Catching up...

So, it's been a while. Lenny told me last night that I need to get back into my blog as I have not done anything in a while. I could make a lot of excuses but the reality is that I've been so busy doing nothing and enjoying it that I have not been writing about it! Well, I can't even say that's the truth since we've actually be pretty busy I just have not taken the time to write about it.

So, I left off telling you we'd go visit a castle, and we did just tat.

On our way to the Neuschwanstein Castle, we found this lovely church at the foot of the hill. The weather was a bit overcast and chilly - it was still Spring here and Germany is not known for it's balmy weather!

Take note of the lovely yellow flowers. We say them all along our route and they just covered the hills. The beauty of them was amazing so we took many photos along they way.
It turns out, upon loser examination that the flowers covering the fields were nothing less than...yes, you are seeing it right. They are the bane of existence for homeowners and yet, covering field after field in Austria they are just amazing - Dandelions!

We got a real kick out of that.

So, on up to the castle. This castle had quite a tragic history but the bottom line is that the prince that constructed it was ultimately dethroned - driven crazy and drowned in a lake with his psychiatrist. He was well known for construction of the vast castles and in fact was the primary designer of at least three of them, the most famous of which is Neuschwanstein. Often this one is called the Sleeping Beauty Castle and was the inspiration of the design for the Disney versions in California and Florida.

We took what every princess takes, a horse and buggy ride up the hill to the castle.

The view as we headed up the hill.

The first stop on the route is the cantilever bridge. For those who don't know (an I who had to look it up) "cantilever" is a design aspect that puts equal parts pressure toward the center so the bridge stays up without support in the center. This bridge was quite high above a river and the view is spectacular. I'm not a huge fan of heights so I tried not to look over too often!

No photos were allowed in the castle itself, so we only have them at a distance. The inside was quite spectacular as well and we decided that we would spend a good portion of the next couple of years tackling the objective to see as many of these wonderful German Castles as possible.

We departed that afternoon for Innsbruck, Austria where we spent the night before heading down into Italy for the drive home. Next up, Mother's Day in Austria.