The first night of any international trip is always the hardest for me. If I'd been smart, I would have taken an ambien. Went to sleep around 10:30 p.m. our time, and woke up at 4 or a bit before, wide awake. It's now 5:30, and I haven't been able to fall asleep, but with the light and the Austrian alps around me, I doubt I'll be back there anytime soon.
We visited Schloss Neuschwanstein yesterday, which is crazy King Ludwig's castle that he built to honor Richard Wagner. The walls depict scenes from different operas, and overall, it was just pretty darn awesome.
A fun adventure of the day were the pay toilets at the base of the mountain the castle is on. 30 cents (are they cents in Euros? I'm not sure...) and you can pass through a turnstile to use the toilets. We all would have gladly paid, found the proper change, and discovered the machine broken. It was fairly deserted since it's not high tourist season yet, and well, when you have to go you have to go, so we kind of sort of passed through the turnstile without paying. And in hindsight, it's a good thing we didn't. No toilet paper, no paper towels or other hand drying mechanisms, and no soap. But an adventure none the less! We did use the facilities in the castle, which we referred to as the royal thrones (the king died before he ever had his own thrown installed in the castle, so it worked). We also discovered
the royal elevator after we'd walked up approximately 600 stairs to tour the castle. But it was worth it!
We drove on almost to Innsbruck and spent the night in a quaint, tiny hotel that looks like a traditional Bavarian place, and had an ok dinner with exceptional weissbier across the street. All in all, a great first day!
Today we plan to head to Salzburg after visiting the top (or close to the top...) of some of the Austrian alps nearby, maybe checking out some Swarski crystal, and trying to find a place to luge. You heard it here first, folks...
Check out more pictures from the castle here!
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