Neuschwanstein November 1-3

Hallo!!

This past weekend was a holiday weekend for Danny. November 1st is All Saints Day, and people actually don't have to work!! Amazing!! So we decided to go to Baveria...close to Austria in Southeast Germany. We stayed in this nice little hotel...very quaint and cute. (There was no phone or television...not a bad thing, really). Anyway, we started our trip on Thursday. On the way to Neuschwanstein, we stopped in Ulm (Albert Einstein was born here) for lunch and to climb 700+ steps to the top of the tallest church in the world. For lunch, I had "kirbis suppe," which is pumpkin soup. Sound gross? Well, it is freakin AMAZING!!! Take my word for it, not Danny's. At about 7pm or so we arrived in Neuschwanstein. They had the castles all lit up there. It was very pretty, and the mountains were so gorgeous. I took a lot of pictures, but they don't do justice to the beautiful sights we saw.

On Friday, we toured Neuschwanstein castle. It has a sad history really. King Ludwig II set into motion the construction of the castle. He lived in a fantasy world, so he constructed this castle to suit his fantasy of God-like royalty. It took close to 20 years to build, and unfortunately, King Ludwig II died mysteriously after only living there for half a year. (Wie shade!) The castle was not even finished on the inside. I took lots of pictures of the outside, but of course, we couldn't take pictures of the inside. It was so elaborate. The king's bed, for instance, took about 14 wood workers 4 years to carve. It was so detailed. I've never seen anything like it. It was like the Biltmore House times 10.

On Saturday, we decided to take our new to us bicycles around the lake at the base of the Alps near the castle. It was such a beautiful day...probably my favorite day. Danny and I laughed and played. We felt so good. We rode for several hours, up the mountain and down. I really didn't like the uphill so much. My heart was beating so fast. When we started to flatten out, Danny asked me if I like this kind of mountain biking better. I said, "Yes, and I also like to go downhill." Flat or downhill...that's the mountain biking for me. When we were going downhill, we were going so fast. I can't even describe the rush. It was awesome!! It made me wish, however, that we'd brought our helmets. (Don't worry. We were trying to be cautious. Mark and Mirjam are bringing our helmets when they come here in December).

Anyway, after our bike excursion, we decided to drive down the German Alpine Road. This is where we got some of our best pictures of the mountains. By the time dusk came around, the mountains were just magnificent to look at. I told Danny that you see this stuff on the Discovery Channel or in books, but to actually see it for yourself makes you realize how small you are and how big God is.

So hopefully, if you all look at the pictures, you'll really really want to come to Germany to visit us. That's the true motivation for taking all the photos!!

There is a link to the photos on the left side of the page. Check them out, and leave a comment or two.

Schönen Tag und Jesus segne euch!!
(Have a great day, and may Jesus bless you)!!