Cheese puffs yum!

Jo-Ann's weakness - cheese puffs.



 Stephen favourite was a little more liquid.








A welcome break while waiting to get into the castle.


The best way to get up the 40 min walk to the castle.  Jo-Ann's new friends.

Pork Knuckle and Wiener Schnitzel

Pork Knuckle and Wiener Schnitzel are the traditional meals in Germany and there is no getting away from them.  Don't be fooled by the vegetables in the picture we had to beg to get them normally they come with Pomme Frits (potato chips or dumplings) not a green in sight.  We tried to resist we really did - and failed!

King Ludwigs folly

The whole reason for being in this part of the world was to visit Neuschwanstein Castle.  
We had been to Europe twice before but always seemed to have missed it.  We had heard all of the stories and seen the travel shows that explained how it was the basis for Disney’s castle emblem.  We just had to see it.

It is really important to realize that without a pre-booked ticket it is unlikely that you are going to see it.  We arrived early like 2 hours early and it was still just enough time to get organized.

We saw the two castles Hohenschwangau (Ludwig's dad's castle) and Neuschwanstein.  Both were breathtaking - almost in mint condition having never been taken by force.  

Ludwig only had his castle for a couple of hundred days before they declared him mad and he died in mysterious circumstances.
His castle remains unfinished today but still the best thing you will ever see regarding the folly of men - apparently he had an even more difficult one planned.

Maybe he was crazy but Bavaria is making a lot of money from them today!

Fussen is lovely

Travelling north on the autobahns speed limits were a bit negotiable.  But we had decided to make Fussen our base for 4 nights and explore the surrounds from there.  

It was a good decision.  Fussen was lovely, the hotel was friendly and very homely – I’d say a folksy Heidi meets Bamby sort of style.  

We even found a local doctor to tend to us and she was great, having worked in Melbourne for a year – she understood us.

From Fussen we could easily do all the castles, travel into Munich and even visit some of the ski villages which all appeared to be packed with tourist even in the off season.

We had some great experiences just going to the neighboring town to do our washing and visiting the shopping center.  We drove to Linderhof (a castle) and enjoyed spectacular views in the mirrored lake as we drove along its edge.