Whirlwind Bavaria

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A Czech long weekend was all the excuse we needed for a whirlwind trip of Bavaria with our friends Kate and Garrett (usually referred to by accident as Gate and Carrot...I think it's called a spoonerism?). Don't know what the name of holiday was, but chances are it was in honour of a saint drowned by the king, or a priest tarred and feathered for not revealing the confessions of the queen, or something just as random and medieval. Whatever it was we managed to do a lot of driving in 2 full days taking in the fairytale Neuschwanstein, Oktoberfest Munich and medieval Rothenburg ob ber Tauber.

The original aim was just Neuschwanstein (whose pronunciation eluded me the whole trip). But Munich was pretty much on the way, and we were passing around lunch time so we stopped. It was great timing because we landed smack bang in the middle of Oktoberfest. And even though it wasn't night, the place was packed with tourists, decorations and enough lederhosen to sink a Village People battleship. Fun to watch

We arrived in Fussen just in time to see the magic castle disappear into the clouds from the end of our driveway. The next morning we made the trek up the mountain to see it properly. It was built by the crazy Ludwig II of Bavaria as homage to Richard Wagner. It's insanely ornate with billions of swans, and non subtle references to Wagner's opera. It must have felt a little weird to Wagner to have a guy this obsessed with him! (The castle is probably most famous for being the model for the Disneyland castles.)

Fussen is at the southern end of the 'Romantic Road', and we drove home via Rothenburg which is the Northern point. However we didn't drive the whole winding Romantic Road...we took the autobahn, which was less romantic, but a lot quicker. Rothenburg is a really beautiful medieval walled city and we enjoyed walking around it for a few hours. It was a Sunday evening so everything was closed, so maybe we'll have to go back sometime to check out all the cool shop windows we saw.

So there's our Whirlwind Bavarian tour!

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