Euro Ramble 2004

Thursday - Castles & Mad Kings

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Today we intended visiting Neuschwanstein Castle, so after a good breakfast we managed to get away for just passed nine o'clock.

After a 90 minutes ride we arrived. The staff of Cafe Kainz were quite happy for us to park our bikes out front, so it seemed only right we go up and have a coffee on the terrace.

Fresh coffee, sunshine and good company, what could be better.

Neuschwanstein is the castle built by the so called 'Mad king Ludwig' built' beetween1869 & 1892,

You can pay to go inside the castle at the visitors centre at the bottom, alternatively, you can walk up and just look at the outside for free. Or, as we did, buy a ticket from the wooden cabin at the bottom for the 'ride of death' coach trip to the top to save your legs. Naturally, that's what we did, It's great fun getting everyone on the coach to go 'Whooo!' as it zooms around the hairpins on the way up! :-)

(Picture from a postcard) It's said Disney used Neuschwanstein as a model for the castle in Sleeping Beauty and his Theme Parks. click here to download a 1024/768 Hi Res 202kb picture for your desktop.

The gang posing on the footbridge (Marienbrucke) with Neuschwanstein Castle in the background, It really is a superb view from here, David, Patto, Ebbo & Ian

Its a lovely cool walk down through the woods from the top, specially' if you buy a Ice-Lolly from the cabin :)

This is Hohenschwangau Castle, It's the older, original castle where Ludwig spent his summers as a child. You can see Neuschwanstein visitors centre on the left.

Around one o'clock we set off for Austria, the border was only 3 miles away. We decided to head for Zell Am Ziller because it was easy to find on the GPS, and at 100 miles, not to far away :-)

Just passed four o'clock we arrived, the GPS took us straight to the Tourist Information office were a really helpful young lady behind the counter gave us the choose of 3 hotels that could take us and lock up the bikes.

We choose the Gasthof Waldheim, because the picture in the brochure look nice :)

We booked in for 2 nights so we could explore tomorrow without worrying about finding accommodation. It turned out to be a good choose. After locking the bikes in the garage for the night and freshening up we had an excellent meal on the terrace.

Our hosts said there was live music playing in the town tonight, so we strolled down to take a look. In the town square we found an open air auditorium with a Tyrolean band playing, all dressed up in traditional costume they sounded great, so we spent the evening in the adjoining bar where even the bar staff were dressed up, listened to the music, drank beer and having a good time, excellent!

This is the map for today's route with 156 miles travelled

The forecast for tomorrow was good, whoo-hoo!, Grossglockner, hear we come!

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