Germany, part 2

On Sunday we visited Hohenschwangau Castle and Neuschwanstein Castle. They are located in Hohenschwangau, Germany, about an hour drive from the hotel. The drive itself was great because of the terrific mountain scenery. I should note that the kids got sick of us exclaiming over how beautiful the mountains were. VJ pretty much ignored us but at one point I said:
Me: "Katie, look at the snow on top of the mountains."
Katie: "Yes, Daddy. The snow. I've seen it." said in such a bored voice I thought she was going on 16 not 6.

Anyway, we spent the day at the Castles. It took longer than we expected due to the number of visitors on the holiday weekend. In German "Hohenschwangau" means "Castle of a Thousand Stairs" and "Neuschwanstein" means "We have even more Stairs."

Oh my head. The castles were both GORGEOUS. Which we appreciated after we caught our breath from walking up the mountains to them. Getting to Hohenschwangau Castle wasn't that bad but check out this next picture. It was taken at the start of the road we had to walk up to reach Neuschwanstein Castle. And that was before walked up 6 flights of stairs in the castle. And when I say "we" I mean Anna and I since Katie got carried at least part of the way and VJ almost the whole way.

After the tour of Neuschwanstein Castle I asked the kids what their favorite part of the castles were. Katie said the tunnel (that we had just gone through to exit the castle) and VJ said the stairs. Now, if I had been carried up (and back down) the six flights of stairs I might have enjoyed them more myself, but I still don't think they would have been my favorite.

Back to the hotel (after a McDonald's dinner) and on to the hotel pool!

When we were packing up the car to leave the next morning, Katie had this to say:
Katie: "I had so much fun on vacation."
Me: "Really?" I was very happy that she had enjoyed herself.
Katie: "Yes, the pool was really great."
When will I learn?

Rather than getting up and rushing out so that we could spend a couple of hours in Salzburg, we decided to have a leisurely breakfast and make a separate trip to Salzburg in the future. We did however, stop and have lunch at a mall in Salzburg. Just to think that we were eating in the same food court that the Von Trapps may have once dined at was pretty heady stuff. Did they have the same crappy pizza that we did? It was like living history.

Check out all the pictures from our trip at our Kodak Gallery site.