Romantic Road

On our second day in Munich, Nicola and I had booked spots on a day trip along Romantic Road! 

For those of you who don't know what Romantic Road is, I copied and pasted Wikipedia's definition below. Much better description than what I was crafting in my mind.

It describes the 350 kilometres (220 mi) of highway between Würzburg and Füssen in southern Germany, specifically in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, linking a number of picturesque towns and castles. 

The morning started around 7:45am when we made our way to Starbucks. Is that a shocker? 

Post coffee, we made our way to the pick-up location that was about two blocks from our hotel. We checked in, and before we knew it, we were on the famous autobahn. The first stop of the day was the Linderhof hunting lodge castle. Yes, you read that correctly. It wasn't just a normal hunting lodge, it was a hunting lodge castle. 

It was gorgeous on the inside (no photos allowed)! It was tiny, but still grandiose. Supposedly King Ludwig II modeled it after Versailles.  Trekking back to the coach, we stopped to take in the Bavarian countryside. Munich had limited snowfall, but the mountain region was another story. 

Insane, right?

A short bus ride down the road, we stopped into the small town of Obermannergau to view the famous Passion Play. The town was quintessential with different story paintings on various houses! 

The final destination of the day was Neuschwanstein Castle. Neuschwanstein Castle was Walt Disney's model for his Sleeping Beauty's castle.  Nicola and I had planned ahead and eaten lunch on the bus in order to have more time to explore the grounds and to walk up to the castle. To get to the castle, you have to walk up a 1.5km hill. Normally, this would not be a problem for most. But add slush, snow, and some black ice, problems arise. And, we know how clumsy I can be!

Walk up the hill

Thankfully, during the walk up and down, I never fell down. A few close calls.  As we moved up the hill, we got some breathtaking views of the countryside. 

We had a tour scheduled inside Neuschwanstein Castle (again, no photos allowed) around 4pm, so that gave us about an hour to explore the grounds outside once we made it to the top. Unfortunately, we didn't know the entrance to the bridge to view the castle from the other side was closed at the top. In the end, we had no time to go down and come up another way to do that. Nevertheless, we still got to explore the grounds and take in the beauty of a castle.

So Cold!

View from the Bottom

It was a great day trip and well worth the cost! Upon returning back to Munich, we met up with  a few friends. Nicola had a friend living in Munich, and my friend, Hannah, lives on the Air Force base. Hannah and I met at Syracuse during my freshman year. She lived on my floor, and we've been friends ever since! The four of us grabbed some traditional food, drank some beer, and danced our night away!

Hannah and me

Nicola and me

Nicola got to spend Sunday in Munich exploring more, but I came back early due to a Thanksgiving potluck and a huge amount of homework. Plenty of more recap posts to come!