Day 10, Tuesday 09.23.08

Our 13th wedding anniversary.

Today we hop on a train southward to Füssen and the glorious fairy tale castles of Mad King Ludwig. A two-hour train ride through the farmlands of Bavaria into the Alps. Gorgeous. It was an overcast foggy day, but the mists shrouding the mountains only added to the mystique.

First stop on our Bavarian Alps castle tour, a horse-drawn carriage ride up to:

The home of King Maximillian, father of King Ludwig. Our first stop in the Alps on a rainy day. Plenty of steps to climb. Some 200+ going up (and of course coming down too) in staggered stages. Opulent rooms, borderling gaudy. Hell, not borderline. These rooms WERE gaudy. Afterward Chris remarked, "And this was the castle of the SANE one." Only imagine the treats in store for the next stop. Oh dear. In any event, the following stop, and model for Disney's Cinderella castle, would be:

More opulent. Bankrupting the family fortune to build this thing. And sadly, only 13 rooms are completed. Ludwig dies in 1886 under quite mysterious circumstances leaving an enormous unfinished castle. Still, the two were gorgeous and took quite some time to get around. The tours themselves were only 35-40 minutes apiece. And yet when you booked them both at the bottom of the mountain, they give you 2 hours in between castles. Two hours? Yes, because it takes you that long to travel down one mountain, up the other, and trek up the steep trail to the entrance. Our legs were getting a workout to say the least.
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Then it was the two hours by train back to Munich. As we exited the central train station, we decided to stop at the closest hotel we could find and ask for a good Italian restaurant for dinner. We stopped at a Le Meridien and got walking directions to a spot called La Vecchia Masseria. A walk at night through, ahem, some interesting streets. I mean, we walked right by "Sex World". Then for the street the restaurant is on. A dankly, dimly lit avenue that made us a tad uncomfortable. We persevered and made it. Fantastic food. Loud bustling Italian restaurant. A wonderful dinner for our anniversary. Well worth the nervous walk.