Neuschwanstein Castle
Our first trip this morning was to get the bus from the village up to the bridge above Neuschwanstein Castle for photos. We had decided not to do the actual tour. Again we had perfect sunshine and blue skies.
Hohenschwangau Castle
We went up in the first bus of the day with a group of Japanese tourists but our superior fitness had us at the bridge first and prime spot for pictures. As they arrived we headed back down to the bus stop and while we had to wait for the bus to come back we walked down the path a bit to get pictures of Hohenschwangau and the lake nearby as well. After getting the bus back to the village we collected our luggage and set off for the day.
Ceiling painting from the church
Next stop was Weiskirche to visit the Church in the Meadow. This was built in the 1730’s and the paintings on the ceiling and walls inside the church are just amazing. We then headed to Innsbruck – our first “real” visit to Austria after the autobahn ins and out from yesterday.
We had lunch in a little bakery after walking through sections of the old city. Driving both in and out of Innsbruck you are surrounded by the Austrian Alps which were pretty spectacular.
Just out of Innsbruck as we left we visited Kristalvellten which is the Swarovski factory “world” so Adrienne could get some charms for her bracelet. Liam and I couldn’t be persuaded to do the tour so we just visited the shop. Would you believe they tout this place as comparable to the seven wonders of the world ?!? And whilst on the subject of crazy, would you believe I had to make Adrienne buy stuff at this place ?!??! It must be the effects of the altitude or something !
From here our destination was Salzburg – probably about 1 and 1/2 hours away if you go directly. But as you know, we don’t do “directly” and we headed south to a place called Zell Am See. It is an extremely picturesque town on a lake which we learnt about from the “Band of Brothers” series we watched before we left. At the end of the war, after the 101st Airborne had taken Hitler’s Lair at Berchtesgarden, they were based at Zell Am See before possibly being re-deployed to the Pacific war.
Zell Am See
The scenery of this place in the series looked pretty spectacular and in the flesh it did not disappoint ! I couldn’t help thinking that knowing what those men had gone though between D-Day and the end of the war – about 10 months – this place must have been like arriving in paradise for them and hopefully took away some of the horrors they had endured as the scenery and peacefulness were just magnificent.
Hopefully they didn’t have the traffic snarl getting in and out of there that we did – 2 guys replacing a guard rail had half the road blocked and the remaining lane open alternatively so the queue of cars went for miles !
From here we headed to Salzburg – again along winding picturesque roads. You just seem to go round bend after bend and there is another “picture postcard” scene ahead of you.
After a final zip in and out of Germany again as we arrived in Salzburg we checked into our hotel (we are here for the next 2 nights) around 18:00.
After a day of fantastic scenery we finished with dinner in the hotel beer garden under Linden trees as the sun slowly set.