Germany
We have an ambitious family, so we woke up early to hike up to the local castle-turned-hostel. Only do this if you can handle a lot of stairs. We definitely got our workout in, but the views were worth it! After our morning hike, we went back to the hotel for breakfast with the rest of our group. We drove down the road a little ways to St. Goar, where we had free time for lunch and exploring the city, which houses the world’s largest cuckoo clock! Next on the agenda was a Rhine Castles Ruins tour. Our tour guide was a “hoot and a half” as we say in the south. He was so animated with every story he told and made every detail interesting. He even sang for us to show us how awesome the acoustics of the castle were! Our whole family sings and so did some of our fellow tour members, so we joined together to create some memorable music that echoed inside the castle walls. After our castle tour, we jumped aboard a ship to take a river cruise back to Bacharach, where we picked up kabobs for dinner. We carried our dinner up to a tower in the vineyard, where we ate and looked at the beautiful town of Bacharach from the best seat in town. We explored the town and the river some more and ate our first gelato of the trip! Back at the hotel, we spent some quality time with our wonderful fellow tour group members and really started to bond. On the Road Again: Rothenburg It was time to say farewell to Bacharach and head to the walled city of Rothenburg! Another quaint German town, Rothenburg is packed with culture and history. We joined some of our tour friends to walk the wall and get a feel for the city. We also visited the eerie Crime and Punishment Museum, where we learned about some pretty crazy methods of torture. We also stepped inside the massive Christmas store that is all Christmas all the time. After dinner looking out on the town square, we joined our group for the Night Watchman’s Tour. Our tour guide was a fabulous actor and taught us so much about the history of Rothenburg, telling every detail with witty remarks and funny stories. After the tour, the city was glowing from the light of a beautiful sunset. Leaving Germany It was time to head to Austria! Along the way, we stopped in Munich to see the Glockenspiel, explore the city, and walk around the market. After a fun lunch at the Beer Hall, we got back on the bus to continue our journey. We stopped at a beautiful church located in a pasture with the most ornate ceiling and a unique statue of Jesus. The lush greenery surrounding the church was so vibrant it almost didn't look real. We pulled into the small town of Reutte to settle in and rest. Dinner was followed by a surprise private performance by a couple of incredibly talented accordion players/singers. They got us involved in their show and were definitely a highlight of the trip! Castles and Hiking in Germany/Austria One of the most unique experiences of the trip was being greeted by a rooster who lived right outside the hotel saying his morning cock-a-doodle-doos! After a yummy breakfast, we headed across the border back into Germany to hike up to Neuschwanstein Castle, which Disney Land’s Sleeping Beauty castle is modeled after. It was a tough hike, but very worth it to see the castle up close - another storybook view for sure! We got to go on a tour of the inside of the castle and see just how ornate King Ludwig II wanted his home to be! Eventhough he died before finishing his masterpiece and did not get to enjoy the castle himself, it was opened to the public 6 weeks after his and has become one of the most popular castles to visit. We ate a quick lunch by the bus and headed to the luge just a few miles from the castle. We all channeled our inner kid (and competitive spirit) and flew down the hills, trying to catch up to one another. There were people paragliding all around and there was a great view of the castle, making for some beautiful views whilst on the luge. Then it was back to Austria for some free time. We joined our tour guides, Bea and Kaitlyn, with about half of our group to do some more hiking to see castle ruins. There just so happened to be a medieval festival going on nearby, so we got to observe some jousting and see all of the fun costumes. We walked across one of the longest suspension bridges in the world and got to see the mountains from a whole new point of view. We walked back to the hotel and cleaned up before dinner with our tour group. This was one of the most physically demanding days of the trip, but also one of our favorites because of the beautiful scenery we saw. |