After our wake up call, we headed to the bus where we would then endure a two and a half hour drive to a spot where we could go for a bike ride. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible today so our hour long bike ride was going to be interesting. Ponchos! We both bought one each in the attempt to keep most of our bodies warm as we rode towards Germany's Swan Lake (not Tchaikovsky's).
The ride was quite enjoyable even though it was pouring down with rain. Arriving at Swan Lake, the group was offered a chance for a swim in the lake, we decided against it as we were not dressed for the aquatic occasion. A small handful of the group took up the offer though! Whilst the swim was happening, it was nice to see a small feathery family (duck) come and inquire about the goings on.
Next up was supposed to be a chance to ride on an alpine slide, but due to the very bad weather we were unable to enjoy this part of the tour. A small thing with the brakes not working in the wet was the reason for this exclusion...who needs brakes anyway?
It was now lunch time by this stage so we had a chance to eat our meals and attempt to dry off as much as possible. After lunch we were entertained by our tour guide Brad with some of his magic card tricks. Brad was trained at the Academy of Magic in Germany and the tricks we were shown were fairly impressive, all of them leaving us wondering how they were done.
During our bus ride to the area where Neuschwanstein is located, we were given some background history about it and Ludwig II, so it was now time to check it out. The group was given a chance to ascend to the castle grounds by a shuttle bus or via the waterfalls on foot. We opted for the latter as it gave us a chance to see some nice scenery as well as to walk off our lunch.
The hike was very scenic and the waterfalls we saw were quite idyllic. Plenty of photo opportunities here! We were both still wearing ponchos during the hike and it was starting to get quite steamy under them. This helped to dry out our clothes somewhat and it reminded us of the Bon Jovi concert we saw a few years ago in Sydney.
Reaching one of our tour guides, we were given instructions to find Mary's Bridge (named after Ludwig's wife) for some more photographs, particularly the shots that the castle is most well known from. Unfortunately, there is a lot of construction work going on over the next couple of years so much of the castle is behind a lot of scaffolding.
Time now for a 30 minute tour of the inside of the castle where we learned more about it's construction and interior decorations. Ludwig II was very much a fan of Richard Wagner's operas so many scenes from them were painted on many of the completed rooms of the castle. Only about a third of the planned rooms in the castle were ever completed, but it was nice to get a chance to see all the effort that went into this castle.
Our day ended with a movie on the coach as we headed back to the centre of Munich. We were dropped off conveniently at the main train station and it was fast approaching time for dinner, so we found a restaurant nearby with a wide variety of Asian meals. Some phô and nasi goreng was enjoyed before heading back to our hotel.
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