Neuschwanstein Castle

We then got ready to really begin a trip exploring the castles, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau,  in Germany.  Fortunately, the shuttle bus was only a five-minute walk from our hotel.

After arriving at the ticket center, we then proceeded to take our next shutlle bus up the mountain to the Neuschwanstein Castle, http://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/palace/.  Our first stop on our way was Marienbrücke (Mary's Bridge), https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marienbr%C3%BCcke_(Neuschwanstein), which is a pedestrian bridge built over a cliff in 1845 which spans the Pöllat Gorge.  It was from this bridge that King Ludwig II admired his dream Neuschwanstein Castle.

After admiring the view of the Neuschwanstein castle from Marienbrücke (Mary's Bridge), we then made our way to the castle.

During the tour, we learned the history of King Ludwig, and the castle.  Our tour guide, Tomi, also informed us that it was 63 steps to the top of the castle.  Unfortunately, there were no elevators, so plan to do a lot of walking on the tour.

Füssen, Germany

Being an early riser, we took a walk to explore Füssen, while it was still early.

What a start to our trip.

What a start to our trip.  When we arrived at Tampa International Airport, http://www.tampaairport.com/, to begin our trip from Tampa to Philidelphia, we found out that our plane was delayed.  After waiting at the airport for a bit, we finally boarded, and headed to Philidelphia International Airport, https://www.phl.org/.  Due to our initial delay in departing from Tampa, by the time we arrived at Philly airport, we had to run from our gate to the international side of the airport, where unfortunately, we had just missed the connecting flight going to Frankfurt.

We then talked to American Airlines, https://www.aa.com/, customer service where we were then re-routed to go from Philly to London.  After waiting for a bit, we picked up a connecting flight on Lufthansa, https://www.lufthansa.com/, to head to Frankfurt.  Due to our flights changing, we were going to be missing the train we had scheduled to take us from Frankfurt to Füssen.

I then assesed the situation, and found a flight going from Frankfurt to Munich on Lufthansa, https://www.lufthansa.com/, which I booked and a train taking us from Munich to Füssen.

After arriving in Munich and heading to the train station, we stopped at a store where I was able to have my first 2018 Paulner Oktoberfest beer, while we waited for the train to arrive.

After a long day of planes and trains, we finally arrived at our destination, Füssen, Germany, around 9:00 p.m. (21:00), where Erin and I checked in to our hotel, Central City Hotel, https://www.central-city-hotel.de/, and took a walk to explore the town.  We then grabbed a pizza across the street before calling it a nght.