German Fare

On March 30th we departed from Edinburgh, Scotland and flew to Munich via EasyJet. Arriving in Munich late evening, we were impressed with the airport organization, the ease with which we were able to navigate our way to the car rental agency and finally, drive on the legendary Autobahn. Ahh the autobahn! Words cannot describe the joy of this uber efficient highway. The only slightly disappointing thing was due in part to our rental – we were going for cost savings and thus our car of choice was an Opal Corsa. Certainly not the powerful purring German engineering that surrounded us on the autobahn. Drivers on the QE II highway between Edmonton and Calgary need to see what can happen in high density traffic when drivers actually understand the concept of keep right except to pass (significant counselling may be required in order to cope with driving back in Canada)! We were driving a cool 150 km/hr and were being passed as though we were travelling at a snail’s pace. Kelly and I could not wipe the smiles off our speedy faces!

Travelling in Europe in early spring equals shoulder season yet again which was great for us in finding a lovely central spot. We headed south for Schwangau, a small village near the larger town of Fussen with a beautiful view of the famous Neuschwanstein castle and the Konigsschlosser. The entire area could be considered a photographer’s dream as God’s creation combined with human ingenuity and imagination results in constant declarations of “This is so beautiful!”.

With 5 days scheduled here, we rented bikes for 3 days and would recommend this to anyone and everyone should your travels take you in this direction. We felt sorry for the tour bus groups who pop in for the castle tours and a brief walk around the nearby lake as the area caters to cyclists with a world class system of trails unrivalled in any area we’ve been to yet.

Our first day with bikes was spent exploring the local area, getting a sense of the path system, and determining our routes for the next two days. Day two was our big day where we cycled over 32 km through and around many villages, spectacularly green hills (with a rather pungent scent of freshly spread manure), and around Lake Forggensee.

Day three, involved a shorter, but more challenging route as we went into the mountains and cycled around Lake Alpsee, just past Neuschwanstein and Konigsschlosser. The variation in terrain was spectacular and while the youngest one in our party was pushed to his limit in making it up some of the steep inclines, the day was a resounding success and all of us are looking forward to pursuing cycling as a main family pastime upon our return home.

Having spent a large amount of time exploring the area surrounding the most amazing castles, we spent the next day going into the castles and gaining a much better understanding of Bavarian royalty, the incredible imagination of King Ludwig II who built an astounding 3 castles throughout Bavaria.

Despite the onslaught of tour groups in the castles themselves, we had an amazing time during the guided tours and thoroughly enjoyed the historical perspectives presented. If you plan on seeing both castles, do not expect to do so in a short period of time. To truly enjoy both the interior and exterior of both, one needs a full day and be sure to wear your walking shoes. We found many more hikes in and around the Neuschwanstein which we will have to tackle in the future. If you end up travelling here – do check out Tripadvisor reviews as well as the website http://www.schwangau.de