Project Europe I – Day 13
1 June 2010 – Schwangau – Ingolstadt
Was raining when we woke up at about 0900 this morning. We were planning to find the vantage point around Tegelberg to shoot Schloss Neuschwanstein today but, looking at the weather, it’s not worth the trouble.
We went downstairs for breakfast at about 1000. After breakfast, I thought of the idea of going to Ingolstadt Village for some shopping instead. Since we have the car with us and it’s just 200km away. With that, we left the hotel and went to the car and programmed the navigation system to go to Ingolstadt Village. Off we went from Schwangau to Ingolstadt. It’s a 200km journey and its predicted we need 2 hours to get there.
It took us almost 2 hours to get there with a stop along the way to pump some petrol. Parking is free there with lots of parking lots. It’s a one storey open air shopping complex filled with many branded shops. The floor area is pretty big and the shops are arranged in a “U” such that you can walk one round and see all the shops.
Having reached there about 1345, we decided to have lunch first when we came across a Thai restaurant. We had a simple meal of some sweet and sour chicken and chicken with cashew nuts with rice. The food was alright and it fills the stomach. After lunch, we went exploring the shops one by one. Went into some and found the prices not to be any attractive as most of the brands are not from Germany. 
Finally, I bought a pair of Birkenstock while the PiG bought a bag from Desigual for Elmo. By the time we were done, its about 1530. I was thinking of the Kirsch Liquer we bought yesterday at Füssen and decided we should try our luck going there again to catch the shop before it’s closed and get 2 bottles to drink in the evening.
I programmed the navigation system for Fussen and did not check much and off we went. After travelling for about 45mins, I realized that the sat nav is pointing me to the wrong Fussen! It’s pointing to the one in Stephanskirchen, south east of Munich instead of the Füssen that is south of Munich. I quickly exited the autobahn and got the PiG to reprogram the sat nav to the right Füssen. There were quite heavy traffic and some road works along the way which costs us some time.
By the time we reached Füssen and parked, it’s already 1757. While I was searching for coins to feed the parking machine, an old couple drove up to me to offer me their ticket as they have some 30mins left. As we would need more time, I declined their offer and paid the EUR1 for the 1 hour parking till 1857 and after 1900, the parking is free.
With that done, we rushed to the shop and got distracted briefly by another shop selling balls of chocolate stuff but it’s closed , We made it just as their last customer is leaving! So happy, tonight we can have some Sauer Kirsch Liquer! The PiG accidentally asked to taste the Champagne Truffle Liquer and we ended up buying a bottle each of the Champagne Truffle and Sauer Kirsch! Mission accomplished!
We went looking for a place to eat dinner after that. On the way to the Liquer shop, there was this red restarurant called Zum Hechten that caught the PiG’s eyes, so we decided to try it out. I had a Grilled pike fillet with potatoes while the PiG had the Schweinhaxen, washed down by King Ludwig’s Dunkel bier and a Shandy for the PiG. The food was really good, fish was fresh and the pork knuckle had crispy skin and very tender meat. We had an Applestrudel with whipped cream and vanilla ice cream for dessert. It was also just as good. It was a good choice to eat here! Total cost for the meal was EUR32, very reasonable price!
After dinner, we walked back to the car in the rain. It was raining the whole day from Füssen to Munich to Ingolstadt! The PiG took over the wheel and as she was not familiar with left hand drive and there are too much things to worry about, we had a hair raising 10 minutes ride back to our hotel and retired for the night. Tomorrow, we would be going to our last stop Munich.
Project Europe I – Day 12
31 May 2010 – Schwangau
Today is castle day.
We got up at 7.30am and headed for breakfast at 8am at the hotel restaurant. New discovery for breakfast today – some luncheon meat pate thingy that comes in a little butter size cube, and they have different flavors too..but pity nothing is in English here.
We headed out to the ticket office just a short walk away from our hotel at 8.30am. Purchased a Royal Ticket which allowed us access to both Schloss Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein at Eur30 each. Visits to the castles had to be guided and we were allocated tour numbers for each castle, starting with the parents castle of King Ludwig II, Hohenschwangau, and approximately 2 hours later, the visit to his fairytale castle Neuschewanstein.
Our allocated time slot to Schloss Hohenschwangau is 9.50am, tour number 122. Schloss Neuschwanstein is at 11.55am, tour number 447.
We took an uphill walk to Schloss Hohenschwangau, and we reached the pale yellow castle in about 20 minutes. As we were early for the tour, we walked around the exterior grounds, enjoying the view of the small town. From the top, we could see hordes of tourists arriving by the coaches, and there was a big crowd waiting for the bus-ride to Neuschwanstein.
Schloss Hohenschwangau was rebuilt by Maximilian II (Ludwig’s father) from the ruins of a 12th century castle in the 1830s. It was the childhood residence of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and was built by his father, King Maximilian II of Bavaria. It was built on the remains of the fortress Schwanstein by a family of knights. It fell into ruins after the demise of the knights in the 16th century, and in 1829, King Maximilian II of Bavaria discovered the historic site and acquired the property in 1832. One year later, the reconstruction of the Castle begain, continuing until 1837. Hohenschwangau was the official summer and hunting residence of Maximilian, his wife Marie of Prussia and their 2 sons Ludwig and Otto, where the young princes spent many years of their adolescence here. Ludwig grew up and spent much of his time in this castle and it is assumed that his character was largely influenced by the romantic atmosphere of Hehenschwangau.
We started our tour promptly at 9.50am and were brought around the Billiard Room (formerly served mainly as a waiting room during audiences), the chapel, the hall of the Swan-Knight (dining room), the ‘Schyren’ room (the dressing room of Queen Marie), the Queen’s bedroom, Historical Room (living room of Queen Marie), Berchta-Room (writing room of Queen Marie), Room of Hohenstaufen (dressing and music room of the King), Tasso Room (royal bedroom), etc.
We were really in awe of all the intricate details in each room, and it seems like no part of the castle was left empty. Every bit of the ceiling, the mural walls, the furniture, was filled with intricate carvings, very finely painted stainglass windows (I think it’s the most beautiful I have seen) and paintings. Wall paintings depicting stories and myths of dragons and knighthood, with lots of details in the painting and it feels almost life-like. The rooms were also filled with intricately carved gifts from other royal families.
The things we see were almost unreal, so surreal and unbelievable. I suppose that’s what’s so romantic about these castles, and you can almost feel the royalty. It’s amazing how skilled the people were and to think of it, the ‘professionals’ in our time is nothing as compared..we’re simply noobs!
The tour lasted a mere 30 minutes and I wished it could be more detailed, and there were lots of questions in our minds – how was everything put together, what were the significance of the paintings, how did they do the carvings, what kind of lifestyle, etc.
At the end of the tour, we headed downhill to the bus-station for the ride up to Schloss Neuschwanstein. It was crowded with tour groups and were glad we managed to get on the bus within 15 minutes. We reached the castle in goodtime at 11.20am.
We first visited the viewpoint on the Marie Bridge, which was earlier a wooden bridge built by the Crown Prince Maximilian (Ludwig’s father) in the middle of the 19th century. The bridge provided a good view of the Disneyland castle, and it was built over a thundering waterfall. This bridge was so packed with tourists, all eagerly to find a standing spot to take the postcard perfect picture of the castle. I wondered for a moment is there no limit to the number of people who could stand on the bridge?
We took our shots and headed towards the castle, which was another 15 minutes uphill walk. The tour started at 11.55am.
Schloss Neuschwanstein is a 19th century castle on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Fussen in southwest Bavaria. The construction of the castle begain in 1869 and the king move into the unfinished palace in 1885. The palace was intended as a personal refuge for the reclusive Ludwig II of Bavaria. But sadly, the king only managed to live in the palace for 172 days when he passed away suddenly. Many of the interior rooms remain undecorated, with only 14 rooms finished before Ludwig’s death. A year later, the palace was opened as a museum for the public. Had it been completed, the palace would have had more than 200 interior rooms!
As we walk through the throne room, the king’s room, dining room, bedroom, chapel, living room, dressing room, the singer’s hall, etc, the same awe rose within us. Felt that this castle is a bit heavier in wood, and is darker due to the extensive roof paintings and wooden furniture. The palace was fitted with several of the latest technical innovations of the 19th century, like the battery-powered bell system for the servants and telephone lines, running warm water and toilets with automatic flushing, lifts, etc. The king’s obsession with swans could also be seen all around the carvings, door knobs, etc.
The tour ended in about 30 minutes as well. Bought some souvenirs, had a strawberry sponge mousse cake and beef goulash soup for lunch. We headed back to the hotel at 2.30pm.
Decided to take a drive out to the Schwangau town which was nothing much, and heading towards Füssen town. Füssen felt a little like a swiss town, with shops lining both sides of the cobbled street. We checked out their supermarket and stocked up on our supply of wine (Riesling for today), cheese and crackers.
As we walked down the streets, we chanced upon this interesting shop (Schmankerl Lädle) that sells liquor, oils and jams on dispenser jugs. The window display first caught our eye with its little painted glass cups that illuminates brilliant colours under spotlight/candlelight. There were also glass bottles that had Bavarian paintings on it and as we looked within, we saw jugs and jugs of liquids on dispensers. Decided to go into the shop and check it out. Glad we did!
In the shop, we found interesting jam mixes, concocted powders that when mixed with water and oils becomes interesting bread dips, and lots of jugs of oils and liquor in different varieties. We bought one type of everything and ended up with 4 Bavarian bottles of cherry Kirsch, which tasted really good and it ain’t very expensive as well!
We were happy with our loot and was indeed a good discovery. Now it’s just a problem of how are we going to bring back these bottles of jam, oil and alcohol!
We headed back to the hotel at about 5.30pm. Checked out the souvenir shop at the hotel, where I bought my collection of magnets while David bought his beer stein. The shoplady was so kind to give us a 10% discount and a little booklet about the 2 castles!! 
We checked out the restaurants around and realized that they were mostly serving western food instead of local german food, and most of them were almost empty. We finally decided to have our dinner at the hotel restaurant which was the cheapest amongst all, and they served authentic Bavarian food. Today we had Pork escalope with their homemade pasta (which is actually their spatzle), sausage with sauerkraut and mash potatoes, and ravioli with onion and salad.
Was an interesting and amazing day today, and the castles were totally worth the visit. Tomorrow we shall go in search of nice spots to capture the beauty of Schloss Neuschwanstein!
Project Europe I – Day 11
31 May 2010 – Interlaken – Liechtenstein – Schwangau
Today is driving day!
Woke up to a little sunshine and some blue skies. Why must the weather always turn better the day we are leaving? We got out of bed changed and took a stroll to the local Europcar centre at Interlaken to collect our car for our trip into Deutschland.
We booked an Audi A4, but when we got there, the guy told us we have been given an upgrade! We now have the Mercedes E200 BlueEFFICIENCY. It comes with a built in navigation system which means we pay lesser then what we booked it for. Great news again. That makes me really excited. The guy walked me through the systems and how to operate the navigation system and we were off. As this is the first time I’m driving a left hand drive car and on the right side of the road, it took a bit of time for me to get used to it.
We drove back and parked behind our hotel and went for breakfast in the hotel at about 0830. After we are done with breakfast, we went to a souvenir shop just next to our hotel where the PiG bought some magnets and a pair of socks for her dad. After that, we got back to our room to pick up our luggages and proceeded to check out. 
Off we went, headed towards Liechtenstein at about 1000. We took a scenic route through Brienz and the mountain roads of Lungern where we stopped and took some pictures of the scenary around. Progress was slow as the road was windy and we stopped a bit for our pictures. After passing Lungern, we headed towards Luzerne, went by Alpnachstad where the Pilatus Cogwheel railway station was. It brought back great memories of our stay at Mt Pilatus. 
With Luzerne behind us, we headed towards Zurich and made a right turn towards Zug and Eastern Switzerland. We crossed the border to Liechtenstein at about 1300, and parked at the city centre of Vaduz at 1316. We parked at a building called First next to the Liechtenstein Museum. Took us a while to figure out the parking ticketing machine. They require us to key in the parking lot number into the machine then it will issue us the ticket but we do not need to display the ticket on the dashboard. Don’t know how they enforce the parking. Seems to me it’s based on a honesty system.
Upon exiting the carpark, we saw that this place is filled with tourists! There were many souvenir shop and watch shops around, just like the main street at Interlaken. We walked around looking for somewhere to have lunch and finally settled for Restaurant Adler where the PiG had her last Rosti meal with veal sausage. I had some crème of carrot and garlic soup and a grilled salmon steak. The food was very decent and price was alright at about CHF70.
After lunch, we decided to check out the town centre a bit, did some souvenir shopping and headed to the tourist information centre. There, we saw a line of tourists queuing up to have their passports stamped for CHF3. As there are no borders between Liechtenstein and Switzerland, this is the only place immigration stamp collectors can get their passports stamped! We asked for some directions to see the Vaduz Castle and were told we cannot enter the castle, can only see from the outside. The lady at the tourist information gave us the driving directions and off we went.
Schloss Vaduz from robotech on Vimeo.
As we were approaching the castle, it started to rain and after we parked and started walking to the viewpoints, it started to pour heavily. We decided to return to our car and give this a miss. Next time maybe. We left Vaduz at about 1530 and headed North towards Deutschland.
Mercedes E200 on the Autobahn from robotech on Vimeo.
The drive up north is easy. The roads are smooth and not much traffic. We passed through Austria for a short distance or maybe 3mins… before entering into Deutschland. Upon hitting the Autobahns, I can see that the travelling speeds of the cars are faster. Finally, its time to unleash the Mercedes! It was great driving on the Autobahn with no speed limits. At some stage of the journey, we reached 200+ kmh with 217kmh being the maximum. At that speed, the car still feels stable and willing to go! This car is really made for the Autobahn.
217kmh from robotech on Vimeo.
We finally reached our Hotel, Hotel Alpenstuben situated at the famous Neuschwanstein Castle at about 1715. Checked in was a breeze and we had a room with a view of the Neuschwanstein Castle! After settling down, we took a walk around town and check out the tourist information centre. 
After that, we had dinner in our hotel, Hotel Alpenstuben. I had pork knuckle and a König Ludwig Dunkel while the PiG had goulash soup and grilled pork with a Paulaner Draft. Overall, dinner was good and one of the cheapest we have had, at EUR34.
After dinner, we retired to our room to rest. Tomorrow we will visit the castles! Below is the google map route of the trip from Interlaken to Füssen.
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