Castles

15972 steps- But many of those were uphill or up steps - we saw Newschwanstein and Hosl....n castles today.  Tried to stay at the same place, but no luck - so off we went at just before 8 to get our tickets. Were in the line at 8:10 am, when the ticket counter opened at 8 - but as only two ticket sellers, we were not at the counter itself until 8:40. At 8:41 we had tickets in hand for the two castles, and for the museum. 

The first tour was at Hohenschwangau, for 10:55. Since we had time to kill, we went slowly up the steps, wandered the garden and fountains, then grabbed a soda from a vending machine. At that point, the time was at hand for the tour.  Ainsley said the castle felt homier than most castles - it was an awesome visit, she said. 

A quick WC pit stop, then down the mountain and up the other side - they gave a 45 - 50 min timeline, we had finished in 30. Ainsley was happy we had stopped climbing uphill. Again, had about 15 minutes to cool down before heading in for our tour. This castle was very princessy, according to Ainsley, and it was a real bummer that he didn't get to live in it longer considering how much attention he put into the design and decoration.

As the tour lets out at the base of the castle, at the path towards the bridge, we then headed over there next. The bridge was spongy as it is wood planked, and you could tell this really unnerved a lot of people as they wouldn't actually cross to the other side - most stayed in the first 20 feet, meaning there was a lot of unnecessary congestion. Ainsley also took control of the camera!

After, we made our way down. On the way up, we had noticed there was a seller of what we called 'donut holes on steroids' - about 2-3X the size, but a light cake-batter type. We had a treat walking down the rest of the way - and as they had just come out of the fryer, they were really hot!

The museum was interesting - telling the story of the Wittenberg family from the first duke, to the split in the line, it dying out and the resurgence of the other half of the family, along with the story of Ludwig II and some of the memorabilia that existed. The section on the family in the 20th century was interesting- I had not known that there were members of the royal family that had ended up in the concentration camps.

Once done, we headed to Bad Tolz for the night. Why here? It was halfway to Salzburg. Had a good dinner at the hotel.