Europe Trip - day 4 - Fussen and Munich, Germany

Today was going to be a very jam packed day as we were planning to spend first half of the day visiting the famous Neuschwanstein Castle and then rest of the day exploring Munich.

We reached the Neuschwanstein castle early in the morning. This castle is a 19th century palace build on a rugged hill close to the Fussen city in Germany. It was build by King Ludwig II. This castle was opened to public visit after the death of the king in 1896. There are more than a million visitors per year visiting this beautiful castle.

Some beautiful views of the castle as we were hiking up to the castle:

The castle location was very romantic and it really felt like a "Once upon a time, in a land far far away" type of castle. The location of this castle is a fairy tale one. It is located in the Alps in Bavaria overlooking a beautiful valley. We were amazed by the extremely beautiful landscape surrounding the castle. This castle was build by the king for his personal use so there was a lot of romantic and theatrical influence on the architecture of the castle. However the tragedy is that the king lived in the castle only for 172 days as he died young. The king had moved in the castle before it was completed. So after the king died the castle wasn't fully constructed. So even today there are lot of unfinished floors in the castle.

The fairytale look of the castle inspired Walt Disney to create the Magic Kingdom. We were mesmerized looking at the charming castle.

Bridge near the castle

Model of the castle

After enjoying our time here we headed back to spend the rest of the day in Munich.

Munich is the 3rd largest city in Germany and is a financial hub. Munich was much more cosmopolitan than Berlin. We headed to the down town. At the center of the city is a very large open square called Marienplatz. There were beautiful clock towers, a huge church and other beautiful historic buildings near the square. We just wandered around here for a bit.

 

Next up was the famous Hofbrau house which a huge beer house. It was a huge building with multiple floors and buzzing with people enjoying their beer and food. The quantity of beer served here was huge and we saw that majority of the people were easily gulping a tall mug of a litre of beer. The place was very lively. People were singing, celebrating and there was live German music being played by a band which made our experience here really fun and unique. Well we could not drink a litre of beer so we shared some and enjoyed mingling with the local Germans. If you go to Munich this place is worth visiting. We then headed out to our hotel, packed ours bags to catch our overnight train to Venice, Italy.

Hofbrau Beer house in the background

Live music inside the beer house

We bid good bye to Germany and Austria and first leg of our journey was over. It was a fantastic one and we were now looking forward to our next destination Italy.

On the train to Venice

More pics here.

Europe Trip - day 3 - Salzberg, Austria

Next up on our itinerary was Munich and Salzberg. Yet another wonderful breakfast spread was awaiting us in the morning. The personal touch and hospitality at the local B&Bs was very refreshing. After enjoying our breakfast we picked ours bags and headed to the train station to reach Munich. We had planned a day trip to Salzberg in Austria from there.

Rakesh @ breakfast

Breakfast

Our wonderful hosts at the B&B

At the train station

Some more posing in the train

Salzberg is a quaint little town along the banks of Salzach river sitting on the foothills of the Alps. The Salzach river flows calmly in the middle of the town. Salzberg gave the world Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as well as The Sound of Music.

Our first stop was the birthplace of the musical genius Mozart. Then we headed to the Mozart house where Mozart actually grew up. We took an audio tour of the house which is now a museum. The tour gave us a glimpse of the life of Mozart, his childhood, his family and we listened to some wonderful music by Mozart. At the end of the tour we watched a short movie. It was fascinating to know about the life of this genius.

Birthplace of Mozart

Next we wandered on the streets of the city eating some yummy gelatos. Salzberg is a charming town with a beautiful shopping center with fascinating shops signs, beautiful courtyards, streets etc. We kept strolling through the town for some time and just enjoying the old town charm. It also has a modern influence with lot of big western brand stores visible everywhere.

Salzac river in the background

These dogs were huge

Next we hiked up the HohenSalzburg castle which is a prime attraction in Salzberg. The castle is located at a hill top and is more than 900 years old. There is a cable car that goes up but we just decided to hike up. The hike up is quite arduous however there are breathtaking views from the top. We rested our tired feet and enjoyed watching the cloud and snow covered mountain peaks. It started drizzling a bit so we hurried down back to the town.

On the way up to the castle

Check out the beautiful views of the castle and the Alps in the below pictures:

Every trip has to have atleast a few jumping pose pics

We were now craving some warm food and started browsing through Rick Steve's book for some recommendations. We found an Indian place and were very excited. As we reached the place and started browsing through their menu it turned out to be a disappointment as there wasn't any vegetarian food. Walking further we found a small Chinese restaurant and gobbled up some hot noodles and fried rice.

 

 

Finally we bid goodbye to beautiful Salzberg and headed back to Munich. The hotel that we were staying at in Munich was a youth hostel. So the room was clean but with no frills. But we were too tired to really care.