I am a notorious over-packer when it comes to road trips, so with all the drinks, snacks, extra blankets and other miscellany that I decided to bring along, it wasn't exactly an early start. That was fine though since we only had about 3 hours of driving to get to Reutte, Austria our overnight stop and we had the whole day to get there.
Toby had to do all of the driving.
Our route took us through Ulm so we stopped in for a quick look at the cathedral (which has the tallest church steeple in the world) and a quick snack.
This is my posse.
Once we got into Bavaria and got off the autobahn, the scenery was amazing. It was such a picturesque area with little farms, rolling hills and the Bavarian Alps in the distance.
We arrived in Reutte around 4:00 PM and were surprised when we hit bumper to bumper traffic! That combined with several wrong turns and it took us a while to find our accommodations. We ended up staying at a small bed & breakfast run by an eccentric Austrian couple. I had communication issues with them that I think went beyond just language problems. But the rooms were very comfortable and the setting was gorgeous.
That evening we went for a hike up to a ruined castle called Ehrenberg Ruins. We had the whole place to ourselves and we were up there at dusk. It was quite magical.
The long walk up.
Here is a rare glimpse at my photography techniques. Kelly snapped this shot of me taking a picture...
... and here's the picture I took!
After dinner we enjoyed some excellent German food in Reutte before hitting the hay.
Thursday Oct 4, 2007 - Reutte - Munich
Castle day! We were up early in anticipation of the crowds at Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. We had an interesting breakfast with our charming Austrian hostess and a cranky woman from Berlin and her husband. Mel worked her charms on the cranky lady and by the end of breakfast Mel was snapping pics of the lady and her very large stuffed polar bear "Knut", named after the baby polar bear at the Berlin Zoo. Turns out she was just a softy at heart. When Mel is back from her travels I'll have to get a copy of the pictures and post them.
All the visiting at breakfast got us off to a slower start than we had planned. We had reserved time slots for both castles but knew once we got out on the road we were going to be very, very late. The traffic was once again bumper to bumper and we were over an hour late! It didn't seem to matter though, since we got to skip the lines anyway and they bumped our times up by two hours without a problem. I was a bit overwhelmed by the crowds and "touristiness" of the experience though.
Here's an aerial view of all the tour buses.
Hohenschwangau, where "Mad" Kind Ludwig II grew up.
Waiting for our allotted time at Hohenschwangau.
Waiting for our turn on the Marienbrücke to get the famous postcard view of Neuschwanstein. Did I mention how crowded it was?
Ah, but it was all worth it just to see this view.
The long walk down.
Our next stop fulfilled my lifelong fantasy of going down one of those big slides that you used to see people riding at the end of Seseme Street. Do you remember that? Well anyway, we found one right near Neuschwanstein (you could see the castle as you were being towed up the hill).
Here I am on my first (of three) runs, getting towed up to the top. You sit on a little sled with wheels and get towed up to the top. The mechanism tips you over the top and you're off, riding down a little mini bobsled track.
You push the bar forward to go and pull back to stop.
We all needed the first run to get the hang of it. Kelly and I went too slow. You can see the evidence in this picture as a small child has caught up to her. Mel went too fast, mistaking the signs that said "brake!" for signs that said "don't brake!". None of us were braking much by the last run. We figured if we stayed for a fourth some (or all) of us would end up with an injury.
We're all smiles after our luging run.
After the luge it was off to Munich, or more specifically, Gilching, a small town 30 minutes away from Munich by S-Bahn. I found us some reasonably priced accommodations there. Hotels in Munich were outrageous.
Trying to figure out which direction to go:
We stopped at a famous Rococo style church called Wieskirche, but the pictures were all blurry. This goat was starved for affection. Kelly obliged with some ear scratches.
Octoberfest Dry Run - Thursday Night
Toby had been doing a lot of internet research so he knew how busy Oktoberfest could get. Our plan was to hit the grounds before the tents even opened on Friday morning to secure a spot for us and some friends that were meeting us there. We thought it would be fun to do a dry run when we arrived on Thursday night so we would have a better idea for what the experience would be like.
We didn't arrive to the grounds until 9:30 (last call is at 10:30) but we had a lot of luck on our side as we got in to the second tent we tried (Fischer Vroni, I think it was called) and found seats right away, ordered our beers and 1/2 chickens and we had a great time singing and dancing on the benches with all of the other merry revelers. Did you know "Summer of '69" brings down the house here as well as at home?
Prost!
Chugging contest.
Now imagine all the glasses being full!
The band got everyone going with Tina Turner, The Village People and of course Bavarian drinking songs.
Crashing after a long, fun-filled day.
Well, stay tuned for Oktoberfest Part 2 coming soon.
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