Fairy Tale Kind of Day

The Travel Weather Gods have certainly been following us around as we were greeted with another glorious blue sky day. This was a perfect scenario for our day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle. This castle is a 19th Century historical palace on a rugged hill of the foothills of the Alps in the very south of Germany, near the border of Austria. However, this castle is actually best known as the inspiration behind Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle.

We knew today would be the longest travel day as the bus journey took just over 2 hours to arrive. But being that today was our last full day in GaPa we decided to go for it and then we could relax for the rest of the day.

We board a horse and “carriage” (more like a buggy) ride to the top of the hill where the castle was located. It seemed like a fairy tale being driven in a horse drawn wagon up to a castle, but the sight and smell of horse poop on the roadway made us think otherwise…and NO Prince Charming. The cost was 8 euros (one way) which was definitely worth it since it was all uphill.

The views around the castle were spectacular, especially from Marienbrucke (Mary’s Bridge). Everyone wants to get that Instagram shot from here.

The walk back was much easier - downhill! We were able to view another castle - Hohenschwangau - from the same area. Although it was much smaller - still impressive. There were a bunch of shops and restaurants nearby and of course we had to take a peek. The day would not be complete without a little bit of gelato.

We had great timing in catching the bus for the ride back, although it was not as straight forward as the inbound trip was since we needed to make one transfer connection along the way. The wait was only about 15 minutes and ironically it was the same driver from the morning trip. He chuckled when he saw us and asked us how we enjoyed our day. Made it back to GaPa by 4:30 and went for a (really) late lunch or early dinner.

The drive through the mountains and stopping at various villages/towns along the way was an experience in itself. And the best part…all of our bus travel today was FREE - courtesy of the Tourist Travel Card we had received from the apartment on the first day…it certainly has saved us some cash. We have enjoyed the savings and spent it on gelato and sweatshirts instead.

Back to the apartment for a chill evening…and getting organized for tomorrow’s check out. Next stop will be back to Munich for the weekend!