from here), see the castle, and then take the horse ride down. Unfortunately there were A LOT of people waiting for the carriages and it only comes around a few times an hour so we ended up walking down the hill. Wow! I was so glad we didn't walk up. Walking down was enough of a work out for me!  The castle is being restored so there was scaffolding on the one end. The website shows this is expected to be up until the end of 2012.

View of the castle from the bridge

The bridge

A love lock on the bridge (if I had known I'd have brought one!)

View down from the bridge

Walking to the castle (yes, there was scaffolding on the one end)

For more information please visit the official site 

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! 

Foreign money

Do you have a problem when you go to the store to pay for something and have to sort through 4 different currencies to find the right money to pay for something? I finally decided to take everything but dollars and Euros our of my purse so it would be a little less confusing! (After all the Eis truck will take Euro or dollars but he wasn't too thrilled when I offered to pay with polish coins ha ha!)

Money from the Czech Republic

Backside

Czech coins

Coins from the Czech Republic ( What I got back in change) 

Polish Zloty

backside of the Polish Zloty

I had some paper money too but I spent it, hehe!

MUCH better! 

Köln, Germany

On the drive home from the Netherlands we decided to stop in Köln, Germany and spend the night.  This was definitely a GREAT last minute decision. The hotel we stayed in was fantastic and within walking distance of the Hohenzollern Bridge (the love lock bridge) and Dom Cathedral. I was lucky my husband had an extra lock along that we scratched out name into and left on the bridge. I have been wanting to do that for such a long time :) The city is so old and beautiful it reminded me a LOT of Paris.

Next to the cathedral is the Ludwig Museum and down the river a short ways was the "Schokoladenmuseum" (chocolate museum). Right outside the chocolate museum was an Easter Market!! My husband bought me a vintage suitcase to add to my collection and put a perfect ending on our vacation before heading home.