Afternoon along the Alps…

Once we got back down off the Zugspitze we were off once again on the winding mountain roads along southern Germany.  Soon though we entered Austria, our sixth country.  The terrain and landscape in this region is remarkable.  The foothills are full of small farms and hay meadows, only broken by the occasional pasture of livestock grazing.  The cattle here really do have bells around their necks, just like in the movies!  You can hear them clanging if you roll your window down.

After meandering for a little over an hour we arrived at the castles of King Ludwig back in Germany.  The most famous of these is Schloss Neuschwanstein (the inspiration for the princess castles of Disney).  It is a major tourist attraction and tickets were sold out for tours of the castle weeks ago.  We were unable to enter but had the pleasure of walking the steep incline to the castle for about 20 minutes.  The less famous castle of King Ludwig is Schloss Hohenschwangau, the castle he actually lived in.  It sits at a much lower elevation and is less prominent than his dream castle on the hill.  Rufus couldn’t stop staring at the castle and thinking it must be good to be king.  He also felt sorry for the teams of horses that pulled carriages full of tourists up the long road to the castle.  Those click clacks of horseshoes on the pavement will haunt Rufus for sometime…

After the long walk back down the hill we did a little shopping and headed the car (nicknamed Augie the Audi) down the road.  Again, we were amazed by the scenery on the drive to Freidrichshafen.  The landscape continues to change from the tranquil farms and fields to orchards and fruit trees.  It never ceases to amaze us just how diverse the land of Germany is.  All of this in the shadow of the great Alps.  We can’t wait until tomorrow when we plan to get a bird’s eye view of this region from a zeppelin.  Stay tuned…