Saturday was a another travel day, back through Austria to Fussen, Germany. We stopped for lunch along the way at a quaint little Austrian town called Erhwald. It was really raining outside, but there was a cozy (warm and dry) little restaurant where I got my favorite cheese noodles and beer. A few of the people in our group used the break time to take the gondola up to a nearby mountain that was supposed to have a good view, but the clouds were so low, they couldn't see anything. I tried to minimize the number of times I had to ride those gondolas during our trip, because I have trouble enjoying views at great heights when I don't have solid ground under me.
The drive to Germany on a Saturday in August was LONG (time-wise, not mile-wise). We were in stop-and-go traffic for 2 hours on one stretch. It was still sprinkling when we got to town, but the sun came out soon after. Most of the towns we visited were so small with narrow, cobblestone streets that the bus had to drop us off a few blocks from the hotel. We lugged our suitcases up 4 flights of stairs (no elevators in most older European hotels), and then ran out to do our geocache.
Since we'd had such a big lunch, we looked for something simpler for dinner. There was a lively beer garden down the street where locals were listening to an oompah band and drinking huge steins of beer. We skipped the beer and settled for sandwiches for dinner. Bruce had a traditional wurst, but I had a rather bizarre cheese and dill pickle sandwich on a pretzel.
We rented bikes on Sunday. These bikes were much, much nicer than the ones we'd had so far, so we headed out right after breakfast to King Ludwig's Castle. This castle technically isn't as old as many other castles in the area, since it was totally rebuilt in 1830, but most people know about it, because Walt Disney's castle in Fantasyland is modeled after it. We'd already toured this castle when we were on vacation in Munich a few years ago, so we skipped the long lines for tickets, snapped a few photos, and continued on around the nearby lake.
Lake Alpsee seemed to be very popular with locals during the summer, because it was full of people swimming, boating, sunning themselves on the grass, and feeding the swans. We stopped at a little shop about halfway around and watched the swimmers while snacking on some apple strudel. I stuck my hand in the water, and it was actually much warmer than I expected given how the temperatures seemed to drop at night.
In the afternoon we headed in the opposite direction and rode our bikes out into the rural countryside. We had gorgeous views of the mountains, but the smell of cow dung was overpowering.
Our hotel room was pretty simple, but we had a tremendous view of the High Castle right outside our window (guess there are some perks to being 4 floors up). The High Castle was built as a summer residence for some former bishop. Most of the ornamentation you see around the windows is actually just paint, not real wooden trim. I woke up in the middle of the night, because the full moon was hanging right over this castle and shining in our windows so brightly that I thought it was morning.
