Wednesday, April 19, 2017

The Land of Wild Swans

Nana and Grampa are like perennials around our house.  When Spring starts to peek its way through the frozen winter curtain, Nana and Grampa pop up at our house.  I think the tradition began when we moved to Santiago 6 years ago and they came to help us move (though back then they were coming in early Fall, not Spring).  No matter how it all began, we are just glad that they continue to visit and share our breaks with us.

Nana and Grampa arrived almost two weeks ago just in time to pick the girls up from school on their last day before the start of the two-week break.  We took a leisurely stroll home from school, enjoying the sunshine and catching up.  We had an early dinner at one of our favorite places and headed home to pack.  Because, in keeping with tradition again, we were heading off on our first road trip in the morning.  I say first because we had a few planned.

 Ready for dinner and our Spring Break adventures.

Saturday morning dawned, and we headed for the train station.  Our destination?  The town of Hohenschwangau, a tiny little village that lies between two pretty impressive castles and is home to a gorgeous lake.  It was a quick two-hour train ride, and by noon we were all checked into our hotel and in search of lunch.

Our hotel - pretty nice view from the front.

And a pretty good view from our rooms too (the other castle in town).

It was a gorgeous day, and we had nothing planned for the afternoon (our tours were the next morning), so we wandered a few hundred meters down to the Alpsee and secured a table lakeside.  We had a very leisurely lunch that included some pretty spectacular views...and a few silly girls...




With lunch under our belts (almost literally), we headed over to see if we could rent a boat and spend a little bit of time on the lake.  Sure enough, they had some paddle boats available.  We had to split up into two groups as the largest boat only held 4, so MadHatter took off with Nana and Grampa while Stinkerbell, B and I got situated.



 Situated and ready to paddle.

 Stinkerbell's legs were a little short, so she had to sit on my lap to reach the pedals.  She tired quickly, so she decided she wanted to take in the view from the front...


Our half hour was almost up, and we were away out so we decided we would have a race back to the docks.  MadHatter took it very seriously and pedaled furiously even though she could barely reach...and it paid off for them as they pulled in first.


And as we were heading to find some ice cream, I ran into was run into by this one...


Such a surprise to see G and her family as they live in Prague!

The ice cream was located and eaten, and we had just enough time to make it up the mountain to tour the outside of Neuschwanstein castle.  Like I said earlier, our tour tickets were for early the next day, and you cannot enter the castles without a tour.  It was a 3-minute bus ride up the side of the mountain (and it gave me flashbacks to the time I thought we were going over the edge on our way up to Machu Picchu) and another 2 minute walk uphill to get to this bridge...



And the views are worth the feeling that somehow, any second, one of those shaking wooden boards beneath your feet will shatter and send you plunging down into the rocks and waterfall below. (Can you tell I have a slight fear of heights?)

Nana and Grampa enjoyed the view!


It's simply impossible to take a bad picture.

We got off the bridge and worked our way down the hill towards the castle.  And took in a few more stunning, mist-shrouded views...



And happily skipped our way all the way down the mountain in search of some dinner and a good nights sleep because tomorrow we had another exciting day!










































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