The Anderson Clan: Bavaria Trip

Kaydree had her first break from school, so we hit the road for our first European road trip! As soon as Ry got done at work on Friday, we headed out and drove about 5 hours to Stuttgart, Germany to spend the night. The next morning, we drove a couple more hours to Schwangau, Germany to tour 2 castles. We had heard and read that Neuschwanstein (the castle that Disney based the sleeping beauty castle off of) was suppose to be one of the most fabulous in all of Europe, so we had pretty high expectations. I don't know if it was a combination of the terrific weather and the amazing fall foliage, or the fact that it was the first day of the trip and everyone was super excited and happy, but that day was pretty darn near perfect in my book.

We started out touring Hohenschwangau, King Ludwig's boyhood home. Ry and I enjoyed this tour the most because the group was small, we could actually see and hear everything, and it was a little more historical. Here we all are in front of the castle. (A random non-english speaking tourist snapped this pic for us, so obviously it's not the best…he didn't take camera directions well)

I don't know if I can say enough about the pretty fall leaves. I mean, we have seen some pretty fall colors before (ohio, pennsylvania, even arkansas has a really pretty autumn) but this was amazing. There were just tons of trees, bavarian alps in the background, blue skies…picture perfect, I'm not exaggerating folks.

So, the kids did pretty well with the hike up to the first castle…but we weren't going to push our luck with the second. We paid to take the bus up and made a short hike to Mary's Bridge to check out yet another fabulous view.

You can see Neuschwanstein really well from the bridge. It was pretty crowded, you really had to push your way through to take pictures, but I managed to snap a few.

Then we made another short hike up to the castle, Ludwig's pride and joy. It's pretty sad to me that it has never been finished, but even as is it is obviously impressive. This tour was with a large group, the castle is huge and echo-y, and it was pretty hard to hear anything. The castle grounds were cool, but the tour was lame.

Pretty Kaydree at Neuschwanstein Castle grounds

We rode a horse carriage down the mountain. Normally, we try to be as frugal as possible, but with the 4 little people, paying to ride up and down the mountain was probably the best decision of the day.

Next, we hopped in the car for a nice drive through the Bavarian countryside. Everything was so green and pretty. We made a stop at Wieskirche "The Church in the Meadow" to check it out.

A bit more driving took us to Ettal Monastery. By this point, the terrible triplets were happily sleeping, so Ry and I took turns with K to go inside. Another impressive baroque interior, and it was kind of neat to see real live monks roaming around in their robes. I would've taken a picture of one, but it felt wrong somehow.

Last stop: Oberammergau, Germany. This town was a little touristy, but ridiculously cute and German. We had fun just strolling, window shopping, and looking at all the wood carving shops.

And that was just Day 1…crazy, right? It was a long jam packed day, but like I said earlier: pretty much perfect.

We had a slower day planned for Day 2 since it was Sunday and we wanted to go to church. We got everyone ready and drove to the local LDS church in Innsbruck, Austria only to find the building completely closed. We're thinking it was stake conference or something and obviously we missed the memo. But we met a really nice couple from Utah who were traveling and trying to go to church also, so we sat and talked with them for about an hour. It was so nice to visit with some other Americans. But after long our 4 crazies were ready to move on, so we did some sightseeing around Innsbruck. This was the house across the street from the church…isn't it so cute? Seriously, doesn't it just make you want to yodel? I love the flower boxes by the windows and the wood trim, Innsbruck was full of cute houses like this.