Hohenschwangau Germany and Innsbruck Austria September 2019

After a wild day in Munich at Oktoberfest we headed out the next morning again by Flixbus to Hohenschwangau Germany to see the Neuschwanstein Castle, the castle was built for King Ludwig II.  They say that Cinderella’s Castle at Disneyland was modeled after this castle.  The castle was absolutely beautiful despite the restoration that was taking place.  The castle set up on a hill overlooking the most beautiful valley and lake.  My husband and I decided to walk up the mountain further to get a different view of the castle, and we were sure glad we did, it was stunning. We stayed at the Hotel Alpenstuben which was located directly below the castle with views of the castle from the windows.  We wondered around the very small town after visiting the castle and enjoyed 2 delicious meals at the hotel.  Our dinner waiter Lucca was fantastic and very helpful.  Actually, all the staff at the hotel was wonderful.  We had hired a driver for the next morning through Team Daytrip, during our planning of the trip.  The driver was picking us up at the hotel and driving us through the beautiful mountain pass to Innsbruck Austria, a 1.5-hour drive rather than taking the train which would be a 5-hour journey.  Our driver Harald was right on time, in fact early and waiting for us.  He drove us though the beautiful mountains of Germany and Austria all the while bragging how perfect Austria is to live in; cleanest air, purest water, lowest taxes and not to mention 100 miles to Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Croatia and Hungary…hum, maybe it is the most perfect place to live, I will keep that in mind. After our short trip we arrived in Innsbruck, Harald delivered us to our Hotel Goldene Krone.  Although the hotel was perfectly located, the rooms seemed more like Hostels or dorm rooms, was not to impressed by it, but it was only for one night, so we would get by.  Dropping off our luggage we didn’t have too much on our agenda, so we started wondering down Maria Theresien Strasse towards the Golden Roof (Goldenes Dachl) located in old town and considered the cities most famous landmark.  It was completed in the 1500’s, the roof was decorated with 2657 fire-guilded copper tiles for Emperor Maximilian I to mark his wedding to Bianca Maria Sforza.  We decided to have lunch at the Altstadtbeisl, which served up delicious Austrian cuisine. It was located right next to the Golden Roof.  After lunch we made our way to the Swarovski Crystal World; largest Swarovski store I have ever seen.  Three floors of crystal jewelry, it even had a bar inside for the husbands to sit while us women shopped and spent money. On our way back towards our hotel we stopped in Limerick Bill’s Irish Pub (because that’s what we like to do, stop at every Irish Pub we find) for a quick beer.  After we left it was again time to eat so we stopped at Viapiano’s and Italian restaurant across the street from our hotel.  We ordered a calzone and a pizza; it wasn’t too bad.  Not wanting to spend much time in our dorm room we decided to walk the other direction from our hotel to look at an Olympic ski jump that was at the end of the street called the Bergisel Ski Jump.  However, it had gotten too dark to see it so we stopped into the Segafredo Bar were the bartender/waiter Wolfgang gave us a lesson on Gin.  Very informative and a lovely evening.  And that’s our one day in Austria, next stop Switzerland.