Bavarian Alps; Lakes and Fairytale Castles: June 19-21

The view from our room in Hopfan an See. We stayed with a Bavarian farming family who were renting a room in their house. It was fantastic accomodation, and quite cheap. It was nice to (attempt to) interact with some local people and they made us a big German breakfast of bread rolls and meats and cheeses and tea. There was always enough food for us to make into a picnic lunch as well.

This is the lake where we swam every morning, just a 15 minute walk down from our room.

The magnificent fairytale castle of Neuschwanstein sits in the background, nestled in the foothills of the Alps. It was one of the many castles built by the eccentric King Ludwig II, who built this one with an unlimited budget and a lot of imagination. Inside were paintings from Wagnerian operas and even a room made into a cave with a waterfall and garden. He only lived in it for just over 100 days before being pronounced mentally unfit to rule.

We took a gondola up into the alps and hiked two and a half hours down to the castle. Breathtaking views and hardly a sole in sight (everyone just goes straight to the castle). We were only walking downhill so it was an easy pleasant walk, but our legs ached for days afterwards.

The schloss of dreams.

A waterfall beneath the castle where we napped downstream nearby.

The final day of this outing we drove our rental car to Stuttgart. Along the way we accidentally took a pedestrian-only dirt road along a gorgeous lake, cyclists and hikers scowling at us and yelling in German. It was too narrow to turn around, and at the end we found ourselves at a locked gate which marked the Austrian border. So we got out and had a 15 minute saunter through Austria before doggedly heading back. Then we drove to Bordensee or the Lake of Constance, where we had a swim and ate some ice cream in this great town, Lindau.