For the next few nights, we had rented half a house in Garmisch. It was nice to have the extra space and spread out a bit. We also had a kitchen, so we were enjoying not having to go out for every meal.
The next day we had reservations for tours of the Neuschwanstein and the Hohenschwangau castles. The Neuschwanstein is the more famous one, as that was the inspiration for Disney’s Cinderella’s Castle. Really liked the tour of the Hohenschwangau castle. The guide provided a lot of information about King Ludwig, how he grew up, and his family. We walked over for our scheduled tour of the Neuschwanstein castle and thought we had time to take a picture of it from the Marien Bridge. The bridge is where all the iconic photos are taken of the castle. Well, unfortunately for us that didn’t workout as the line was long and probably meant a 45 minute wait by the time everything was said and done. The Neuschwanstein castle may be more impressive architecturally, but the tour was quick and didn’t really provide any more insight. Also, asking this guide any questions would cause him to deviate from his script, not a good idea. If you want to tour these castles as well then make reservations for the tickets in advance. The line to purchase tickets is really long and then you don’t have an idea when your actual tour will be. By reserving the tickets, I knew when the tours were scheduled and was able to pick up the tickets without standing in line. Also, half of our group was able to get there right before the tour, which is great if you have kids. We had a great lunch at a place right by the Neuschwanstein castle. Surprisingly, the food was not that expensive and everyone enjoyed what they had.
The next day we spent just walking around the town checking out the shops and the farmers market. Garmisch has a great little pedestrian area with many shops and restaurants.
From Garmisch, we headed to Austria. If you’re driving into Austria make sure to stop and get the vignette. The vignette is a sticker that needs to displayed on the windshield. Get stopped without one and you’ll be paying a huge fine. The sticker meanwhile cost less than 10 euro for 10 days.
We were spending a night in Innsbruck. Innsbruck was the site of the Olympic Winter games in 1964 and 1976. We had gotten a hotel fairly close to the old part of the city, so it was very easy for us to walk to all the restaurants and tourist area.
With just one day, we didn’t have a lot of time to explore the city, but we did check out the Hofburg (or the Imperial Palace) and the ski jumping facility. They had a show jumper, which we didn’t realize would be there. Alyssa and I paid to get in and go to the top. We got in the gate just in time to see the guy jump. This is a year round facility, in the summer they land on Astro Turf that’s been wetted down. Took the cable car up and looked at the views from the top. Then you can go down a level and stand at a platform that is 20 feet or so behind the ski jumper, giving you his perspective. He jumps every 20 minutes or so and we waited up there to watch him. Really was cool to get both perspectives because looking down from the top once he leaves the jump you cannot see him until after he has landed.
