Day 19 - Ettal & Fussen

Took our time this morning. Our B&B was quiet and comfy and it was still raining so we decided to take our time heading back to Germany. Our destination today was Neuschwanstein. You know - the Disney castle. Rumor has it the place gets packed. So we're going to find a place to stay in the area and then head up to the castles (Neuschwanstein & Hohenschwangau) first thing in the morning.

We stop at the Ettal Monastery a beautiful example of baroque style art and architecture just outside Oberammergau. Ah, don't get too impressed with my art & architecture knowledge. I'm a great Googler. We continued down the road to Oberammergau, but first we stopped at an alpine slide. Pretty dang fun and just exciting enough for the two of us.

Our stop in Oberammergauvwas shorter than expected. I had fond memories of this town during my last visit to Germany. But the town just didn't live up to those memories. One of the things I vividly remember is the house paintings of Red
Riding Hood and Peter & the Wolf. We found the houses on our way out of town and I have to say I was disappointed. We considered staying in the town, but decided to get closer to the castles we were visiting on Monday.

We're discovering we're not real good at flying by the seats of our pants - especially in a country where neither of us speak the language. If we just wanted a place to lay our heads we had endless choices of B&B's, private zimmers, or hotels. But we prefer having a place with internet access and finding lodging with that is pretty hit & miss...more miss than hit.

After driving through a pretty good thunderstorm we pull into the first hotel in Fussen and decide to call it home for the night. Just our luck, no internet. No biggie. However, we did find the best little italian restaurant along the Lech River. The beer was cold and we had the best 4 cheese rigattoni! No colesterol checks for a while, please. After dinner we walked through the old town, again practically having the whole town to ourselves. Then headed back to the hotel for an early evening. We want to get to the castles early.