Today was the day I had been looking forward to probably the most on this trip…Neuschwanstein Castle!! When I heard we were going here on this trip I was so excited and couldn’t wait to go. Finally, today was the day!

The bus ride there had a great view at one point where we could see the Alps driving in, which was such a cool view. We even saw the castle out the window and where we would be walking up to which made me more and more excited.

I looked out the window on the other side of the bus and even saw a partial rainbow!

We got off the bus and quickly looked out over the Alpsee Lake, but after that it was straight towards the path. Starting out everything was okay, but after sometime I started getting tired. I knew what was waiting at the top though, so I kept going and tried to make my enthusiasm cover this up. After a short, but steep walk we were at the bridge, and my goodness was that a view. Seeing pictures and imagining it is nothing compared to being there for yourself. For this view, I’d happily and easily do the ‘climb’ all over again.

After this we got to stop by the souvenir shop before heading into the actual castle. I bought a couple postcards, a broke college student’s favorite keepsake, a deck of cards and also got a pretzel. It was warmed up just right and tasted so good!

Our chance to go inside the ‘Cinderella Castle’ had come, but you weren’t allowed to take pictures so I had to hide my camera under my jacket when we walked in so I wouldn’t get in trouble and this also means I have nothing to show you of the inside. But the castle was very extravagant and it’s amazing how something like this, and other castles, are constructed the way they are for the time when they were built. I enjoyed seeing the outside of the castle from the bridge more than I did the tour, but it was still very interesting and cool to be able to say I’ve been there and inside it!

We got lunch in Füssen, where I had Leberkäse, which was pretty good, but the side dish of potato salad wasn’t my favorite. The town was also nice and we all decided to grab some ice cream after our meal. I had tiramisu ice cream and it was delicious! Highly recommend.

Our next stop was Wieskirche Church which was different than many other churches we’ve been in because of its shape and design on the outside as you can see below. It was really pretty on the inside with an amazing painted ceiling and the overall architecture was very detailed. We got doughnuts after too, right by the church, and they were so good, but I had to split it because of all that tiramisu ice cream.

After this we came back to the hotel where it was our first time getting dinner on our own, which was a slight challenge. Since it was a national holiday places were shutting early so we walked down Bahnhofstraße looking for places open. It looked like it was a perfect opportunity to try a Döner as they seemed like the only place open. It was really good too, so we made a good ‘forced decision.’ After this we all headed back to the hotel and finished up our day.

-Gemma