Tori-Books: June 2013

            We caught our very nice comfy air conditioned tour bus at 7:15 am. Gotta love the Zebra painted bus. Our Stefan Tours bus driver/tour guide was dressed up in Traditional Bavarian clothes. We were the only English speaking people on board but our guide did a great job of speaking in two languages making sure we were never left out of conversations. Our bus ride took us from Oberstaufen, Germany over the boarder into Austria, then over the next boarder into Switzerland. We traveled through Chur, the oldest city of Switzerland. Once we reached Tiefencastel we all boarded the Bernina Railway train, the first electric driven tourist railway train that goes over the Alps to Tirani in Italy. It was the smoothest train ride ever. The views from the train were spectacular and reminded me a lot of Banff and Jasper in Alberta. At the end of the train ride we had reached St. Moritz, Switzerland, where we had 1 1/2 hours to shop (power shop in my case) or go for lunch.  St. Moritz, Switzerland is a lovely place but very expensive. This town is where the rich come to ski in the winter, shop, bank and many have homes. Following this we meet our guide and our Bus back at the train station. He took us to a gorgeous viewpoint of the white glaciers like Piz Palu, 3904 meters, Piz Bernina, 4049 meters and Piz Morteratsch, 3750 meters. From there we continued our journey through the national park Engadin-Ofenpass to the Fluelpass, which is 2383 meters high, and to the spa town Davos with the healthy climate for a coffee or hot chocolate break. Our home journey went through Klosters - Prattigau - Rhine Valley and back to Allgau (our stop Oberstafen). This was 12 hours well spent.

          Tidbit: #1. Switzerland has an unemployment rate of only 3 percent which is very low.
          Tidbit: #2. When traveling in Europe be sure to always have change with you as the toilets are often not free of charge to use.
          Tidbit: #3. If you drive here or ever decide to live here, buy a small car. It's the only way to get around and find a parking space easier. We found Smart Cars in every city. Love the orange one in the photo below.

          It is now 7:30 am on Friday morning June 21st. I am sitting here sipping on my cup of tea, eating my daily delivered freshly homemade bread and vanilla/chocolate sweet buns from a local bakery, while looking outside the big open window from our dining room table looking at the most majestic view, while listening to the beautiful singing of the many birds here and listening to the cow bells clang in the background as the cows walk around the fields grazing and having their breakfast. It's true, German bread is a heavier bread, delicious and filling. Yup, gonna be hard to leave tomorrow. Our stay here has sadly come to an end. Time to start packing our bags. Sorry to say it, but this will be my last blog for awhile. Hope you have enjoyed following me through Europe. Take care. Ciao...Tori

Tour Guide in Tradition Bavarian clothes.

Pay toilet, and small door free for kiddies.

Saw a fair number of goats and sheep in this Region.

Glacier

Delicious, soft, fresh, homemade pastry

Last look outside our window before leaving.

          June18th, we took the train to Fussen, Germany which is still in the Allgua Region. Today is the day that I would finally see the Schloss Neuschwanstein, (Schloss means Castle in German). I have been looking forward to this for some time. This is a romantic storybook palace. King Ludwig II's Neuschwanstein Castle is perhaps best known as the inspiration for Walt Disney's Cinderella Castle.

          We arrived into the town of Fussen and took a taxi (although there are several local buses available) to the Muller Hotel where we had a reservation. It is in the perfect location to see and visit the two King Ludwig II's Castles and the Museum of the Bavarian Kings. Our hotel was located right on the main street with full view of the two Ludwig Castles. The Neuschwanstien which I mentioned above and the Schloss Hohenschwangau.  The Hohenschwangau Castle is a 19th-century palace. It was the childhood residence of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and was built by his father, King Maximilian II of Bavaria and was on the hill right behind us. King Ludwig's nick name was the Swan King as he loved Swans. The Museum was only a 5 minute walk up the road. To tour these places you had to go to the ticket office that was right new door. You could buy single tickets or combination tour tickets for the times you liked and in the language of your choice. Cheaper to buy the combo tickets if you plan to see all three places. It is important to note that to be able to view the Castles you can only do so with a guide. You also have a choice of how to get to the Castles, by walking, by bus for about 2 Euro's per person, or by horse drawn carriage for 6 Euro's per person. We chose the horse drawn carriage to take us up the big hillsides but walked back down. You come out by the Alpsee Lake.

          The Castles were worth every stair we climbed. For us old farts it was hard on the legs. By the time we got to the top I thought my legs were going to seize up, but the view of each Regal room was breathtaking. The gold centre pieces, carved furnishings (some that took up to 4 years to complete), wall paintings and sooo much more told his story with grace and elegance. One can only imagine living such an opulent life style. The curtains looked like Tapestries. His royal robe is in the museum and looks very heavy to wear. It is blue and has white fur on it and is masterfully embroidered.

          Here we met a very nice family from Saskatchewan who were travelling the world for 3 1/2 months. She is a teacher and said she had been here before with her students. Now her husband and parents got to see the sites. We have only run into three families from Canada on this trip so far.

          Back at our hotel room we found they had left us a bottle of wine as a gift. I had booked a special room and requested it be one that faced Schloss Neuschwanstein. We had a large terrace and the window over our sitting table that was by the foot of our bed opened up to a full view of the Castle on the hillside. At night the castle was lit up for all to see.

          The next day, June 19th, after breakfast we checked out and went to see the Museum of the Bavarian Kings. Then we took a taxi back to the main town of Fussen, shopped for a bit (poor Neil, I'm sure he hates the word shopping), then we caught our train and headed back to Oberstafuen. We looked forward to going swimming and cooling off from this long hot sunny day. What wonderful memories this tour had given both of us.