Today is just how I dreamed it would be...

Monday, May 23, 2011
This is like I thought it would be. (Insert contented sigh.) We did get an early night last night, and woke up at 6 a.m. so that we could drive to Neuschwanstein. We arrived just before 7 a.m., and I was first in line at the ticket center. Last night, I insisted that Steve finally LOOK at the Rick Steves Germany book so that he could make some decisions on what he wanted to see and didn’t want to see. So he read about the long lines for tickets and decided we needed to get there early. Good enough.
I had eaten breakfast while Steve was cleaning up, so I waited in line while Steve stayed at the car and ate breakfast (cereal & milk) then joined me in line. We got our tickets, they were for the 9:20 a.m. English tour (first English tour of the day.) Next was a short walk to the shuttle bus. We were especially glad we did this as we were walking down afterwards and seeing all the tired people walking up! Thought we would be the only ones on the bus, then shortly before departure time the bus suddenly filled with two Japanese tour groups. We both felt very tall, especially Steve! The bus took us to the drop off point, then we took a short uphill walk to Mariensbrucke (Mary’s bridge.) Nice to have a bridge, wish I could have taken it home…. This was where you could get an excellent shot of the entire castle. We both did that, then Steve’s camera battery died. Of course he didn’t have the other one with him, it was back at the car. So most of our castle pictures are with my camera. We couldn’t take inside pictures anyway. I haven’t downloaded the camera yet, since I’m taking advantage of wifi on the netbook first tonight.
After the bridge, we walked down to the castle and to the courtyard. We waited until our tour was called, #416, and to our surprise we again found ourselves in a group of mostly Japanese tourists. But the tour guide conducted the tour in English. Not sure if they understood but oh well. We had a wonderful tour of the finished areas of the castle, then were allowed to tour the unfinished areas (mostly 2nd floor) on our own, which included going through two gift shops. After leaving the castle, we had a 20 minute walk back down to town. We stopped along the way to find the Neuschwanstein cache, of course. Picked up one more traveler there.
Back at the parking area, we regrouped. I had realized that I was missing my gorilla pod, and wanted to check several bags in the car. It wasn’t there, so I realized the only place it could be was back at the cache I found in Ehrenberg yesterday. Steve picked up his spare battery, and we walked up to the other castle, where Ludwig had grown up. We chose not to tour the inside, but it was nice to see the outside close up. Ok, there was a cache near there, too. Since I’m being generally pretty choosy about what caches I want to find, Steve has been tolerant, especially the past few days.
We left the castle area and returned to Austria. Steve wanted an Austrian shot glass, there hadn’t been one at Ehrenberg. Since we were going so close, we went back to Ehrenberg, and sure enough my gorilla pod was still at the cache! Then went back to Reutte and couldn’t find a souvenir store to save our souls…finally decided to head toward Oberammergau via Austria and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. We found a small souvenir store and Steve got his shot glass. Drove north and ended up in Oberammergau.
Mom had told us that the clock they bought in Germany (which we now have) was from Oberammergau, so since Steve didn’t find one in the Black Forest, we wanted to look here. We drove around a bit until I saw a place that had cuckoo clocks. We went inside, and Steve finally did find the one he wanted. While he was looking, I noticed the “Zimmer frei” sign, inquired as to price, etc. For 60 euros we have a nice room, including bath, TV, little refrigerator, and even wifi. I was smart enough to ask for two codes this time as the code they give you is only good for one computer. Oh, also includes breakfast in the morning! We were given a generous discount on the clock since we were staying there as well. Still, it would have paid for several nights stay at a nice Vaduz hotel. ‘Nuff said. This is what Steve really wanted to have from this trip.
After we settled into the room, we took a walk around Oberammergau. It was late enough in the afternoon that we didn’t go to the Passion Play museum (sorry Mom) but really enjoyed just walking around and seeing the town. We ended up just down the street for dinner. I had a pork “lion” steak with “woast” potatoes. Not served by Elmer Fudd, though. Steve had something breaded pork with French fries. Also two beers. He liked those.
I’ve looked at some of the pictures that are of me. I’m not looking any smaller in them. I’ve probably put a few pounds on, but the traveling stuff I’m wearing doesn’t help any. I have my neck pouch which I wear cross-ways under my right arm, and the Scottevest has so much in it that it makes me look bigger as well. Still, going home time will be time to get back in gear.
And I hope we get to go home on time. Not that I wouldn’t like to stay longer. But we’ve been watching CNN and have heard about the new volcanic eruption in Ireland. We fly home out of Frankfurt to Dallas then Grand Rapids, so less likely our flight will be affected. Nothing we can do about it right now anyway.
Steve fell asleep shortly after we got back. I have a lot of catching up to do internet wise so it may be a shorter night for me. Tomorrow – heading north but looks likely that we’ll end up back at Scott’s in the evening.