Scenes of the Bavarian Alps

On Friday and Saturday, Feb. 8-9, a group of six of us headed five hours south to within spitting range of the Austrian border. In this land of sharply rising mountains covered in snow and numerous small and frozen lakes, we visited two amazing castles and two sweet towns. This was beyond a doubt my favourite weekend trip so far in Germany, and it was also the first place I've visited that completely got into my heart and blood the way that Prague did last year. In other words, I've loved everything and every place we've seen so far... but the ones we visited this last weekend are the ones I feel like I absolutely have to get back to someday.

Here is the story and quite a few pics:

We left Amberg Friday evening and spent about five hours on the train (actually about five trains, because of the number of transfers needed). We arrived in the blink-and-you'll-miss-it town of Seeg about 10:45 and, since there are no busses that time of day or on the weekend, had the greatly joyous adventure of walking about 4k (2.5 mi.) to our hostel. Sometime ask me to show you our trek on GoogleEarth... it was quite the walk, especially considering it was mostly in the countryside, it was dark and extremely cold (February in the Alps?), we were using cell phones for flashlights, if you looked back you could see a glowing church rising out of the blackness from the town behind us, and if you looked up you could see more stars than most people see in their lifetime. Some of you are thinking this sounds rather unpleasant, but for most of us, this was the highlight of the weekend. :)

Our hostel was lovely, and those of us brave enough to step out on our balcony in the frigid air knew the view would be beyond charming the next morning. It was.


This was what I saw when I stepped onto the balcony a little after sunrise.
In the morning, our hostel owners (slightly distressed for our sakes that we'd walked the night before) gave us a ride back to town, where we waited for the next train to Fuessen (about 15 minutes away).


The sign at the train "station" that let us know where we were. There wasn't much else to tell us!


The view of the Bavarian Alps down the rails.



Pretending to be the Pevensie children waiting for either our train or a magical bugle Call....
Once we arrived in Fuessen, we hopped a bus to tiny Hohenschwangau, another 15 minutes away.

Our first view of Schloss (castle) Neuschwanstein from the village in the valley. The castle literally pops out of the mountainside!

It's a 20-30 minute walk up the hill-/mountainside to the Schloss.

View from the Schloss.

View of the Schloss.

Me, Angela, and Heidi were three of the group-- posing on a balcony over the courtyard.

We took the 35 min. tour of the inside of the castle. It was built by "Crazy" King Louis about 150 years ago, and the inside decor is basically dedicated to composer Richard Wagner. The inside walls are covered in paintings of scenes directly taken from Wagner's operas. Read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_castle.

View out of a Schloss window.

And out of another window.

After the tour and some wandering around the castle complex, we headed back down to the village in a horse-drawn carriage. :)

Back in the village now-- looking up at Schloss Hohenschwangau, another of King Louis's creations (and only a 30 min. walk from Neuschwanstein).

View across the valley to Neuschwanstein, from Schloss Hohenschwangau.

Our group (minus Beth, taking the pic) in front of the castle.

Me with southern Germany stretching out behind me.

The Alps, as seen through a stone railing at the castle.

When we'd walked to our hearts' content in Hohenschwangau, we were ready for food! We climbed on a bus and headed back to Fuessen. There we had a charming meal and then an even more charming wander around the town.

The Heilige Geist Spital Kirche (Holy Ghost Spire Church, I think) in Fuessen.

Inside the H.G.S. Kirche. It was a little surprising to find this excellent an example of old artistry in such a small town! Not terribly surprising, though.... after all, it's Europe!

The ceiling of the H.G.S. Kirche.

Looking back across the river at Fuessen.

Part of the Fuessen "palace" complex, I believe.

View of the Alps from Fuessen. Who wouldn't want this as their backyard view?

Around 5:30 we got back on a train and headed back (two hours) to Munich. From there the two guys headed southeast to Salzburg, Austria, while we four girls continued north to Amberg and sleep!