A castle up in the mountains has always been my vision of a classic fairytale life. The prince saves the trapped princess, and they live happily ever after. That is exactly how it felt being there in person.
We drove about an hour and a half to make it to the tiny town where the castle was located. I slept the entire ride. Getting off the bus, we were faced with the most gorgeous view of the Appalachian Mountains. There was still snow on the peaks of the taller mountains, and it made me want to go skiing. It was quite cold, and it even started snowing at one point during the journey. We started off with a hike up the mountain to where the castle was located. It felt like walking up Cardiac Hill at Pitt, but five times longer. On the way up, we passed a sign saying the lookout bridge farther up the mountain was closed. I was slightly disappointed to learn this, but the weather was bad, so I was not too heartbroken.
Walking around the castle gave such an interesting insight into the king who built it and what life was like as royalty back then. I was surprised by the size of the king’s bed during the tour. If I were that rich, I would have chosen a king-sized bed, but the one in the room looked more like a twin bed. Love was clearly the central theme throughout the castle. There were paintings everywhere, many of them focused on romance. This surprised me because the king was unmarried. He just seemed to love the idea of love.
The viewpoint bridge ended up being open, so we took an extra hike to go see it. Seeing how it was built into the side of the mountain was unlike anything I had seen before. It truly looked like a fairytale castle. I can see why it was used as inspiration for the Disney castle. The bridge itself was absolutely terrifying to walk on. The wooden boards kept bending under the weight of all the people crossing, and there were a lot of people. I was scared I was going to drop my phone off the edge or fall through the boards myself. Somehow, I made it out alive. It had even started snowing while I was on the bridge. On the way back down the hill, we stopped at a little donut stand that was so delicious.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Pilgrimage Church of Wies. It was absolutely stunning. When we visited, they had live music playing inside. I still cannot get over how beautiful the ceilings are in all of the churches we have visited. You do not really see people painting things like that anymore. The amount of detail alone is breathtaking. After visiting the church, we started the trek back to the hotel. I wish I could say I was super productive when we got back, but I cannot. I spent the rest of the night relaxing and working on some of my blogs.
