Staying in Castles was an incredible experience, each one was unique and although they were turned into hotels they all managed to keep their authenticity, case in point, all the doorways my husband had to duck his head for. Our favorite castle was Auf Schoenburg. Our room was amazing with an incredible view of the Rhine River and came complete with a late night scary thunder storm.
Every town looked like a puzzle with different color rooftops and church steeples and window boxes bursting with flowers. My husbands great, great, great grandfather was born in a town called Schmalkalden. (Sounded out to be schmuck alden). We had the address from his aunt and with the help of a women at the travel information store, who spoke very little English, and an old lady hanging over her balcony, (who spoke no English but kept talking), we actually found the house!
The food was fabulous and in spite of what I heard, you can eat healthy in Germany. This helped to balance out the daily apple strudel and the amazing Bavarian pretzels. Not to mention those wicked little Nutella packets they give you everywhere. If you have never dipped a Bavarian Pretzel into a Nutella packet while speeding on the Autobahn you haven't really lived.
We stopped at 8 towns along the Romantic Road. Our favorite was the town of Dinkelsbuhl. We loved the diversity of going from five star Castles to a two star Inn run by an old man named Eric and his wife, decked out in Liederhosen. Eric insisted that we throw away our "stupid" GPS and let him plan out the rest of our trip "on a real paper map".
A few silly things you need to know if traveling to Germany. There is no ice tea. This may not be important to you but turns out I'm an addict, it was a 14 day ice tea withdrawal. And it was hard to find ice to make hot tea into ice tea. In case you just said "why didn't you just make ice tea out of hot tea"? Internet is not readily available through 3 foot stone castle walls either. It took me 6 days to get over that. No one knows what a restroom is, it's toiletten or Water Closet (WC). It rains. Living in CA I forget this happens in most other places on a fairly regular basis. I had a suitcase full of sundresses. I was saved by 2 cardigans, a big scarf and a denim jacket. I don't typically wear sneakers unless I'm working out, but boy was I glad I brought them. Castles have hundreds of steps, no elevators and miles of cobblestone.
If you want to rent a car and need an automatic, reserve way in advance as there are not very many and most all of the cars are stick shift. My husband wanted a stick even though that meant he would do all the driving. It was easy to rent a car, in spite of what we read online and we were excited to get a little forgien car. And then they gave us a Ford Fiesta, electric blue. Seriously, I think they marked us as Americans so that everyone on the Autobahn knew to pass us, and by pass I mean nearly run us off the road. No speed limits on the Autobahn. Mike did great except for the one near head on collision. Note, one way and two way roads are not marked well. And lights go from red to yellow to green instead of green to yellow to red. This is so you can shift on yellow, heaven forbid you waste a minute going 0 - 100 in a split second. I attempted to give the stick shift a try. I shifted us 10 ft. into the air then happily went back to navigating. This too was a challenge as the GPS spoke to us in German. There's also a ton of round-abouts and at one point I got so mixed up with the map and the German GPS I insisted we went in a big circle because we were entering the town of Willkommen again. Willkommen was the Welcome sign at every round about for the next town. One of my dumbest moments and a really good laugh.
Here are a few of the 4,000 pictures we took! Oh yes we did. Hope you enjoy them through my lens!
Castle Hugenpoet in Essen. This was the first castle and set the bar high!
It had an actual Moat. Squeel!
The town of Oberwesel.
Castle Auf Schoenburg
Wrote in my journal at night in this spot while it thunder-stormed on the Rhine River below, magical.
Cruising along the Rhine for a visit to the town of St. Gore.
The perfect spot for breakfast at this Castle.
The view from our room.
The only spot in the castle to get an Internet connection!
Dinkelsbuhl
The tower, complete with Rapunzels hair hanging down.
St. George Church.
The Gold Room in the Rathaus in Augsberg.
The Church in the Meadow in Steingaden.
Castle Heidelburg.
The Ettal Abbey.
The Church at The Ettal Abbey.
Castle Nueschwanstein. After touring the Castle I took this picture from Marys Bridge. A rickety wooden bridge hung by rope with way too many people on it, in the rain and high above a river of rapids. I just wanted to immediately get off, and I swear I took this picture with my eyes closed.
Bavarian Pretzel motif on the Church in Dinkelsbuhl.
This guy!
Munich.
The town of Rothenburg.
Notice the doorway in comparison to the 6'2 head.
Holding court in the royal sitting room of the honeymoon suite at Castle Colmburg.
'
On the St. Charles Bridge in Prague.
A double rainbow served up with dinner.
The Town square in Wurzberg.
Great, Great, Great Grandpa Valentine's home (renovated.)
Sweet details.
Tea Time is very serious!
The little church on top of Zeutz Peak, the highest mountain in Germany.
Helloooo
Dreaming until we can Travel again.
