On the bridge overlooking Neuschwanstein Castle
Day 17: Neuschwanstein Castle and then a......train
Saturday July 13 - Day 17 - Rest Day - Total 652 miles
We woke up in our pension ready for a different kind of day... today we were going to be tourists, not just touring cyclists. So... we went to the Bahnhof (train station) to catch the bus to Neuschwanstein castle. This castle was built by Mad King Ludwig starting in the 1860's in the style he believed castles should look like, which is probably why Disney liked it so much and models it's trademark castle after it.
Funny though, as we arrived at the Bahnhof (by foot) our pension host met us there on her bicycle. She had followed us to ask for the room key...which we had left on her desk before we left. Chagrinned for not looking there, she took off back towards the hotel.
Catching the local bus was easy since the bus was labeled "Castles". When we got there we got in line, not a Versailles-length line, but it was pretty long. Only after an hour of being in line, we realized that we wouldn't get into to castle for the 35min tour until nearly 5pm due to the weekend crowds. Unfortunately, we ditched that idea and took the shuttle bus up to the castle and walked up to Marionsbrucke, a very high bridge that overlooks the castle and the waterfall and natural pools below. After taking lots of photos from the very crowded bridge, we walked down into the castle courtyard. Where we also took lots of pictures. I did mention that there was a waterfall and natural pools below the castle,,, which is where we wanted to be. So we walked down the many uneven stone steps to the first landing ,where we could look up at the bridge we had been on earlier. We continued down the many more uneven steps down the the base of the waterfall. The sun was shining but the water was spectacularly chilly! It was straight from the Alpine mountains the castle was built upon. We went wading up to our ankles because our feet went numb almost instantaneously. We were joined by a tour guide who was filling water bottles from the pools. She had been doing this for sometime so we filled all our water bottles too. It was delicious! The walk back down to the town was amazing with lots of cliffhanging paths (metal walkways bolted to enormous boulders) and more waterfalls down stream.
We came out right when a local bus was heading back to town, so we jumped on and headed back for our second part of our day... the trains.
At the Bahnhof, we bought train tickets (one day Bavaria pass was only 13 Euro each and this got us all the way to Salzburg). We then went back to the pension and loaded up the bikes and then went back to the station. Andrea went to the nearby little grocery store and got food supplies, including pizza and snacks (that have lasted over 2 days).
The first train was to Munich, which was excellent. We had the whole carriage to ourselves with fold up seats and "seatbelts" to strap the bikes into.
We changed at Munich - thinking the next train was direct to Salzburg - wrong - it only went to Rosenheim (only about a 3rd of the way), so we had to change at Rosenheim and then again at Freissleburg. This last change was just 10mins before Salzburg. This was a BIG CHANGE since the car had about 4 steps down to the platform, there was no elevator to move the bikes, and we only had 6 minutes to change trains. So with the help of a priest, a train conductor, several helpful passengers and a useless "machine" (which was a metal chute for the bike wheels down the stairs but it was installed 1 foot too close to the wall so essentially useless) we carried our bikes down and back up the 25 stairs we had to walk down and back up again to change platforms. Bruce helped Andrea with her bike, and many other people also jumped in to help us. But then when Bruce had to run back down to grab his bike (which weighs even more) no one helped him at all. He says it's because I'm cuter, so I got help. I just don't think anyone wanted to get between a man and his bike.
Anyway, we made the last of four trains, all of which were on time to the minute, and arrived at Salzburg railway station. We had booked a hotel in Salzburg knowing that we would be arriving late, however without internet access we couldn't access the directions to the hotel! We only knew the address.
The station in Salzburg was under construction and the exit we wanted was now up a huge flight of temporary wooden steps...not something that we wanted to attempt with our bikes again! After looking around a couple of times we did manage to locate a neighburhood map and it did have our street on it - Yay! Off we set into Salzburg!
We found the hotel after passing the heavy metal bar a couple of times... We thought the hotel was the heavy metal bar a couple of times! The hotel is called "All you Need Hotel" and is only open a couple of months a year, as the rest of the year it is a student residence. This means that it is pretty reasonable for the area and is pretty connected and in the centre of things.
We arrived at about 10pm and the receptionist was very nice and helpful. There was a locked enclosure that was under cover where we put the bikes for the night (after taking all the bags from them) and we bought tickets for the Sound of Music tour for 9.30am the next morning!
The World is Ours!
Saturday July 13 - Day 17 - Rest Day - Total 652 miles
We woke up in our pension ready for a different kind of day... today we were going to be tourists, not just touring cyclists. So... we went to the Bahnhof (train station) to catch the bus to Neuschwanstein castle. This castle was built by Mad King Ludwig starting in the 1860's in the style he believed castles should look like, which is probably why Disney liked it so much and models it's trademark castle after it.
Funny though, as we arrived at the Bahnhof (by foot) our pension host met us there on her bicycle. She had followed us to ask for the room key...which we had left on her desk before we left. Chagrinned for not looking there, she took off back towards the hotel.
Catching the local bus was easy since the bus was labeled "Castles". When we got there we got in line, not a Versailles-length line, but it was pretty long. Only after an hour of being in line, we realized that we wouldn't get into to castle for the 35min tour until nearly 5pm due to the weekend crowds. Unfortunately, we ditched that idea and took the shuttle bus up to the castle and walked up to Marionsbrucke, a very high bridge that overlooks the castle and the waterfall and natural pools below. After taking lots of photos from the very crowded bridge, we walked down into the castle courtyard. Where we also took lots of pictures. I did mention that there was a waterfall and natural pools below the castle,,, which is where we wanted to be. So we walked down the many uneven stone steps to the first landing ,where we could look up at the bridge we had been on earlier. We continued down the many more uneven steps down the the base of the waterfall. The sun was shining but the water was spectacularly chilly! It was straight from the Alpine mountains the castle was built upon. We went wading up to our ankles because our feet went numb almost instantaneously. We were joined by a tour guide who was filling water bottles from the pools. She had been doing this for sometime so we filled all our water bottles too. It was delicious! The walk back down to the town was amazing with lots of cliffhanging paths (metal walkways bolted to enormous boulders) and more waterfalls down stream.
We came out right when a local bus was heading back to town, so we jumped on and headed back for our second part of our day... the trains.
At the Bahnhof, we bought train tickets (one day Bavaria pass was only 13 Euro each and this got us all the way to Salzburg). We then went back to the pension and loaded up the bikes and then went back to the station. Andrea went to the nearby little grocery store and got food supplies, including pizza and snacks (that have lasted over 2 days).
The first train was to Munich, which was excellent. We had the whole carriage to ourselves with fold up seats and "seatbelts" to strap the bikes into.
We changed at Munich - thinking the next train was direct to Salzburg - wrong - it only went to Rosenheim (only about a 3rd of the way), so we had to change at Rosenheim and then again at Freissleburg. This last change was just 10mins before Salzburg. This was a BIG CHANGE since the car had about 4 steps down to the platform, there was no elevator to move the bikes, and we only had 6 minutes to change trains. So with the help of a priest, a train conductor, several helpful passengers and a useless "machine" (which was a metal chute for the bike wheels down the stairs but it was installed 1 foot too close to the wall so essentially useless) we carried our bikes down and back up the 25 stairs we had to walk down and back up again to change platforms. Bruce helped Andrea with her bike, and many other people also jumped in to help us. But then when Bruce had to run back down to grab his bike (which weighs even more) no one helped him at all. He says it's because I'm cuter, so I got help. I just don't think anyone wanted to get between a man and his bike.
Anyway, we made the last of four trains, all of which were on time to the minute, and arrived at Salzburg railway station. We had booked a hotel in Salzburg knowing that we would be arriving late, however without internet access we couldn't access the directions to the hotel! We only knew the address.
The station in Salzburg was under construction and the exit we wanted was now up a huge flight of temporary wooden steps...not something that we wanted to attempt with our bikes again! After looking around a couple of times we did manage to locate a neighburhood map and it did have our street on it - Yay! Off we set into Salzburg!
We found the hotel after passing the heavy metal bar a couple of times... We thought the hotel was the heavy metal bar a couple of times! The hotel is called "All you Need Hotel" and is only open a couple of months a year, as the rest of the year it is a student residence. This means that it is pretty reasonable for the area and is pretty connected and in the centre of things.
We arrived at about 10pm and the receptionist was very nice and helpful. There was a locked enclosure that was under cover where we put the bikes for the night (after taking all the bags from them) and we bought tickets for the Sound of Music tour for 9.30am the next morning!
The World is Ours!
At the waterfall pools below the castle
Brucie and the Bikes on the Train!
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