Neuschwanstein Castle

this should be the last post. i believe this is the last of the posts i was behind on.

my last saturday in switzerland i went with roberta and the kids to germany to see the Neuschwanstein Castle. this castle has a crazy story and was also the castle that inspired the disney sleeping beauty castle. when we arrived we found this great peak down below of the castle up above{first pics}. then when you go into the area you park down below and take a bus up the hill. then there is a little climb to a great bridge that overlooks the castle. so beautiful. then we walked over to the castle where we took a tour of the inside. it was such a beautiful castle and it is sad that it never was finished. this castle was built in the 19th century and the king, Ludwig II, had built a running toilet in his bedroom...which is a pretty big advancement in that time. i was in a king's bedroom. how often can you say that!?
i really wish i could see this place in the summer when the trees are green and the sky is blue. {check out images HERE} i would love to return someday and revisit this beautiful castle.


this castle below is the castle where Ludwig II, the king, grew up









a quick photoshoot at the castle


after we went through the tour inside, we got hot chocolate inside the castle's little restaurant.
then on the walk down from the castle we found some yummy pastries to try.

day 3 part two

Germany.
after we left France we drove over to Freiburg Germany. it began to sprinkle as we arrived and driving around finding a parking spot was less than ideal. neither of us can read german so we don't really know where we can park legally. we found a spot that we were pretty sure we had to pay, but didn't and parked there. so living on the edge, we walked around. we weren't able to stay too long for the rain, "free" parking and the fact that we had to be back in zurich soon was calling us back to our car. here are some of the photographs from along the way.











okay, so the picture below...is from the most stressful, funny and typical american moment we had on our trip. after we got back to the car we decided to find a bathroom before leaving town. well the gps lead us to this street THAT WAS NOT FOR CARS. oops. we drove in because it looked like a road...you know small european roads....but turns out it was a pedestrian zone. AND we found out the hard way. it was for trams too. at one point we became stuck because of trams around us. we were panicking...well i was laughing and my dad was panicking. a german man began talking to us and my dad was like "no german!" so the man began in english. basically telling us what we already knew...no cars. shoot. we were trapped by trams. finally, the trams moved and we could drive forward, however we couldn't! there were so many pedestrians. we had to slowly move through them while getting dirty looks from germans. luckily our car plates said switzerland so we couldn't be looked at as dumb americans. we finally made it through without a policeman spotting us. phew. what an adventure!

but on the highway we did find this bathroom, didn't you want to see it?
and then back to switzerland we went. we went to the zurich airport where we returned the car, took a shuttle to my dad's hotel. had dinner in the hotel room while watching tv in german. i slept in the hotel with him that night and then went with him to the airport. after he checked in and left to his plane, i took the train back to my town from the airport. it was so great to see him and spend time with him trying to figure out this europe.